WAREHOUSE 13: For the Team

Love is in the air at the warehouse! Pete and Kelly! Artie and Vanessa! Myka and…HG Wells? Okay, okay, that last one’s a stretch, but you’ve got to admit that this episode felt different than any other episode we’ve seen.

The case took the passenger seat to the driving force of relationships, both romantic and friendly. Additionally, we saw more development in the ongoing thread of tension that both Pete and Myka have been facing: Will working at the warehouse ruin their chances of a happy, “normal” life?  Pete had more time to contemplate it as he assisted Artie with his annual appendectomy, while Myka was busy trying to determine if Helena was trustworthy. Oh, and also Claudia had her first mission. Let’s discuss!

First of all, an awesome nod to the Myka’s ferret from the series pilot! I liked that as an excuse to get local vet, Kelly Hernandez, into the B&B. Good to see that she and Pete are still bickering. It’s short lived, though, as Claudia and Artie arrive with a ‘ping’. Yep, that’s the sound of a new case. Pete is raring to go, but Artie informs him that until they are SURE there are no residual effects from his encounter with the artifact in the last case, he has to sit this one out. It’s particularly annoying to Pete, since the case involves a college wrestling team. The team, Artie tells them, almost never won, but then overnight became a major success. But since one of the team members died alone in a fire, Artie suspects that whatever artifact is helping them win is also killing them. He tells Myka to take Claudia with her.

So it’s up to our favorite lady agent and her new apprentice to go to California to check things out. While Myka is handling things in the locker room, Claudia escapes back to the gym. There she sees a recently victorious wrestler spontaneously combust into flames and disintegrate.

Meanwhile, back at the warehouse, Pete is already bored with desk duty. But it gets more interesting when Artie feels some pain and admits his appendix is growing back. Apparently it grows back every year as a side effect to spending so much time in the warehouse. He calls for the doctor and Pete’s sexy-spidey sense tells him that Artie is sweet on his doctor, Vanessa Calder, played by the lovely Lindsay Wagner.

Things are not as sweet nor lovely for Myka and Claudia, who must interrogate the wrestling coach and team’s benefactor. Both men are resistant to it. And to make matters worse, Helena Wells is showing up. She tries to convince Myka that she should be re-hired by the warehouse as an agent. What did you think about that? I am certainly intrigued. Helena seemed trustworthy, but it could all be a scam. Myka seemed convinced, though slightly wary. It was a very interesting dynamic to have her deal with Helena alone, without Pete being around.

Of course, he WAS dealing with his own lady troubles. He encourages Artie to make a move on Vanessa and ask her to dinner and a movie, but when Vanessa leaves and Artie hasn’t done much, Pete isn’t buying it. Especially when Artie didn’t have his appendix removed. When it flares up again, Pete is forced to call on the only other doctor he knows, Kelly. Yeah, she’s a vet, but it’s either her or the barber. I love the Pete and Kelly bickering, and I liked Pete and Artie giving each other a hard time about the women in their lives.

That trouble is nothing compared to what Myka and Claudia are facing. When they discover that a locally bottled sports drink is what is causing the super strength and then death of the wrestlers, they investigate the manufacturer. They find an old ladle used to serve drinks and empower soldiers, and they find out the company is planning to move to another city. A disgruntled employee/scientist isn’t happy about that, and to make matters worse, he pushes Claudia into a vat of the sports drink.

She immediately succumbs to the drink’s powers, and it’s up to Myka and Helena to save her. They do, and successfully return the ladle and themselves to the warehouse. Helena, however, makes her escape, but not without first asking Myka to think about letting her re-join the warehouse agent team.

But the end scene at the warehouse is not like one we’ve seen before. In the past, it’s usually a time where Pete, Myka, Claudia and Artie gather to go over the case, maybe share a few laughs and a plate of cookies. But this week, each person goes his or her own way: Artie out for a walk with Vanessa, Pete to try his luck with Kelly (though she blatantly told him she would not date him), Claudia to her computer to check out college admissions and Myka to the warehouse to store Helena’s grappler hook.

What do you make of the writers creating new storylines for each character? Does that mean a major change for the team? For the show and its characters? Or am I reading too much into it, and this was just a light-hearted episode?

Are you, like me, more into the Pete & Kelly ship than Pete and Myka? Be sure to weigh in below in the comments.

See  you next week for what looks like an amazing episode! If you saw the preview, you know what’s going to happen, and if you want to hear more about that, click on over to GMMR’s Marisa’s exclusive interview with Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly about their upcoming body-switching episode!