Our season comes to an end that’s no less uneven in it’s finale than it was in the events leading up to it. The episode is definitely better than last week, and again perhaps guardedly above the average for this show, but still far from their peak, and farther still from what they’re capable of.
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Back in 1994, there’s a burning building, and MacPherson’s wife is trapped inside. Artie and MacPherson himself stand outside wearing late-80s clothes, and with their hair dyed so they’ll look younger (but not thinner), and argue whether or not they should go inside and use an artifact to save the woman’s life. MacPherson says he loves his wife, and he knows Arties does too - Artie as much as admits it - and gives a speech about how the artifacts should be used to fix the world, and not just hoarded. Artie disagrees, so MacPherson zaps him with his Johnny Atomic Discombobulator Ray Gun, and takes a medallion from him. This allows him to run through the flames, untouched, and rescue his wife, but it passes on the effects of the fire to other people in the immediate vicinity. To save his wife, 5 firemen die.
In 2009, Mrs. F. is briefing the team about this. She says MacPherson was arrested, tried, sentenced to five life sentences, and banished from the Warehouse by means of some doubletalkium injected in to his body which will react adversely with the hyperboleum in the walls of the warehouse itself. If he comes in, the doubletalkium will cause his blood to turn to acid and kill him. After two years in klink, there was an explosion, many people died, MacF thought to be among them. Oh well.
Meanwhile, MacPherson is talking to yet another German, and a North Korean. He demonstrates a glass goblet that makes super-loud noises if stroked, then sticks the medallion from 15 years ago in the hand of a goon, and pushes the goon in a furnace. The goon emerges unscathed, but several other goons keel over and die in writhing agony. (As opposed to the good kind of writhing, I guess.) This was all a demonstration for his great big auction of preternatural hoo-hahery that he’s going to be having later on. Claudia discovers evidence of this online, but Artie screws things up, resulting in the crash of the main Warehouse computer.
Pete, Myka, and Artie travel to DC to visit MacPherson’s ex-wife, last seen in Episode 7, “Implosion.” She denies having seen her hubbie in 15 years, never went to visit him in jail, wants nothing to do with him. The team make quick work of her, and she admits she’s lying. There’s what cops call an “orgy of evidence” laying around, most of which they snatch up, including an Egyptian necklace she’s wearing.
Claudia sees a picture of MacPherson, and recognizes him as (A) the guy that gave the mystical bric-a-brac to her brother all those years ago and (B) helped her crack the Warehouse 13 mainframe back eight episodes ago. She’s freaked out. Lena is oddly unconcerned. Is that a clue, or is it just that she’s a bad actress and a poorly written character? It’s hard to tell. She sure is pretty, though. Damn! Much hotter than usual tonight.
Pete, Myka, and Artie travel to the factory where MacPherson gave his demonstration earlier, and quickly run afoul of the German dude, who attempts to subdue them with his noisemaker goblet, but Artie knocks it out of his hand, and breaks it. The kraut runs off, and everyone else is semi-deafened until Artie fixes them all with a magic tuning fork. They then discover that the necklace they took from the ex-mrs. MacPherson is in fact a key that opens up a box that contains a cheap knockoff of Timothy Leary’s magic reading glasses. Really. It’s a damn goofy show. Myka points out that this is too easy, and Artie agrees that his nemesis is up to something, but he can’t tell what it is.
Back at the warehouse, Lena tells Mrs. F. that there’s always been something off about Claudia, so the two of them decide to check on whether or not several items MacPherson offered for sale are really still in the warehouse. They’re not. Checking the log of who’s futzed around with them, they find incontrovertible proof that Claudia did it every time. They confront Claudia about this, but she denies it. Mrs. F. reasons
It really really bugs me that Claudia was able to - as a child - track Artie to W-13, hack in to it, and manipulate events for years on end, but as soon as that's resolved, and she's on the team, she becomes an idiot. Gah. I totally agree there.
I kind of disagree with the other stuff, though, not entirely, but to a degree. For instance, anyone who knows me knows that I felt the new Galactica went out of its way to overload the hell out of us with character's dysfuntion, to the point where a character was defined more by what they couldn't do than by what they could, or (Heven forefend) who they were. This bothered me, as I like flawed characters - Characters! - I don't so much like masses of overlapping flaws in human form who pretend to be characters.
They go too far, I think.
But, yes, inevitably the evil genius' plan is perfect, *except* for failing to count on the sudden appearance of Mr. Bond. There are exceptions, of course, my favorite being Ben Linus from Lost, and of course Miguelito Loveless from the Wild Wild West deserves a shoutout...
The Artist Formerly Known As Republibot 3.0