Warehouse 13 – I called it! Gimme a cookie.

In case you have no idea what I’m going on about with what I predicted, I turn you toward my review of the season one finale. There I said I believed Artie was holding the Phoenix medallion and, as a result, didn’t die in that fiery explosion. So, when Artie reappeared in the season two premiere of Warehouse 13, and then pulled the Phoenix from his pocket … well, I pointed at the TV and yelled, “Booyah!” all while Deb raised an eyebrow with a look of “you’re such a dork” on her face. I think she meant me.

A few people didn’t believe the Phoenix theory, since it meant someone would have to be sacrificed for Artie to survive. Who would it be? And would Artie be so quick to save himself if it meant killing someone else? We got a rather satisfying answer to that, as Artie apparently wasn’t even aware he had the Phoenix in his pocket and just happened to grab it at the right moment … alright, that’s sort of a cop-out, but at least we’re not led to believe Artie is a self-preserving wimp. The other somewhat cop-out was who ultimately got sacrificed, namely Mrs. Frederic’s red-shirt/driver. The show made up for it, though, with Pete’s sudden bout of coughing that turned out to be nothing.

I liked how many of the issues of trickery and deception were answered, in particular those regarding Leena, whom many fans seemed to like. With Artie’s return and those issues resolved, the writers did a good job of putting things back in a comfortable place for a brand new season. We also got rid of one villain to bring in a new one, namely the surprisingly female H.G. Wells. Of course, the story of H.G. Wells actually being female is made up just for Warehouse 13, and I’m not quite sure why they decided to do that. Did they just want to stir up more apparent historical misconceptions into the show? Or perhaps they just loved Jaime Murray‘s performance from Dexter (Lila) so much that they wanted her for the role.

Whatever the reason for Wells being female, having her as the new season-long nemesis is pretty exciting. This is the person who wrote such sci-fi masterpieces as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds, so what “plans” she has left to finish could be something pretty monumental. Or, it could just turn out to be an unfinished novel … which would still be cool, just not nearly as cool. But it would be funny if that turned out to be her endgame all along — I wouldn’t put it past this show to turn up the comedy a little at the end of the season and leave us with that.

So, what did you think of the return of Warehouse 13? So far I think they’ve stepped things up a bit from last season, with more memorable moments and a formidable nemesis that I’m looking forward to seeing more of (even though I found her character on Dexter completely vile, though that was the point).

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Jul 06, 2010 @ 22:00 EST5EDT