Now that the team is fully together again (well, as together you can get considering…), Artie splits the team up to look for artifacts that once again is running amok. But has Artie’s actions of the past finally caught up with him?
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
(Of course if you just want to relive the episode, read on!)
It’s mission briefing time as Myka, Pete, Claudia and Steve meet Artie at the Warehouse. Artie tells them that Hugo Miller contacted him about an artifact he’s located. He sends Pete and Claudia to retrieve it much to Claudia’s dismay. She would rather partner up with Steve but Artie squashes that objection telling her that this is a “job, not a Choose Your Own Adventure book.” He also tells Myka that he is sending her and Steve to New Orleans to meet with a therapist named Nina Golden whose patients with severe issues have been cured overnight for no reason. Steve questions the logic behind retrieving this artifact not understanding why they are “stopping an artifact that helps troubled people get well.” Artie angrily snaps back that they never know what the downside of an artifact is, even the ones that seem to do good. He dismisses everyone but grabs Pete and asks him to keep an eye on Claudia. When Pete asks why he tells him that it’s because he wants to make sure she’s not under too much stress. (Yeah, Artie, the kind of stress that can lead one to grab an artifact dagger and plunge it in your heart?)
In Connecticut, Pete and Claudia meet with Hugo who show him a bag of marbles belonging to a young Bobby Fischer. Each marble gives the holder intense focus and a powerful drive to achieve any goal he sets. (As Claudia says, cool!) However, prolonged exposure can lead to violence, insanity and possibly a stroke. (Less cool!) Hugo tells them that he received the marbles via Fedex but doesn’t know who sent them.
Just then, Hugo’s nephew comes in and he explains how Brady got a hold of the marbles and he took them to school to use during the Interschool Multidiscipline Tournament (IMT). Although Hugo doesn’t think anything bad happened, Brady revealed that he had black throbbing veins on his arms and it’s getting worse.
In New Orleans, Steve and Myka are at Golden’s office talking to a soldier who suffered from PTSD. She explains how her patients who have nothing in common seemed to all of the sudden gotten better. While at her office, Steve seems fixated with a painting of two skeletons having tea.
At the B&B, Brother Aiden comes by and tells Artie that he has something that will tell them who stole the astrolabe.
Hugo is upset that Brady kept his black vein problem a secret. Pete tries to fix the problem by placing the bag of marbles in the neutralizer but nothing happens. Brady’s arm still has the black veins. Claudia then asks Brady if he loaned a marble to his friend Tommy as he is currently being streamed online beating up a fellow classmate. That’s went Brady admitted that he lent out four of them.
Pete, Claudia, Hugo, and Brady head to the headmaster’s office to talk to Tommy. Brady explains that he didn’t want to seem selfish so he handed out a few marbles. Tommy also admitted to using the marble and now he too has black veins on his arm. He explained that he had to get on the IMT Calculus team and there was only one spot left so he beat the guy up. Pete asked for the marble back and Tommy placed it in the bag.
The headmaster arrives not understanding why the Secret Service would come to the school. Pete explains that the President has made school violence a top priority this year (right up there with health care reform). Tommy is told there is a no tolerance policy at the school and he can’t turn a blind eye on what happened. The headmaster explains that because of the budget cuts, the school board has placed pressure on the school to garner more alumni support so the school atmosphere is fraught with tension.
Meanwhile, Myka is going through Dr. Goldin’s patients files and can’t find anything. Steve is still fixated on the picture on the Doctor’s wall. Myka tries to get Steve to talk about his feelings but, being a man, he skirts the subject. Just then, Myka spots an ad for a jazz club called The Altered Scale. They recognize the logo from a t-shirt that Alex, the patient they were talking to earlier, was wearing. They decide to go check out the club.
Brady gives Pete and Claudia a list of the other three friends he gave marbles to. Hugo is feeling guilty and Claudia tries to make him feel better. She assures him that they will fix the problem.
Back at the B&B, Brother Adrian shows Artie an artifact spur. Artie recognizes it as belonging to Jack Duncan, the most successful bounty hunter in New Mexico. Brother Adrian tells him that the spur is supposed to be able track the movements of the missing astrolabe. Artie gets uncomfortable and tells him that Warehouse agents aren’t allowed to use artifacts but Brother Adrian is insistent saying that they should use it anyway considering the immense danger the world is in. Artie is trying to buy time and is using any excuse to avoid setting off the spur, but Brother Adrian comes prepared and shows Artie all the research that has already been done in order for the spur to work. Artie reluctantly goes to work.
At the jazz club, Myka and Steve ask if any new objects have shown up at the club recently. The bartender tells them that no new stuff has come in. Myka watches the band that is rehearsing on stage and is told that they basically just sign up on the nights that they want to play. Steve notices that the trumpet player, Ethan, is the only one that has been playing every night. He plays with a lot of soul and the bartender tells them that he is a prodigy but has been fighting a nasty bug for the last three months. He’s been to a lot of doctors but they can’t find out what is wrong with him. Myka and Steve deduce that somebody has been giving Ethan other people’s pain.
Pete finds one of the students that Brady gave a marble to. He is attacking a teacher who refused to put him on the IMT bio team. The student tries to run (Pete: “Why do they always run?!”) but he manages to tackle him down and demand that he hand over his marble. He contacts Claudia and tells him he was successful in finding his student. Claudia tells him she is still looking for hers and elsewhere in the school, Hugo and Brady find Pierce, the third student given a marble. Brady tries to confront him but Hugo holds him back suggesting they wait for Pete. Brady is insistent saying he can’t let this happen anymore and as he is talking, the black veins have travelled up his neck and into his eyes. Brady then collapses.
Claudia is scoping out the MPR as Hugo tells her that Brady is in the infirmary and getting worse. She spots the last student by the black veins on his neck. The debate coach is giving him a pep talk and reminds him that he has one goal: to be the last one standing. As he goes on stage, he sees his competitor standing beneath a block going over his notes. He tries to find the ropes to release the block but Claudia stops him just in time and demands his marble.
While back at the B&B, Artie tells Brother Adrian to close his eyes and picture the astrolabe and then waves an artifact matchbox over the spur. He then tells Brother Adrian to open his eyes. Just then, the spur melts. Artie pretends to be distressed and tells Brother Adrian that when you use one artifact to find another, things get complicated. Disappointed, Brother Adrian then tells Artie it was a good thing that really wasn’t Jack Duncan’s spur. Artie is shocked! Brother Adrian tells him that he wasn’t sure of his intentions and suspected he used the astrolabe ever since he met him. He reprimands Artie for his foolishness but Artie tells him he had to use it and walks out.
Myka and Steve have a sit down with trumpet player Ethan and tell him that they think someone is trying to hurt him because he is so good. Ethan tells them that he thinks everyone else is really good and he’s jealous of them. Doctors told him that he’s dying but don’t know why. Ethan is determined to play through the pain while he can.
Claudia manages to get her assigned marble but had to haul the student with her to the infirmary as he was too volatile to be left behind. Pete then comes in and tell them there is a wrinkle in his plan. Pierce explains that the headmaster confiscated his marble when he had a little incident in class. The headmaster, meanwhile, is in the chemistry lab gathering explosive chemicals.
Back at the bar, Myka is going over the club records and notices that Ethan didn’t start playing there until three months ago. The bartender tells her that at first he didn’t want to get up in front of the crowd but then he met an old jazzman who came in and told him that to be a good jazz player and play from your soul, you have to let life’s pain play through your music. Myka finally realizes that Ethan has been taking other people’s pain in order to be a good jazz musician.
Pete and Claudia try to locate the headmaster. His secretary tells them that he went to the gym for the last IMT event. She advised them not to bother him as he was very upset at the school board and talked about how they would “get theirs.” Pete remembered he was mad about the budget cuts and they realize that he is going after the school board who will be at the gym. Pete tells Claudia to get Hugo and meet him there.
The gym is filled with students getting ready for the big IMT basketball game. He tells Claudia he doesn’t see the headmaster but Hugo assures them that he knows the school inside and out and can locate him. As they turn around, they see Brady and his marble friends ready to prevent Claudia and Hugo from stopping the IMT event.
Brother Adrian follows Artie to a diner and confronts him. Artie tells him he won’t give back the astrolabe but Brother Adrian tells him he doesn’t want it back. He wants him to use it again to undo what was done. Artie refuses telling him there’s a great more at stake than he knows.
He tells him about the original timeline and that the world has lost hope because Pandora’s Box had opened. Artie assures him he can handle the evil that was unleashed but Brother Adrian asks if he is content knowing that the rest of the world has to live with that evil too.
Myka and Steve confront Ethan and tell him they know what he has been doing. He refuses to give up the artifact.
Talking about refusing, Brady and the marble gang refuse to allow Hugo and Claudia to get pass them so she stuns them with her Tesla gun much to Hugo’s dismay.
At the bar, Ethan is getting worse even when Steve tells him that the artifact is killing him. Ethan tells him it’s worth it and says that he can get rid of Steve’s pain too. As he reaches for Steve, Ethan exclaims in horror “what happened to you” as he tried to transfer Steve’s pain onto himself.
At the same time, Claudia is feeling a pain in her chest as Hugo is racked with guilt confessing that he showed Brady how to use the marbles. Claudia realizes that Hugo wanted Brady to become a Warehouse agent like him. As Hugo explained how he wanted to leave a legacy, Claudia is finding it extremely difficult to breathe as Ethan is extrapolating Pete’s pain onto him.
Steve begs Ethan to let go blurting out that the process could be killing Claudia. Myka hears him and rushes to break the connection. She grabs the cigarette case artifact that Ethan had been holding on to and once it was neutralized, Steve and Claudia recover.
Claudia doesn’t know what happened but tells Hugo it was probably stress. She assures Hugo that Brady can only become the Warehouse agent he hopes him to be is by saving him and that means finding the headmaster.
Artie continues to refuse to use the astrolabe and Brother Adrian warns him that the Brotherhood is more powerful than he thinks. Artie remains steadfast and states that he works with some powerful people too. Brother Adrian tells him that because he stole the astrolabe from him and dismantled his life’s work, he will respond in kind. He warns Artie that things are already set in motion and unlike the Regents, the Brotherhood follows no rules.
Pete still can’t find the headmaster and the school board has already come in. The gym is filled with students and Pete’s “vibes” are going haywire. Hugo and Claudia meet Pete. They try to figure out where the headmaster can be and Hugo points to a door that leads to the furnace below.
Pete heads out to investigate and gets knocked unconscious by the headmaster. When he comes to, the headmaster tells him his plan to create a gas that will kill the school board. As he begins to pour the liquid into the furnace, Pete grabs a pipe and knocks it over the headmaster’s head.
Pete tells Hugo and Claudia what happened and Hugo tells him that he needs to shut down the furnace. Pete is intimated by the elaborate switchboard of the furnace and tells himself to focus. He then realizes that the headmaster has a marble.
Pete takes the marble and elements of his shop class begin to emerge. He disables the furnace and brings the headmaster and the marble to the gym to meet Claudia and Hugo. Pete gives Claudia the marble and she notices that he now has black veins going up his arm. He quickly places the marble in the bag which is then placed in a neutralizer container. Everything seems to be okay now. They explain to the headmaster that what he was experiencing was due to bad mushrooms. Hugo thanks Claudia for the kind words about him and Brady. Then the uncle and nephew reunite.
Back at the bar, Ethan explains that his great-great-grandfather worked with Scott Joplin who left him the cigarette case. He thought the case was something that could inspire music but when he realized that he could help other people. Ethan was prepared to die as he would be joining the ranks of Cobain, Winehouse, Morrison, and Hendrix but the bartender tells him he’s selfish to decide to leave without thinking about the people in his life that love him. Ethan asks her, “Like who?” (Okay, someone here needs a marble!) He then realizes that she likes him.
Steve comes clean about his connection to Claudia. He tells Myka that if something happens to him, Claudia feels the pain. Steve admits that he hasn’t told Claudia because he knows she won’t let him stop the metronome to keep her safe. Myka tells Steve she can’t go through finding his body again and thinks there is another solution and they need to find it.
Back at the Warehouse, Steve asks Artie if he could stay close to home and not be sent out on missions using studying the metronome as an excuse. Artie tells him to take all the time he needs. Pete and Claudia come in with the neutralized bag of marbles. As Myka, Claudia and Steve leave the office, Artie asks Pete how Claudia did. He tells him that she was scary. Artie asks, “Scary as in evil?” Pete replies, no, scary that she’s grown into a strong powerful woman and he’d be proud.
Pete mentions that they were able to retrieve all the marbles. At the mentioned of marbles, Artie remembers what Brother Adrian had said about dismantling his life’s work. Pete tells him how the marbles were mysteriously sent to Hugo and Artie becomes nervous.
After Pete leaves, Artie heads into the Warehouse where the marbles used to be kept. In its place is a black diamond – the Brotherhood’s calling card. As Artie picks it up, Brother Adrian’s words come back to haunt him… things have already been set in motion.
Another show filled with action! It was nice seeing Hugo once again as well as Sam Huntington who plays Josh on ‘Being Human’. We are not in the crux of the story arc as the Brotherhood has now declared war on Artie because of his refusal to set back time. What more did the Brotherhood take from the Warehouse and how will they use it against Artie? Only time will tell…
If you missed last week’s episode, make sure you catch up by reading the recap to ‘Personal Effects’.
