The pinnacle of the last 9 weeks all comes down to this episode. If you haven’t seen last week’s show, ‘The Ones You Love,’ you’ll want to watch or read the recap before going on as it sets up the mid-season’s finale in ways that will blow your mind! Finally we see what great evil that Artie has unleashed and the ramifications he must deal with by using the astrolabe.
(WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD – AND WHAT SPOILERS THEY ARE!)
The episode picks up right after the events of last week, with Myka and Pete finally reaching the Warehouse after unsuccessfully reaching Leena and Pete getting a major bad vibe. They rush inside the office and Pete gets another vibe, worse than before. They try to reach Leena again but she doesn’t answer. Alerts go off from inside the Bronze sector and the Dark Vault.
Pete heads to the Dark Vault and it looks like someone has torn through the entire place. He calls Myka who tells him to come to the Bronze sector. When Pete arrives, Myka is looking at Leena’s dead body.
The agents call Mrs. Frederic who tells them it was Artie that shot Leena. Claudia returns from seeing her brother and is told about Leena. Mrs. Frederic tells them that the prophecy has been fulfilled and a great evil was created… and it’s Artie. Brother Adrian explains that when Robespierre used the astrolabe during the French Revolution, something in him changed which lead to the Reign of Terror.
Claudia refuses to believe that Artie is evil and Steve assures her that they haven’t given up on him. They just want to find a way to cure him. Mrs. Frederic tells them that Helena has the astrolabe but she doesn’t know where she is. She tells the agents to be careful when looking for evil Artie as he knows everything about them and can anticipate their actions.
Pete hears Leena’s voice and sees her on the balcony but when he heads there, she is gone. He asks Claudia and Myka if they saw her and they tell him no. He must be imaging things. The realization of her death is hitting them all.
In Rome, Brother Adrian gives Mrs. Frederic and Steve all the information the Brotherhood has about the astrolabe and they begin to go through the books to see how to save Artie.
Back at the Warehouse, Claudia, Pete, and Myka try to devise a plan to find Artie. All of the sudden he appears. Claudia runs to him but he stops her telling he doesn’t feel like himself. Artie doesn’t remember what happened and he tells them that the astrolabe is affecting him somehow and he needs it to counteract what is happening to him. Pete tells him that they won’t let him use it. He reminds Artie that if he uses the astrolabe, everything will be gone: the Warehouse, H.G., Steve, Mrs. Frederic. But Artie is insistent.
Claudia approaches him and assures Artie hey can help, but when she touches him, she realizes he is a hologram. Artie tells them he’s using H.G.’s hologram devise and demands to know where the astrolabe is located. Myka tells him they can’t let him have it. Evil Artie tells them he is not the Artie they know and is better off giving him the astrolabe as they may also have the same fate as Leena. Evil Artie tells them that Artie sacrificed his life for the Warehouse and will free him from his days of slavery to the facility with the astrolabe no matter the cost.
When Evil Artie flickers again, Claudia realizes that he is using one of Hugo’s projection devices and must be still in the Warehouse. The IRS Quantum alarm goes off detecting an increased in heat in the area. All of the sudden, a bomb explodes causing the area to catch on fire. Claudia seals the doors to keep the fire from spreading while Pete and Myka put the fires out.
They realize that the IRS section was where they kept all the files of the Holy Roman Empire and deduce that the fire was set to prevent the agents to find something about the astrolabe that was kept there. Pete, Myka, and Claudia begin to go through everything to figure to what Evil Artie didn’t want them to know.
At the Vatican, Brother Adrian finds an entry stating that if any man shall live the same day twice, his reason will fracture and he will live his live as two until there is only one and the darkness will extinguish the light forever. They realize that the evil that was created by the astrolabe comes from within Artie. Steve holds on the hope that Artie’s good can still prevail and they must be able to reach that part of him or he’ll be lost forever. Brother Adrian tells them they should go and if it all works out, he wants the astrolabe back.
Pete, Myka, and Claudia continue to figure out what evil Artie was looking for in the IRS area. Pete again hears and sees Leena but thinks it’s his mind playing tricks on him. He goes and follows the apparition anyway.
Leena leads Pete to torture room and points to a cabinet and disappears. As he searches searches the cabinet, he finds a secret compartment that contains information and pictures of the dagger that was in Artie’s nightmares.
Mrs Frederic tells them that Artie had H.G. research the dagger after his repeated visions of Claudia stabbing him with it. She tells him that Artie’s mind is at war with itself and it could mean something or not. Pete thinks it has a purpose and tells Mr. Frederic that it must as Leena showed him where to find it. They reason that Artie’s dark side may have been leading his good side to find the dagger so they must make sure evil Artie doesn’t get to it before them. Mrs. Frederic sends them off to find it.
In H.G.’ s notes, the dagger previously belonged to a Spanish Jesuit during the Holy Roman Empire, so to figure out where evil Artie could be, they need to think like him. Claudia figures out a way to cyber-track where evil Artie could be using a technique Artie doesn’t know about yet. They find out that he’s travelling to Budapest. Because the alias evil Artie used was an anagram of his real name, Claudia is convinced good Artie still exists inside himself. Myka and Pete head to Europe and Claudia remains behind so that Artie’s visions don’t come true.
Pete and Myka arrive in Budapest and think they found the dagger in a museum collection located in Prague. Claudia tells them she managed to flag evil Artie’s passport as a terrorist and he is currently held at the airport. He also informs them that she thinks that evil Artie was after the Chinese Orchard artifact. It is the deadliest artifact kept at the IRS/Warehouse 8 area and was the cause of the English Sweating Sickness that killed thousands in 24 hours with no cure. A Chinese emperor used the artifact as a warning to the British for forcing them to trade with China. Once Warehouse 8 agents obtained the Orchid, they encased it in an impenetrable case. They think that Artie is going to use the dagger to open the case so he can unleash the disease potentially wiping out half the world’s population forcing the agents to give Artie the astrolabe to reverse what he’s done.
Mrs. Frederic arrives at the airport to pick up Artie but she’s too late. He used a barometer artifact to stop time and get away. She tells the agents what has transpired not knowing that Artie has found a way to tap into their Farnworths and learn where the dagger is located.
Meanwhile, Claudia meets Steve in Berlin and together they go off to find the Chinese Orchid. Steve tells Claudia that so far everything he and Mrs. Frederic has found out indictate that can’t heal Artie without using the astrolabe and considering how the world was before, they can’t do that. Claudia reminds him that they were able to find a way to get him off the metronome so they will find a way to bring Artie back.
Pete and Myka still can’t get over losing Leena and that Artie killed her. Myka tells him they need to focus on getting the dagger and deal with everything else later. They find the dagger in a case but Artie finds them. They warn him to stay away but evil Artie taunts them saying real Artie never really liked them and throws them off guard with some well-placed deep cutting criticisms that reach the core of their inner fears. Artie then using an artifact to prevent anyone from stopping him, takes the dagger and leaves.
In Zittau, Germany, Artie contacts the descendants of Franz Steinbruck, the “Artie” of Warehouse 8 who was assigned to guard the Orchid. He convinces them that rogue agents are after the Orchid and they need to show him where it is. He gives them an artifact to protect them from the “rogue agents” and tells them not to believe anything they say if they come across them.
They lead him to a water mill but Pete, Myka, Claudia, and Steve are already there. Artie tells the Steinbruck descendants not to believe the Warehouse 13 agents. Claudia tries to reach good Artie and begs him to let them help him. For a moment it looks like she might have reached him but evil Artie is too strong and tells Johann to use the finger cymbals artifact. Myka tells everyone to cover their ears but the sound is still deafening. The noise allows Artie and the Steinbruck clan to get away. Steve and Claudia follow the descendants while Myka and Pete go after Artie.
Claudia and Steve manage to take care of the Steinbrucks but one of them gets away. Pete and Myka follow Artie and find him. Pete manages to tackle Artie and get him to drop the dagger allowing Myka to run off with it. She helps Steve subdue Carl and they find a hidden compartment containing the Orchid.
Artie arrives holding a gun to Pete’s head and tells them he’ll shoot him if they don’t hand over the Orchid. As Steve walks towards them with the Orchid, Artie tells Myka to also hand over the dagger. Instead, she throws it into the mill so it can be ground to pieces.
Incensed, Artie uses the barometer to stop time. He grabs the Orchid and heads down to retrieve the dagger. Just as time begins again, Claudia runs in and tries to reach good Artie by telling him not to release the Orchid. Evil Artie taunts Claudia and tells her that Artie doesn’t love her or anyone else and that they all ruined his life. She refuses to be daunted and follows him out the door.
Artie turns and breaks open the case with the dagger. The energy forces the dagger up and into Claudia’s hands. Artie takes the Orchid flower and throws it into the air. Claudia then hears Artie voice begging her to use the dagger and save him. She yells ‘I cast you out!’ and stabs evil Artie in the heart just as Myka and Pete rush in.
Claudia in tears grabs Artie as he falls and says she’s sorry as Artie consoles her and says it’s okay. The Orchid flower falls but Pete catches it before it hits the ground. Unfortunately once it touches him, it turns into a black cloud that begins to grow and encompass them as it spreads throughout Europe.
While I didn’t think the writers could pull off an even better cliff hanger than the Warehouse exploding, I couldn’t have been more wrong with this episode. Of course, we still don’t know if Artie’s psyche is really whole again but we do know that the agents now have 24 hours to save the world from the English Sweating Sickness. And since this is a medical emergency, we may likely get to see Lindsay Wagner return as Dr. Vanessa.
Because of the increase in episodes from 13 to 20, ‘Warehouse 13’ fans won’t get a Christmas episode this year so we’ll have to wait until Spring to see what happens next.
So what did you think of ‘Warehouse 13’s’ mid-season finale?
