Warehouse 13 4.14: Horses and Flying and Magic, Oh My!

Last week’s brilliant black and white noir episode brought panache and style along with an amazing duo of guest stars, Missi Pyle and Enrico Colantoni. It also brought Artie back into active, if reckless duty. His insistence that no one else dies on his watch has put him on the defensive;  he’s not thinking clearly and it’s putting others at risk, the very thing he wants so desperately to avoid. This week, we return to our regular agent pairings and Las Vegas versus New England cases for our favorite artifact finders.

Artie talking to plants. Because Leena.

And so “The Sky’s the Limit” begins, with Artie watering Leena’s plants, begging them not to die. He has a case where horse jockeys in New England are dropping  into comas, completely drained of adrenaline. Artie gives the case to Jinks and Claudia, ordering  them to go forth and solve because he has “Regent issues” to deal with. Jinks, of course, knows what that’s all about; Claudia, knowing Jinks, recognizes a tell when she sees one.

One Charlotte Duprés (Polly Walker), from  Season 4.5’s premiere, “The Living and the Dead”, makes a short but ominous reappearance, scoping out the warehouse. Seems she has an axe to grind after Pete and Myka left her knocked out by the Tesla gun and locked in a closet. In her own house. They did aid her ex-husband, one insufferable Professor Sutton, in getting the diamond ring of Marie Antoinette from his tomb and sort of double-crossing her. Again.

Dead people falling from the sky: not normal.

In Vegas, a man has fallen dead from the sky, glowing a rather strange orange, right onto an unhappy golfer’s cart. The dead guy’s wallet leads them to a hotel where his friends are recuperating from all the binging and partying one can do.  Pete again references his twelve years of drunkenness in an offhand way like he did in “The Big Snag” (an episode that deals with this aspect of Pete’s past is coming soon). It’s not soon thereafter that another orange glowing dead person falls from the heavens. The link between the two dead bodies leads to an overly made-up magician, Val Preston. His levitation act has the agents thinking they’ve nailed this case until Preston himself goes orange and floats into the night sky, Pete and Myka unable to stop it from happening.

The agents follow the next lead they have from Preston to another magician he was spying on, an aged stage magician, Monty. Monty (an incredibly delightful Steve Valentine) believes he’s found true magic , believing  he can levitate people with energy from the audience and channel it with his mind. At his show, with the help of his granddaughter, Rose (the lovely Nora Zehetner), Monty is determined to levitate himself, only to be scared off stage when Pete levitates instead. Which Pete loves, except he’s next to go orange and take to the friendly skies. Rose sends Pete and Myka back to Monty’s house, misdirecting them while she convinces her grandfather to do one more show at Preston’s big premier. However, we all know Preston will not be available.

A sweet moment between Preston (Steve Valentine) and his granddaughter Rose (Nora Zehetner).

Being misled by Rose turns out to be a good thing as they realize that the artifact in use must be the medal of St. Cupertino, and that Rose is using it to bolster Monty’s confidence. Artie confirms the artifact, and the two head to the big show to stop Rose. Rose uses the medal to levitate herself this time, the downside being the previous person who was levitated won’t stop and Pete begins his deadly ascent. Myka realizes Rose is wearing it, and Pete uses his flight to maneuver over to Rose and convince her to stop. They bag it, much to Monty’s sadness. To make it up to Monty, believing  him able to keep the secret, give him a tour of the warehouse;  a sweet man’s dreams realized.

In Waterford, England, Claudia and Jinks begin their investigation at the stables. Hilariously, we find out that Jinks is not so fond of the equines.  Claudia brings up Artie again, determined to get Jinks to clue her in to what’s been going on and is none too thrilled when Jinks comes clean, but before she continues to argue the point, onward on the case!

Claudia and Jinks go country. New England, country.

Refused admission to the posh Stallion Club in their normal working clothes, a very dressed up, very swanky agent duo reenter to get the files from the owner of the horses the jockeys were riding. It’s a delight to watch Claudia pull her government agent and devious flirt card to get the info they need from a very snobbish horse owner. While there, another jockey drops.  Papers in hand, Jinks and Claudia quickly figure out that the same vet has seen the same three horses whose jockeys all now lie in comas, Ricky Jackson, a stable boy, is the one thread connecting everything as he’s the one that’s reported unprovable horse abuse to the vet.  Jinks locates Ricky and quickly convinces him to tell what he knows. He’s been using a piece of Sitting Bull’s blanket that he stashes under the saddle of each horse that’s been ill-treated, causing the horse to gain an adrenaline rush, sucking it straight from the jockey.

Charlotte Dupres, villainess or?

Claudia, like the boss she is, jumps on the next target’s horse, holding tight to the jockey as she gets the blanket piece and bags it, saving the guy. When she dismounts, Mrs. Duprés – who Claudia does not know – takes her photo and sends it to an unknown person with the message, “This is your next target.” Why Dupres has chosen Claudia, and for what, remains to be seen.

Meet Abigail Cho.

Artie, still at the warehouse, has been introduced to the new owner of the bed and breakfast, Abigail Cho (Kelly Hu). Artie takes this news as well as anyone could expect. As Artie gives Abigail the tour, his current stress level (having been mostly kept under wraps) is made shockingly clear as he loses it when he finds out that she was once a psychotherapist and is working with the Regents.

I dare you to stare down Mrs. F. Good luck.

Abigail, left wandering the stacks alone, is visited by Mrs. F, appearing like she does. Abigail argues that if she’s going to help Artie, she needs to have access to the artifacts, much to Mrs. Frederic’s, ahem, consternation. But, given free rein to access the artifacts, Abigail, someone with her own pain and story, is able to get through to Artie who finally lets his defenses down and begins sorting through his grief at recent events. It’s a touching moment when Artie opens up. Hopefully this will spell the beginning of the healing Artie so desperately needs, as well as aid Abigail’s still-present wounds from her past occupation.

Where all this will take our new B&B manager, Artie, and our agents, is left in the dark as next week’s teaser promises the return of H.G. Wells (huzzah!) and a case that even she hasn’t seen in all her years with the warehouse in next week’s “Instinct.”

Warehouse 13 airs Mondays on Syfy at 10/9c

What the what?
1. Nitpicking time! There should have been another dead flyer between Preston dying and Pete having been levitated (the trigger being the next person levitating sends the previous one to their death).
2. What does Charlotte Duprés know and how does she know and why is Claudia, specifically, being targeted?
3. What will Artie do when he finds out, because he will, that it was Jinks who ratted him out? He knows it was for the best, but he won’t be pleased at the how.
4. Pete needs some serious down time. All clues lead to that being the beginning of him returning to the bottle.
5. Love, love, love! that H.G. is coming back. Cannot wait.