Note: The following review contains spoilers for all aired episodes of Warehouse 13, including the most recent, “Mild Mannered.”
Last week’s season premiere of Warehouse 13 took all that was exciting and creatively inspired about the series’ first season and improved upon it to dazzling effect. ”Mild Mannered,” the second episode of the season, is even better. As phenomenally entertaining as the first season was, it didn’t always have quite as much freewheeling fun with its concept as it could have. For example, while it hinted at the graphic-novel-flavored possibilities of a show about a pair of Secret Service agents collecting pseudo-scientifically/magically-enhanced objects for a warehouse even more shrouded in mystery than Area 51, it never quite took full stylistic advantage of it. In the season premiere, however, the show finally began to match the gee-whiz wizardry of its companion series, Eureka, with steampunk-infused gadgetry (more than ever before) and even literary twists galore to rival The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This episode, “Mild Mannered” is the next natural step in the progression of Warehouse 13.
On top of being delightful and surprising, the episode’s concept is so intelligent because it feels inevitable in retrospect. Of course, a comic-book-related object would finally surface that would bestow upon its possessor powers resembling that of a superhero. Of course. It makes sense not only on the surface level–it’s not a huge leap to see how someone wielding a seemingly magical object could use it to follow in his or her favorite fictional vigilante’s footsteps–but it dovetails beautifully with the mythology of the series. Artifacts are objects that become imbued with something of the energy of their original owner, creator, inventor, what have you. Superheroes are such an essential aspect of the American pop culture consciousness. So many children, grown people, fanboys, etc., put so much of themselves into worshipping their favorite masked avengers that it only makes sense, in the universe of this series, that an object owned by a famous comics creator such as Jack Kirby would begin to manifest some of the powers of which he wrote. One could imagine countless objects in the comic book store behaving similarly.
Naturally, in addition to comics, Warehouse 13 is also paying tribute to other aspects of the fan experience. On a scripting level, the episode works in numerous references and in-jokes, many self-referential verging-on-meta, such as the woman at the post office, who makes the sarcastic “Joy. Is it Tuesday again already?” crack upon seeing Pete and Myka (funny because it’s the day the show airs), the comic book store guy saying “frakking,” and Pete’s joke about the bully he’s talked about in the past. On a casting level, the show’s team makes the brilliant decision to cast in their literal comic book episode Jewel Staite and Sean Maher, both from the canceled-before-its-time sci-fi cult classic, Firefly, which itself now lives on in comic book form. Seeing Kaylee and Simon reunited again in a romantic storyline is exciting enough, but having Simon also turn out to be a superhero is pure geeky heaven. The revelation that Pete is in love with comic books and Myka never understood them is also so extremely in character. Then having Myka put on the suit and temporarily transform into a real-live superhero herself is another great geeky moment (not to mention Myka unknowingly quoting Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben), made even more clever with the cheeky twist that Pete has to then rip off another guy’s underwe- I mean, trunks, while Myka holds him down. This is goofily, good-naturedly homoerotic humor that would make Batman and Robin proud.
More than anything else, however, what this episode is about, on a thematic level is forgiveness, allowing the dark shadows of the past to dissipate, moving on, and making a new home for oneself. This is reflected first and foremost in the Sheldon/Loretta plotline (By the way, who really thinks that the similarity between the names “Simon” and “Sheldon” is accidental?) but echoes throughout the episode. Sheldon is attacked in his home, his possessions stolen. Instead of letting go of his anger and grief, however, he retreats into a fantasy of his youth, becoming his own childhood hero, the Iron Shadow. He has good intentions, wanting to protect the girl he loves and his town from crime, but what he ultimately needs to do is move past his pain, because it is doing more harm than good, both to himself and the people he loves. In response, Pete and Myka forgive him and don’t press charges.
This action surprises Claudia, who has been having trouble forgiving Leena for impersonating her, despite the fact that she was under MacPherson’s control at the time. This episode impressively refuses to forget the events of the previous episode or season. Our characters still aren’t all healed. Pete and Myka still haven’t fully settled into the community in which they now reside. When we see them go to the post office at the start of the episode, it is the first time since the pilot that we’ve seen them actually walking around South Dakota, besides the warehouse or Leena’s B&B. When Myka’s possessions arrive, she decorates her room with them, the final step in accepting Pete, Artie, Leena, and Claudia as her family and this place as her new home. And at the end of the episode, when Pete’s things still haven’t arrived, she helps him reach this level of comfort, as well, by buying him the elusive Iron Shadow issue he’s been searching for since childhood.
Another character who initially has trouble moving on is Artie, who is being haunted by MacPherson’s ghost, or so it seems. This plot is handled with extreme delicacy and grace to a degree of which I didn’t even realize the series was capable. It manages to honor Artie’s friendship with the person MacPherson used to be without retroactively trying to make MacPherson a better person than he was at the end of his life. Artie repeatedly asserts that he has no guilt over MacPherson’s death, and I was glad to see that the writers didn’t go the easy route and reveal that he actually did. No, instead, Artie is simply mourning the person MacPherson used to be–a person with whom he had an incredibly deep friendship, a friendship that ended abruptly with no closure. When he returns to the room of the MacPherson he knew and loved, he can finally give him a true goodbye. This whole time, he hadn’t been haunted by the ghost of MacPherson but the ghost of his former friendship. He also discovers the gift MacPherson left for him–a watch that will certainly have significance further down the line. The clock is also reminiscent of H.G. Wells and her supposed time machine. Additionally, I was also very impressed by the unabashed homoerotic subtext of Artie’s dialogue to MacPherson, with Artie muttering a phrase redolent of lost love–”This used to be our house, James.” This is also, of course, another reference to the episode’s repeated theme of home.
The manner in which whatever is going on with Leena now is being presented is also very impressive, from a writing angle. Throughout the hour, it seems to be connected to MacPherson’s ghost–a simple but effective misdirect–and yet by the end, we learn that it is not. It is some sort of side effect to the Pearl that Mrs. Frederic had warned Leena could potentially occur. The fact that Leena is continuing to experience fallout from these events is also satisfying, as it indicates that the show is aware that some viewers might have considered the revelation that Leena was being mind-controlled rather than truly evil, a copout. This twist, however, has the potential to justify their decision.
And that’s about all I have to say for this week. But I can’t sign off without mentioning the Rasputin prayer robe, yet another spark of Warehouse 13 genius. Bravo, writers, bravo!
Related posts:
- Warehouse 13 2.03: “Beyond Our Control”
- Warehouse 13 2.07: “For the Team”
- Warehouse 13 2.08: “Merge With Caution”
- Warehouse 13 2.01: “Time Will Tell”
- Warehouse 13: “MacPherson”
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, I could not disagree more. This episode was cheesy, the romance subplot felt forced and unrealistic, the “in-jokes” were so jarring they took me right out of the story (Really, Myka? You’ve never heard “With Great power comes great responsibility” before?), and the wonky science; changing your density does not pull in badly animated gravity waves; just made this a series low for me.
A complete waste of Kaylee and Simon. The only thing that saved this episode from being a complete failure was, as you mention, the McPherson plot. And Claudia.
Hey Rob, Clearly I don’t agree with you about the episode, but I would like to say that, yes, I do know quite a few people who have never heard that phrase before. People who aren’t geeks and don’t live in that world have a hard time distinguishing between “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” most of the time, let alone know a phrase from a comic book or comic book movie series.
Great review! I tuned in for Sean and Jewel having never seen the show before (and gotta love Sean as a superhero) but the whole episode was funny and fun – if the rest of the series is like this episode I’ll be a happy new fan.
I loved it, and to be honest, any amount of cheese that this episode contained was more than welcome. :)
Before this one, I had only watched the pilot and season premiere, and it was a show I found clever and entertaining, but never had time to keep up with. I tuned in to this episode because of Jewel Staite and Sean Maher, as I’m sure a lot of people did. (I mean, Simon and Kaylee together again? Yes please.) This geek girl loved their presence, as well as the whole comic/superhero plot.
Agreed. I also feel compelled to add that I don’t quite understand worrying about “the wonky science” in one episode of a show about objects that have supernatural powers that can be nullified by being placed in goo and last week featured the MC Escher vault, which defies all laws of physics. It may not have been real science, but it’s most definitely comic book science, which was what this episode paid tribute to in the first place!
This is probably not even important, but I loved the sort of Golden Age names given to Jewel and Sean. I mean how many folks in their mid to late 20s do you know named Loretta and Sheldon? But in the 50s, it would extremely common. It called back, at least for me, the sort of wacky nature of the Golden Age combined with the consistently (refreshingly) frank, mature nature of this actual world.
It’s my whole thing about Batman. If Bruce Wayne had been a normal person to begin with seeing his family gunned down would have let him to a life as an FBI agent or military man, not a bat-masked vigilante! Getting robbed at home, which while sucking, would not led a normal, modern man to put on fancy magic trousers and beat crooks into comas. He’d start a neighborhood watch, or most likely, move. But it’s the Golden Age and Sheldon becomes a masked-man. *But* it’s also the real world and his powers are causing horrible physiological damage to him. My only nitpick is actually that right there. Are we to assume (in delicious Golden Age ADD) that once they’re off the screen Sheldon and Loretta live happily ever after? We get to see Artie and gang work through their issues, but once the artifact is in the bag, no one really cares what happens to those caught in the cross fire. Not dead? Good enough. I hope Jane et al. can give me closure of previous cases, because I think that would truly raise Warehouse 13 from awesome to Epic.