Pilot Diversity and Minority Decay

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As we review more and more media and see more and more shows, one thing we have learned to do is not get excited by apparent diversity in early episodes - and certainly not the pilot. We will pay attention, and make notes, but we will withhold praise and enthusiasm even when we seem to have a cast with numerous minority characters

Actually, that’s a lie - we start a stopwatch. We want to see how many episodes pass before all that promising diversity starts to die off. Yes, it’s cynical, but we’ve seen it before.

You get a pilot with a large, racially diverse cast. They’re all there for the cast photos, they’re there in the opening scene, we get introduced to several in the pilot and in the initial episodes. It looks good, a show that realises we need shows with decent POC characters.

Then one dies. Or two. And/or episodes go by where you realise the POC have been banished to the plot box. Or they have roles that require them to be elsewhere or the other characters have to avoid them. Sometimes they’re there - but always in the background, always on the fringes and you realise that they’ve maybe had 1 line of dialogue in 3 episodes (Hello T-Dog).

As the series continues several of the POC will be completely lost - dead (usually dead), vanished or heaved on the bus. Others will now be silent servants, hanging around the edges, facilitating the plot line of the White people. Few, if any of them will have actual storylines of their own. We realise then we have a case of Pilot Diversity and Minority Decay.

By the time the season finale comes round, or we’re 2 or 3 seasons in, the show will be notably Whiter. Often, the POC left in the cast will not be the same as the ones who started - while many of the White cast have been there since the beginning.

Diverse pilots offer false hope, but they rarely follow through on it. The Walking Dead, Falling Skies, Under the Dome, The 100 and The Last Ship all began with surprisingly diverse casts but as the episodes went by we saw the POC die off or fall into the background (we’ve written posts on The Walking Dead and Fallings Skies) while the White cast become more prominent, survived and kept moving.

Relatedly, we have a trope of shows presenting their minority characters as much more prominently than they are. They may appear on the promotional material, they may even receive high billing in the cast. The marketing for the show will give the impression that the POC cast members are full characters, just a little behind the major characters of the show - or even just not behind at all. Penny Dreadful presented Sembene as a full character in a number of the posters for the show and I kept waiting for him to develop a storyline… which never happened. He was a butler and occasional knife carrier, no more. On Warehouse 13 Leena seemed to be presented as a main character for the cast (it’s actually harder to find a full cast picture that includes Jinks than Leena) but, ultimately, beyond a very few rare moments she was little more than cook and housekeeper for the rest of the cast and rarely took much screen time. Secret Circle tried to present Melissa as a full and equal character with the rest of the circle, but she was clearly an add-on, circling the lives of the actual main characters.

Warehouse 13, Season 5, Episode 6: Endless

London, 1889 and Helena (H.G. Wells) being the awesome Warehouse 12 agent she was and taking down Jack the Ripper. (Kipling is also a Warehouse agent, I am most amused). Her mentor tells her all about the Warehouse but also puts a little puncture in her idea that the Warehouse is inherently linked to the British empire – though she does think there will never be a Warehouse 13.

The current team are watching this on the Round Table (and also learning that Helena has broken up with her current guy and is now dating a woman which finally sets in stone the often referenced bisexuality of Helena). The Table stores the memories of agents defining moments with the Warehouse and she wants them to add to it. Which means Warehouse 13 is reaching the end of its life. And if the Warehouse moves to a new country, the new country provides new agents.

Pete is highly stressed by this and demands Mrs. Frederick stop it, accusing her of failing as a Caretaker – but this is not a crisis to solve, it’s what the Warehouse does. So Claudia decides to give everyone time to calm down by sharing her first memory

Which involves showgirls and Pete and Myka tap dancing because of an Artefact Pete played with. The whole gang tries to battle showgirls while tap dancing – and Claudia has to put on a major performance (thankfully tap dancing) to charge another Artefact to fix it all.

It’s whacky, silly and immensely fun after which everyone announces “best job ever.” It was also the day when Claudia realised she didn’t want to be a Caretaker because she loves being an agent so much. Which leads to Pete freaking out about not being an agent any more. While he storms off, the gang talk to Claudia about whether she wants to be Caretaker and how she shouldn’t feel forced to become one.

On that subject, Artie’s turn to share a memory: a memory Mrs. Frederick thinks will backfire on him.  Artie and a past agent investigate a time bubble from the 1940s with someone using an Artefact to make a party last forever and avoid going to war; it’s a bubble that can only be entered once a year, the date of the party. They have 25 minutes to investigate and Artie’s junior Agent, Scott, is pretty good. Scott’s insight helps them solve it though Scott is briefly emotional at the woman with the Artefact’s plea – worried that her baby will grow up without a dad. Which Artie feels guilty about – because Scott is his son.

Intermission while Claudia demands an explanation. Artie never knew Scott existed for years; and Artie fought the Regents for the right of a “one”, the right Regents have to have one person who knows about the Warehouse. He meant this as a lesson that you have to fight for your happiness, but Claudia is still reeling and she walks off.

Artie follows her and after talking Artie reveals that Scott is still alive but not an agent, he has a normal life. He didn’t introduced Claudia because she would have wanted him to be an Agent – which defeats the whole point of the One – someone in the normal world to keep balance. The lesson is sometimes you have to be a little selfish to be happy – and that “do as I say not as I do” is totally the prerogative of a father figure. And a lovely bonding parent moment.

Warehouse 13, Season 5, Episode 5: Cangku Shisi

Claudia is understandably upset about Claire’s disappearance and has choice words for the security staff (well actually with Artie in a nice little passive aggressive dig from both of them at the staff)

Wait… the Warehouse has staff? Since when did it have staff? And if it did have staff how are they all not dead several times over given the number of times the main cast has JUST escaped?

Anyway, using Artefacts the find the man responsible – Benedict Valda. Alternate world Benedict Valda. Who I am going to try REALLY hard not to call Crowley.

Valda fits Claire with the Artefacts Paracelsus used to create his mind controlled Borg soldiers, allowing him to control her.

The gang meets and figures all this out, including Alternate Valda, and that he has been hanging around in the Dead Agent Vault. Myka wants to go see but Pete is all confused about the “you love Myka” thing from last week, doesn’t want to be alone with her (remember, Pete has the emotional maturity of a… actually, small children have more emotional maturity than this man) and drags Steve with him (complete with “I’ll take off my shirt” quip because Steve’s sexuality must be a constant source of jokes). Pete continues to desperately try to avoid Myka, babbling and generally needing a good slap upside the head. When he finally makes some sense he worries about Valda replicating Artefacts (his thing with Paracelsus) and creating a telekinetic army – while Myka realises his key to his safety deposit box is missing

In the Regent’s Vault – where Valda kills its Regent keeper. Myka, Peter and Artie arrive to find the body – and a trap that freezes Artie.

Valda, meanwhile, uses the record player that kept Claire asleep to take down a whole park of people – claiming it will cause seizures in 30 minutes (since he’s not using the other Artefact they used on Claire). He describes the destructive capability in a sales pitch to someone about how the Artefacts can be used as tools and weapons to expand their empire, whoever they are. So long as the Warehouse is in their hands. He gives the hidden employer’s driver a Mason Square Artefact to put in a specified location for them to begin.

Pete, Steve and Myka do the Artefact thing to rescue Artie and get an update on Valda’s activities. While Steve looks after Artie, Myka and Pete hurry to save the unconscious people – which is extra complicated because Valda uses multiple Artefacts in crafty, dangerous ways. And more Pete panic over his feelings for Myka.

While that’s happening, Artie figures out Valda’s plan – he’s going to steal the Warehouse using the 3 Artefacts used to move the Warehouse from country to country (hence there being 12 previous Warehouses in different countries, the Regents moving the Warehouse to the dominant nation/power of the day).

So Steve and Artie lock down one of the Artefacts kept in the Warehouse (which transforms the whole Warehouse to energy for transportation)… except it’s missing, Valda has already moved it in position. Which is in the Warehouse. Somewhere.

While Pete, Myka and Claudia go to the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston to find another of the Artefacts (always hidden where the host nation was formed); there they find a dead Regent. Downstairs they find Claire and Valda – and Claire telekinetically holds a giant wall over Claudia, ready to crush her. Claudia tries to reach her and Claire cries – but Valda controls her – and locks them in the vault where he secured the Artefact (he doesn’t kill them because of Plot Armour).

They find their way out through the secret passage in the vault (it was, after all, a place where revolutionaries met so an escape route make sense). Oh Valda, you should have killed them but for the rules of TV

Warehouse 13, Season 5, Episode 4: Savage Seduction

I love how these characters bounce off each other, Pete bothering Myka, Artie bouncing in with overdramatic panic (and sending Steve on a Ping with Claudia to distract her), hoogie envy… I’d actually like an episode where they do nothing all day but bounce off each other.

When Kelly arrives – remember Kelly? She had a brief fling with Pete before backing out because his Artefact heavy life was too chaotic. Well she’s in trouble and she’s heavily pregnant! Pete panics about the baby being his before Kelly reminds him that they actually broke up 2 years ago and human biology doesn’t work that way. Anyway, her grandmother’s television is possessed.

Oh, no Kelly, I know you think the TV is eating your brain, but it’s probably just the Tomorrow People, the plots will do that to your head.

Arriving at her grandma’s house, they learn granny is missing and it seems the TV is possessed, showing a Telenovela that has been cancelled – and still showing it even though it’s unplugged. Also, the TV’s glowing blue. Also, missing nana is now on the TV show. Kelly’s extra worried because the role her nana appears to be playing is likely to get murdered at the end of the episode. Purple goo doesn’t work – and they lose the cat into the television screen, where he appears on the show.

Which of course means convoluted things have to happen to drop Myka and Kelly into the TV as well, Myka becoming a maid and all becoming grossly exaggerated, melodramatic characters. Myka and Kelly hate each other and are in competition for Armando.

Artie arrives while Pete is completely lost in the plot (despite not speaking Spanish) and gives Artie a letter that Kelly’s nana received from the producers of the show. As a massive fan, they gave her a brooch used on the set – one that Nana on screen is wearing. Probably the Artefact – Artefacts are created with strong emotional connections and Kelly’s Nana refuses to leave the house after the death of her husband. Either way, to save everyone before the end of the episode they need to go in and goo the Artefact – with the help of Harvey Korman’s cufflinks to keep their real personalities.

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. Ok, Pete revels in the sudden ability to speak Spanish, before looking for Artie. Of course, Pete is the much desired Armando. And quickly finds Kelly – playing Carmen his pregnant wife – dramatically demanding his attention and threatening castration if he cheats on her.

Dona Fausta (Nana’s character) is attacked and her brooch is stolen. Pete wants to focus on the brooch but the whole theft/attack on Dona Fausta insists the whole thing is linked to a convoluted plot involving her long lost son. Pete follows that to Myka who is stuck in character as Maribel – she leads Pete to Artie but to learn what Artie knows he has to give up his cufflink to access his character’s knowledge. The three of them play pass the cufflink for a while. Before going to confront Alicia (Kelly), followed by a gun fight and more cufflink passing when Alicia and her mother run.

There’s a big confrontation in Dona Fausta’s room with more cufflink passing until Artie breaks the brooch – just before Armando (Pete) and Maribel (Myka) kiss.

In the real world Pete and Kelly make their goodbyes – with Kelly saying it could never have worked between them because Pete is so in love with Myka.

Warehouse 13: Season 5, Episode 3: A Faire to Remember

Ren Faire – with costumes and jugglers – and a very bad juggler who drops things. When an arsehole in the audience heckles him, a jester springs out of nowhere and causes the man to have a heart attack before vanishing again

I know hecklers can be unpleasant, but isn’t that a little harsh?

At the Warehouse B&B Peter is failing dramatically to cook and Artie tells everyone about the new case (in between loving the new updated Warehouse – with all his beloved Steampunk back in place) at a Ren Faire – Myka quickly steps out, just before Jinks – poor Jinks.

Of course Pete loves the very idea and the extremely enthusiastic Pete hurries off with the reluctant Jinks. He drags Jinks around, loving everything until they find costumes. Pete loves the idea and tries to get Jinks on board with another gay stereotype and Jinks (finally, after 2 seasons of this bullshit) tells Pete that he isn’t a cliché.

They go to see the “king” (and owner of the Faire) and everyone is still in character even after Jinks shows his badge. And Pete keeps playing along…. Whyyyy? Finally Jinks loses patience, someone is dead they’re not roleplaying. But the “king” doesn’t recognise the murdering vanishing jester in question because he was wearing a mask and there are 10 gazillion jesters in the Ren Faire.

Lots of questioning and lots of trying to goo random items. Nothing. And lots of frustration. They do learn of Oswald, the guy who made the dead man laugh. They finally find the man at the dunking game which Jinks is beyond ready to do. Oswald is a bit bitter to be the constant target of all the amusement (he’s the “doofer” his role is to be dunked on ducking stools, have pies thrown at him etc). He doesn’t seem to know anything about the guy’s death – but he does have one supporter, a woman with him called Katerina (who, to anyone genre savvy, is much more suspicious. Also because she’s an old Alphas actor and therefore wouldn’t be just a random extra). Questioning is interrupted by a runaway cart that Pete has to save a small girl from being crushed by. He saves her – but when they look at the scene, the cart has disappeared.

After the cart we have a random wizard blowing things up who is immune to teslas but disappears when Jinks jumps at him. Again, Oswald was present; again, Oswald claims no knowledge. But he does remember having his fortune told and telling the Fortune Teller he wanted to be a knight; she said he had to become a hero. He thinks he was cursed, Peter and Jinks think Artefact. When they question the fortune teller she scarpers  – and another random event with deadly human chess pieces has to be handled, letting her get away.

They do catch up with her and find out she’s Katerina’s grandmother – who blames Katerina for using Mother Shipton’s Cards. Katerina’s idea is to put Oswald in peril so he would then be brave and heroic. A plan so mind-bogglingly ridiculous that I think one of the Tomorrow People writers may have sneaked into the room. Anyway, even with the cards neutralised, Oswald still has to do something heroic or die trying – or so says Katerina’s grandmother.

So that means decking him in armour and fighting the next evil apparition on the tournament ground. Oswald reacts by running and screaming so Katerina decides to step forward and put herself at risk. Of course, this galvanises his courage (woman in peril inspires man to be RAWR trope thoroughly checked) and he defeats the apparition. Yay hero, yay dating Katrina, yay don't care.

Warehouse 13, Season 5, Episode 2: Secret Services

We’re following up on Claudia’s issue this week. Claudia’s sister, Claire, was presumed dead in a car crash, but she’s apparently alive and Artie k new about it and has been lying to Claudia. Claudia is not happy. Talking with Jinks and looking at the case it’s further clear that the car accident that was supposed to have killed her sister looks like an Artefact related badness.

She makes a big elaborate plan on how to hack in when Artie announces from the door “or I could show you”. Artie realises there’s absolutely no way he can stop Claudia researching so he’s going to help at least then he can watch her. And he’s not lying (Claudia knows, she checked with Jinks’s lie detector woo-woo).

So, Artie takes Claudia and Jinks to an Artefact they’ve used before that shows memories; not her memories, but Artie’s memories. It was a Warehouse case and, yes, Artie worked on it and she’s going to see what happened through his memories – which Claudia still finds second best to actually seeing her sister.

(Also ulterior motive is that if this is settled Artie gets to not be stared at by Jinks and his lie detector for the rest of his life. Though Jinks may do that for fun).

Back into the memories, into Claire’s school, where Claire is causing chaos by floating in a tornado and throwing dangerous black wind everywhere which she is using to break stuff and terrorise people.

As memory ghosts, they follow Artie around (looking at Claudia’s parents who died when Claire was supposed to have died).

Cut to going to Claudia’s old house and her parents trying to take Claire to see a doctor. Artie tries to take Claudia away so she doesn’t see what happens but Claudia insists – and Claire loses her temper, the black wind appears and she throws her parents’ car against a tree repeatedly. Her parents are inside and die in the crash. Claire faints.

Memory Artie and Mrs. Frederick watch. Memory Artie goes in the house to check on Claudia as a child and young Claudia identifies the music box (Frances Farmer’s Music box) as the cause of the problems which had been thrown in the fire. The fact Claudia recognised it as a child marked her as someone special to watch as Artie tells Mrs. Frederick.

But the music box was destroyed – there was no way to neutralise it so its power remained in Claire, ready to be unleashed whenever she was angry. They tried everything, sedatives, anti-psychotics, but it didn’t work; they ended up putting her in an Artefact induced coma. But Claudia now wants to know if it’s her fault – did she throw the music box into the fire?

They return to the Warehouse and Claudia walks away, unable to talk about what she saw yet. But later she decides she wants to use the Memory-Shoes on Claire’s memories. Artie doesn’t want this to happen because the Memory-Shoes aren’t safe, but Claudia rejects his mission to keep her safe all the time; and Jinks offers to go with Claudia in case Artie’s protective instincts are shutting down the visions.

Syfy Q&A: Saul Rubinek & Aaron Ashemore from Warehouse 13

We were invited to another Syfy Q&A with some excellent insight - this time an interview with Aaron Ashemore and Saul Rubinek from Warehouse 13. The full transcript is below - it's long but there are some real gems in there.

Operator:             Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Warehouse 13 Press Call.

Gary Morgenstein:    Welcome everyone to the Warehouse 13 Press Call. We’re delighted to have star Saul Rubinek and Aaron Ashmore talk about the Final Six Episodes of the popular series, which airs on Syfy on the Mondays at 9:00 pm ET.

                              Welcome Saul and Aaron.

Operator:             Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. And the first question comes from the line of Jamie Ruby from SciFivision.com. Please go ahead.

Jamie Ruby:         Hi guys. Great to talk to you again.

Aaron Ashmore:  Jamie Ruby. How are you?

Jamie Ruby:         So, good. So, can you both talk about ‘Savage Seduction?’ I know you both were in kind of different parts of the episode, but that was definitely my favorite of the season.

                              So can you talk about working on that?

Saul Rubinek:      I don’t which one? The title is meaningless to me. Which number?

Jamie Ruby:         Oh, sorry. The Tela Novella, the Spanish one.

Saul Rubinek       Oh, I know what you’re talking about. Yeah, we were two completely different episodes there in a way, ‘cause there - Aaron and I go by each other throughout the whole shoot of that. Go ahead Aaron, you go first then and do your thing.

Aaron Ashmore:  Well, yeah, I remember I was - it was a little bit daunting, because I was going to be playing two versions of Steve and two very different versions of Steve, so I - it was definitely challenging.

                              Originally, I think they were hoping to get my brother, so that he could be able to play both roles, but you know, him play one and me play the other, but just the timing and stuff didn’t work out.

                              So that didn’t happen. But again, it was a lot of fun. It was worth the exercise to me to explore the incredibly flamboyant gay side of Steve that we don’t really get to see, but obviously, it’s deep down there somewhere.

                              So it was a ton of fun and difficult at the same time to be switching back and forth between serious and flamboyant Steve with just a moment’s notice, to kind of flip back and forth.

                              So it was a challenge but we had a lot of fun and I’ve actually - I have not actually seen that episode, but I’m looking forward to it, because I’d really like to see what - how everything turned out and the effects of me being on the screen at the same time.

                              But I’m also very curious to see how the Telenovela went, because if it’s a read through, everybody was just absolutely rolling, it was so funny. So I can’t imagine when everybody’s in costume and that to see how that turned out as well.

                              So yeah, that’s the one episode that I’m really, really looking forward to as well.

Saul Rubinek       I also imagine that on your side of the episode, that Allison had a lot of trouble of keeping a straight face at any particular moment with you.

Aaron Ashmore:  I think it was actually Allison’s - that was like Allison’s dream to have you be super, super gay and flamboyant, I think she enjoyed it probably more than anybody for sure.

Saul Rubinek       Yeah, I have a feeling she cracked up on the whole thing. We had a great time. I haven’t seen it either. I mean, I saw a little bit when I was looping it and I know that we laughed probably harder doing the Telenovela than anything during the whole five seasons than we’d ever done.

                              And learning the Spanish phonetically - we had a Spanish coach, ‘cause I’m not - I’m pretty fluent in French, but and I have a pretty good ear, but you know, Spanish is not one of the languages I was speaking, but by in German too, but Spanish not so much.

                              And although I have played a producer of a Telenovela on a very funny Psych episode about - oh probably about five years ago and that was really a lot of fun.

                              And so I had that kind of melody in my ear and you know, I was playing, El Colonel and going back and forth between Artie and El Colonel and we came up with - as you’ve seen it, so we came up with kind a hilarious look for everybody for basically - it was just - you know what it was, it was Jack was there with us at every step of the way.

                              We have had the Spanish coach. We’d gotten through it, you know, we you know, we had to do takes, ‘cause we had to get through the Spanish in one go.

                              And also, Kelly was there. Who was there? Paula Garces was there, so she speaks Spanish and is fluent in Spanish so she helped us a lot. And Cindy Braga, right was there, so she was - she helped and we had a great cast and all I can say, is that I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard, and you know, ever shooting anything.

                              And you know, it’s hard to tell when you’re laughing so hard. Sometimes, you know, the crew and you are laughing so hard and then the show comes out, and you go, “Yeah, it wasn’t that funny. It was funny as we were shooting it”, so I’m hoping that the laughter translates. I’m glad to hear you liked it.

Warehouse 13: Season 5, Episode 1: Endless Terror

Previously, on Warehouse 13, Myka had cancer, Pete was silly, Mrs. Frederick is no longer Caretaker and Paracelsus, super powerful super guy who is also evil (but he’s played by Anthony Head so we’re all kinda on his side because, Anthony Head you magnificent bastard, you) now is. Claudia, future caretake and now real Caretaker throws down for control of the Warehouse. Oh, and Claudia’s sister is alive which is somehow relevant.

Claudia and Paracelsus face off. “You are the Next”. “You are the Past”. Which is epic and awesome and we may have to end the season right here because those lines will not be beaten. They both throw awesome powers at each other, the Warehouse protecting Claudia and giving her super powers.

Problem. Claudia is part of the Warehouse so he cannot kill her. But if she’s part of the Warehouse, he can control her – and does so like a little puppet. He uses an Artefact to steal all of Claudia’s knowledge before using her to help put together a diabolical scheme involving several Artefacts.

At the hospital, a worried Pete catches up with a newly released Myka who is relieved because her cyst was benign –not realising her cancer has been cured by Pete making a naughty deal with Paracelsus. Which he doesn’t tell her when he explains the whole losing the Warehouse and creating an evil god thing.

Mrs. Frederick has zoomed off somewhere to find the Regents (who are conveniently far away to stop her being around and being awesome all over everything) while Artie and Jinks try to break through the shield on the Warehouse ineffectually but in a highly amusing, random and very Artie fashion (poor Jinks). Artie does have an idea on how to bring Paracelsus down – the arrow that killed Achilles.

Myka arrives and scolds everyone for not reading the manuals, the updated guides and the footnotes like she does (Artie’s excuse “I have a huge backlog after I turned evil and tried to poison  the world.” Jinks and Pete admit he has the absolute best excuse). Having activated the fail safe (that was in the manual) the gang can just walk through.

Inside the Warehouse they split up with Artie and Myka working to disconnect Paracelsus from the Warehouse (Jinks warns Myka about Artie’s habit of using people as guinea pigs for his dangerous experiments. Poor Jinks) while Jinks and Pete are on distraction duty (I say again, poor Jinks).

Pete causes a little chaos which he is very very very good at – so Paracelsus sends Claudia with a bazooka (and lots of apologies. But mainly a bazooka. Because Paracelsus is a magnificent bastard). It’s several kinds of awesome

Myka and Artie follow his plan to use mirrors to fix the mystical woo-woo basement so it can be super awesomely decorated with glowing runes again. (“It is not an exact science.” “I know, I miss exact science”). Their plan works (power of Artie grumpiness!) and the room looks awesome again.

Paracelsus is depowered and Claudia is free from the murderous rampage. Despite having lost, Paracelsus seems quite happy, especially since the episode has barely started yet so there’s way more to come.

Comic-Con Highlights: Warehouse 13

Some more vids from Comic-Con panels - this time Warehouse 13. Back with us soon, I hope

Warehouse 13, Season 4, episode 20: Truth Hurts

We start with some more bad news – Kasan has told Artie that if they kill Paracelsus the shock of it could kill Mrs. Frederick, since they’re both fighting over caretakership. He needs to be captured and bronzed. In the meantime, Mrs. Frederick is fading.

The Warehouse’s shiny fireworks brain room is being extinguished. Mrs. Frederick is becoming more and more confused but won’t leave her Warehouse – and both she and Arthur insist that Abigail, as Keeper, needs to run and hide because her knowledge is too valuable.

Myka makes an appointment with her oncologist with Pete hovering around being adorably worried and oddly mature. But when they get a ping of Paracelsus exposing hospital patients in San Francisco to golden light, Pete tries to leave Myka behind for her hospital appointment later in the week – she nixes that plan (they’re going to a hospital after all).

In San Francisco they find Parascelsus concentrated on terminal patients and Pete pictures Myka among them. And, surprise twist, these terminal patients Paracelsus is working his mojo on are getting better. Naturally Pete seizes on this but Myka wisely says they don’t know what Paracelsus is planning. One of his cured patients tells them Paracelsus said she was helping people and it’d all become clear once he reached the place where “the air had yielded to stone”. Yay cryptic! Damn those metaphors.

Myka raises the question of why several hospitals in California – why not stay in Istanbul? And Pete is still worried about Myka and is convolutedly avoiding saying the word “cancer”. And they find he’s still in the building – in the creepy unlit morgue. Of course he is. They rush in guns pointed and Paracelsus’s disembodied voice tells them to leave him alone – all he’s doing is healing people. Myka lists the many many many many people he has killed which he puts down as “sacrifice” for progress. And he’s quite willing to sacrifice them if he has to (and he’s using an Artefact to throw his voice).

And Artie has another desperate plan to help Mrs. Frederick – the ribbon that disconnects caretakers from the Warehouse. They can send its power through the Farnsworth and hopefully disconnect Paracelsus. And yes it’s experimental and yes Claudia needs to stop doubting

Sutton and Nick also have an angsty moment over Charlotte’s death, Nick not best pleased that Sutton deciding that Paracelsus being a mass murderer wasn’t information he needed to share. Claudia needs Nick to be helpful and not a sullen teenager, calls him out for being a spoilt brat who is not acting his centuries. Duly corrected he tells her that the lab they were kept in when Paracelsus gave them immortality was lined with petrified wood - oxygen is cut off and the wood becomes stone. Air yielding to stone. But he needs a special kind of petrified wood – which no longer exists in Istanbul but some has been shipped to line a building in San Francisco.

All of this with Claudia, Artie, Pete and Myka being their awesome selves with their awesome interactions; Artie also fills them in on their plan to use several Artefacts to disconnect Paracelsus from the Warehouse remotely.

They track him to the building, prepare to take him down – but Sutton is there, with a gun, determined to kill Paracelsus for Charlotte. And Paracelsus has an Artefact that deflects Tesla shots – which results in Myka, Pete and Sutton all getting tesla-ed. While they recover, Paracelsus uses his immortality recipe on himself – and Mrs. Frederick collapses in the Warehouse. All of the patients Paracelsus healed now die, the deaths needed to fuel his immortality. Pete shoots Paracelsus with a normal gun – which, of course, does nothing to the immortal.

Warehouse 13 Sneak Peak

Warehouse 13 Sneak peak of next episode, the season finale!

Syfy Q&A: Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly and Jack Kenny from Warehouse 13

We were lucky enough to have been invited to a press call interview with Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, and Jack Kenny, to discuss Warehouse 13. Syfy has sent us a full transcript of the conversation - it's long but there are some gems in there

Operator:               Our first question comes from the line of Erin Willard from scifimafia.com. Please go ahead.

Erin Willard:         Congratulations on a terrific season and season finale because I just finished watching it and wow you were both so spectacular you made me cry.

Eddie McClintock:     Oh, sorry.

Erin Willard:         Yes, I hate crying but...

Eddie McClintock:     Apparently a bunch of other people watched it too. I found out on my Twitter that it leaked on a Torrent site somehow.

Erin Willard:         Oh no, really, oh too bad, but it was so good. I hope that everybody watches it on Monday. I'm so excited for everybody to see it. I'm sure you are too. But what can you tell us about what we have to look forward to in the season that you're filming now?

Eddie McClintock:     Joanne gets naked.

Erin Willard:         Awesome.

Eddie McClintock:     More than once.

Joanne Kelly:        The whole time actually.

Eddie McClintock:     She plays the whole thing naked.

Eddie McClintock:     With pasties though.

Erin Willard:         Oh, okay.

Eddie McClintock:     Green pasties.

Joanne Kelly:        Green pasties.

Eddie McClintock:     That look like jalapenos.

Erin Willard:         Okay, it's going up on the site tomorrow. I can't wait.

Joanne Kelly:        And there are a couple of really cool things that are in store. We have, I think two standalone episodes that are very artifact laden. Eddie's really looking forward to them.

Eddie McClintock:     Very much so.

Joanne Kelly:        Yes, we're just wrapping up - wrapping up our epic world that is Warehouse 13.

Eddie McClintock:     And I know I'm not supposed to say any spoilers but I can say this, they all die at the end.

Erin Willard:         Yes, right. Thanks for that. Can you just tell me really quickly if the resolution to all of the cliffhangers that we're left with at the finale is going to take place in the first episode or if it's going to take the whole last season?

Eddie McClintock:     Oh, yes, in the first ten minutes you'll all go, okay, let's go walk under the dome.

Joanne Kelly:        Well actually an after-school special about teenage pregnancy.

Eddie McClintock:     What, under the dome?

Warehouse 13, Season 4. Episode 19: All the Time in the World.

Flashback to before the Claudia bronzing and Nick tries to convince Paracelsus – his uncle – that Claudia isn’t a threat and the warehouse in 2013 is very different from his day. He uses an Artefact to transfer white ghosty stuff from him to Paracelsus, bringing him up to date on the last few centuries.

This is all being seen by Myka and Pete using the recapper and Myka is frustrated because there’s no record as to why Paracelsus was bronzed in the first place. Myka also sees that a number of other Artefacts have been removed. Artie tries to fix the Bronzer to de-bronze Claudia and using the recapper shows Paracelsus hitting Nick – but they can’t read his lips still and the recapper is silent. Worse, the bronzer doesn’t work because the Artefact that makes it work – a bronze Mesopotamian Stele, is missing. A message appears from Paracelsus: Sutton knows what I want.

To the B&B where Charlotte has been chained up with an Artefact to prevent her leaving (and Abigail is unimpressed by her whining). Charlotte keeps protesting that leaving and bronzing Claudia wasn’t part of the plan and Myka mentions Nick may have been forced to – after all Paracelsus did hit him. That wasn’t part of Charlotte’s plan either. Artie is unimpressed with Charlotte’s complete underestimating of Paracelsus.

Charlotte explains their history – Paracelsus was Sutton’s brother. He pushed the boundaries of science and alchemy, often using Artefacts in his work; and drugging his dear brother so he could use Sutton, Charlotte and Nick as guinea pigs for his research. He combined the philosophers stone with another Artefact (a copper bowl with the Egyptian symbol for life on it) to make the family immortal. Artie is not impressed with this extremely dangerous combining of Artefacts to experiment with. After which Warehouse 9 agents bronzed Paracelsus. Charlotte describes, again, how lonely and terrible it is for Nick as a perpetual 15 year old. To reverse it they need the same Artefacts and Paracelsus himself (Charlotte expected him to be grateful and weak after being debronzed. You’d think an immortal would be a better judge of character) - but all Charlotte knows is that his old lab was buried under Constantinople somewhere – now Istanbul. But not where. Their only lead is finding Sutton.

While Artie searches, Pete asks Myka when she starts her cancer treatments; she ducks the question and basically says it’s her business how she handles her own body, not his. They’re interrupted by Artie having found Sutton – he is posing as a Russian businessman called Vladimir Kamanev and is, as is his wont, cosying up to a rich duchess in Luxembourg. Time for Myka, Pete and Charlotte (since she knows her husband and his tricks) to go find him.

Steve has some bad news for Artie though – Claudia’s starting to crumble. The bronzer machine stabilises the Stele and keeps the people bronzed alive. But Paracelsus used the Stele without the bronzer – she will crumble. Time for Steve and Artie to both fight to read the same computer on bronze – and Mrs. Frederick appears. She knows something’s up. Artie doesn’t even try to lie to her and shows her Claudia. She’s surprised to learn Warehouse 9 didn’t leave any records as to why they bronzed Paracelsus  - to the restricted files!

Which is the first time Artie learns there ARE restricted files. She cuts short his rant to go check them and walks away. Steve grabs Artie and points that out – Mrs. Frederick walked away, not disappeared, she walked. Something’s up!

She walks to Artie’s office where she gets to use some of her tricks to surprise even grumpy, jaded Artie with some endless wonder – revealing the hidden files (though she doesn’t let Artie in – restricted after all!)  But inside she finds that the files have been redacted by the regents of Warehouse 9. Poor Artie feels upset about being excluded from the restricted section – poor Artie, he looks all harrumphy. But Mrs. Frederick acts confused and repeats herself; something else is going on with her.

Warehouse 13, Season 4, Episode 18: Lost and Found

It’s 1:00am and Myka is browsing through websites about ovarian cancer, when she hastily hides them when Pete joins her. She starts being nostalgic and Pete realises something’s wrong. She considers telling him – and has a series of flashes of how she thinks he’ll react (some of them ludicrous) and decides not to tell him. Alas, Pete being up early also stops Claudia and Nick (remember Nick?) from stealing Pete’s 3:00am sandwich (I’m vaguely disturbed that Pete has a 3:00am sandwich and that everyone knows about it).

And then Artie comes in – this is a house full of nightowls – with a ping. He acts quickly – getting rid of Nick, getting Claudia to find a place to put Nick that isn’t the super-secret Warehouse that is supposed to be a secret and hidden and all (she steal’s Pete’s sandwich, all is good) and then gets really really excited about the super-duper ping. The Treasure of Roaring Dan Seavy. A pirate. Oh dear, a pirate? There is no way Pete is going to let that pass.

Apparently this pirate stole shinies from Warehouse 12 (Victorian London – wait, pirates? In Victorian London?) and Artie intends to get them back. During the transfer of Artefacts from Warehouse 12 to 13 a cargo ship full of Artefacts was raided by pirates off the Atlantic coasts – we get a nice view of… hmm, 16^th century wooden ships fighting? Anyway, apparently a crate of Artefacts was stolen and agent David Walker was killed.

Artie has a lead – half of a puzzle box built by Roaring Dan (Artie stole it from the Smithsonian). And they have 5 hours to meet up with Artie’s black market dealer in Buffalo to buy the second half

In a café in Buffalo they find Fisher, Artie’s contact. Who turns out to be a front for Charlotte Duprix who has the other half of the puzzle box. She also reminds them of breaking into her home, stealing from her and shooting her in case there’s any doubt about her illwill. After much haggling she says she’s willing to combine their puzzle boxes and split the loot 50/50; Artie looks ready to agree before Pete and Myka bring some sanity. But Artie has some more sense than just desperation – Charlotte must have dragged them to Buffalo for a reason, the stash must be nearby. They can’t risk Charlotte finding the stash without them.

So, after a brief snarking of Artie aimed perfectly at recapping, Myka and Pete have another moment where Myka considers telling Pete the truth but can’t bring herself to. They activate the puzzle box and it shows them a series of numbers – longitude and latitude. Then seals itself. Charlotte briefly panics that she can’t get the numbers again but, of course, Myka’s super-memory kicks in. They go to the location –it’s a grave yard. They split up and find the grave of Roaring Dan’s first mate and it’s made of an odd substance – time for Rodin’s hammer and chisel to reveal shapes within it (and Pete wonderfully lampshades how Artie’s bag always has exactly what they need).  They see a meter, the letters NFPC – which is when Artie discusses loosing Charlotte and her minion, Lars – and they get tased. Yes, Charlotte was expecting a double cross. Or was ready to double cross. Possibly both.

The gang wake with Charlotte gone – but know where she’s going: Niagara Falls Power Company. To the falls; built in 1897 when Roaring Dan was active, Artie suspects the stash would be buried around there (and Pete suffers as the genius Myka gets all her superhero knowledge wrong). They find the key to the hidden cave – but it looks like Charlotte may be there first. And Pete’s inevitably pirate voice appears. Of course

Inside the cave they find Lars’s body, his neck snapped. Guess Charlotte has no more use for him. Going further in they find a room that looks like a replica of one from Roaring Dan’s ship – and it looks undisturbed. Inside they find a very very old body – a skeleton; Roaring Dan himself. Such a blatant display of mortality bothers Myka and she goes outside to watch the hall.

Where she finds Charlotte. A brief fight later and Myka easily pins her. She claims she didn’t kill he bodyguard – they were attacked, they’re not the only ones down there.

Which is when Artie and Pete are attacked by a shadowy cloud of pretty decent CGI. A shadowy cloud that can lift Artie and is seemingly immune to tesla fire. Only Artie accidentally hitting a bell – causing it to ring, makes the shadow back off. Pete assumes noise is what drives it off and starts banging things, I think it may have more to do with the odd way the bell resonates. The shadow flees under a rug – a very very obvious location for a secret passage. Which is when Myka calls with the warning – a little late

All in the room, Charlotte confirms the dagger Lars had was treasure he picked up not a weapon to fend her off. Artie puts that together with him moving coins off a chest to the shadowy creature being there to protect the loot. Charlotte Duprix finds this very stranger. The Warehouse team rate it, maybe a 6 out of 10 for strangeness. They’ve seen stranger. And in an excruciatingly slow mental process, they find the hidden doorway under the rug. Even without the shadow lurking around, isn’t under the rug the first place you look for a secret trap door? That’s up there with checking behind paintings for safes!

In the secret lair they find treasure and the missing Warehouse 12 Artefacts. But they need to find the smoke monster Artefact before touching anything so they can goo it. Charlotte, meanwhile, finds half an amethyst geode which she pockets – then texts Nick to say she’s only found half. Artie notices and confronts her. In the argument she grabs a golden goblet – and Smokey appears. Alas, the gang listens to Pete and just stand there making noise which achieves nothing – and Smokey snaps Charlotte’s neck. So much for immortality. And Myka snaps at Pete for his joke – her mortality issues raising again. Artie realises the bell is the thing that distracted Smokey and Myka, from examining Smokey’s skeletal fingers, realises it’s the spirit of Roaring Dan.

Looking through the crates they find the amulet of Alistair Crowley, that is related to Astral Projection. And Myka remembers it in the skeleton’s hand upstairs. They go, prepared with the goo bag and the bell – but the minute they touch the amulet, Smokey appears, pinning all 3 of them and strangling Artie and Pete. Myka can’t reach the amulet – but Charlotte appears and asks how to stop it, Myka tells her and the amulet is gooed.

Ok, I take it back – apparently that immortality thing is pretty damn good.

Meanwhile Claudia sees Jinks in a “snit” because Nick is bothering him – everything Nick says is pinging Jink’s lie detector sense and/or is evasive. Claudia puts it down to him being a naturally suspicious street kid, like she was, and dismisses it all, identifying too much with Nick to listen to Jinks’ words of caution. This conversation is overheard by Nefarious Nick who goes outside to collect an untraceable phone and a gun from Charlotte Duprix – his mother.

He tries to patch up with Jinks – by tearfully confessing to Jinks that yes he is a liar because he’s not used to being able to trust people because of living on the street and being preyed upon. It ends with awkward hugging. But apparently Jinks has mountains of paperwork to do

Despite awkward hugging, Nick then goes to Claudia and tells her how mean Jinks is and how he’ll never trust Nick. At this point Claudia, you should be asking why the person with the INFALLIBLE LIE DETECTOR doesn’t trust someone and realise how silly this whole thing is.

Warehouse 13, Season 4, Episode 17: What Matters Most

In Marlin, Ohio, Terry Chambers, a district attorney is collecting his post when he suddenly seizes up in incredible pain, gasps that he’s burning up while the veins on his face stand out bright red. Then he collapses – and dies.

And at the Guesthouse, Artie tells this to Myka, complete with him not having eaten anything or have any injection sites. Cause of death? Muscle paralysis, heart attack and his lungs collapsed. Overkill much? Pete is absent because of his yearly physical so Myka’s off to catch the flight on her own

Abigail has cooked something delicious and Jinks and Artie follow their noses; Abigail has gone out and bought scones. And she’s not above bribing people into doing the dishes to share those scones. Which is when Claudia arrives and Artie makes a move on the scones by revealing a ping – a teenager went into a fugue state and started grafitting advanced maths. And Claudia realises she has become jaded. She is happy to go though because the alternative is flushing out the neutraliser. Apparently unpleasant

Which makes Steve offering to stay seem awfully suspicious. So it’s Claudia and Artie into the field.

Pete and Myka arrive in Ohio – and Pete is using hand-grippers while driving (with Pete worried about his grip strength, of course Myka has to make a joke of that). They enter a gated community (with the gate guard fawning over the secret service) and enter an ultra-creepy neighbourhood that looks like, as Pete puts it, a 50s TV show. Complete with officious man, Colonel Castle, in a golf buggy demanding they move their car – and not at all impressed with their badges.

This makes Pete blow up rather excessively – even if his “gated communities, for when you miss boot camp” is a good line. Myka wants to know what’s up; after his physical that morning the doctor said his testosterone levels were low. The doctor said it was fine, but he googled it and, of course, the internet predicted lots of doom – including… erectile dysfunction.

Random passing woman adds to the freaky 50s feel of the place and adds some gossip: apparently the dead DA forgot to park his car in his garage and someone broke his windshield. I think it speaks volumes for how well and truly bored out of their skull someone is that this counts as juicy gossip.

Time to talk to Roger (who insists on shortening his name. But then, if you’re called Roger you can’t be blamed for doing everything you can to avoid such a cruel fate), the DA’s stepson. Who is kind of creepily enthusiastic about, well, everything. He knows little about the broken window or any threats against the DA (who probably made some enemies since he earned the nickname “DA gaschamber”). And on that note – they get the forensics report – the chemicals in DA Henry’s blood are used in lethal injections. That’s a lead for Myka to follow up

Pete’s lead is the ambulance that just arrived, sirens screaming. Flashing his badge and tagging along, they enter a house to find a man and a woman stuck together – the flesh of their bare torsos melded together. Spencer is the son of the people who own the house (they’re on holiday) and they were working, just working, honest. And don’t pay attention to the lube being kicked under the sofa. The only connection they have with the DA is that the woman’s recently fired husband, Gerry LaBelle used to work for him. Looks like Gerry has revenge motive against all 3 victims.

Time to see Gerry; they find him in his garage and ask him about DA Henry Chambers. And Gerry responds by taking a swing at Pete. Which goes poorly for him. Taking this as a very big sign of guilt they ask him how he poisoned the DA – which confuses him since all he did was smash his windshield. Oh and he’s properly shocked that his wife is cheating on him; he didn’t know. Too early in the show for such an obvious suspect

Then the security guard spontaneously catches fire. With green fire no less. Pete smothers it with a blanket. And then he catches fire again – Myka moves in with a fire extinguisher. The guy doesn’t look healthy.

Cut to loading the man in an ambulance – he’s alive, for now. And they need to speak to someone who knows everything about the gated community in the hope of finding a new lead – time to interview creepy gossipy lady, Janice. Pete steals cookies while Myka asks about the security guard, Rex – who was apparently a loner with little contact with the other victims – but his house did burn down (yes with fire), 3 months ago.

Pete and Myka go to where Rex is staying to try and find some connection with the other victims but on entering Pete notices that all of Rex’s expensive electronics had been miraculously saved from his house fire. Looking at an arson report, it seems that boric acid was found in Rex’s power outlets – which burns green. Just like the flames that burned Rex. They hit on the blatantly obvious cause and effect artefact. The execution-happy DA who may have been unethical dies from lethal injection. The adulterers are melded together. The arsonist burns. So they need someone who is particularly obsessive about rules and morality – and come up with Colonel Castle who yelled at them for how they parked their car.

To his house where Myka picks the lock when the colonel doesn’t answer. Inside they find a room with orange smoke billowing out from under it – inside the colonel is choking on the floor. They call 911 and drag him outside, him still coughing up orange smoke. As the colonel chokes he says “someone knows” and tells them how in Kuwait he and his men were outnumbered in a village and they responded by gassing the whole town, killing them all in their sleep.

Calling on Abigail and Jinks for research, they’ve dug up sin related objects. All they found were suspected artefacts from Sodom and Gomorrah, objects that were crusted in salt (from the salt dunes around the city that made it so wealthy). The only connection they find between the victims is that all of them, except Rex, are on the board of the gated community. That leaves Myka to read through the minutes of the council meetings while Pete goes and checks the last unaffected board member.

He breaks down the door to the house – for extra testosterone insecurity – and Myka calls with a reason from the minutes. Janice (the creepy gossipy woman) has had her proposal for a bust of her late husband, the founder of the gated community, rejected for the 3^rd time – with Rex speaking against it. And Myka has a flashback to all the locations they’ve been – where there were chocolate cookies in each one (this is a moment when watching the show you kick yourself for not noticing that!) Janice’s cookies that contain salt – the Artefact from Sodom wasn’t covered in salt, it was the salt. And Pete ate the cookies

Warehouse 13, Season 4, Episode 16: Runaway

We start at Arkansas state prison. Something starts falling from the sky – like snow or ash. And one wall begins to melt into a lava flow. The police rush to try and get all of the prisoners out of the yard away from the lava and the growing hole in wall, but a second’s curiosity is all the inmates give it before turning and running like hell away from the spreading pool of lethal lava.

Myka and Jinks arrive to examine the hole, talking to Artie by Farnsworth to ask if there are any Artefacts that can manipulate lava. Artie says plenty – that’s why he hates volcanoes, they always cause so much emotion that they’re bound to produce Artefacts. (Pete thinks it’s a lava monster. Or wants it to be a lava monster, they’re not sure). At the Warehouse the shelves are still a bit shaky after the quakes from last week – and Artie wants to throw Claudia a birthday party. Myka doesn’t think Artie arranging a 21 year old’s surprise birthday party is the best idea ever (I think it’s awesome considering what Artie can do with Artefacts). While collecting a Black light, Artie also gets pummelled repeatedly by a small blue rubber ball that bounces off his head and a clock opposite. Artie catches it, puts it back and walks off to party plan

The clock frowns after him. That’s not good. Moody timepieces are not good.

Pete shows up at the prison and tells Myka a US Marshall has arrived (Pete has fun with that one, of course, with a TV quote) which the Marshall hears and joins in on – Liam Napier. Turns out all the inmates are accounted for. But then Liam spots Jinks and recognises him, calling him “Jersey”. He approaches with arms moving for a hug – but Jinks shakes his hand and calls him Marshall. Jink promptly tries to get rid of Liam as fast as he can. But Pete points out there could still be prisoners missing from the main building – the lava flow may have just been a distraction. Liam runs to do a full headcount, doing another TV quote which means he’s won Pete over. Oh he’s a simple man of simple tastes.

Inside the prison they find another melted hole – and 2 convicts have escaped: Barton and Davis. And the hole was opened from the outside. Switch to them meeting up with a blonde woman, getting in her truck and carefully stashing an ancient looking jug – which Davis is sure they can use to burn into a bank vault.

Pete, Myka and Jinks get the full information from Liam – the Davis was part of a gang called the Turks (an armed robber) as was Barton before leaving them. Davis’s old accomplice, Griff, is still in the prison. It seems odd to Myka that Davis would escape with Barton an not Griff and Liam goes to collect Griff. With him gone, Myka adds that someone should keep an eye on Liam – Jinks hurriedly nominates Pete. Even Pete notices Jinks acting funny – he tries to deny it in vast fumbling. And Myka makes the huge leap that Liam is Jink’s ex.

A huge leap – but an accurate one. Convoluted story leaping for 10! Jinks admits it but really doesn’t want to be stuck on an assignment with a guy who dumped him. Myka offers to hate him – because they can all totally hate him if necessary. Jinks nixes the hating and insists that he really really really doesn’t want to talk about it. Myka agrees while Pete says Liam is hunky and looks like him which makes Pete Jenk’s type. Yes, Jenks, it can most certainly get worse.

Myka shadows Liam but, of course, when he asks about Jinks she has to talk and try to say how amazing Jinks is, how terrible Liam was for dumping him and how awesome Jinks is without him. which all falls apart very quickly because Jink’s doesn’t match the picture Myka tries to pain and Liam sees right through it.

Myka and Liam interrogate Griff and between him letting himself get riled awfully easy and Myka making vast leaps of logic, as she tends to, they realise that Barton is buying his way back in the gang with stashed stolen loot he has; and that Davis dropped Griff in favour of Barton’s money. They suggest asking the other Turks in the prison what they think – and telling Griff how very helpful he’s been.

Pete and Jinks walk through the prison with Pete stubbornly talking about Liam and Jinks tells him that even though Liam was the one, they broke up because Liam kept lying – and Jinks is an infallible lie detector. In Davis’s cell they find a loveletter from his girlfriend, Anna. Pete finds a dreadfully awful love poem – which Jinks realises are instructions about the prison break from Anna to Davis.

Following up on what Griff told them, Myka and Liam go into the woods where the money was stashed. They can tell they’re on the right track when the see volcanic ash falling from the skies – and more than just ash, there are patches of lava on the floor, still smouldering. They find the stash of money – for some reason Davis et al left it behind. They also find a mobile phone – and a truck! With Anne trapped inside, the doors welded shut with lava. Next to the truck in a solidifying pile of lava (pumice?) is Davis’s body.

Liam, not being a fool, realises there’s something major going on. By, y’know, the lava. Myka uses a call to distract him while Farnsworthing Jinks and Pete about the deaths –and Barton being interested in something other than money and being willing to use the Artefact to kill

Talking to Anna, they learn that Davis tried to kill Barton once they had the money and Barton killed Davis with the jug – which is from her grandmother, from Italy. She leads them to where Barton’s going next – a diner the Turks hang out at. When they arrive it has only dead Turks and lots of lava which is going to be a real pain to clear up. Pete questions the wait staff and they learn Barton’s hunting down someone called Chris and, again, he was attacked first.

After all the secrecy, Liam finally demands to talk to Jinks – he demands to know what’s going on so he can do his job. But Jinks tells him everything would be easier for both of them if Liam wasn’t there. Ouch. Liam says speaks for himself and walks off – working with his people who share information who have directed him to a safehouse. Myka tells Jinks to go after him – personal stuff aside, he can’t track down Barton without them and he could end up being killed by the Artefact.

Myka and Pete finally track down who Chris is – or Christina rather. Switch to her answering the door to Barton. She doesn’t look happy about it.