Warehouse 13: "A New Hope" Review

***The review below contains spoilers.***

Reviewed: 2012-07-24

By Tyler Olson

The Templars of Time

The Warehouse is in ruins, many of their friends are dead, and worse yet, Pandora's Box, the last bastion of hope, has been destroyed. If the writers wanted to start this season with a very gloomy episode, they did a fantastic job.

What they needed was some magical artifact to save the day, and it just happened that Artie was holding the key. We all knew what needed to happen, and Myka and Pete weren't shy about announcing it, they needed to go back in time. So all they needed to do was to press a button on the stopwatch and all is done, right?

This series has never made anything easy, and when it is, it normally has nasty side-effects later on. This week, Warehouse 13 had our quartet running across Europe to find a time-travelling Astrolabe, and fighting off the descendants of the Templars the entire way.

The action was intense, the humour was its normal cheesiness, and the characters felt more mature than normal. The constant self-sacrifice shown was almost too overwhelming. What started with last season's finale, continued in earnest. Everyone may not remember how far everyone was willing to go, but it will make a big difference in at least one person.

Disappointingly, Brent Spiner's introduction as Brother Adrian wasn't as exciting as I expected. This actor is a lot more talented than his role so far, which was mainly just a few lines in a threatening tone, so I hope that the coming episodes will flesh out this character a bit more.

There is one thing that has been nagging me about this entire episode though; if there is no hope left in the world, how were our four heroes able to pull through and save the day? They should have all been completely depressed or violent like the rest of the world. They said they weren't running off hope, but it sure looked that way to me. Although, as flaws in TV go, this one was very minor.

Even though I hoped to see a new and improved (and much more advanced looking) Warehouse 14, it was obvious that we still have more time to spend with number 13 this season. The price they paid for bringing this one back may have been a bit too steep.

We haven't been told exactly what this great threat will be, but there were a few clues. We know that Claudia is very upset about poor Steve, but will she be the monster at the end of this book. Perhaps Brother Adrian will show his true colours instead. Then there was also a very angry Mrs. Frederic, who may not have been brought back as she was. I could also be everything, or something else all together; we will have to wait to find out.

The final moments of the episode did a great job a wrapping up many of the loose ends, and even giving last season's villain a well needed peaceful send-off. Even H.G. Wells is back into the action and ready to join the team again, too. (Although I hoped for a spin-off for her, but that could still arrive eventually.)

This was a great start for this season, which has a lot of potential of being much more serious, and yet more exciting, than the last. With a full 20 episode season ahead of us, let us hope they can keep this up.

Reviewer's Rating: 4.5/5

