Lower Decks

This was a much better episode than the previous installment (“Elements”) and although the ending was hardly a surprise it was an enjoyable hour. Things start off with an explosion in a police station that uncovers a mysterious burnt corpse hiding in a wall. Pete and Myka soon realize that the corpse was a Warehouse agent. How interesting…

Unfortunately, Artie has no idea who the dead agent is. And he can’t easily check the Warehouse’s records. But thanks to Claudia and her MacGyvered holographic projector, photographs of the corpse are recreated in three dimensions. When some other burnt corpses show up, photographs of them are sent back to the Warehouse as well. A dangerous artifact is on the lose and its up to Pete and Myka to track it down. With the help of the dead Warehouse agent’s former girlfriend, Rebbecca, they do just that.

The artifact in question is an ancient weapon that attaches itself to someone’s spine and rather quickly burning them out. It jumps on Pete and he knocks out Myka. She eventually finds him back at the police station where he hopes to destroy the artifact to keep it from latching on to another victim. But he’ll be killed in the progress. Artie and Claudia theorize that a sufficient amount of energy might overwhelm the artifact without killing Pete. Myka can’t bring herself to turn on the juice but Rebecca can.

Pete survives. Surprise, surprise. And Rebecca gets closure. But she also warns Myka to leave the Warehouse before it swallows her whole. Very ominous. The revelation that the former girlfriend was also a Warehouse agent wasn’t a surprise to me. But it worked nicely. Claudia and her wacky inventions weren’t necessary — Artie could have found another way to figure things out — but at least she got off a few amusing insults about Artie’s clothing. I’m still not sold on Claudia as a character, though.