I will say that with every passing episode I grow more and more certain that adding the character of Claudia to the series was a mistake. She spent the bulk of this episode stuck to a giant girder in the warehouse after putting on a jacket that magnetized. At first, it was pretty cool and let her climb to the ceiling and change a light bulb. But then it started attracting loose pieces of metal. Artie was eventually able to free her but it was touch and go for a while.

Pete and Myka, meanwhile, are sent to investigate a string of suicides at a prison. They start hallucinating soon after arriving. There’s a prisoner (played by Joe Morton) leading an ad hoc religious movement, a warden who doesn’t trust the agents, and a whole lot of quartz sitting beneath the prison. Oh, and there’s a huge storm raging outside. Myka nearly shoots Pete while hallucinating but he is able to get through to her and they both deal with some personal demons.

This wasn’t an exciting episode. That wouldn’t be a problem if it was thought provoking or emotional but even with Myka’s dead partner and Pete’s dead father in the mix it just wasn’t. It was a dull, dull episode and I can only hope the remainder of this season is better.

“Duped” unraveled in flashback form (which I find frustratingly pointless) after opening with a confrontation between Myka and Pete. Some fourteen hours earlier, the two are arguing about Artie in the warehouse when Myka pushes Pete into a mirror. The two are able to keep the mirror from crashing to the floor but a giant disco ball does hit the ground, sending out a bright light that seems to freeze Pete and Myka. Artie comes a’runnin’ but before he can learn anything from Myka, she walks off.

Right off the bat it was obvious that somehow Myka would have been affected by the disco ball and the mirror in some combination. Along with Pete, she is sent to Las Vegas to figure out how a pair of gamblers are winning big. The gamblers (played by the aforementioned Erica Cerra and Niall Matter) have a special coin that allows them to see into the future just long enough to place the right bets. Myka soon realizes what is going on but lies about it to Pete.

Meanwhile, back at the warehouse, Artie, Claudia and Leena discover that Myka’s image is in the mirror. Artie dismisses it as nothing more than a whisper but Claudia wants to try to talk to it so she builds a contraption to do just that. The mirror, it turns out, is connected to author Lewis Carroll and the real life “Alice” was trapped inside. Also, she may or may not be psychotic. Now, though, she’s free and in Myka’s body and Myka is trapped in the mirror.

There are some obvious scenes in which Myka is shown to be acting out of character. She’s edgier and sexier and apparently parting her hair on the other side. Pete doesn’t pick it up at first. But he eventually realizes what’s going on (a big clue was the fact that Myka kissed him, ostensibly to keep the gamblers from catching on). We finally return to the opening scene when Mirror Myka shoots Pete. She then returns to the warehouse to destroy the mirror so she can never be placed back inside but Artie and the others are waiting for her. Alice is sent back through the looking glass and Myka gets out. Happy ending for all involved.

Again, though, I think Erica Cerra and Niall Matter were sadly underused in this episode. There was no need for the gambling plot and, in fact, I think it would have been much more interesting to have additional scenes in which Pete slowly realized that Myka wasn’t herself. Even better, what if the episode ended with Mirror Myka still loose. That would have made for some terrific plots down the road. Instead, “Duped” wrapped things up nice and neat and in the process ruined what could have been so much better.

For some reason, however, Syfy decided not to go with a 20-episode season and opted instead for just another 13 episodes. I actually prefer 13 episode seasons because it is harder to split 13 in half, meaning no lengthy hiatus. Four episodes remain to be aired from this first season (the two-hour premiere counts as two). Season Two will likely air sometime during the summer of 2010.

Neat, huh? Apparently this one sword can keep an entire empire in power.

For Pete and Myka things begin normally enough. They’re charged with recovering a dangerous sword from the Japanese and switching it with a fake. Unfortunately, somebody else gets there first and uses a weapon to knock everyone out and steal the sword. Pete thinks he sees the thief but can’t be sure. Artie definitely recognizes the weapon (an “implosion grenade”) and decides to get involved personally. Pete and Myka are arrested while trying to retrieve the tsuba and are shown a file on Artie that reveals he worked as a secret agent of sorts for the government before switching sides. He’s a traitor.

Pete and Myka are released but Artie himself is later arrested; Mrs. Frederic gets him released as well. He’s certain he knows who is behind the theft of the sword: James MacPherson. Eventually, Artie has a confrontation with MacPherson, who has the sword and the tsuba. Uh-oh. He kills one man and then, after some verbal sparring, stabs Artie. That was Artie’s plan the whole time. He had to get MacPherson to attack him so he could get his hands on the sword himself. That’s hardcore.

So, the sword and tsuba are recovered, Artie is patched up and everyone gets home safe. But Myka isn’t comfortable with Artie’s lies. He should have told them what was going on, she says, and doesn’t know if she can continue working with him. Pete doesn’t seem to have that problem, though. Meanwhile, Artie and Mrs. Frederic worry that MacPherson, who got away, is still out there and must have a bigger plan in mind. And if Artie can’t trust his agents, and vice versa, there’s going to be trouble.

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.

I didn’t realize it at the time but James Naughton, from the 1974 live-action Planet of the Apes series, also guest-starred in this episode. He played Gilbert Radburn, who was competing with Jeff Weaver for the purchase of the sculpture. It was one of four such sculptures, each representing one of the elements (fire and water and so forth). If all four are brought together they can bestow incredible powers over said elements.

I found myself drifting away from the episode just after the scene in which Pete was tossed out of the van. I wasn’t at all interested in the secondary story line about Claudia and Artie at the Warehouse and to be frank wasn’t much more interested in the main story line. Pete and Myka — and, for some reason, Jeff — eventually wind up at a cave where they find Radburn. He has gathered the four sculptures using a feathered coat that allows him to walk through walls.

Despite the fact that he should have all the power in the world, Radburn is quickly stopped by Pete, who stabs him with an arrow. That’s it, folks. That’s the end. Oh, and Claudia will be staying at the Warehouse while her brother goes off to do scientific stuff in Switzerland. I don’t know what she can possibly add to the series. Myka, Pete and Artie work well enough as a trio and they already have a pointless character (Leena) who doesn’t do much of anything. Now they have two.

Artie is kidnapped by a young woman named Claudia who, we learn, is trying to save her brother by recreating the dangerous experiment that ended with him stuck in another dimension. Once Artie realizes that Joshua, the brother, is actually alive he also throws himself into trying to make the experiment work. Myka and Pete return from a mission to find Artie missing but after getting in touch with him they too wind up helping. Throughout the episode Artie has flashbacks to the original experiment and also hallucinates, apparently.

Eventually, thanks to Pete and Myka uncovering a hidden set of instructions, Artie is able to save Joshua and in doing so saves Claudia as well. But the episode doesn’t end on an entirely happen note. Mrs. Frederic makes an appearance and warns Artie that Claudia knows too much. Oh no! Will Artie have to do something terrible to keep Claudia silent? Although I’ve seen the following episode so I know the answer I won’t spoil it in this review. I will say that it was obvious what Artie was going to do.

I’m not sure why I liked this episode so much. Maybe it was pushing Artie to the forefront. Or maybe it was the hilarious scene near the beginning of the episode in which Myka and Pete recount their experience at a zoo while trying to track down an artifact.

What is it with Warehouse 13 and groping? This episode and the previous episode (Resonance“) both involved a woman’s breasts being grabbed, although in “Resonance” it occurred off screen and was only recounted to Pete by Myka. In “Magnetism” it was poor Myka who kept being felt up by an EMT named Ross. Of course, he was under the influence of a psychically-infused armchair. Myka was very understanding.

I wonder if it was awkward to film the groping scenes? And what must have been going through Joanne Kelly’s mind when she first read the script? Or maybe the director or a producer pulled her aside and said, “Oh, by the way, you’re going to spend the afternoon having your breasts squeezed by this guy.” It wasn’t necessary for the episode. Ross could have continually tried to kiss her or slap her on the bum and the point would have come across just as strongly.

Anyway, the plot in “Magnetism” was more interesting than “Resonance,” with random individuals in a small town doing very out-of-character things. Jumping out of buildings, for instance. Artie sends Myka and Pete to get to the bottom of things. And they do, eventually, but not before Myka herself is “infected” and gives in to her desire to punch Pete in the face over and over again. That was amusing to watch, I’ll admit.

I can forgive the fact that the “artifact of the week” was a chair that was once owned by a psychic or something. The current owner is a priest and those sitting in the chair are affected by the chair’s metal frame? Was that the explanation? The frame was magnetized and its occupants somehow lose their inhibitions. The climax of the episode, with a cop who strapped a bomb to his body, was unexpected but over the top. The poor priest, more or less a total innocent, was shot. Sad.

The tag scene, in which Myka and Pete told Artie that his beloved car was destroyed by the bomb, was fantastic. They pulled off their little lie with aplomb. That’ll teach Artie not to play them against one another. Or maybe it will lead to an increasingly dangerous game of practical jokes in which Artie tries to get back at Myka and Pete and they, in turn, reply in kind, using artifacts held at Warehouse 13.

That, at least, would be exciting for a while.

In “Resonance,” Artie sends Myka and Pete to Chicago to figure out why banks are being robbed and, more importantly, how. No one inside remembers anything about the robberies due to a mysterious piece of music played by the robbers. Myke and Pete figure out that the music was written by some semi-famous musician (who is in bad shape and obviously not the culprit) and eventually, with some help from Artie, figure out which bank will be hit next. It turns out the musician’s sound mixer (?) and his daughter are pulling off the heists in an attempt to raise enough money to buy back the musician’s musical catalog.

So the story was an adequate one. The “artifact of the week,” as I think I’ll call it, was a unique record containing the music that apparently causes anyone who hears it to fall into a happy little trance. Pete and the the F.B.I. agent both get a full dose and get the giggles. I didn’t like the quirks we’re seeing with Pete. He’s a laid-back funnyman, that’s not cliched. Plus, he’s immature. After Myka explains that she knows one of the robbers is a woman because she felt her, Pete replies “You touched her boobies.”

There was a minor subplot involving Artie trying to trace whoever hacked into Warehouse 13. He’s led to Myka and Pete’s boss (whose name I can’t remember) but it was a fake out. Artie has some sort of vision after playing around with the boss’s computer. I didn’t catch the significance of the vision but I’m sure we’ll see more of it eventually. Perhaps the most important part of the episode was Pete’s decision not to turn over the robbers to the F.B.I. After all, Warehouse 13 just safeguards the world from dangerous artifacts. They don’t worry about criminals.

Whether or not Myka will always agree with this could lead to interesting conflicts. She’s already been depicted as a more by-the-books agent than Pete. They do seem to be getting along fine, although there was one brief scene when the two were sitting and discussing their next move that was a little too cutesy. Myka is on the phone with someone discussing her father (whom she hasn’t seen in years). Pete gets off the phone with their boss and returns to their table.

He suggests that she should go see her father and Myka quickly changes the topic. That’s a little too personal. So, Pete explains that they should have the F.B.I.’s cooperation now (“Well, Belski just got spanked. So let’s go strike while the butt is still hot”). He then drums his hands on the table. In response, Myka does some weird clapping motion with her hands and gives Pete a quirky smile. I guess they’re supposed be learning how to operate on the same wavelength?

There’s still a lot of room for improvement, especially with regard to the main characters, their identities and their relationship. But two episodes in things are starting to come together. A little bit.