- Pete and Myka hunt for a lethal artifact but it finds Pete first. As Pete prepares to sacrifice himself as did the first Warehouse agent who recovered it, Myka searches for a way to save him, if she can find him.
- "Warehouse 13" - "Burnout" - August 11, 2009
We open in St. Louis, Missouri. Myka and Pete are on the way to a police precinct to investigate an artifact that caused a gas explosion. Myka is complaining about needing a vacation. Pete opines that she looks like she needs one. Myka is not amused.
Inside the station there are six bodies in bags. They look in one, it's extra-crispy. They meet with Capt. Powell, all he knows is the gas main ruptured causing the explosion. He tries to brush them off. They follow him into an office to chat more with him and "the engineers" investigating. They ask about witnesses and victims. The Capt. says they're pretty much one and the same. The only two survivors: comatose and in surgery. The captain pissily takes off. The engineer tells them it's safe to go in the basement. He gives them a lantern and flashlight.
They go down and take a look around. Pete has a "vibe" something else happened in the cellar. They find an open door to a room with scattered items including... a skeleton chained to the wall.
Myka opens his coat pocket and finds a badge. It's Secret Service. Pete finds a familiar looking stun-gun and realizes, with justifiable concern, that the guy was a W13 agent.
They video chat with Artie about their find. He tells them to send him pictures and he'll ID him and find out what mission he was on. Myka wonders if the artifact caused the explosion. Pete wonders if the explosion burned up the artifact and the people. Good questions all, says Artie, who is joined in his office by Claudia. He tells them that's what they have to figure out. He hangs up and wonders aloud to Claudia and himself how the hell he's going to figure it out.
He opens up a dusty room filled with files on all the W13 agents for the last 200 years, including the missing ones. He pushes Claudia out. She notices the digital pics have come through. He says pixels will never replace the real thing, extolling the virtues of the body itself showing up later.
She says he needs to come into the new millennium and has a way to boost the power of them. She unveils a contraption - a repurposed version of a hologram projector. She composited the photos and busts out a twirling 3-D version of the body. She explains the mumbo jumbo of how she put it back together. She twists and turns it. He wants her to zoom in and reconstruct. She says she can. She grumbles about not getting props from Artie.
Back at the police station Myka and Pete deal with the grumpy captain, and point out to him that, after going through the personal effects of the suspects who died that there are seven trays but only six bodies. The captain and the duo realize what this means: there's a survivor or a witness or a guy with an artifact that fries people. She holds up a picture of one Reggie Hinton. Then we cut to Reggie hooking up with some dudes under an overpass near a burning barrel. He tells them they have to get out of here now becasue something is "coming after us." The trio runs off and we see their shadows and bolts of lightning /electricity and screaming as they're fried.
Myka and Pete arrive on the scene and the charred corpses confirm the parallels. The captain wonders what killed them. Myka leans over Reggie and wonders why one part of him isn't burnt.
Claudia is working out the tattoo on the original dead guy, it's a USMC tattoo. Myka and Pete video into Artie that they have bodies but no fire to blame them on. Artie talks about different options. Pete points out that there was a handprint on the bodies and their only suspect is dead. They say it was like the suspect was followed. Artie thinks he was chased. Pete hypothesizes somebody found the artifact and is using it to settle old scores. Artie says to look for enemies and hangs up. He yells at the hologram: "would it have killed you to have left a note."
Myka and Pete tell the grumpy captain that all of the dead folks were members of the same gang and had a recent altercation with a rival gang. The captain worries there's a turf war with a new weapon. He says his gang unit guy, Sgt. Clark, is out but gives them his most recent gang info.
Back at the Warehouse, Artie looks over the body. Claudia is grossed out but helps out by creating an image on her nutty machine as he scans the skull. A face begins to emerge. Artie goes through the files and finds a match Jack Secord. They go into the warehouse to get info on Jack.
Artie dials a nutty old phone on the wall and a series of cylinders rotate behind a wall. They put on gloves and hair nets enter a room, it's Jack Secord's living quarters, which were sealed 6/22/62. The entire place is in pristine condition. Claudia is impressed, it is a replica of a room at Lena's bed and breakfast. Artie explains if an agent disappears or dies mysteriously his living quarters and effects are sealed up and kept in W13.
They look around. Smokes and love letters. They find an imprint of one he left of one to a woman named Rebecca Sinclair, who lived in St. Louis. Myka and Pete go to visit her.
They tell her about the body of Secord. She says she knew him quite well. She said he didn't talk about his work. She asks if it's connected to what happened at the police station. They admit it is. She offers them tea and cookies. Pete accepts and is hoping to establish a rapport. Rebecca asks if when Secord's body was found if there was anything strange about it. Myka gets a call simultaneously that more bodies were found. They have to rush off even though it seems like she's got info and asks if there have been more electrocutions. (But I don't think they mentioned this?) Pete takes the cookies with.
They arrive at the scene and a sole witness says a cop burned his friends. The police captain says they all say this. They ask if any cops haven't checked in since the original explosion. Just the head of the gang unit Clark who needed "time to decompress." Pete and Myka think his time's up and ask for his address. The captain says to give him a minute. Myka and Pete think Clark is their killer.
We cut to a house where a police uniform is hanging up. Behind a door we see lights flashing and Sgt. Clark standing up in the bathroom with the electricity flickers moving around him. Myka and Pete bust in just as Clark is jumping out the window. He has a strange metal creature attached to his back, like a small arachnid, shooting off the sparks. Myka and Pete chase him down an alley and find his body. They roll it but the creature is gone.
They video into Artie who can't believe they couldn't get the captain to send Clark's body. Myka sent pictures. Pete explains the metal lobster thing on his back. They scan the dead body again and see that Secord had something on his back also. Clark's back had the same electrocution scars. (So it probably jumped from Secord to Clark). Myka remembers that Rebecca mentioned electrocution even though that word wasn't in the news.
They go back to visit her. She says they need to cut to the chase. She knows they're from S. Dakota. She says this artifact Jack was hunting has obviously been reactivated. They realize she was an agent also. She welcomes them to the conversation.
Claudia and Artie look over an old book with pics of the artifact. She scans some old writing from the book.
Rebecca shows them a box full of photos of charred corpses. She and Jack were partners. The electrocutions started after a museum showing of 11th century artifacts. She talks about how Jack got "vibes" and how annoying they were, bittersweetly, Myka and Pete don't let that go unnoticed. Amidsts the pics and clipping in the box- which Rebecca kept over the years as she searched for Jack, and never went back to W13- they find a picture of the back-hugger. Just then Artie radios in with the name its the Spine of the Saracen. It was, possibly, specifically designed for Turk warriors in the 11th century. They think maybe it was sealed and got out somehow. Pete wonders how they can stop it. Artie isn't sure how, but he knows that the Spine requires a lifetime commitment. Pete and Myka go to look for it. Rebecca tells them to be careful.
They go back to the alley and hear screaming. A woman runs out, she has shot someone but he keeps coming after her. The man comes out. Myka shoots him with the stun gun. But he keeps coming. He asks for their help and falls to his knees. They go and roll him and the thing is gone. They stand back to back looking for it. They go apart for a moment and the thing jumps on Pete's back. He writhes and screams and asks her to stay away, he doesn't want to hurt her. He inadvertently gives her a shock and knocks her out and then runs off.
The captain awakens Myka. She shuns an ambulance and videos Artie. He says the Spine is a "warrior-maker" making the host an unstoppable killer, until it drains the host, lays dormant and waits to jump on someone else. Myka tells them it's on Pete. He says he will find a way to remove it. As she talks Rebecca approaches and gets in the car. She says she will not lose another partner. Rebecca and Myka think Pete will do what Jack did and try to seal himself up so he can't hurt anyone. Claudia and Artie guess a huge jolt of electricity, like a bolt of lightning, should deactivate the spine. The tesla stunner is not enough. The captain shows up and tells Myka Pete was scene headed back to the station house. She realizes he remembered the generators there and is thinking that they may be their bolt of lightning.
The station house is one big electricity arc when the Capt. arrives. Pete screams at him. Myka runs in and stops Powell from shooting him. Pete thinks that the spine is stronger than him. Myka says there's a solution, that they can lock him up if necessary. He says no, it can't go to another person, he has to die. He wants her to attach the battery cables to the spine and finish it. Myka says she can't. Rebecca goes forth and does it. Myka says he will come back. Rebecca throws the switch. Pete writhes and screams and falls. The spine tries to run off as it shorts out, Rebecca smashes it with a fire extinguisher. Myka does CPR, hard, on Pete and brings him back.
Back at W13, Pete makes goofy death jokes. Myka brings in Rebecca to meet Artie. He says he's honored. She has personally brought the spine to see that it's correctly put to rest. Artie offers her a job. She demurs. They show her Jack's old room. She is saddened, awed, and pleased. There was an engagement ring in the drawer. As Myka goes to leave Rebecca grabs her arm and warns her to get out of W13 while she can, while she still has a life, before it uses her up.
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