The previous episode of Warehouse 13 was easily one of the worst of the series, largely because it was going for a certain tone and simply missed the mark.  “Savage Seduction” is an example of what happens when they hit the target they were aiming for, and it was simply a bad idea in the first place.

 

I understand the notion that the Warehouse 13 “family” wanted to spend at least some of their very short return romp just having fun.  This episode felt like the cast being given a chance to hang out and just get goofy (instead of Pete dominating that attitude), but therein lies the problem: they spent one of the very few opportunities left to tell a solid, effective story and trampled on it for the second time in a row.

 

The telenovela part of the episode, which was a gag that would have worked far better as a “C” plot, was only part of the problem.  Claudia and Jinks usually make a solid pair, but Jinks’ uber-flamer line delivery was less hilarious and more utterly painful, especially when the lines themselves weren’t nearly as funny as everyone seemed to think they were.  Alison Scagliotti was once again the highlight, and for those of us of the persuasion, having her amp up her attractive side was a pleasant distraction!

 

The problem wasn’t simply that the episode was goofy to a fault, but rather, that the entire point of both plots seemed to miss the mark on what they were trying to underscore.  This is especially true when it comes to Pete being told, point blank, that everyone knows he’s in love with Myka.  Shoving them together in a romantic sense has been one of the most ridiculous misfires of this final season, and this is making it tremendously worse.

 

Meanwhile, there has been absolutely no follow-up on the presence of the alt-Valda, which doesn’t make very much sense.  Claire’s disappearance is probably connected to alt-Valda, so there’s some hope that the writers will finally get back on track.  And to be fair, once they committed to continuing with the whole Claire plot thread, it made sense to spend time setting her up as dangerous and incurable.  Still, why spend an entire episode on the nonsense of this episode instead of getting right to the point?

 

This might be something of a lesson to those who still complain that Eureka never got a final six-episode run.  What if it had been this slipshod and off the mark?  As is often said, one should be careful what one wishes for, and at this point, it’s going to take a miracle for me to consider this final return of Warehouse 13 worth it.  As it currently stands, I’m just hoping they manage to end things with the integrity of the series intact.  Episodes like this don’t help.