After saving the President of the United States from a quasi-supernatural assassination attempt, Secret Service agents Myka Bering and Pete Lattimer find themselves transferred to an isolated facility known as "Warehouse 13" in South Dakota at the behest of the enigmatic government agent Mrs. Frederic. Their new boss, Arthur "Artie" Nielsen, explains that they're uniquely qualified to help track down and neutralize paranormal items called "artifacts." These artifacts have the ability to warp reality and control the behavior of people who come in contact with them — and it's the Warehouse's job to lock them away for safe keeping. Pete is skeptical but willing to give the Warehouse a chance, while Myka despairs of what she views as a demotion and requests a transfer back to her previous position.
While they wait to hear back from their old boss in Washington D.C., Pete and Myka are dispatched to look into the case of promising law student Cody, whose sudden violent outbursts seem to indicate the presence of an artifact. The two are skeptical but quickly find themselves drawn into a web of mystery and intrigue surrounding a professor of Italian, Cody's godmother-lawyer, an aspiring actress, and comb that once belonged to Lucrezia Borgia.
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Tropes that Apply to this Episode:
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Myka deduces Professor Marzotto is lying through this.
- Bigger on the Inside: The Warehouse.
- Book Safe: Lucrezia Borgia's "book" is really just a box designed to hold a decorative hair comb. There are a few pages at the front.
- Commonality Connection: Myka and Pete bond over people they've lost thinking it was their fault. In Pete's case, his dad and in Myka's it was her partner Sam.
- Dead Partner: Sam, who was Myka's Secret Service partner in Colorado. She was also having a romantic affair with him before he was killed in the line of duty (though he and his wife had been separated (but not divorced) for years).
- Dead Person Conversation: Myka is visited by her former partner Sam due to Harry Houdini's wallet.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Myka initially is rather uptight and cold to... pretty much everyone. This is partially justified due to grief over her partner's death. She eventually warms up to Pete and Artie.
- Double Entendre: "Let me know if your bed is big enough for you."
- Establishing Character Moment
- Myka is first seen at the museum for a pre-gala inspection to make sure everything is up to her exacting standards before the president's visit. After an awkward run-in with a kid on a school tour, she demands the full attention of the head of the museum and steamrolls over his objection to accompanying her on the tour.
- Pete is introduced at his apartment the morning after a fling with a waitress from the gala's catering company. She says she "doesn't know anything about him" before dragging him back into bed.
- Everytown, America: Univille (short for Unnamed Unincorporated Settlement). Pronounced "UHN-I-VILLE".
- Hannibal LectureLorna: "Did you really let your lover die?"Myka: "Shut up."Lorna: "For a chance at glory?"Myka: "I SAID. SHUT. UP.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: One of Myka's many coping mechanisms with her re-assignment.Myka: "Is there anywhere I can get a drink? I mean a DRINK drink?"Leena: "What would you like?"Myka: "Whiskey, neat."Leena: "I can do that."Myka: "Please do that."
- Make a Wish: The wish granting kettle can do this. Impossible wishes however, get you a ferret.
- Mass Hypnosis: Yeah, the comb can do this.
- Mind-Control Device: Lucrezia Borgia's comb. Also the Aztec Bloodstone.
- Mrs. Robinson: Lorna Soliday to Cody Thomas. Though not intentionally, rather through the influence of the comb.
- Mysterious Woman: Leena. Also Mrs. Frederic.
- Odd Couple: Pete (intuitive and impulsive) and Myka (diligent and hardworking).
- Oh, Crap!: Artie is not happy to see that Houdini's Logbook has escaped the warehouse.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: The fireman badge that belonged to Pete's dad.
- Pilot
- Phone Call from the Dead: One of the various ways Sam is talking to Myka.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: What Myka thinks has happened when she is assigned to the Warehouse.
- Refusal of the Call: Largely what Myka goes through for most of the episode.
- Self-Immolation: Professor Marzotto, under the influence of the comb. He pays for a fill up at the gas station counter, then douses himself out by the pumps and sets himself on fire.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: The first of many for Mrs. Frederic and her bodyguard, who seem to appear from thin air and disappear when one's back is turned.
- Stealth Pun: The ferret produced by the wish granting kettle in response to Myka's impossible wish is a Teakettler, one of the Fearsome Critters of American Folklore.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Artie's Technobabble speech about artifacts. He compares the current inability of science to fully explain their functioning to Thomas Jefferson being handed a modern day radio.
- Voice of the Legion: Cody when creepily chanting in Italian.
- Welcome Episode
- Yandere: Lorna Soliday when under the influence of the comb.
