TVSquad

(S01E08) Warehouse 13 finally delivered an insane episode worthy of the show's strange and ridiculous premise. Steve Rubel's bewitched disco ball mated with Lewis Carroll's magic mirror to make Myka switch places with Carol's "Alice," who turned out to be a really creepy serial killer. Now this is the kind of stuff I wanna see.

If you ask Syfy's marketing folks, tonight's ep was all about the guest stars, Eureka's Erica Cerra and Niall Matter. They were serviceable as married grifters addicted to a cool little artifact, but they were pushed to the background just like Tricia Helfer and Joe Flanigan before them. "Duped" was really all about watching the Warehouse team do some much-needed bonding (and bringing the weirdness and the screwball comedy elements to the forefront, of course).

Artie and Myka resolved some heavy tension left over from last week's ep. Call me a softy, but I actually sort of loved watching Myka get all emotional with Artie on the other end of the mirror. I also loved watching Pete pal around with Claudia in the opening scenes. The team is really starting to feel like a family now, and the actors are great together -- even when the exposition scenes tend to get a little too chaotic.

And who didn't love seeing Myka morph into a double-dealing bad girl in a tiny black dress? Like I've said before, Joanne Kelly is a fine actress, and I had a blast watching her cut loose in this ep. Eddie McClintock looked like he was having more fun than ever as Pete. Saul Rubinek's Artie might be Warehouse's showiest character, but Pete gets the best lines ("Kirk out!"), and McClintock really knows how to sell 'em. Pete's the kid who grew up watching Star Trek and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and joined law enforcement just because he thought it would be "awesome." It's hard not to like the guy.

From the direction, to the acting, to the jokes and swift pacing, this was probably the best episode of Warehouse 13 yet. Now I'm actually looking forward to watching next week's ep with guest star Joe Morton.

Other observations:

- So Artie's still obsessed with finding MacPherson; I guess that means we'll be seeing Roger Rees again soon, which is cool.

- It definitely looked like Leena was trying to communicate with Myka using telepathy. I hope someone starts to explain her abilities soon.

- That Claudia really comes in handy in a pinch. And she gives the show a spark that was missing before she signed on.

- Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" – a little obvious but still pretty awesome. I liked that the Studio 54 disco ball blasts Gloria Gayner whenever somebody drops it. Maybe next time it'll play some Bee Gees.