“If you could use an artifact to set something right, to undo a huge, stupid tragedy, wouldn’t you do it?” ~ Claudia
Last week Artie saved the world from the destruction of the warehouse and the despair and turmoil unleashed upon the world at its destruction by using Magellan’s Astrolabe to turn back time. His actions caused an unimaginable and as of yet, unknown evil to be released. Causing Artie nightmares of Claudia stabbing him with a dagger as Claudia mysteriously slipped away in the middle of the night, leaving Artie wondering if she was the evil that he created upon saving the world.
A lot happens in ‘An Evil Within’ as it takes Pete and Myka to Philadelphia to find an artifact causing visions of tentacled creatures straight from the night terrors of H.P. Lovecraft while Claudia continues on her mission to bring Steve back from the dead and Artie attempts to figure out what the evil is or could be that he had created.
In Philadelphia, Pete and Myka team up to investigate a series of mass hallucinations. Starting at a diner and later at a dentist’s office, people suddenly and mysteriously see a monster with writhing tentacles wreaking havoc in its attempt to kill them. They attack the beast out of fear for their lives, but later realize that the beast was no more than a hallucination attached to someone who had entered the room. With one man in a coma and another dead, Pete and Myka are led to another incident where they discover the connection to the hallucinations lies in a silver key. Pete connects the tentacled beasts to that of H.P. Lovecraft, which Leena confirms were beasts created from night terrors caused by a silver key.
After making this connection, Pete and Myka learn the man with the silver key was Ron Hadsell, a man whose wife had been trampled to death at a championship game. Blaming each victim for his fiancé’s death, he used the key to turn him or her into hallucinatory beasts and suffer the same fate as his fiancé. Pete and Myka track Ron Hadsell down and after a struggle he ends up using the key on Pete. Myka, however manages to subdue Hadsell and neutralize the artifact saving Pete as he is chased and attacked by a crazed mob.
Back at Leena’s, Artie receives a visit from Brother Adrian of the Black Diamond Brotherhood, who is searching for Magellan’s Astrolabe. After Adrian’s visit and adamant determination to retrieve the Astrolabe and undo what had been done to prevent the formidable evil that will transpire from it, Artie desperately tries to find out more about the evil he had created. The most he manages to find out, however, is that it will be personal to him, like a dagger to the heart. This causes him further reservations about bringing Steve back, fearing that the evil he created when using Magellan’s Astrolabe lies within Claudia and will emerge during Steve’s resurrection.
Artie catches Claudia just after she breaks into the regent’s morgue to retrieve Steve’s body. Pete’s mom, Jane, steps in, however, and tells them that the regents have given Claudia permission to bring Steve back. Ignoring Artie’s arguments and reservations, Jane and Claudia take Steve’s body and use the metronome to bring him back to life. Just as the metronome starts to work, it starts to affect Claudia, essentially killing her, but Jane talks her through it and Steve’s life is restored. After talking to Claudia, he figures out that he was brought back from the dead, not merely knocked out as she had indicated. Claudia attempts to explain and defend her actions, but Steve remains confused and unsure about how he feels about it, though in no hurry to end his life again.
Later, as Claudia is heading back to the B&B, Regent Adwen informs her that Jane did not have permission to bring Steve back and this could cause possible, yet unknown, repercussions. While Steve is allowed to remain alive, the regents intend to keep the metronome and threaten to use whatever means necessary to protect the world from the dangers of an artifact should things go awry.
Back at Leena’s, Artie’s new pocket ping goes off alerting him to a dagger artifact – the very dagger artifact Claudia uses to kill Artie in his dream – leaving Artie disturbed at the possibility of what he has done. Pete catches Artie’s worried look – perhaps sensing a vibe – and asks Artie about it, but as Artie can’t tell anyone about what he had done, he ignores Pete’s questions, leaving them hang in the air and Pete suspicious about what Artie is up to.
There are two words that sum up this episode: Steve’s back! I don’t know about you, but this made the season for me. Though Steve was new last season, I loved his character and what he brought to the team and I was sad and angry to see him go. Seeing him return is the best part of this season so far. I hope he stays for a long time to come and look forward to seeing more of Jinks! Yay!
Obviously Steve’s resurrection wasn’t the only great thing about this episode. There were some great Myka/Pete interactions as well as a couple fun new devices. All I have to say, is I want a Claudia working for me. The little gadgets she creates are amazing! ‘An Evil Within’ introduces the pocket ping and electrifying badge. Okay, so I don’t exactly need a pocket ping, but who wouldn’t love that badge?
And of course, lets not forget the great Myka/Pete banter, hilariously upheld by the subtle facial expressions of both. Pete’s continual use of the world “tentacles” after learning about Myka’s cnidarians phobia was hilarious. The best moment, however, was Pete’s expression when Myka stated that she preferred horror as written by Kafka or Shelley. Seriously, who hasn’t made that face at least once in their lives?
After watching ‘An Evil Within’ I have been left wondering a few things though: What are the repercussions from Steve’s resurrection and how will they affect the team? What about Claudia? Is she really the evil Artie created? Or is the evil actually within Artie?
As Artie pointed out to Claudia, “Letting yourself be seduced by an artifact … that’s just a path to destruction! And I’ve seen it, you’ve seen it with Macpherson, with H.G., with Sykes.” Artie used an artifact too, is he the next Macpherson, H.G. or Sykes? Guess I’ll have to stay tuned to find out!
