“Burnout” is episode seven of season one of Warehouse 13.
This episode opens in St. Louis, Missouri. Pete and Myka are investigating a gas explosion. Myka wants a holiday; Pete agrees that she is looking tired. A mistake. The explosion is at a police precinct and there are several dead. The police captain is not really willing to help. The people who are dead are all believed to be suspects, and a couple of officers are injured.
The explosion is supposedly from an underground gas line that ruptured below the precinct. Following this leads to a cellar below the precinct that was sealed and a room that had been sealed. Inside is a body that has been dead for more than some time – that of a Secret Service agent who had been handcuffed in place. That’s not all; he has one of the Warehouse’s Tesla weapons, so he was also a Warehouse agent. Artie isn’t sure who the agent is, especially as the Warehouse’s filing system is a little antiquated – and definitely not electronic.
In the previous episode, “Elements”, Claudia’s brother Joshua went off to CERN and Claudia herself has decided to stay with Artie at the Warehouse. She has built a hologram projector out of things she has found lying around (of her own initiative). Claudia also wants to bring Artie into the 21st century.
Back at the crime scene, Myka finds evidence that, although they only have six bodies of suspects waiting to be processed, there was actually a seventh – and he’s missing. He meets some friends in the street and says they need to get out of there, because someone is coming. Then there is electricity and, around a corner, there are shadows. It looks like the escaped suspect is killing his friends.
Their bodies are found, which includes the suspect. So, perhaps he wasn’t attacking his friends. All of them are burnt to a crisp, but this time there isn’t any fire. There is also a handprint on each body, the only part that wasn’t burnt. All the dead were members of the same gang who were brought into after an altercation with another gang. The precinct’s gang expert is also on leave. Whilst Pete and Myka look for clues in St. Louis, Artie and Claudia try to identify the dead agent – and just what it was he was actually looking for. Knowing that will make solving the case much easier.
Artie’s original ideas were a Babylonian battery and a microfusion device being worked on by Edward Teller. Neither of which leave handprints. There are more victims, and a survivor claims a cop killed it. So far, all of the victims fall under the jurisdiction of the head of the gang unit, who is currently on mandated leave after losing his temper. When Pete and Myka find him, he has a creepy mechanical insectoid thing attached to his back that’s giving off electricity. Which doesn’t stay there but presumably migrates to another host.