“Instinct” is episode fifteen of season four of Warehouse 13.
In the previous episode, “The Sky’s the Limit”, the Regents had a new owner, Abigail Chow, installed in the bed & breakfast (that was once Leena’s), one who used to be a psychotherapist, in order to get help for Artie. Whose grief over causing Leena’s death was making him erratic and dangerous. He wasn’t willing, but Artie eventually opened up.
This episode opens in Boone, Wisconsin. A man runs into a police station shouting for a detective. He says he did it and he wants to confess. The man, and his partner, had been previously set loose, but now he claims he shot a guy. He also looks to be changing as he speaks. When his lawyer comes in to see what happened, she says that even the police’s own lab said that there was no evidence. At which point, H.G. Wells appears, dressed in a lab coat, and says that no, what she actually said was that there was insufficient evidence to satisfy a judge. And that he was actually guilty. Whilst HG is taking more samples from the confessed killer, she notices hair appear on his knuckles and then disappear. Is he a werewolf?
At the Warehouse, Artie is disturbed by what looks like an earthquake. At the B&B Pete isn’t pleased because Abigail does not make breakfast. She, as it happens, is also not happy that no-one is making breakfast. Perhaps they need to hire someone else as well? Claudia, who spent time in an institution, isn’t terribly pleased to have a psychotherapist staying around. Artie calls Claudia and asks if anyone else felt an earthquake – no – and whether anything unusual has happened in the Warehouse recently. She doesn’t mention getting zapped in the backside by an electrical bolt.
Artie asks everyone to head to the Warehouse but Myka gets called by HG and she and Pete head to Boone. HG is working as a forensic scientist and Pete starts playing with evidence. HG had wanted to have a new life, after giving back Magellan’s astrolabe, one well away from the world of artefacts. Looks like that didn’t work out (but she still wants leaving out). HG had never seen anything like what happened to the suspect. The man who confessed was definitely guilty but someone forced him to confess. With an artefact. The local DA is not cooperative.
Outside the Warehouse, Artie causes what looks like a flying saucer to decloak (this is what the metal-detector-resembling thing he and Claudia have been seen with does). The flying saucer camouflages the appearance of the Warehouse from above. It keeps a constant scan on the Warehouse, and it was just the Warehouse that was affected. The tremors are continuing to affect the Warehouse and Claudia keeps being zapped (and doesn’t admit it). If the tremors continue, they could shake the Warehouse apart.