“Past Imperfect” is episode seven of season three of Warehouse 13.
In the previous episode, “Don’t Hate the Player”, Artie and Jinks recovered a long-lost Van Gogh, with the help of FBI Agent Sally Stukowski. Although they didn’t know she already knows what artefacts are and is working for someone else. Artie did distrust her, but that’s kind of his ground state. He was right though. During the time that Artie and Jinks were in custody regarding the painting’s theft, Stukowski had the painting and added something to it. At the end of the episode, the painting was in the Warehouse and small mechanical bugs were coming out of it.
This episode instead opens in Union Station, Denver, Colorado. Pete is dressed as a maintenance worker whilst Myka stands watch as he unscrews a plaque from the wall. Behind the plaque is a hole with some worker’s tools in it – they have come to recover one of them. Whilst Myka is standing watch she sees a man that she thinks she recognises – the man who killed her former partner before she was assigned to the Warehouse. He’s dressed rather more casually and has shaved a moustache off. Before she can catch him, Pete accidentally cuts his glove on a spike and gets affected by the artefact, so she has to run back to help before it kills him.
The man, Leo, that Myka and her partner, Sam, were after is a counterfeiter who had stolen plates from the Denver mint. Pete suggests that they contact the Denver Secret Service, as it was their case, but Myka hasn’t spoken to them since and is concerned about what they think of her. They treat her better than she feared though. Myka says that there must be a reason why Leo is back in town, and that it’s the first time she’s seen him without a suit. She theorises that’s he’s returning to the mint for a new set of plates, and as a tourist. The case stirs up Myka’s emotions, and she isn’t quite as rational as usual – especially when Leo escapes from Pete down a blind alley. So Pete starts acting like Myka, because she’s too emotional – and there was no way that Leo could have disappeared as quickly as he did. There is no explanation – so as Myka says, there is only one explanation that makes sense. An artefact. Which puts a different spin on things, as during the original case Myka did not know about artefacts.
At Wisconsin Farm, Wisconsin, Jinks and Claudia have come to check on a collection of doorknobs. One of which is presumably an artefact – it comes from the Triangle Shortwaist Factory, where a whole lot of women died in a fire. The description of what they are looking for is doorknob. They find it when Jinks gets burned by the doorknob through his glove. That’s the second time that an artefact has damaged the gloves – which are supposed to protect the wearer. As they are leaving, and stop to talk to a dog, Claudia and Jinks get something fired into their necks – some sort of tranquiliser dart it would appear, as they both collapse. They seem to be just left lying there – but someone stole the doorknob. Artie says that the dog is a witness and can help.