If you remember all the way back to the first season of Warehouse 13, it was largely Artie, Pete, and Myka alone, before Claudia joined their crew and Leena got more to do. With the addition of Steve Jinx to the team, “Trials” gives us a good idea of how the writers will utilize all the characters. Their answer is to cut down on unnecessary plot points, splitting the team into two groups, so there are less of those pesky procedural elements. It works well for the most part, resolving the lingering issues between Myka and Pete as well as letting Steve get acquainted with Claudia.
Myka and Pete track down an artifact being used to steal memories, solve a murder, and get an innocent man freed. Through the artifacts memory regression, Myka learns that Pete has serious abandonment issues from earlier in her life, making her realize just how hurt he was, and she eventually apologizes. Since this is only one of the plots and there is a fair amount of character development, the plot moves quickly without too much hang out at any place.
Meanwhile, Claudia gets her first solo mission with Steve to back her up. It barely needs any investigation, as the very first suspect is the thief of Typhoid Mary’s knife. The twist is that the thief transferred his son’s leukemia to himself, so everyone is fine. Throughout the episode, Claudia and Steve do some talking (we learn that Steve is gay), and Artie shows up to support Claudia.
At the end of the episode, we see that Myka’s voiceover was a conversation with the Regents to reinstate her as a full agent which they do. As Myka returns back to work, everything seems normal again and it’s one big happy family.
Score: 8.5/10