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Exclusive: On the Set of the Final Season of Warehouse 13

Warehouse 13 SetAnybody who has watched or listened to interviews with the cast of Warehouse 13 can easily see how well they get along and how much fun they have together; it's really quite infectious. Over the years I have had the privilege of interviewing the cast, as well as executive producer Jack Kenny, on multiple occasions. I even visited the set in Toronto as part of the Syfy Digital Press Tour a couple years ago.

When I visited the set again last August for SciFi Vision, along with writer Karen Moul, I experienced that energy, yet another feeling as well. I was there during the series finale and one of the last days of filming for the cast, in fact, it was the last day they filmed in Artie (Saul Rubinek)'s office. There was a feeling of somberness for everyone as the day wound down and it started to sink in. I felt quite honored to be able to be there at such a significant time.

Final scene of "Endless" that I watched film
Photo
© Eddie McClintock, via Twitter
Everyone was super nice and welcoming, and executive producer Jack Kenny came over during a break in filming to tell us what was going on with the episode and talked about a special scene that had been filmed previously. We were even given sides of the episode to read and a call sheet which had my name and site on it, which was a great souvenir. We also ate lunch in the lunch room with everyone which was not something you get to do every day.

Warehouse 13 SetWe not only were given a quick tour around some of the warehouse shelving units, but we also got to watch a couple scenes being filmed. The first was with Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) looking for something in the library/archives. Next everyone moved into that room while they filmed a scene in Artie's office. All of the actors were standing behind Artie at the computer desk. I watched this scene via the monitors as Kenny directed it, yet could also see a bit of the live action from where I was sitting, which was extremely cool.

Eddie McClintockWhile there, I looked at the titles of some of the fake books, and I talked a bit with the writer of the episode John-Paul Nickel and saw the dog Trailer.

Throughout the day I also was able interview to most of the cast, including Kenny, McClintock and Kelly, as well as Allison Scagliotti, who plays Claudia and Aaron Ashmore, who plays Steve Jinks.

One of the things I talked to everyone about was the fact that it is the final season. They would have loved to have had more time left, but they did what they could with the time they were given and tried to do justice to the show and its fans, as well as keep it light. According to Kenny, "It's definitely a love letter to the fans. It's definitely a celebration of the series in every way.

"We don't lay heavily on themes. I mean, honestly, if we had thirteen or twenty we would have dealt with Myka's post cancer; we would have dealt with a deeper threat to the warehouse; we would have dealt with more of a season arc of things. But when you have six episodes, and you're ending a series, we didn't want to go dark. We didn't want to get into deep, heavy, serious stuff.

Joanne Kelly"...It's way more just a fun little roller coaster summer ride for our fans and the people who've loved the show."

Ashmore believes the series was wrapped up fittingly as well. "I think there's definitely a celebration of what we've created, all of us, and sort of trying to wrap it up in a way that is nice for the fans and also nice for us and these characters, and I think that's the awesome thing, that at least we came back to do these six episodes, that we do get to wrap it up...I think that [the writers] really got a chance to finish it off the way that they probably really would have liked to....All in all I think we all get a really really good good bye, and I think that the fans will really appreciate that too."

There however were some things that were serious, such as wrapping up the Paracelsus (Anthony Head) storyline from the end of season four. Scagliotti said, "We deal with Paracelsus, and I don't want to spoil that too much, because that's a really exciting and kind of Buffyesque type of moment."

Allison ScagliottiAnother one of these more serious storylines is finding out about Claudia's sister Claire and why she is dangerous. Scaglotti talked a bit about some of the upcoming scenes between her and Chryssie Whitehead. "We finally get to learn what happened to her family, and we meet her sister, who Claudia was not aware was still alive. So Claudia and Artie have to sort of deal with how that change their relationship, that he was keeping it from her, and what she has to learn from the situation, which is that some things in life you can't fix."

Aaron AshmoreWith the serious there of course also comes some not so serious, and a bunch of laughs. One episode in particular this season that was quite funny was "Savage Seduction." McClintock said about it, "Pete and Artie and Myka get trapped in a telenovela. So we had to take Spanish lessons for about two months so that I could speak Spanish fluently for that episode."

They did pack quite a bit in this season. Kenny talked about some of the other episodes. "There's like a thousand things...We see Hugo and Vanessa again. Pete and Steve end up at a Renaissance fair. We meet Claudia's sister and help her. And then there's one final big threat to the Warehouse, one last hurrah, where somebody comes at us in a bad way. We have a big bad we have a surprising big bad...We discover him in episode one in an alternate universe; it's very interesting. And then the finale which is six episodes rolled into one."

Kelly said that one of the things that gets wrapped up this season are the relationships. "I think that there's an attempt to wrap everything up, but I think it's kind of hard in six. I think we see what the final relationships are at the warehouse with everyone and what kind of family has developed. I think we see that kind of all those relationships be wrapped up nicely with a nice little bow."

Jack KennyWhose relationships you might ask? McClintock teased "Pyka," but he's been saying that for quite a while now. Fans will have to tune in to find out.

The final episode itself, entitled "Endless" really does pack in a lot. Not only does it include the much asked about music number, but just about everything else in between. Kenny teased, "The finale is basically a clip show of clips you've never seen, so it's every agent reliving their defining moment with the warehouse. And we see Claudia's defining moment and it's part of a artifact that has affected them all and is making everyone tap dance."

Warehouse 13 SetScagliotti teased, "I don't want to spoil it too much, but what I can say is that it's going to be sensational, particularly because Jack Kenny is bringing his particular brand of Vaudevillian style to the scene, and I have been working for months on this tap number, and I mean this week I've been in rehearsal almost every day and I could not be more excited about it. It's going to be so over the top and Broadway fabulous. I saw the set today and it took my breath away."

McClintock added, "I've been taking tap dance classes because we're going to do a little 42nd Street."

The finale looks to be quite spectacular, and McClintock thinks the end is fitting. "[It's] a great way to end the show. It's not trite or predictable; it's a real good ending."



Stay tuned for more Warehouse 13 interviews & coverage and don't forget to check out the rest of the exclusive photos from the set visit!

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