It's hard not to be disappointed in "Around the Bend," even when the majority of the episode was great. More than halfway through the episode, and all evidence points to a grand conspiracy involving Valda--and possibly someone inside the Warehouse--trying to accrue power by taking artifacts for themselves. Instructed by Mrs. Frederick to keep things hush hush, Pete must go out of his way to deceive his friends and get to the bottom of the conspiracy. This is awesome stuff, especially in the middle of the season.
But wait! It's all a hallucination, the result of a typewriter he touched at the beginning of the episode. There's no conspiracy, no evil Regents, just a crazy Pete. All the built up excitement was for naught. Now I'm not remotely interested. Cut to the end and everything is fine; Pete caused no irreparable damage and Mrs. Frederick knows he wasn't at fault, except that he should keep his hands to himself.
Why couldn't the writers continue in the direction the episode began with and raised the stakes? Once we learned everything was from the artifact, the tension drained out instantly. If the episode is any indication, the writers clearly aren't ambitious enough to push for more.
Score: 8.0/10
