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This article is about the character.
For the episode, see MacPherson (Episode)

An insane ex-Warehouse agent, who is competing for artifacts.
 
Artie, "Duped"

James MacPherson was the main antagonist of Season 1. Originally, he was a Secret Service agent working out of Warehouse 13 who used to partner with Arthur Nielsen. What made him such a great agent was his ability to get inside an opponent's head and turn the tables on them just as their own plan was reaching fruition. At some point he began to believe that what the Warehouse was doing was wrong, and artifacts belonged out in the world, a perspective which led him to go rogue and turn against Warehouse 13. James suffers from heartburn and speaks with a Welsh accent.[1] Mrs. Frederic considers him an expert at psychological manipulation and that he strikes when you least expect him to.[2]

Biography[]

Macpherson2

MacPherson's wanted notice

Early Life[]

Nothing is known about MacPherson's early life.

Assignment to Warehouse 13[]

James became an agent of Warehouse 13 on, or sometime before, April 30th, 1973,[3] the same approximate year Arthur Nielsen, whom he would regularly be partnered and form a strong friendship with.

In 1981, James and Artie collected Carlo Collodi's Bracelet from Walter Sykes.[4]

At some point, he began a romantic relationship with Carol Augustine.[1][2]

In 1994, presumably after having collected the Phoenix themselves, James and Artie witnessed Carol's home be engulfed in flames. James wished to use the Phoenix to save her, but Artie insisted against it because of its downside. James, having become fed up and disillusioned with the Warehouse's goal of containing artifacts because he believed they could be used to save people, stole the Phoenix from Artie and saved Carol. His use of the Phoenix resulted in the deaths of five firemen.[2]

Following his insubordination and murder, James was fired as an agent and exiled from the Warehouse, being injected with a chemical that reacts fatally when in proximity to the painite contained within the Warehouse's walls. He was given five consecutive life sentences and imprisoned in a maximum security prison.[2]

In 1996, after two years of confinement, there was an unexplained explosion (potentially caused by James) in the prison that killed dozens of people. The Warehouse was misinformed that James had been among the dead when he had in fact survived, and he was free to enact his vengeance against the Warehouse and distribute artifacts to the wider populace.[2]

Escape and Criminal Life[]

He posed as Joshua Donovan's physic's professor, a Prof. Reynolds, and was the one who gave Joshua Rheticus' Compass for his teleportation experiment. Also, MacPherson helped Claudia hack into the Warehouse in 2009, before she was an agent, while she was searching for Artie.  

15 years later, the Warehouse personnel realized MacPherson had faked his own death and escaped from prison; he then began to steal artifacts and sell them at auctions, after demonstrating their powers to potential buyers, even committing murder while so doing. He displayed artifacts he had for sale on a web site he called J & M Worldwide, Inc.: Importers/Brokers of Antique Goods under the fake name "John Maxwell".

He was caught by Arthur Nielsen and his two agents at the time (Pete and Myka) and put into the bronze sector of Warehouse 13, with a Crystalline Diamond Necklace infused with palladium to negate the acid making effects of the mineral in his blood. With the unwitting help of Leena, who he was controlling with the Pearl of Wisdom, he escaped and killed his former partner. Fortunately, Artie had the Phoenix with him when he died which allowed him to be resurrected. During his escape he also removed H. G. Wells from the bronze sector, to get her Imperceptor Vest from her home in England that MacPherson could not find on his own, but later episodes clearly show that she was using him as a means to get de-bronzed and be free to follow her own devious plans. She later betrayed him during a trip back into the warehouse to the Escher Vault, cutting off the necklace given to him by Mrs. Frederic, thus causing his blood to turn to acid and disintegrate him. After his death, MacPherson attempted to convey one last message to Artie (the message apparently related to H.G.'s sinister plan). 

In "Mild Mannered ", Artie was being haunted by MacPherson's ghost and eventually concluded that the reason why was because the both of them were both resurrected by the Phoenix. However, once Artie admitted to himself he never wanted James dead or bronzed, but rather he wanted his friend back MacPherson's ghost vanished. Also, while in MacPherson's old room in the Personal Quarters Archives, Artie found a note under a pocket watch in MacPherson's desk.

The note read:

"Hello Arthur, if you are reading this it's probable that I'm gone, do you remember this watch? We used to argue over it, I think you should have it. Good luck old friend, I imagine you're going to need it."

The watch was later discovered to be Duarte Barbosa's Pocket Watch and played a big help in restoring the Warehouse after Walter Sykes destroyed it. 

In "Shadows " it is shown through Jane Lattimer's memories that both Artie and MacPherson were directly responsible for the retrieval of Carlo Collodi's Bracelet.

In "Emily Lake"/"Stand" Artie eventually discovers that the pocket watch MacPherson entrusted to him is more than it appears. When Pete gazes at the destruction and says "We lost Artie, we lost". Artie replies by holding up the watch and says "Not yet.....".

In "The Living and the Dead", Along with Dr. Vanessa Calder, Artie's love interest, and Mrs. Frederic, MacPherson, or rather Artie's memory of him, re-appears once more to serve as an obstacle and opponent for Steve and Claudia to defeat in Artie's dying mind.

Known Associates[]

Appearances[]

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

References[]

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