In their first episode
back, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. deals with the fallout from the midseason
finale which saw a member of the team killed, the main villain from the first
half of the season killed, a pair of other villains/wildcards escape, a final villain/wildcard
transformed into a super-powered “creature,” and a member of their team
revealed (to the audience, anyway) as a bona fide superhero and occasional
Avenger.
However, the episode
does not wallow in the past, simply rehashing what happened; instead, the
characters must move forward. They fight
their way through their grief over Agent Triplett’s death before bonding over
beers and stories. Coulson himself finds
closure in returning Tripp’s old S.H.I.E.L.D. spyware to his mother and seeing
her pictures of Triplett and of the Howling Commandoes. These somber moments make the action scenes stand
out in sharp contrast and give meaning to the episode’s conflict.
The main action of the
episode comes from Coulson’s plan to draw out the remaining Hydra forces
following the death of Daniel Whitehall, one of the “Heads of Hydra.” We are introduced to 5 other heads: “Mr. Bloom,” the “Sikh,” the “Baroness”
(speculated to be the wife of Baron Zemo), the “Banker,” and a man who seems to
serve as Baron von Strucker’s liaison.
At the beginning of the episode these five discuss possible candidates
to fill Whitehall’s position, with the Liaison stating that von Strucker
believes Sunil Bakshi to be a good candidate.
They then note that S.H.I.E.L.D. will probably try to move against them—which
somehow doesn’t put them on their guard against Coulson’s plan to tear them
apart from within.
Coulson offers Bakshi
to Col. Talbot as an olive branch in exchange for assistance with Hydra. He and May then bring Bakshi out into the
open where they stage a rescue attempt led by Lance Hunter, who whisks Bakshi
away to a “Hydra outpost” (“Is every Radio Shack a Hydra outpost?” Did Radio Shack actually pay for that
namedrop? I don’t know if I’d be more
inclined to shop there because they were called a “Hydra outpost.”) where he
retrieves a burner phone to contact “Mr. Bloom.” Hunter “turns on” Bakshi and says he was
hired to get rid of Bakshi and Bloom as soon as they’d made contact. Bakshi begs for his life and has Hunter bring
him to Bloom. Bloom contacts the
Liaison, suggesting that the other heads may be trying to cut Bakshi, Bloom,
and the Liaison out. Bloom agrees to
handle the situation and contacts sleeper agents who assassinate the other
three heads. As soon as it’s done,
Bakshi sends men to kill Hunter (and Bobbi), who break into the compound, kill
Bloom, and take Bakshi prisoner. As a
side note, when is Lexus going to start selling an SUV with armor plating,
bulletproof glass, and a row of anti-personnel machine guns built into the
sides and rear bumper? I would
definitely buy that! Give it Lola’s
hover capability and it would be the perfect family car!
Hydra is definitely not
down for the count after this; they may not even be seriously damaged from a
global perspective. We know very little
about the 4 Hydra heads that were cut off in this episode: Were they responsible for the Western
Hemisphere? America and Europe? California, Oregon, and Washington? The south side of San Francisco? Regardless, whatever region of the world they
were overseeing will be seriously crushed by their loss and the resultant
infighting as new heads emerge to claim part of the pie. However, this will only matter within that
particular region of the world. Think of
it like the American Revolution: At one
point the British Army controlled 9 of the 13 colonial capitols, but it didn’t
actually matter except in those nine colonies/states. Hydra is still going to be around to combat S.H.I.E.L.D.;
the Liaison and von Strucker will see to that.
Of course, the only
thing that anyone is really talking about this week is the Inhumans plot
thread. The episode was essentially
bookmarked by the introduction of an Inhuman boy named Gordon (whom I will
think of as the new Inhuman called “The Reader” until they tell us otherwise). The first shot of the episode comes 14 hours
after he underwent Terrigenesis, lost his eyes, and gained the ability to
teleport. We see him in a full-on panic
attack, teleporting uncontrollably around a room. My first thought on seeing the room is that
it must have been designed specifically for this purpose: newly-transformed Inhumans can experiment
with their powers and learn to control them with little chance of hurting
themselves or others. A woman walks in
to comfort him, who is revealed to be Jiaying—Skye’s mother. Her ability is described as very slow aging,
a gift which has enabled her to guide several generations of Inhumans through
Terrigenesis. That she is such a caring
and nurturing person makes her eventual vivisection by Whitehall all the more
unconscionable.
The scene turns from a
child learning to control his powers under guidance to two more “children”
(Skye and Raina) who are equally terrified by the Terrigenesis and have little guidance
in understanding what has happened. In
Skye’s case the rest of the team has little comfort to offer her in terms of
what happened to her—they don’t understand it any more than she does. Simmons is particularly unhelpful; she is
under the impression that the Obelisk may have unleashed a plague or contagion
of some form which could turn anyone who contracts it into a hideous creature
like Raina. Skye’s only source of
comfort is Fitz who, despite his fear of her seismic abilities, hides her
changed DNA and comforts her when she breaks down sobbing.
Raina apparently had somewhat
more “mental preparation” for the transformation, but is still shocked and
horrified by her appearance, taking it out on 5 S.H.I.E.L.D. techs. When she finds the Doctor, he spends more
time gloating and literally jumping for joy at the thought of “Daisy’s”
transformation than worrying about Raina.
When he finally turns to her “problem,” he essentially tells her to get
lost; she’s not his problem anymore.
Raina leaves him, contemplating suicide.
She actually makes two different attempts at ending her life: first by walking out into a busy road, and second
by telling the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents sent to bring her in that either they will
kill her or she will make them kill her.
The situation didn’t exactly turn out the way she wanted, however. No sooner had she made that threat than Gordon/Reader
teleported in next to her, extended a force field around them which knocked the
agents back, and teleported away with her.
Side note: Did anyone else
think of Cary Elwes when Gordon appeared, said, “It’s okay, beautiful. I’ll show you the way,” and whisked her away? My first thought was his character on
Psych: “Such panache.”
Marvel TV is beginning
its expansion into Netflix in just a couple of weeks on April 10 with the
release of the full first season of Daredevil, which will follow Matt
Murdock’s evolution from a blind lawyer with enhanced senses into a masked
vigilante dealing out justice against the criminals the legal system missed.
