This week’s episode of
Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D., “One of Us” (2x13) managed to both exceed my wildest
dreams and leave me slightly disappointed. It continued a number of important subplots, gave us an exciting and entertaining fight scene involving the "super villain team," and even left us with some hints and teases for future developments, particularly with the Inhumans and Bobbi-and-Mack subplots.
The primary plotline
for this episode revolves around Cal’s ragtag band of “Gifted” individuals from
S.H.I.E.L.D.’s “Gifted Index.”
We begin
with Cal’s appearance at the apartment of Karla Faye Gideon, a Coney Island
woman who has been forced to wear protective metal gloves over her hands.
We learn later that she surgically attached
razors to her fingertips—replacing her natural fingernails—as a defense
mechanism to protect her from an abusive boyfriend.
She is one of two additional comic book
characters to join Cal’s team, coming from the Daredevil comics in which she is
a woman with an abusive husband, though not with razor fingers inspired by
Edward Scissor-Hands.
Cal shows up at her
door with a pair of new characters in tow:
Wendell Levi, a man with some form of unexplored technological
abilities, and Francis Noche, a mob muscle man who took an experimental steroid
that gave him super-strength.
Together,
the four of them travel to Brynmore Psychiatric Facility to break a prisoner
out of a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. ward beneath the main hospital.
This turns out to be none other than David A.
Angar, known in the Daredevil comics as “Angar the Screamer,” a man whose vocal
cords were exposed to “experimental energy blasts,” giving his voice the
ability to induce an immediate catatonic state with a single whisper.
These five then went to Coulson’s hometown of
Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to lure Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. into a trap where Cal
could take his revenge on Coulson.
(As
an aside, the
S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 comic book establishes Coulson as an “Ohio
Urchin” at age 9.
That could mean 2
completely different origin stories, or it could mean that after his father
died his mother moved him to Ohio (which is when the comic book picks up).
The Earth-616 origin and MCU origin don’t
have to be the same, but considering how new the comic is and that it was
started specifically to bring
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters into the
Earth-616 universe, it would be a little odd to make the origins different so
soon and on such a simple point.)
While they are in
Wisconsin we get a little more background on Cal:
He felt helpless, so he tried to enhance
himself through chemistry to be able to protect those he loved (Jiaying and
Skye).
The formula he used proved to be
inconsistent and had “some volatility issues” (science-speak for “he’s got major
anger issues and he’s bat-guano crazy!”).
Nevertheless, he’s been improving the formula over the years.
To me this sounds like they are going to use
his origin from the comics where he has a “Jekyll and Hyde” thing going, but
that he isn’t at full-blown-Hyde quite yet.
Perhaps by the end of the season we will see him transform into a
slightly-smaller-than-the-Hulk rage monster and rip a dude’s arms off.
Or at the very least he might display
something closer to the Hyde we know from the comics.
Coulson and Morse follow
Cal to the Psychiatric Facility and then to Wisconsin, where they confront Cal
and his team of super villains with help from May. Before the fight could begin in earnest,
however, Gordon showed up and whisked Cal away, which was totally unexpected,
but set up a fun scene at the end of the episode. I really enjoyed the fight with “Coulson’s
Angels” (Mockingbird and the Cavalry) taking on Cal’s “Masters of Evil Lite”/“Slicing
Talons.” Bobbi’s fight scenes in
particular were well executed and showed off more of her abilities. May did pretty well against “Brawn No Brains”
(Francis), though he was really handing it to her for most of the fight. Though they may not return, it is still
possible for this particular villain team to make a reappearance (hopefully
with a couple more heavy hitters, such as Absorbing Man (if he’s not actually dead),
Blizzard (if he’s not actually dead), and a couple others). The way the
fight ended, I think it’s possible that some or all of the villains escaped,
since May and Coulson ran over to take care of Skye.
Speaking of Skye, I think
my only two disappointments with the episode were how well the three
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents handled the “Masters of Evil Lite” and that consequently we
didn’t see Skye involved at all. Of
course the only reason I’m disappointed about that is because I really wanted
to see Skye “Quake it up” against them!
But considering where her character is right now, I suppose it might not
be the right time for her to start using her powers for good just yet. If the “Masters of Evil Lite” do make
a reappearance with some powerful friends, then Coulson will need Skye’s
earthquake abilities, along with perhaps some backup from Mike Peterson, aka
Deathlok.
To continue the train
of thought with Skye, the second important subplot for the episode follows Skye’s
attempts to control her powers.
May
calls in her ex-husband, Dr. Andrew Garner, a psychiatrist and professor at
Culver University in West Virginia, to consult with them and give
recommendations for how they should proceed with Skye.
We see Skye using the techniques that May
taught her to focus her breathing and suppress her emotions, but then when she’s
asleep and having a nightmare reminiscent of the mission when he shot Donnie
Gill, her powers begin to manifest themselves.
Garner observes that she isn’t really controlling her emotions so much
as burying them, something that does not work when your emotions trigger
seismic activity.
While she was watching
May fight Victor, Skye started shaking the stadium; when she suppressed those emotions,
all the seismic activity was directed inwards, causing ruptured capillaries in
her fingers and hairline fractures all along her shoulders and arms.
Garner’s verdict:
Skye needs to see a psychiatrist/counselor
(other than him), and she needs to be away from S.H.I.E.L.D. because the stress
of the organization is not good for her emotional state.
I’m really enjoying
Chloe Bennett’s portrayal of Skye through these first three episodes of Season
2.5.
We see all of the angst, fear, frustration,
and even some hints of the raw power she contains.
There was a single shot in this episode
during the big fight scene while she was making the stadium shake when you
could almost see a grin forming on her face.
Getting to see her development from being scared of her powers to
(eventually) learning to control them will probably be one of the most fun
parts of this half-season.
But I still
want to see her
using her powers sooner rather than later!
The third major plot
in the episode was the culmination of the slow reveal of Bobbi and Mack’s true
allegiances. Mack took Hunter to a
nearby safe house after knocking him out.
We see Mack trying to talk to Hunter, who is having none of it. Bobbi calls for an extraction for Mack and Hunter,
which is carried out at the end of the episode.
Then we get the big reveal from Mack that they are working for “S.H.I.E.L.D.…
the real S.H.I.E.L.D.” The last
shot is of a different S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle, this one with three stars on the
chest. I will save my thoughts on this
new “real S.H.I.E.L.D.” for Sunday, but I was a little surprised that they
revealed as much as they did in this episode.
It’s definitely an unexpected twist—which it really had to be after all
the build-up through the first half of the season.
The final scene of the
episode was the fallout from Gordon teleporting Cal away. We see Cal in the same “safe room” where
Gordon learned to understand his powers in “Aftershocks” (2x11), kneeling on
the floor, disheveled, surrounded by broken furniture. Gordon walks in and asks if he’s done yet, at
which point Cal turns on him, upset that he’d taken Cal away instead of Daisy/Skye. Gordon replies that Cal was making too much
of a spectacle, threatening to reveal the secret Inhumans, and that he’d been
sent to take him away to silence him.
Cal responded that he was sounding a battle cry, that S.H.I.E.L.D. would
no longer oppress “people like us.”
Gordon’s response, “There is no us,” may have made Inhumans fans all
over the world cry—“Of course there’ an ‘us’; the Inhumans are supposed to have
a highly-advanced and organized civilization!”
However, he followed it up with: “You’re not one of us. You’re a science experiment.” I was immediately reminded of Tony Stark’s
line to Captain America in The Avengers:
“You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers.
Everything ‘special’ about you came out of a bottle.” Can you say “conflict?”
Rewatching those scenes,
I was struck that Cal didn’t seem overly surprised to have a dude show up and
teleport him away.
Then at the end, Cal
seemed to know who Gordon was.
When
Gordon said it “wasn’t up to him” to decide what would happen to Cal, Cal
seemed to have some idea of who would be judging him—and he immediately started
straightening his tie and coat.
I think
this is building up to a massive reveal regarding this Inhuman
civilization.
Could we be seeing a Black
Bolt introduction soon?
If we do, I don’t
think it will be before
Avengers: Age of Ultron, since that might take
some attention off the movie.
But we could
certainly see one of the lesser members of the Royal Family make an appearance
before
Age of Ultron, followed by a Black Bolt cameo in May after
Age
of Ultron.
You may remember that I suggested
that in my
Sunday post.
Looking forward, I really
want to see some or all of the “Masters of Evil Lite” make a return at some
point with a few more heavy hitters, and for Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. to go up
against them with a couple heavy-hitting heroes of their own, specifically
Quake and Deathlok (though adding in Hawkeye to the mix would be pretty
awesome, too).
Overall I really enjoyed
this episode and can’t wait for next week!
What did you think of this episode?
Come back Friday for a post talking about the possibility of the Hulk
appearing on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
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