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| Image Courtesy www.facebook.com/ AgentsofShield |
Tonight’s episode of Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D., “Love in the Time of Hydra” (2x14), gave us our first look
at what Ward and Agent 33 have been doing since the midseason finale left him
with a pair of gunshot wounds and her listless without a leader. In addition, we received further information
about the “Real S.H.I.E.L.D.” Coulson
also brought Skye to a cabin in the middle of the woods which served as Fury’s “safe
house” for gifted individuals.
The episode had a lot going
on, as just about every main character played a key role, along with important
secondary characters like Talbot, Ward, Agent 33—even Bakshi—and then they
introduced a number of entirely new characters as part of the “Real
S.H.I.E.L.D.” reveal. On the first
watching, the episode is extremely busy.
On the second watching, however, the major themes come out and it is
much easier to see how the episode coheres as a single narrative. If you were confused by it on the first
viewing, I highly recommend viewing it again and looking for how the different
subplots come together around a couple of related themes.
The two themes of the
episode—characters at different points on the journey to find themselves again
and organizations dealing with duplicitous members within their ranks—dovetail each
other very nicely, centering most especially around Ward and Agent 33. The two of them open the episode by abducting
a technician who can repair Agent 33’s face mask. The repaired mask gives her the ability to
capture and store up to three different faces, though it cannot switch between
voices, meaning that she spends nearly the entire episode using May’s
voice. However, repairing the mask doesn’t
help Agent 33 find herself; instead she starts experimenting with different
faces before attempting to seduce Ward while “wearing” Skye’s face (Note: Am I the only one still trying to figure out
where she got a picture of Skye to replicate her face? Just me?).
He doesn’t appreciate it, instead telling her that she needs to figure
out who she is. I think at this point we
can officially put the final nail in the “SkyWard” coffin. Sorry, guys.
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| Image Courtesy www.comingsoon.net |
As a way to rediscover
who she is, Agent 33 and Ward infiltrate the Air Force base where Bakshi is
imprisoned. 33 uses her mask to pose as
Talbot’s wife as well as a couple of different Air Force personnel (1 of whom
is a man—freaky) to get to Bakshi and break him out of prison. This is where the second theme comes into
play as General Talbot goes on a witch hunt to find the impersonator. He quickly puts the base on lockdown before
locking all the female personnel on base into a room and interrogating them. The glare he gave them had me half expecting
him to start waterboarding someone! He went
into such a rage that he even forced his actual wife onto the floor at the end
of a gun barrel before realizing his mistake.
That may have been the saddest moment of the episode, though his later
conversation with Coulson gave it some humor.
When Agent 33 and Ward
return to their hotel room with Bakshi, the episode ends with them attempting
to brainwash him. We’re left speculating
as to why. However, the episode does end
on a happy note because Agent 33 finally deactivated the mask, allowing Ward to
see her real face and telling him her real name—she’s finally discovered who
she really is. Unfortunately, she’s
about the only one in the episode who really manages to find herself.
We also see that first
theme—a character on a journey to find herself—at work in Skye. Skye is not nearly as far along on that
journey as Agent 33 was; she is still lost, terrified of her powers, willing to
do almost anything to keep them bottled up inside. This subplot began with Fitz and Simmons
having a conversation about Skye and comparing her to Captain America and the
Hulk. When Simmons starts talking about
the Hulk—and how Bruce Banner would almost certainly want to “cure” himself of
the Hulk—Skye gets anxious and begins causing the plane to shake. As a way to help Skye take control of her
powers, Coulson takes her to a cabin in the woods which Fury used (uses?) as a
safe house for “gifted” people like Skye.
Coulson then leaves
Skye at the cabin for the rest of the episode, along with a set of “gauntlets”
that Simmons had designed. These gauntlets—unlike
their comic book counterpart—are not designed to amplify her powers but rather
to diminish them—though there are apparently some unwanted side effects (which
Coulson of course didn’t explain). Long story
short, Skye is just as lost and confused as ever, still trying to repress her
powers, and with no clear idea of who she is now.
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| Image Courtesy marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com |
Ironically, Coulson’s
story about the red 1962 Chevy Corvette that he rebuilt with his father may be
the key to Skye rediscovering herself.
While in the quinjet, Coulson tells Skye about how he helped his father
rebuild a red Corvette, and that by rebuilding it he gained a new appreciation
for it. It now has the ability to fly
(Coulson never explains when it was given flight capability, but I think it was
something he added), but “it’s still that red ‘62 Corvette at heart.” No one would ever call the ability to fly a
problem that needs fixing; in fact, now that it has that capability, if it
could not fly then there would be a problem. In the same way, now that Skye has her
earthquake powers, she needs to embrace them.
Control them, yes, but not to get rid of them. For her to get rid of her powers would be
like Coulson taking out the repulsors on Lola.
Also, just as Lola remains a red ‘62 Corvette, Skye remains the same
person. She just has something more to
her. Skye is getting very close to that
breakthrough, but I think she’s going to need someone to actually spell it out
for her before she will get there.
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| Image Courtesy www.comicbook.com |
As part of the Skye
subplot, we also see Simmons continuing with her own identity crisis. Last season (up until the midseason finale of
season 2) she was extremely confident and sure of herself; now she is nearly as
lost as Skye. She continues talking
about trying to “cure” or “fix” Skye as though that is the only thing that
matters. Her doubts and fears are
starting to poison all of her relationships, but especially with Skye and
Fitz. As of now she still isn’t “GenocidalSimmons,” but sooner or later I think she’s going to reach a breaking point and
have to either come back or go all the way there.
The fourth woman
suffering from something of an identity crisis in the episode is Bobbi. I don’t think that she’s suffering from the
same level of identity crisis as Skye or Agent 33, but it seems clear from her
interactions with Gonzalez (the head of the “Real S.H.I.E.L.D.”) and Hunter
that she still has feelings for Hunter and doesn’t want this double-cross to
ruin their relationship. I don’t know
whether we can extend this to include doubts about the “Real S.H.I.E.L.D.” or
about her opinion of Coulson, but it looked to me like there was more going on
in Bobbi’s mind than she was letting on.
However, this subplot—as well as the Simmons moments—really felt like it
was too much for the episode. It worked
thematically with Skye and Agent 33, but I felt like either the Bobbi/Hunter
subplot or the Skye/Coulson subplot should have been moved to a different
episode to make more space for the “meat” of the episode: Ward and Agent 33.
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| Image Courtesy www.comicbook.com |
The fourth subplot of
the episode centered on Mack, and specifically on Coulson’s and May’s
suspicions of him. This mirrored General
Talbot’s hunt for the mole on his base very nicely. Where Talbot knew there was a mole but didn’t
know who, Coulson and May knew there was something up with Mack, but didn’t
know what. Their suspicion of Mack helps
to set up what looks to be the main plot for next week’s episode: the “Real S.H.I.E.L.D.” will start moving
against Coulson’s team, while Coulson and May ferret out the moles within their
midst.
Looking forward, I am
curious to see what Skye will decide regarding her “gauntlets,” as well as how
she will make use of her time at the cabin.
Will we see her starting to experiment and make better use of her powers
in next week’s episode? The teaser for
next week’s episode certainly looked like they left her very few options other
than “Quaking out” to escape from the “Real S.H.I.E.L.D.” I also want to see how Hunter’s escape will
play out and affect Bobbi’s mission to take down Coulson. Is Bobbi completely working for the “Real
S.H.I.E.L.D.,” or is she playing them for Coulson? I really hope it’s the latter, but either way
it’s making for an interesting plotline!
Overall, though on the
first watching this episode felt like it had too much going on, watching it
again helped make things fit together. I
enjoyed this episode, though not as much as the previous episodes this
half-season. It seemed like this was one
of those episodes that has to have a lot going on just so they can get all of
the pieces in place for the next couple of episodes when all the action starts
going down.
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On Friday I will have
another post with my reactions to the “Real S.H.I.E.L.D.” reveal from this
episode. However, before that I will be
posting the first in a mini-series of articles looking forward to the release
of Daredevil on April 10.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is going to be a very brief overview of the
different characters they are bringing to Netflix as well as the Defenders
team. If you want to get an email when I
publish these articles—and whenever I publish a new article—go to the top of
the page and enter your email address in the box labeled “Subscribe to Mostly
MCU Reviews” and click “Submit.”
What did you think of “Love
in the Time of Hydra?” Was there one
plot from this episode that you really enjoyed and want to see more of? Let me know in the comments!
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