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| Image Courtesy www.marvel.com |
The ninth episode of Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D., “Repairs,” offers us our second horror-inspired episode of
the series—and along the way provides a potential crossover with either Thor:
Ragnarok or Doctor Strange! Oh,
and there are also a few fun teases for what’s ahead in season 3. What strange (*ducks*) times we live
in!
Warning: Retro-Reviews contain spoilers for all of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seasons 1 and 2.
This episode tells the
story of Hannah Hutchins, a quality control engineer at a particle accelerator
lab which had multiple reports of damaged or loosened couplings. She replaced the part, double-checked it, and
certified it as safe. However, shortly
before the episode begins, the particle accelerator exploded, killing four
technicians. Afterward, strange things
begin happening around Hannah. She is
ostracized by the townspeople, who blame her for the accident. However, whenever someone threatens her,
things begin moving for no reason: a gas
station attendant has things thrown at him before the gas pumps explode; a
police car shifts into gear and runs into a crowd of bystanders harassing
her. All of the incidents are centered
around Hannah, leading S.H.I.E.L.D. to believe that the explosion has somehow
given her telekinetic powers—something which S.H.I.E.L.D. has never before
succeeded in verifying. I remember
during season 1 that there were some complaints about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
rejecting the possibility of extreme powers like telepathy and
telekinesis—powers which are fairly common in the comics. However, since then we have been introduced
to one of those “impossible” abilities during season 2 in the form of Raina’s
precognition and clairvoyance. Will the
Inhumans introduce us to telekinesis during season 3? I actually like the way that Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. has introduced the more farfetched aspects of the MCU: at the beginning the agents believe the same
thing we do, that some things are just not possible. Now, however, we have been introduced to those
“impossible” things at the same time that they have.
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| Image Courtesy www.wormholeriders.net |
S.H.I.E.L.D. sends in
Coulson’s team, and Coulson makes contact with Hannah, along with May and
Ward. May sedates Hannah and brings her
to the plane, where the team examines all the evidence from the explosion. Rather than finding evidence of telekinetic
powers, however, Simmons’ examination of the data reveals that the explosion
somehow opened a portal to a vastly different world. In fact, all of the strange things happening
around Hannah have been done by one of the technicians, Tobias Ford, who has
become trapped between Earth and this other world. He now has the “ability” to pass between the
two worlds, but each time he dematerializes and rematerializes, less of him
returns to earth. So what world is this? There are a couple of possibilities. The first is that he really is being sent to
“Hel” (with one “l”), the Asgardian underworld which is actually one of the
Nine Realms. The second is that he is
trapped between Earth/Midgard and Muspelheim, the realm of Surtur—this is the
more likely of the two Asgardian realms based on the visual representation we
see in the holographic recreation of the explosion. Regardless of which, either of these options
opens up the possibility that this incident could lead into Thor: Ragnarok
somehow—perhaps Tobias’ presence on Muspelheim causes Surtur to be released for
some reason. The third possibility is
that this is not another world at all, but is instead another dimension
entirely—a concept which Marvel is reportedly planning to introduce to the
movies with Doctor Strange. Could
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have given us our first glimpse of either
Muspelheim or inter-dimensional travel?
It is certainly an intriguing possibility.
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| Image Courtesy www.facebook.com/AgentsofShield |
Over the course of the
episode, we also get several glimpses into May’s back story—back story which
would be fleshed-out more in “Melinda” (2x17).
Skye asks Fitz and Simmons why May is called the Cavalry, and they spin
her a ridiculous story about May taking on 100 bad guys by riding into their
compound on horseback, an M249 light machine gun in either hand (now if she
actually did have the ability to shoot two M249s accurately by hand,
that probably would be a superpower!).
However, when Skye mentions this story to Ward, he “corrects” her,
explaining that the story of the Cavalry doesn’t involve machine guns or
horses, but rather that May rescued a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents singlehanded
with nothing but a single handgun.
According to Ward, the reason May does not like being called the “Cavalry”
is because she just wants to do her job without drawing attention to herself.
By the end of the
episode, however, the story has changed once more, as Coulson explains to Skye
that the mission involved them serving as the “Welcome Wagon” for a potential
gifted, whose followers took a S.H.I.E.L.D. team captive along with a local
girl. May defeated the followers or
worshipers of the gifted without any weapons, got all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents
out alive, but lost herself in the process.
Coulson tells Skye that May used to be like her—fun, pulling pranks,
breaking rules. After the incident in
Bahrain, however, May became more guarded and locked down. We do not learn until season 2 just why May
changed so dramatically: the girl who
was taken was actually the gifted woman’s daughter, and had the ability to
control people’s minds. In the end, May
was forced to kill the girl to save everyone from her powers. We can’t know for certain if they had already
decided on what the original incident would be—or that it would involve
Inhumans—when they wrote this episode, but it’s cool how closely they tied
May’s back story with the Inhumans reveal.
I really liked the mystery behind May, and how they teased it out and
used it to tie things together.
The episode makes use
of a lot of horror elements. There is
Hannah’s fear of the unknown, and the mystery of all the unexplained incidents
at the beginning of the episode. Then
there is Hannah’s (and Tobias’) repeated assertions of being punished by
God—demonic possession, or at least demonic activity, is a key element in some
horror movies. Tobias’ first
introduction is as nothing but a shadow in the background. Fitz talks about an unsuspecting victim, even
as Tobias is standing behind the unsuspecting Fitz. Tobias unexpectedly attacks Simmons before
plunging the plane into darkness. He
prevents them from calling for help. The
scene with him sneaking up on May—one frame he’s there, the next he’s not—is
like something right out of a horror movie, with the added twist of May
disappearing right before he would have attempted to kill her. The fight between May and Tobias in the barn
also has horror elements, particularly in Hannah’s terrified screaming. The horror elements are noticeable,
especially after repeated viewings, but it definitely does not distract from
the plot.
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| Image Courtesy www.facebook.com/AgentsofShield |
Skye also gets a lot
of character development in this episode—including some serious foreshadowing
of her role in the series going forward.
When Coulson first announces that they are going to be conducting an
“Index Asset Evaluation and Intake,” he tells Skye that he wants her to watch
so she knows “how to deal with someone with newfound abilities.” However, who is the next person the team
deals with who has newfound superhuman abilities? Unless I’m mistaken, it is Skye herself after
she undergoes Terrigenesis. And when
they were dealing with Skye, she was freaking out almost as much as Hannah was
in this episode. The episode ends with
Coulson and Skye talking about her handling of the situation, when Coulson
tells her that she is special. Skye’s
response—“Guess I’m full of surprises”—sounds in retrospect like the
showrunners are bashing us over the head with a sledgehammer trying to say that
she is going to turn out to be someone special.
At the time, however, I just glossed over it as part of their
banter. Coulson’s follow-up is also
significant. He tells Skye that he
wanted her paying attention to the process “because someday, you’ll be really
good at it. Even the best.” Given the way that season 2 ended, Skye is
going to have a lot of opportunities to approach people with newfound
superhuman—dare I say “Inhuman”—abilities because she will be responsible for
approaching new Inhumans along with recruiting members for her Secret
(Warriors) team.
This episode showcases
both Skye’s compassion and her detective skills. She has incredible compassion for Hannah,
which pushes her to try to help Hannah understand what she’s going
through. When they discover Tobias, Skye
is perhaps the only one who thinks of that as a “good thing” because Hannah
does not have to live with uncontrollable telekinetic abilities. Skye is also the only one to realize Tobias’
motivations. And she actively tries to
befriend everyone on the team. I don’t
know if Skye has ever been my favorite character, but she is certainly
up there, particularly now that she is a genuine superhero. And getting to see that progression over the
course of the series has been a lot of fun.
I really enjoyed this
episode, even though it was very disconnected from the half-season-long story
of Coulson’s quest to discover what happened to him. We can see how the character development
progresses through the season, which I think is well done, but I think the lack
of concern by Coulson with what happened at T.A.H.I.T.I. would have fit better
much earlier in the season, before they started dropping major hints about it.
What did you think of
“Repairs”? Do you like it when Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D. adds in elements from other genres?
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