As a review of Agents of SHIELD, this is post two of what is planned to be a six part series. If you missed the first post, you can check that out here:
Episode Five: (10.22.13): Girl in the Flower Dress. Remember back in the pilot episode where we learned about Centipede? Well, we learn more in this episode because they're back! This episode opens with a street performer named Chan in Hong Kong who ends his show by throwing a fireball at the crowd. Then, the girl in the flower dress (Raina) convinces him she can help him, gains his trust, and then he is kidnapped by Centipede. The problem is, this man was supposed to be under the watchful eye of SHIELD, so the question then is how did Centipede find out about him? Well, I think by now the answer is obvious... Rising Tide. So then of course everybody blames Skye, and she leads them to a member of Rising Tide that she thinks could have done it, all the while claiming innocence. Hey plot twist! Not only does she know this guy, but she KNOWS him (yeah, he's her boyfriend... or was. Not really sure if it's 'is' or 'was'). Well, of course SHIELD figures this out, and both Skye and Miles (her man friend) are taken back in handcuffs, questioned, and it turns out Miles is a jerk who gave up information for money. Back to Hong Kong, Chan is in Centipede's lab and they are injecting him with Extremis to make his powers stronger which successfully turns him into the living embodiment of the name they gave him - Scorch. Well, as can be expected, SHIELD raids the facility, some people die, most people live, and they have to make Scorch blow up (see pilot episode for causes to the explosions) before he kills them all. Once SHIELD saves the day, Miles is let go, but not before he gets a pretty tracking bracelet so SHIELD knows where he is and what he's doing online, all the time. Skye gets an identical bracelet, and ultimately reveals to Coulson her motivation for working with Rising Tide and SHIELD all this time. She is looking for her parents who had some connection to SHIELD, and Coulson promises to help her. In the closing scene, Raina is in prison and meets up with a guy who she ultimately asks to contact the Clairvoyant for her.
Episode Six: (11.5.13): F.Z.Z.T. This was an emotional episode, to say the least. At the beginning (but after the opener), Coulson is taking a physical, and Ward is testing out a new weapon that Fitz and Simmons made, and says it is an ounce too heavy. After he leaves, they (and Skye) start making fun of him. There are a number of people who are mysteriously dying, but nobody knows why, so SHIELD is called in to investigate. It is thought at first that someone is killing these people, all of whom have deaths involving electrostatic anomalies and levitation. It turns out that the cause is actually an alien virus that was gotten from a Chitauri helmet (salvaged from the battle in New York, in the Avengers movie) which essentially turns infected individuals into electrostatic bombs. They find the helmet in a fire station, and take it for further inspection/safe keeping. It turns out that Simmons is infected by the virus. And let the feels begin. SHIELD says to sacrifice Simmons for the rest of the team and Coulson essentially says "screw you" and ignores the order. Fitz and Simmons work together to find a cure, and Simmons, thinking there is no cure (and not knowing the last attempt at a cure actually worked), knocks Fitz out with a fire extinguisher and jumps out of the plane. At this point in the episode, I may or may not have cried a little bit. And by that I mean I did. Cuz holy shit she was gonna die, and she sacrificed herself for the team! So noble. Anyway, Fitz gets up, grabs a parachute, and was going to jump after her, but Ward ran it, grabbed the chute, and jumped. In the end, all lives are saved, Coulson yells at Simmons, Ward mimics Skye, Fitz and Simmons' mocking of him, and Coulson confides in May about the physical. Turns out nobody else ordered it and he was doing it because he didn't feel the same since he died. She then refers to a personal life event (that we still don't quite know) and tells Coulson that he can't expect to feel the same after dying.
Episode Seven: (11.12.13): The Hub. In this episode, we meet SHIELD director Victoria Hand at the SHIELD Hub Base, and she gives the team (specifically Ward and Fitz) a mission.Their mission is to go out to South Ossetia and take down a weaponized device called the Overkill. One can only guess where THAT name came from. Before they leave, Simmons gives Fitz a sandwich. Specifically, a prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella sandwich with just a hint of pesto aioli. Or, if you prefer, the most romantic sandwich ever, between two people who got some serious flirt on in this episode. While at the Hub, we discover another feature of the pretty tracking bracelet Coulson gave to Skye two episodes previous. It's magnetic and keeps her from crossing doorways into areas for which she doesn't have clearance. Because of this, she is basically forced to hang out with Simmons, and the two of them try to get more information on why Ward and Fitz are being sent on a mission together. Of course this doesn't go as planned, and it ends up in another SHIELD agent being tranquilized by Simmons, but ya know, that's just another day in the life of SHIELD. Unfortunately, this leads to them finding out that there is no extraction plan for this mission. Without an extraction plan, the agents are basically just left for dead. So while Skye is trying to convince Coulson of this (and find out if he knew or not) Ward and Fitz are running from some bad dudes with dogs. Being the typical goofy guy he is, Fitz gets hungry and pulls out his sandwich of love. Or, if you prefer, his prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella sandwich with just a hint of pesto aioli (Consumer Warning: drooling is normal. Do not be alarmed). Well, Ward's a bit more clever than Fitz. If you are being chased by dogs, you don't pull out the worlds best sandwich. They can smell that shit. (And I think I can too). But Fitz is an absolute sweetie, and even offers Ward some. Ward takes the entire sandwich and throws it in the water nearby, bringing about the best line of the episode, by Fitz: "You've destroyed the world's most dangerous sandwich. Congratulations!" While all this is going on, back at the Hub, Skye is trying to get information on her parents and comes across a file with pictures of a dead woman. Coulson directs May to investigate further. Coulson in the mean time is trying to figure out why he doesn't have clearance to his Tahiti file even though he is level 8. Well, as can be expected, through all of this, Coulson and the rest of the team fly in and save the day. Literally, they fly the plane in and save Ward and Fitz. This episode leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but there is a lot to come in the future that will hopefully answer things for us.
Episode Eight: (11.19.13): The Well. If you haven't seen Thor: The Dark World yet, and you haven't seen this episode, and you absolutely hate even the smallest hint of a spoiler (like me) stop reading. If that doesn't apply to you, please, continue. The reason I say that is because this episode follows after the Thor movie. I waited two weeks to watch this episode so I could see Thor first, and I'm glad I did. (That, paired to the craziness of college finals is the reason for this post being so delayed). At the beginning of this episode, some small clips from the Thor movie are shown, and quite frankly that in itself would have upset me if I hadn't seen Thor first (cuz I hate spoilers). Anyway, this episode was insane, and a bit emotional. The task for the team in this episode is to try to find the pieces of an Asgardian Berserker Staff that a group of individuals (specifically a Paganist hate group) are searching for/finding. See, this isn't just any old Asgardian relic. It's called a Berserker Staff for a reason. It pulls out the darkest parts of an individual from the deepest part of their soul, and turns them into a raging beast overcome with anger. When Ward gets hold of a piece of the Staff, he is forced to remember a traumatic childhood memory of his brother, and a well. As can be expected, he is more angry and also has increased strength. Basically, he just turns into a moody jerk. As the team tries to find the pieces, and the group responsible, they cross paths with a professor who has hints about the location of the staff. Well, here's a fun twist, he's no normal professor. He's a freaking Asgardian living on Earth undiscovered until now. While searching for the last piece of the staff, the team battles the hate group, and ultimately the team wins and gets the staff back into safe hands, but not before May takes hold of it and does some serious damage. Coulson convinces The Asgardian professor to relocate to Portland, with the promise that he could meet Thor the next time he's in town. At the end of the episode, Coulson has a nightmare about his time in Tahiti, making us wonder all the more about what happened to him.
There have already been two more episodes aired, but in keeping with the pattern of doing four episodes per post, those will have to wait until the end of January when the next two episodes have been aired and I have the time to sit down and write about them. Until then, best wishes fellow SHIELD lovers!
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