Agents of SHIELD S02E14 Review: Not Nick Fury. Or Maria Hill.

Agents of SHIELD, Season 2, Episode 14: Love in the Time of Hydra

So having wrapped up some outstanding side-plots – Calvin Zabo and the rest of Hydra – we’re finally focusing on two main things for Agents of SHIELD, namely Skye’s condition as an Inhuman, as well as the whole ‘Real SHIELD’ deal with Mack and Bobbi. Both this episode and the next are really focused on these two plots, and really benefits from it as compared to the rather ADD hodgepodge of plot lines (Hydra! Diviner! Grant Ward! Skye’s family! Alien writings! More Hydra!) that the first half of the second season had.

Well, this episode has an unexpected partial focus on Grant Ward and Agent 33, and while I think it’s a bit distracting, the rest of the episode does have enough content to carry its own weight. The little side-plot with Ward and Agent 33 was pretty fun and tugs at the heart-strings as Agent 33 keeps trying to find some way to repay Ward’s kindness – at one point transforming her face into Skye for some sexytimes – while Ward just wants to help her get through this confused phase of herself that Ward himself has been through. It’s some nice little character development that doesn’t make Ward any less sympathetic. Ward still goes around killing people and forcing torture on poor Sunil Bakshi, but he at least seems to have a soft spot for broken birds like him.

Also the Skye-Ward ship seems to have sunk something fierce.

Agent 33’s nanomask has been upgraded so she can change her face into basically whoever she scans. It’s a nice little upgrade to her powers and no doubt lets the makeup team breathe a sigh of relief. She and Ward break into General Talbot’s military base and I do like how Talbot, while not managing to capture Agent 33, was at least competent enough to make sure his soldiers know to shoot him if he’s not where he’s supposed to be, and was savvy enough to round up all female personnel and while he’s still a jackass he makes it clear that he knows his personnel in his own way. And he’s even wary enough to demand his wife get on the ground when it’s not clear if she’s the infiltrator. While that last bit was hilarious as hell, I do like that we make fun of Talbot without really undermining his competence – Ward and 33 are just that good.

I also do like how Agent 33 gets some closure, and we get to revisit poor Bakshi who is now strapped into the hypnotizing machine of compliance or whatever. I do like how that scene played out. Ward and 33 are all like ‘this is going to be a long night’, seemingly indicating possible ensuing of sexy times, but apparently they’re planning on torturing Bakshi.

While all that happens, Skye’s shipped off by Coulson to a nice little cabin (which according to Coulson is where Steve Rogers himself stayed after defrosting) to keep her remote. I do like how Coulson isn’t sugaring up the fact that she’s being kept away from society, but makes it clear that they’re all watching out for her and she’s not exactly a prisoner. That speech about how Lola, at her heart, is still a Corvette even if she can fly and whatnot, is a pretty apt description of Skye-with-powers and I do like how Coulson really acts like a fatherly figure. And gives Skye candy. Candy is great.

At the very least, though, poor Skye is being taken off the team, which is a shame but what can you do. Simmons have made Skye a pair of fancy sci-fi gloves that will apparently take away her powers with some ‘side effects’ that the show kind of skits around actually saying what specifically. I want to see how this’ll play out.

We get Fitz and Simmons arguing about Skye as well, with Simmons comparing Skye’s powers rather unfavourably to that of the Hulk’s, some discussion about the Avengers and whatnot, while Fitz delivers a pretty damning ‘you suck’ speech to Simmons saying how she’s so afraid of Skye and Fitz changing that she herself has changed as well. I do like how Simmons isn’t turned into some kind of super-anti-metahuman bigot and still pretty visibly caring of Skye. Still not really sold on this new direction they took with Simmons, that’s for sure, and the show’s still kind of confused on what direction they want to go with her. Fitz on the other hand is basically nearly mostly healed other than the odd stutter here and there which I don’t think is particularly realistic but I like Fitz so I don’t care.

The main meat of this episode is the revelation of the Real SHIELD from last episode’s stinger, and they want to have a transparency (despite employing, y’know, double agents) instead of all the compartmentalized secrets that the old SHIELD had. And I do like that while they’re definitely antagonizing Coulson’s group, they are still the good guys. I do like how this actually almost justifies the ridiculous influx of new characters earlier this season. I still think they could’ve handled the introductions a lot more smoothly, but at least they’re going somewhere with it. Having the mercenary Hunter be our POV to having ‘Real SHIELD’ explained is also really nice since Hunter has a mostly neutral view against both SHIELDs… though this episode makes it clear that he prefers Coulson a lot more – sure, Coulson has his problems and he hogs karaoke night (hee hee) but I do like how a nominal mercenary and loose cannon like Hunter actually sticks by his guns and defends Coulson.

Also he’s rightfully pissed off at Bobbi, and by the end of this episode manages to escape on a submarine pod or something. Bobbi at least is keeping true to her word that she specifically won’t be stopping Hunter, but everyone else will be. Thought the little argument about their relationship as opposed to the fact that she’s hiding a second SHIELD is a bit wonky, but I do like Hunter more and more as this season goes on. Such an asshole, but what an asshole.

They’re apparently led by Agent Robert Gonzales, who seems to be an experienced and mostly nice fellow if a bit harsh. There’s also this token douchebag Tomas Calderon who we didn’t see much off this episode, and rounding up the council are Anne Weaver (the headmistress of SHIELD-Hogwarts that went AWOL during the whole Hydra-is-here from season one), as well as Bobbi and Mack. I do like the inclusion of Weaver because I was wondering what happened to her for a while. But Gonzales gets the most screentime and I find him really likable. Really, the only real fault that ‘Real SHIELD’ has is that it’s not ran by the characters we all know and love, and they have some fantastic racism regarding Skye’s alien powers and especially Coulson’s alien-assisted revival. And while Bobbi and Mack are kind of biased on Coulson’s fixation on the alien writings, they kind of left out the fact that, y’know, Whitehall and his Hydra buddies are also gunning for the alien stuff.

There really isn’t much more to say about it, the revelation of a second SHIELD is a pretty neatly done twist and one that kind of feels fresh. Both SHIELDs are clearly good guys, so it’s a nice break from ‘let’s fight evil organizations’ that is feeling a bit stale after we pulled the Hydra card twice. Also the fact that it isn’t just Nick Fury again, or Maria Hill (which was what I was betting on) was also a welcome twist. Overall it’s a pretty solid episode with some excellent revelations, and some nice moments for secondary characters – Ward, 33, Hunter and Talbot all get some great screen time and they rarely do get development lately.