“I hope she’s asking me to appear in Age of Ultron.”
(screenshot courtesy of CTV.ca)
With Avengers: Age of Ultron imminent, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings back the “Dirty Half-Dozen” together for an entertaining episode filled with all the action to properly prepare you for the second Avengers installment this Friday. The full story below, after a quick refresher.
Previously on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Coulson’s plan to track down Hydra’s Dr. List involved bringing Grant Ward, Kara (the former Agent 33) and Sunil Bakshi to help out he, Fitz, Deathlok, and Hunter.
Meanwhile, Skye has Gordon teleport her and Cal to Milwaukee for a father/daughter day out (in actuality part of Jiaying’s plan to have Cal taken out of Afterlife). On Jiaying’s orders, Lincoln followed the two into Cal’s old medical office.
Hydra raided the office and made off with Deathlok and Lincoln by the end of it. This would lead Coulson to willingly turn himself in to S.H.I.E.L.D. agents upon their arrival.
Recap (Full Spoilers Ahead)
Perhaps it’s fitting that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s final episode which leads up to the highly-anticipated Avengers sequel featuring the founding six Avengers united against a new threat brought together its own motley crew of six for a temporary alliance to stop Hydra. Picking up from last week, Hydra forces have captured Deathlok and Lincoln and are seeking to experiment on the two much like what they have done to “the Twins” (who are alluded to in the episode). Coulson has turned himself into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody hoping to convince Commander Gonzales to let him take part in the mission, thus setting events into motion for Coulson to assemble his team.
However, it’s certainly not a happy reunion, and it’s all thanks to one Grant Ward and what he has done to each of them as a Hydra defector. It’s gotten to the point where an apparent plea for forgiveness from Ward to his ex-teammates falls on deaf ears. And while everyone’s just bitter at the prospect at having to work with Ward, Simmons simply just wants to deal with him permanently. Wanting to fulfill a promise that she’d kill Ward if she ever saw his face again, Simmons plots to eliminate him with the splinter bomb used by Hydra in an earlier episode. The plan backfires when she ends up killing Bakshi (Ward’s man inside Hydra) instead, leaving Ward a very disappointed man in how Simmons has changed. It seems as though that the traumatic events that left her and Fitz trapped inside a glass cage in the bottom of the water have changed her, further exacerbated by how she views Ward, the very man that caused that predicament in the first place.
The original Team Coulson’s attack on the Hydra base features quite possibly the finest action sequence this show has churned out thus far, made possible by the direction of Kevin Tancharoen. If that name sounds familiar to you, that’s because Tancharoen has brought his skillfully-directed action scenes to the show twice before – In “Face My Enemy” (featuring a May vs. May fight) and “One of Us” (the big melee between Cal’s superhuman friends and Coulson’s team) – and he certainly doesn’t disappoint here. In a fantastically choreographed and composed single-take sequence, Skye is seen effortlessly taking down Hydra soldiers with a precision that would make both May and Mockingbird quite proud. Much has been made about the single-shot hallway fight sequence from Netflix’s Daredevil series, and while the S.H.I.E.L.D. oner isn’t as beautifully brutal as that fight, it’s still a well-produced scene that’s is just a thrill to watch over and over again. What makes this scene even better is that all the action seen there was really Chloe Bennet performing those moves with expert precision. We know that the end game for Skye’s character arc is that she fully becomes Daisy “Quake” Johnson, and her action sequences here are just another step that builds towards that.
At his core, Ward has proven to be nothing but a selfish (for lack of a better term) asshole with his own best interests in mind. And while his choice to leave Kara/33 in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody so that they could “fix” her back to the woman she once was might seem like a shred of decency left in his heart, it could very well be another one of his self-serving schemes in play.
Elsewhere with the other non-original six, we see Lance making amends with Mack for all the earlier troubles relating to S.H.I.E.L.D. Beta, perhaps leading towards him patching things up with Bobbi (to naturally pave the way for the spinoff starring the two characters). And while we’re on the subject of Mockingbird, she continues her path on possibly seeing that Commander Gonzales just might not be the honorable man he holds himself as, showing considerable disapproval for his plans with Skye and Lincoln (who both end up with S.H.I.E.L.D. by episode’s end).
Of course, things naturally began to ratchet up in intensity during the final moments of the episode. The double whammy of Coulson conferring with Maria Hill about the intel on Strucker and Loki’s scepter found at the Hydra base and Raina seeing into a very metallic future was very much enough to leave fans salivating for more Marvel action in cinemas this Friday (or Thursday, as it were). Adding to that bit was the small revelation of Theta Protocol having something to do with the Avengers, though what exactly that relation could be is still unknown. Of course, there’s only one way – okay, two ways – to find out what happens next. On the other hand, Raina’s visions of “men made of metal” ready to tear cities apart seemed a bit too heavy-handed, but did the job well enough to help convince us to plunk down money for the Avengers this Friday.
While it’s nice that S.H.I.E.L.D. has considerable ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, its biggest strength lies when it has its own set of building blocks to play with, so to speak. While “Half-Dozen” is largely one final sales pitch for audiences to see Age of Ultron in theatres this weekend, it provides enough moments to help S.H.I.E.L.D. hurtle towards what’s sure to be a very eventful season finale in two weeks time.
Grade: 9.5/10
Notes From The Field
- The episode ended truly with an Age of Ultron clip showcasing Cap fighting the subtitular robot and Black Widow on a motorcycle. Given how the story closed out, it would’ve made thematic sense to show a bit of the Avengers opening a can of the whoop-ass on Hydra.
- What’s on the pipeline: I’ll be covering the aforementioned Age of Ultron in a special review next week, along with the usual S.H.I.E.L.D. rundown; the season finale of the show is a two-hour edition, so expect a mega-sized recap to go along with it when that comes on May 12th.
- Since there were not enough responses to the Twitter game last week, I’m extending it until next week. Join in, won’t you?
- S.H.I.E.L.D. 616, better known as the Bus, will be dearly missed. Let’s hope the new aerial transport has a fishtank.
- Aside from her show of combat prowess in the episode, Skye also put her powers to good use by utilizing them to resuscitate Lincoln, in a manner not unlike a defibrillator.
- Maybe Coulson knows a guy that can fix Deathlok up good as new.
- With how Coulson called for the Avengers to be brought in, I do wonder if they do know that he’s alive.
- “Time to bring in the Avengers.” (Don’t lie, you were exploding in excitement when Phil said that.)
- “Still happy I shot you.” “Me too.” “Should’ve aimed for his face.” (Skye and Fitz-Simmons discussing how to handle a former traitor)
- “I’m disappointed in you.” (When a psychopathic turncoat who has killed dozens of people calls you out on questionable behavior, you’ve screwed up.)
- “Go nuts. At least until Fury shows up and asks for it back. Oops… spoiler alert.” (SPOILER: Coulson Wins)
- “I thought her gift was spinning really fast to collect gold rings.” (Too bad she’s not blue or has an affinity for chili dogs.)
- I find it amusing that it’s now twice that Coulson has gotten the Avengers assembled, though this time didn’t involved any deaths on Phil’s part, thankfully.
Next Week
It’s S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. the Inhumans in the penultimate episode before the two-hour season finale. Plus, there might be some Age of Ultron aftermath happening, too. Be here next week. Same S.H.I.E.L.D. time, same S.H.I.E.L.D. channel. Oh, and don’t forget to watch this space for a special Age of Ultron review.
Marc Quill just happens to cover shows aired on Tuesdays at 9/8 on ABC that are also based on Marvel Comics. He’s also very Canadian. You can reach him on Twitter @MarcQuill.