The team are on a Level 8 mission to track down the 'Overkill device' … too bad Agent May still has some tai chi to do
SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for people watching Agents of SHIELD. Don't read on if you haven't seen episode seven.
Click here to read Graeme's episode six blogpost.
"I didn't realise Big Brother was this … big." That's what Skye, still tagged with a probationary security bracelet after her recent betrayals, said when entering The Hub, an enormous SHIELD operations facility. With so many agents striding around looking purposeful, it suddenly seemed not only plausible but practical that the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division would manufacture its own branded bottled water – a logical step toward vertical integration. (How long before our heroes visit "The Sweatshop", the SHIELD outpost that churns out all those dark suits?)
If the intention was to put some open water between "big SHIELD" and Agent Coulson's semi-autonomous team of rascally cut-ups and rigid ninjas, it worked. None of them looked totally comfortable amid the bustling, Pentagon-esque hive, ruled over by queen bee Victoria Hand (guest star Saffron Burrows, who gave off a strong vibe of administrative menace).
While Coulson – fresh from a Bond-esque opening sequence that involved breaking out of a Siberian prison – preached a gospel of "trusting the system" to the team, combat specialist Ward and lab sprat Fitz found themselves on secondment to Hand. They were tasked with a Level 8 mission: tracking down and disabling a sonic weapon that deactivated other weapons – the so-called "Overkill device"– in the fractious Caucasus region. To emphasise how unqualified Fitz was for field work, he had a Frank Spencer-esque interaction with a Hub sliding door. Even with a special packed lunch prepared by Simmons, his chances of survival looked slim.
Sensing something was up, Skye bullied Simmons into helping her uncover more operational details about the Level 8 mission, even when she could be heisting the mysterious redacted SHIELD document that alluded to her parents. While the girls made mischief in the identikit corridors of The Hub, Ward and Fitz bickered and bonded while tracking down the Overkill device, using an entertaining mix of hi-tech gadgetry (an x-ray scanner that rolled up like an Athena poster) and more old-fashioned espionage techniques (a camouflaged sleeping bag).
After an amusingly one-sided conversation with a tai chi-performing Agent May, Coulson uncoupled from his long-held loyalty to the SHIELD hierarchy and butted heads with Hand. Despite the vast resources at her disposal, she seemingly had no plans to extract Ward and Fitz, and clearly knew more than she was letting on, teasing Coulson with Tahiti chat and ribbing him about "coming back to the big leagues". Her half-smile after he launched his own unauthorised operation to rescue his boys suggested that … maybe that's what she'd planned all along? To goad Coulson into incriminating himself?
Despite what could charitably be called an avalanche of insubordination, including but not limited to hacking Level 8 security and incapacitating poor Agent Sitwell, Coulson's SHIELD team scarpered after completing their mission. Amid all the hullabaloo, Coulson had accessed the SHIELD document Skye had dedicated her life to uncovering, and he broke the news to her that the only relevant information it contained was that she had been dropped off at the orphanage by a SHIELD agent. Mysterious and, of course, convenient.
The further revelation – that the female SHIELD agent was subsequently killed – Coulson kept between himself and May. "Some secrets are meant to stay secret," he said, although he didn't look that convinced in the final pre-credits scene, where his request to access his own "death and recovery" report was denied. He didn't have clearance.
With Fitz in the field, this episode felt more like Get Smart than The A-Team, and while all the business in The Hub seemed a little rote, watching the usually imperturbable Coulson struggle with some of his most deeply-held beliefs gave it a bit of emotional weight. It would be nice to give Agent May something to do other than tai chi, though. Ming-Na Wen's default expression of haughty disdain/boredom may not even be acting anymore.
*Notes and observations
*
• Simmons mentions "the Triskelion" on arrival at The Hub. In the comics, the Triskelion is a towering SHIELD island base that is also rumoured to feature in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
• This episode was originally titled "The Sandwich Incident", and in all fairness, that prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella baguette (with a drizzle of Simmons' homemade pesto aioli) looked extremely tasty.
• So the Bus can hover. Useful for short runways.
• Good to see Maximiliano Hernández reprise his role as Agent Sitwell from Thor and Avengers Assemble, but it would be interesting to know how the meeting went. "OK, Max, we want you back for Captain America 2 alongside Robert Redford. But we also need you to be in the SHIELD TV show, where you will creep on and then get stun-gunned by a young Englishwoman. We good?"
*Biff! Bang! Quip-ow!
*
• "Can you ask what beers they have on tap?" Fitz clearly has his priorities straight in a South Ossetian tavern.
• "He's acting like a robot version of himself right now." Skye moans to Simmons about Coulson's inflexibility … or is it something else?
• "I can't be a part of your bad-girl shenanigans. I like following the rules and doing what's expected of me. It makes me feel nice." Simmons vocalises what some viewers seem to dislike about her character.
• "This is a mission, not a picnic." Ward throws away Fitz's beloved baguette.
*The SHIELD TV club
*
While Fitz is packing his rucksack in preparation for his field mission, sharp-eyed viewers may have spotted a Tardis model on his shelf. That a lab geek would be into Doctor Who isn't really that surprising, and Fitz's Bus quarters are positively spartan compared to all the old memorabilia Coulson has crammed in his office.
*Has anyone mentioned Hawkeye yet?
*
You get the sense that Victoria Hand is ruthless, and she's killed this running gag stone-dead. After six episodes with nary a mention of Avengers bowman and longstanding knock-knock joke Clint Barton, she references both him and Black Widow to shut down Coulson's objections to her strategy. "Barton, Romanoff, they never have an extraction plan …"
*Meanwhile, in the real world …*
Already a hit in global markets, Thor: The Dark World opened equally strong in the US last weekend with $85m. Agents of SHIELD producers will be hoping that translates into buzz for next week's episode The Well, which has an Asgardian flavour.
Agents of SHIELD and Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary blogs extensively and entertainingly about his music for the show, with performance videos and musical notation. For The Hub, he wrote a new harp version of the Coulson theme to reflect the dapper super-agent "at his most vulnerable".
What did you think of Agents of SHIELD episode seven? Does the prospect of a Thor tie-in excite you, or should the show be focusing on doing its own thing? Let us know below Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 days ago.
SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for people watching Agents of SHIELD. Don't read on if you haven't seen episode seven.
Click here to read Graeme's episode six blogpost.
"I didn't realise Big Brother was this … big." That's what Skye, still tagged with a probationary security bracelet after her recent betrayals, said when entering The Hub, an enormous SHIELD operations facility. With so many agents striding around looking purposeful, it suddenly seemed not only plausible but practical that the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division would manufacture its own branded bottled water – a logical step toward vertical integration. (How long before our heroes visit "The Sweatshop", the SHIELD outpost that churns out all those dark suits?)
If the intention was to put some open water between "big SHIELD" and Agent Coulson's semi-autonomous team of rascally cut-ups and rigid ninjas, it worked. None of them looked totally comfortable amid the bustling, Pentagon-esque hive, ruled over by queen bee Victoria Hand (guest star Saffron Burrows, who gave off a strong vibe of administrative menace).
While Coulson – fresh from a Bond-esque opening sequence that involved breaking out of a Siberian prison – preached a gospel of "trusting the system" to the team, combat specialist Ward and lab sprat Fitz found themselves on secondment to Hand. They were tasked with a Level 8 mission: tracking down and disabling a sonic weapon that deactivated other weapons – the so-called "Overkill device"– in the fractious Caucasus region. To emphasise how unqualified Fitz was for field work, he had a Frank Spencer-esque interaction with a Hub sliding door. Even with a special packed lunch prepared by Simmons, his chances of survival looked slim.
Sensing something was up, Skye bullied Simmons into helping her uncover more operational details about the Level 8 mission, even when she could be heisting the mysterious redacted SHIELD document that alluded to her parents. While the girls made mischief in the identikit corridors of The Hub, Ward and Fitz bickered and bonded while tracking down the Overkill device, using an entertaining mix of hi-tech gadgetry (an x-ray scanner that rolled up like an Athena poster) and more old-fashioned espionage techniques (a camouflaged sleeping bag).
After an amusingly one-sided conversation with a tai chi-performing Agent May, Coulson uncoupled from his long-held loyalty to the SHIELD hierarchy and butted heads with Hand. Despite the vast resources at her disposal, she seemingly had no plans to extract Ward and Fitz, and clearly knew more than she was letting on, teasing Coulson with Tahiti chat and ribbing him about "coming back to the big leagues". Her half-smile after he launched his own unauthorised operation to rescue his boys suggested that … maybe that's what she'd planned all along? To goad Coulson into incriminating himself?
Despite what could charitably be called an avalanche of insubordination, including but not limited to hacking Level 8 security and incapacitating poor Agent Sitwell, Coulson's SHIELD team scarpered after completing their mission. Amid all the hullabaloo, Coulson had accessed the SHIELD document Skye had dedicated her life to uncovering, and he broke the news to her that the only relevant information it contained was that she had been dropped off at the orphanage by a SHIELD agent. Mysterious and, of course, convenient.
The further revelation – that the female SHIELD agent was subsequently killed – Coulson kept between himself and May. "Some secrets are meant to stay secret," he said, although he didn't look that convinced in the final pre-credits scene, where his request to access his own "death and recovery" report was denied. He didn't have clearance.
With Fitz in the field, this episode felt more like Get Smart than The A-Team, and while all the business in The Hub seemed a little rote, watching the usually imperturbable Coulson struggle with some of his most deeply-held beliefs gave it a bit of emotional weight. It would be nice to give Agent May something to do other than tai chi, though. Ming-Na Wen's default expression of haughty disdain/boredom may not even be acting anymore.
*Notes and observations
*
• Simmons mentions "the Triskelion" on arrival at The Hub. In the comics, the Triskelion is a towering SHIELD island base that is also rumoured to feature in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
• This episode was originally titled "The Sandwich Incident", and in all fairness, that prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella baguette (with a drizzle of Simmons' homemade pesto aioli) looked extremely tasty.
• So the Bus can hover. Useful for short runways.
• Good to see Maximiliano Hernández reprise his role as Agent Sitwell from Thor and Avengers Assemble, but it would be interesting to know how the meeting went. "OK, Max, we want you back for Captain America 2 alongside Robert Redford. But we also need you to be in the SHIELD TV show, where you will creep on and then get stun-gunned by a young Englishwoman. We good?"
*Biff! Bang! Quip-ow!
*
• "Can you ask what beers they have on tap?" Fitz clearly has his priorities straight in a South Ossetian tavern.
• "He's acting like a robot version of himself right now." Skye moans to Simmons about Coulson's inflexibility … or is it something else?
• "I can't be a part of your bad-girl shenanigans. I like following the rules and doing what's expected of me. It makes me feel nice." Simmons vocalises what some viewers seem to dislike about her character.
• "This is a mission, not a picnic." Ward throws away Fitz's beloved baguette.
*The SHIELD TV club
*
While Fitz is packing his rucksack in preparation for his field mission, sharp-eyed viewers may have spotted a Tardis model on his shelf. That a lab geek would be into Doctor Who isn't really that surprising, and Fitz's Bus quarters are positively spartan compared to all the old memorabilia Coulson has crammed in his office.
*Has anyone mentioned Hawkeye yet?
*
You get the sense that Victoria Hand is ruthless, and she's killed this running gag stone-dead. After six episodes with nary a mention of Avengers bowman and longstanding knock-knock joke Clint Barton, she references both him and Black Widow to shut down Coulson's objections to her strategy. "Barton, Romanoff, they never have an extraction plan …"
*Meanwhile, in the real world …*
Already a hit in global markets, Thor: The Dark World opened equally strong in the US last weekend with $85m. Agents of SHIELD producers will be hoping that translates into buzz for next week's episode The Well, which has an Asgardian flavour.
Agents of SHIELD and Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary blogs extensively and entertainingly about his music for the show, with performance videos and musical notation. For The Hub, he wrote a new harp version of the Coulson theme to reflect the dapper super-agent "at his most vulnerable".
What did you think of Agents of SHIELD episode seven? Does the prospect of a Thor tie-in excite you, or should the show be focusing on doing its own thing? Let us know below Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 days ago.