Hello, Danie here, taking over on the Shield review front for Johnny this week and excited to do so. I have been looking forward to this episode since I caught the promo at the end of last weeks so without further ado and the assumption you have also viewed the episode, here we go.
A HEN IN THE WOLF HOUSE: RECAP
The episode begins with a little overview of the current season of Shield including the fact that Skye’s father is highly motivated to get in contact with his long lost daughter and that Simmons is neck deep in Hydra-city.
Our current episode opens amidst the world’s worst wedding toast. Like many best men with good intentions the poor guy just can’t seem to read a room. Someone should put him out of his misery. Oh, never mind, looks like Hydra literally had that covered and a room full of Naval officers have particularly bad reaction to the reception champagne- reactions not to dissimilar to those of the obelisk.
Interestingly enough it appears that only the naval officers appear effected and the bride and other non-military wedding goers appear afraid but alive. The caterers are shown reporting to Bakshi confirming the fact that they are Hydra and that their assignment didn’t go as well as Dr. Whitehall had hoped.
Our Agents of Shield quickly take notice of the event and have a company meeting to discuss whether there is a connection between the event, the Obelisk, and the cryptic writing. During the conversation Skye notices geometric scratches on Coulson’s desk and pushes for the name of the contact who put him onto the writing in the first place. Coulson refuses to comply and Skye storms out of his office. May warns Coulson that keeping Skye in the dark won’t end well for him.
The Doctor (who had previously been revealed to possibly be Skye’s father) is doing surgery on a gunshot victim whom he refers to (along with the gentlemen’s well armed accomplice) as his client and is interrupted by a panicked Raina who has come to beg for the Obelisk back. The Doctor is less than pleases and begins to lose control, choking Raina violently, who barely manages to talk enough sense into him to let her go. He informs her that he will not give her the Obelisk and that she should instead be begging Whitehall for mercy. Raina in a last show of force tells The Doctor, that she had wished to bring Skye to him. He retorts that Skye is not her name and returned to his beckoning client who demands The Doctor keep it together.
Back at Hydra Simmons and her lab partner are called into a meeting with Whitehall to discuss why the test of the Obelisk fell short of his expectation. He informs the group that the Obelisk is his Testract (alluding to Red Skull). He notices Simmons intently studying the data sheets and asks her opinion on fixing the situation. She informs him that she doesn’t think the previous scientists were wrong, just delayed by the fact that they are working with an alien material. She believes that it would be quickly weaponized if they had the actual artifact in hand (instead of the tissue samples from the artifact’s victim).
Back on the Bus, Fitz and Imagi-Simmons are having a conversation about Mack’s well-defined frame and Fitz actually admits that Imagi-Simmons isn’t real and she excitedly tells him that he is making progress in moving forward. Fitz informs Imagi-Simmons that he still misses the real Simmons and doesn’t seem to be too interested in moving forward.
Skye still flustered by her argument with Coulson allows Hunter to talk her into not only digging deeper into the alien language mystery despite Coulson’s protest and he suggests she go see Ward. Skye takes Hunter up on the suggestion and Ward believes that she is there to hear about her father. Ward again asserts that he would never lie to Skye and she demands to know Wards source on her father. He tells her it was Raina and that Raina knows him. The two bicker about the value of Raina’s information and instead directs his attention to the alien writing. He confirms that Garrett, after being injected with GH 325, had an obsessive need to carve the symbols on anything he could get his hands on. More than that, he was happy when Garrett was “put down” as once he began carving he was no longer the man Ward knew.
Back at Hydra, Simmons makes a beeline to contact Shield with the information she learned about the Obelisk and in her hurry doesn’t notice that she is being intently watched by Raina, who witnesses Simmons make a dead drop.
Skye directly confronts Coulson on the fact that he is the source. He comes clean about the writing and suggests that the reason Skye doesn’t have the compulsion to write is the fact that she is in fact an alien. As May predicted Skye doesn’t react favorably. May interrupts their bickering to tell Coulson he has a call, which turns out to be Raina. She wants to meet.
Meanwhile, an alarm goes off in Hydra and a woman enters the building with Bakshi declaring they have a mole and that she plans on getting to the bottom of it. Quickly the woman comes to Simmons and deduces that since Simmons had worked for Shield most of her life it would only make sense that she is the mole. Yet, Simmon’s communication device is found in the desk of her lab partner and suspicion is temporarily diverted from Jemma.
The team go to a fancy restaurant to meet Raina who admits that she doesn’t have the obelisk but that she knows about Simmons undercover mission and that if Skye doesn’t leave the meeting with her she will dispense a photo of Simmon’s communicating with Shield to the entirety of Hydra.
The mole hunter finds Simmons composing herself in the ladies and accuses her of working with her lab partner or more likely framing him. Simmons denies it but the woman threatens to comb her harddrive which Simmons affirms is nothing more than her Hydra work.
Coulson calls Raina’s bluff and Skye having overheard the entire conversation and upon hearing Simmons life is in danger attempts to reveal herself and is forcefully stopped by May. With the time ran down Raina no longer holds any leverage.
At Hydra the photo of Simmons is dispensed as Raina warned and Simmons attempts to make a run for it.
No longer holding any cards Raina insists that Coulson and his team take her in. He refuses and Hunter tags Raina so they can use her as bait to draw Whitehall out, still curious about Raina’s connection to Skye’s father he asks how to find him.
Back at Hydra, Simmons is quickly cornered and saved by an unlikely guardian, Bobbi Morse- the mole hunter of Hydra. After an epic smack down the two girls head to the roof where a blind leap lands them both on the cloaked Quinjet piloted by Trip. Simmons laments the loss of intel by her cover being blown and Bobbi informs her that she took Simmons hard drive before the extraction. They all head back to Shield.
Raina leaves and May notes that the address Raina gave them in parting is only a few blocks away. They then notice that Skye has disappeared. She has gone off to investigate the building on her own.
Inside the building Skye comes across a picture of The Doctor and a baby when Coulson finds her. She begins crying and Coulson comforts her both unaware that they are being watched by The Doctor via a hidden camera and an IPad. Hunter finds the two and May radios in that she has found something they should all see. It is The Doctor’s clients from earlier in the episode. Both are now dead. May notes that they had been dispatched by a scalpel and brute force. Upon seeing the bodies Skye declares her father a monster and The Doctor loses it, crushing the tablet and speeding away.
Simmons, Morse, and Triplet return to the Hub and it becomes clear that Mack knows her. She is now apart of the team according to Coulson. It is also revealed that Bobbi is the “evil ex-wife” that Hunter constantly drones on about and that Bobbi vouched for Hunter’s place on the team in the first place. Simmons and Fitz reunite and it is awkward.
Coulson and Skye discuss her father and Skye asserts that she doesn’t care about finding her father anymore she only cares about stopping him. Coulson finally comes completely clean to Skye about the writing and that he doesn’t know what it means or why he is compelled to write it. Skye has a theory though, she believes it’s a map.
At Hydra Bakshi is reporting to Whitehall about the dismantling of the infiltrated lab when The Doctor forces his way into the office and dispatches the guards. He opens a case containing the Obelisk and tells Whitehall that in it’s native language it is called the Diviner. He tells Whitehall he will teach him how to survive its power as they now both share a common enemy- Agent Coulson.
REACTIONS
Wow, what an episode there was a lot to take in. The addition of new character Bobbi Morse who is a completely kick butt lady, and will be in my opinion a welcome addition to the new team and adding to the new team dynamic. I am happy Simmons has finally been extracted from Hydra and will hopefully we will begin to see that amazing chemistry between Fitz and Simmons which for most of season one was the most watchable aspect of a flagging midseason.
We have seen a lot of character development for Skye as her murky history has become a little clearer now that she knows who her father is. It will be interesting to see his character develop, The Doctor already has a wonderful David Banner-esque quality with his rage outs and overreaction to being called a monster. Of course, he would have to be the evil David Banner as The Doctor is not a guy you mess around with, as Raina well knows.
Speaking of Raina, I am so happy that this character hasn’t been thrown away, she remains the only interesting part of the Centipede storyline and the expansion of her character has taken us down paths in the story we never expected to go.
This episode is just another example of how Agents of Shield has really stepped up it’s game since last season and just keeps getting better. I know that I cannot wait for the next episode and hate that I have to wait a whole week to see it!
