Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: adrianne palicki, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chloe Bennet, Dichen Lachman, entertainment, iain de caestecker, tv

Emotional & Fast-Paced, What We Love About The MCU – Recapping Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D: 'Aftershocks'

By Amanda Gurall  

1983

Location: Unknown

In a red room that looks Chinese in design we see a teenage boy named Gordon with no eyes combusting, vanishing and reappearing violently around the room. He is utterly helpless and panicked. A man and a woman we know as Skye's mom, Jiaying (Dichen Lachman) enter and Jiaying tenderly helps him calm down as if he were her own child.  "That's ok beautiful, I will show you the way."

This is apparently a program that introduces the inhumans to the Terrigen Mist and tries to shepherd them through the experience and teach them to use their gifts. Gordon has been awaiting this transformation his entire life and we learn Jiaying has been doing this for generations.  This is the eyeless man from the end of the last episode who had his own obelisk and called someone to tell them that a new inhuman had been created.  Jiaying and the man agree that without her guidance these young inhumans would be lost souls. Cut to Skye (Chloe Bennet) alone and scared in quarantine at SHIELD.

Skye has been alone in the glass room being tested and monitored, plagued by the nightmare of the lost city and Tripp's death. Coulson (Clark Gregg) comes to speak to her, they are both effected deeply by the events and Coulson reveals that everyone thinks Tripp caused the earthquake by kicking the crystals, thereby giving his life to save everyone.  Mac (Henry Simmons) cleared quarantine quickly and seems unaffected although he has quite a temper while Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) is leading the clean up and investigation of the city site before they flood and destroy it. Skye tells Coulson that they failed because of her and Coulson tries to tell her that it is not the case but he is rage filled when he says he will make someone pay for what happened.

Simmons is trying to control the investigation into the site, we see her in a hazmat suit nearly breaking down when she sees pieces of stone Tripp being wheeled out in a wheelbarrow.  I'd think they could find a better way to treat human remains but I suppose they are under a veil of secrecy and a time crunch. They have not located Raina's (Ruth Negga) body, wonder where it could be? Oh there she is, slicing the throats of the scientists. Simmons finds her and shoots but does not harm her, Raina escapes and Simmons ends up flooding the city.

Meanwhile back at some secret HYDRA meeting we see five members sharing some wine and sort of toasting to Whitehall's death around a really great HYDRA table. They think Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) has been captured by SHIELD and one of the men tells the rest that they constantly underestimate SHIELD and Von Strucker wants this to stop now.  They expect an immediate attack and need to remove SHIELD so whoever destroys the organization will get Whitehall's position. We all remember VonStrucker from the end of Winter Soldier don't we? Let's hope he shows up before May 1st.

Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) visits Skye and tells her that she is a rock star for escaping three murderers, being hit with an alien chemical weapon and coming out unscathed. Everyone is very supportive of Skye and nobody questions her at all. We see Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) trying to make sense of Skye's biometric watch so he might get some insight into what happened but his brain is jumbled.  He and Mac discuss this and Mack gets very angry when Fitz asks him about his state of mind after the experience. He realizes that Fitz knows exactly how it feels to be out of control of your body and mind and to hurt the ones you love.  He comes down from his anger and apologizes, Fitz is admirably steady and supportive of his BFF.

Simmons has reported back that Raina escaped and was covered with thorns then asks to come back to HQ to be with the team and to study some of Raina's blood she took from the floor. The team is assembled in front of Skye's chamber and they start arguing, Mac is incredibly angry throwing blame to Coulson and Skye for chasing aliens.  They all start fighting quite uncharacteristically and Skye starts to rumble the room around her.  Nobody notices but Skye is incredibly shaken she knows she is the source.  Coulson stops the fighting and orders them to set the plan to attack HYDRA into motion.

They take Bakshi to trade to Talbot in exchange for the military's help in rounding up HYDRA. While driving Coulson and Agent May (Ming-Na Wen) drop lots of details about their plan in front of Bakshi then are suddenly hit side-on by a big truck and driven into a warehouse type building. They are under attack, they fight off the men who come at them and as usual May uses her incredible fighting skills. Just as they think they have escaped, Bakshi in hand a lone masked/helmeted man shoots May down. Coulson screams, "No! You'll never take us alive" before he is shot several times in the back. The man hurries Bakshi into the SUV and they leave. Clear! Everyone gets up, Bobbi takes off to follow the SUV.  The entire thing was a set up to get Bakshi to lead Hunter (Nick Blood) who was the "shooter" to HYDRA. May tells Coulson he was a little melodramatic and he replies, "If I let you write the script no one would say anyhting!"

Bakshi calls "lighthouse" to set a meet and Hunter pulls a fake double cross on him, forcing Bakshi to offer him more money and position not to kill him on the spot. So far he is buying this hook, line and sinker.

At the HQ Fitz is completely frustrated that his findings with the bio watch do not make sense and he feels really lost because his mind is betraying him once again. Simmons arrives and talks to Skye, happy to see her but full of new anger and hatred toward those "infected" by the alien mist.  She describes Raina as covered in thorns and is afraid of an epidemic.  Simmons is so guilty about her curiosity of alien powers and she feels it was all a horrible mistake, a plague that needs to be erradicated.  Skye brings up the fact that we wouldn't have the Avengers without these alien powers but Simmons counters that without their interference we wouldn't need the Avengers.  She is going to run Skye's DNA against an old sample to make sure Skye is safe but it is very clear Simmons is ready to exterminate any and all alien influences.

Doctor Zabo (Kyle MacLachlan) buys his way onto a freighter and is met by a hooded Raina who is desperate for an explanation for the horror of her evolution.  We have been set up to hate Raina but here we see her clearly in pain, terrified and more horrific than imagined. Her head is covered in porcupine like quills and her entire body is covered with thorns.  She cuts herself when she moves, her grandmother promised she would be an angel and instead she looks like a gnarled freak of nature.  Raina believes that Skye took the beauty from the metamorphosis that was destined to be hers and is vengeful but Doc only cares that Skye made it through. He throws Raina to the ground and basically tells her that we all have disappointments if she can't handle it she should kill herself.  Raina is as pathetic as Doc is in his assertion that Skye will be running back to him.  Raina ends up on the curb of a highway ready to end her life.

Hunter drops Bakshi off to meet his contact and Bobbi jumps into the SUV where the subject of her secrets with Mac come up. Bobbi claims she and Mac are in a support group and Hunter believes her. Bakshi is inside with lighthouse, aka Mr. Bloom (Fred Dryer) and the two of them contact VonStrucker's agent who is Dr. Levy (Henry Goodman) also seen at the end of Winter's Soldier. They feel the other members are plotting against them, Bakshi and Bloom give orders to dispatch them but not before sending a crew out to get rid of Hunter in the SUV outside.

At the HQ Mac apologizes for his behavior and the team discusses what to do with Raina, Simmons recommends to kill instead of capture to stop this supposed contagion. It seems like Coulson and May are not on the same page as her but that Mac might be. Skye overhears this and is understandably scared. This 180 for Simmons is a little hard to believe but It may play out to be temporary when the contagion aspect is disproven. Or not? Perhaps she will be setting up the registration.  Later that evening Skye is resting and she sees Fitz holding her watch and demanding to know what happened to her in the lost city. The self doubt in his abilities made him think it was his mistake but now he is sure he is not wrong, her heart rate went to 300 bpm during the event and Fitz knows this is inhuman.  He is convinced she caused the quake and she proves it by freaking out and shattering the lamp in her room which terrifies Fitz and he goes off to check her DNA results.

Poor Skye.  She is in a helpless position, terrified and guilty she tries to clean up the glass, cutting herself.  May comes by and tries to comfort her, they end up discussing Mac's newfound rage and then talking about Coulson. In a voice over May explains that for Coulson, Tripp was the embodiment of the principals he wants S.H.I.E.L.D. to be built upon. We watch Coulson as he delivers Tripp's suitcase of his grandfater's spy items that helped to save them all back to his mother. It is such a sad scene made more emotional when we see a photo of the Howling Commandos on the wall behind Tripp's grieving mother.  Compassion, loyalty, heart is what May says is the strength of shield and the lack of this is the weakness of HYDRA.  Coulson looks ready to murder.

Most people have been assuming that Tripp's grandfather was the African American commando Gabriel Jones. But this photo has Dum Dum Dugan in the center with Jones far to the right. Is it possible that Dugan is his grandfather?  Could really go either way but we recall Koening saying Dum Dum would be so proud when Tripp brings the case out in the first season and his mom happens to have lighter skin than he does so who knows. It doesn't really matter but Dugan is such a beloved character it would be fun and more sad if that were the case.

All three of the remaining HYDRA heads: the Baroness, the Sheik and The Banker are all assassinated.  Hunter and Bobbi deploy some SUV weaponry and escape from their own shooters, enter the mansion and kill Bloom.  Bakshi finally realizes who is behind this and he is taken into custody to be sent to Talbot.

While talking to May, Skye touches her bed and May sees the blood just as Simmons joins them. Simmons is Skye's biggest threat at the moment which made the scene really tense.  Just as she was about to tell them the truth Fitz comes in, blames himself for knocking over the light and gives everyone the false information that her DNA samples match. Simmons is all smiles as they release Skye from quarantine. Fitz and Skye are alone and he bandages her up and tells her that her DNA is drastically different but for now she is safer hiding it. She collapses into him and blames herself says there is something wrong with her. He says, "No. you're just different now, you're just different and there's nothing wrong with that."

Rumblings of pre-civil war, survivor's guilt and Fitz accepting his own differences all in one scene; it was a lot to take in. I recommend watching the entire episode a second time as there are more nuanced lines and scenes like this that deserve consideration.

Raina starts to walk into traffic when soldiers arrive to take her in to which she responds that they either kill her on the spot or she will make them kill her.  I am glad Coulson did not give the order to kill her on sight as Simmons suggested. Just then an electric blue orb explodes around her and eyeless Gordon (Jamie Harris) appears, grabs her like Superman and says," It's ok, beautiful. I'll show you the way" and they vanish. Whether the way is for good or evil we do not know but I can't wait to see more of the Inhumans next week.

In the last scene we find the group ending their episode long therapy session lovingly talking about Tripp and kicking back a few beers. While this is going on the model of Lola that Mac built comes to life in Coulson's office, scanning until it finds an object locked in his desk. Mac and Bobbi meet in the kitchen alone and Mac tells her he has visual confirmation that Fury's toolbox is in Coulson's office. He also has the blueprints from the base and they are almost "good to go". Bobbi will make contact soon.  I know we are supposed to think they are working for HYDRA and maybe they are but I think it is more likely they are working for Fury or a third party.

I was pretty moved by parts of this episode. I thought the emotional points were touched on quite well and it didn't get stupid like many shows do when handling a character's death and fallout.  It remained funny and we had some nice action scenes which for me was the well balanced combination most people love about the MCU. The preview for tomorrow night shows Lady Sif coming back and the reveal of Skye's inhuman talents to the group which should provide some sense of where Skye's future is going to be in SHIELD as well as further ties to the upcoming age of Ultron. I am not sure which idea I am more excited about.

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