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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: One of Us

"Fight on."

This week we catch up with Cal as he goes full blown supervillain, and say hello to the ex Mr Melinda May. Oh, and we also found out that Bobbi and Mack are really working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Wait, what?

Let's talk about Cal first and how he is proving to be a very fun adversary for our heroes. With his Winnebago full of low-rent super-powered villains, gathered for revenge and lunch dates, he is without a doubt the most Buffy-ish villain the series has had so far. Just a shame the rest of his team weren't given room to develop. Only Drea de Matteo's Karla was given something that barely resembled a character. The rest were just a bunch of glorified extras, powers (and lame powers at that) in search of personalities.

Skye's struggle to control her new powers took a nasty turn this week. Rather than keeping her quakes under control, she's been directing them inward, causing serious bone fractures in her hands and arms. Ouch! I guess with great power comes great health issues. Can you get insured for superpowered medical issues or do you have to go to Canada? Skye's lucky she has an adorable English bestie with extensive medical know-how to look after her. One who put together some casts that don't look too dissimilar to the quake gauntlets that Daisy Johnson wears in the comics. Skye's superhero identity is coming together piece by piece.


I was surprised by how much I actually ended up liking Andrew. I can see why May would've fallen for him, and why mama May hasn't forgiven her daughter for letting him slip away. I normally have an intense dislike of all TV psychiatrists not named Frasier, Niles or Lilith. Too often they are used as a lazy means to explain something about a character that the audience could easily work out for themselves. That is basically what happened here. Nothing Skye told him during their sessions was that shocking or surprising. What was surprising was seeing May smile. I mean genuinely smile. There was teeth. And she laughed. He made Melinda May laugh, a seemingly impossible feat that freaked out poor Fitz. Is it too much to hope that he'll be Skye's regular therapist? She'll need all the help she can get if she is to control her powers so she is no longer a danger to herself or others.

So Bobbi and Mack are working for the real S.H.I.E.L.D. huh? Is that like the Real Ghostbusters? I'm willing to bet that Mack and Bobbi are being duped and this so-called real S.H.I.E.L.D. is nothing of the sort. Coulson's team is mostly (-of) Fury loyalists. Mack's remarks imply that this other S.H.I.E.L.D. is not so Fury friendly. Did a bunch of former agents get together and decide on their own non-HYDRA, non-Fury version of S.H.I.E.L.D.? If so, what have they been doing all this time? Most of their agents (Mack, Bobbi, Hartley) have been working undercover at Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. battling HYDRA. What has other S.H.I.E.L.D. been doing? Polishing their logos so they are extra shiny when they have visitors? Do they think Coulson and co are bad guys? Are they planning a(-n) hostile takeover? And just how many other versions of S.H.I.E.L.D. are there?


Intel and Assets

--Still no sign of Ward and not-May. Is anyone actually missing them?

--Is the head of "real" S.H.I.E.L.D. a certain former Battlestar commander who will be appearing in next week's episode?

--I'm still not entirely sure what Cal's powers are. He said he experimented on himself and those experiments made him a little twitchy. But what powers does he actually have beside extreme rage and crazy hair?

--Simmons was a little all over the place. First she was shunning Fitz for lying to her about Skye and then they were gossiping about May and Andrew like it was season one all over again.

If you don't follow the various cast members and guest stars on Twitter, you really should.

May: "We’re as close to a family as Skye has."

Skye: "I got to say, Director, no doubt, the best grilled cheese I've ever had."
Coulson: "Secret ingredient. Don't ask, I will not disclose."

Three out of four Winnebagos of evil.
---
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011. More Mark Greig.

9 comments:

  1. OMG, I loved Cal in this one. And the RV. And yay for Blair Underwood -- I liked him, too.

    Very funny review, Mark. :)

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  2. Yeah, this one kind of left me feeling "meh" overall, but I did really enjoy Cal. It is always tremendous fun to watch Kyle MacLachlan just goes crazy chewing the scenery on this show. His line about hoping Skye's teregenesis had given her wings was such a hoot.

    I hope "real" SHIELD doesn't turn out to be a "Bobbi and Mack are being duped" situation. I hope it is genuinely a loyal SHIELD group that just takes a different view on how the "agency" should be run. Two competing, but valid, perspectives would be more interesting to me than another "evil" not-SHIELD group.

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  3. Mark, how can you dislike a certain psychiatrist named Hannibal!

    Cal is reminding me of Richard Wilkins III (and, presumably, I and II).

    I thought before that it might be "another S.H.I.E.L.D". I haven't read the comics, but I know there were several branches of H.Y.D.R.A there, not united and sometimes working against each other; so, it makes sense for S.H.I.E.L.D. to undergo the same transformation. But I'm curious if Talbot knows about it.

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  4. Hannibal killed Beverly. I'm not forgiving that anytime soon.

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  5. Simmons made me angry in this episode but then made up for it by being nice to Skye at the end. It seems ridiculous for her to be angry with Fitz for lying to her when the only reason he lied to her was because she was acting like a crazy person talking about killing people. She said that Fitz changed, but actually I think Simmons has changed a lot more than Fitz. Fitz seems to be a less naive version of himself. Simmons on the other hand seems to have lost a huge part of what made her Simmons.

    To change subjects, Cal isn't a real inhuman, just a wannabe one? I was surprised the eyeless teleporting man didn't take Skye also, but I assume that will be explained.

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  6. God, I miss Futurama.

    Anyway, isn't Cal just awesomely entertaining? I mean, you can't bring yourself to hate him, he's just so enthusiastically geeky about his evilness.

    Also, I'm guessing Andrew is totally going to bite. He's WAY too reasonable and likable for Joss Whedon letting him live.

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  7. I’m bummed. All that build up to the team Cal would assemble and we got this? The moment Cal teleported and the fight of SHIELDs versus Indexers erupted the scene became pointless. I’m starting to lose interest. Come on, writers, what is happening?

    On a more positive note, May’s ex-hubby was a hoot. I loved how Skye went completely 180 about seeing a shrink the moment May told her who it would be.

    Fitz moment of the week: seeing May laugh and walking away in awe.

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  8. Kyle MacLachlan. This is how "supervillain" is done, y'all.

    And Skye seizing the opportunity for juicy bits of May's backstory? Awesome.

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