We Got The Geek

From the files of Joseph Thompson:

Agent Carter’s “Pilot” takes off!

The spools of the projector ran the first of two filmstrips I’d received from a dame with trouble in her eyes earlier that night. The first frames of footage featured the Cap at the helm of Red Skull’s Flying Fortress “The Valkyrie,” as he desperately struggled to keep it aloft while on the radio with Peggy Carter, the over-worked, under-appreciated female agent of the SSR and Cap’s wartime liaison, before leaping ahead to the here and now in 1946. Peggy’s still struck with grief from the loss of history’s greatest soldier on that fateful day, but keeping a stiff upper lip while putting in hours at the phone company and playing den-mother to her younger blonder roommate, Colleen.

She strolls into the office the next day and although the newsreels haven’t been given the full-color “Wizard of Oz” treatment yet, she’s dressed to the nines in what looks like a blue trench-coat and red fedora. She makes with the small talk with Rose, the main madam of the switchboard circuit and with the flip of one of those board’s switches I get a looksee at the phone company BEHIND the phone company, the secret Strategic Science Reserve New York headquarters. No sooner does she make her desk than a call comes through and everyone hustles in to the muster room.

Then I find myself watching a newsreel within a newsreel as millionaire genius playboy Howard Stark is accused of betraying the nation. I’d seen this reel earlier in the week while working on a bottle of Scudders in the back row of the Bijou and still couldn’t help but smile at Stark’s world-weary yet smug deflection of the Senate’s slings and barbs. Once the Stark reel had run down, the muster room broke into brainstorm mode trying to figure if he’d sold his own weapons and inventions to the enemy or not. Despite the general consensus that he’s guilty as sin, Peggy actually speaks up in his defense, which does Howard no good and Carter even less, earning her an unpleasant reputation for her troubles. A real creep of an agent named Krzeminski sends her one way below the belt and a one-legged fella (I think I heard his name was Sousa) who puts the word “gent” back into agent comes to her rescue.

When the room’s cleared, Carter gives Sousa the business for fighting her battles, but doesn’t seem completely ungrateful for the support, at least. Another agent, some Pretty-boy Floyd by the name of Thompson (no relation, of course) goes out of his way to hassle Peg, but walks away with a draw, at best.

She grabs a late dinner at the L&L automat and strikes up a confab with a waitress sporting a nameplate proclaiming her to be “Angie.” A real-life angel on Peggy’s shoulder, I suppose. Though I gotta admit, she’s a lot easier to look at then that Angel fella in the Marvel funny-books. After she drops some love for Cap (a sure fire way to win Peggy’s friendship, for sure), she gives Peg the same sob story every struggling starlet has ever shared and Carter spills her own struggles at the, uh . . . “phone company.” It’s not long before they find they’ve both got a common enemy, the kind of guys that’ve got their heads fulla meat and can’t keep their hands to themselves. I’ve never cared for the type, either. Who would?

Peg grabs some pie and when she gets back to her booth, she finds a note on a napkin, inviting her into the alley.

“Not suspicious at all,” I mumbled to myself.

Clearly never one to shy from a mystery though, Carter heads out back, only to be accosted by a tall, lean gent who lacks certain social graces despite the snooty Brit accent. Peg gives him a lesson in proper introductions while a car roars to life and nearly crashes into them. She gets a shot off and blows out a tire, sending it into the nearest pile of trash waiting for pick up. And who should emerge from the sedan? The scourge of Senate sub-committee hearings himself, Howard Stark.

En route to an isolated pier, Howard gives Peggy the rundown. After a little getaway in Monaco, Stark had returned home to discover his sub-basement vault cleaned out. Cleaned out of what, though? That’s what made my blood run cold. Stark’s known for cobbling together some pretty spiffy, and a lot of times DEADLY, contraptions. And here he is telling Agent Carter that the worst stuff he’s ever thought up is now out there and on the loose. Bad babies, he calls ‘em. No kiddin’. The Senate thinks Stark “robbed himself” and sold the stuff on the black market just for kicks (Lord knows, he doesn’t need any MORE money). Once at the pier, he hops a boat and heads out to hunt down the babies already overseas, right after entrusting his loyal butler, Edwin Jarvis to assist Carter on the home front.

The next morning, back at Ma Bell’s office, Peggy runs interference on Sousa’s manhunt for Stark. She drops a doozy about how Stark can’t stand boats or water and backs it up with a claim that he’d tried to kiss her on VE-day and she’d knocked him into the Thames river for his efforts. You know, they say the best liars mix liberal amounts of truth into their stories to give them credibility. Since it’s clear Stark’s got no problem with boating, my guess is the Thames story is right on the money. Poor sucker.

Sousa lets slip that one of Howard’s formulas had been fenced through a local gangster named “Spider” Raymond and Peggy eases into the muster room to eavesdrop a little while serving the good old boys a fresh cuppa Joe. Thompson mentions Raymond’s weakness for blondes and money and it’s easy to see Peg’s wheels are already turning. She begs off sick for the rest of the day and the mouth-breathing male “agents” actually seemed relieved. What courageous defenders of liberty!

Later that night, at Spider’s nightclub, “La Martinique,” Raymond finishes the purchase of Howard’s formula for a chemical explosive called “nitramene” with some shifty-looking reject from the silent era. As tight-lips takes a powder, Carter makes the scene wearing a slinky satin gown and a blonde wig. She sidesteps an amorous encounter and after bluffing the guard posted at the stairs with a corn-fed Midwest accent and applying a little “Sweet Dreams” lipstick, heads straight to Raymond’s office where she finds herself warmly welcomed.

She cuts right to the chase and vamps her way past Raymond’s defenses and when he gets forward, Spider finds out just how sweet the dreaming can be. Once he’s knocked out cold, Agent Carter makes a quick search of Spider’s web and finds a fully fabricated nitramene grenade in his office safe.

Looking for advice on how to handle it, she uses Spider’s office phone to call Stark’s butler and gets the lowdown on Stark’s first bad baby. In a nutshell, glowing bright orange (as it appeared to) meant it was live and ready to pop. And what a pop! This little baseball of a blastcap would cause an implosion about the size of 5 football fields. End to end and just as wide, all the way through. Jeeves or Edgar or Monty or whatever his name is spills that as deadly as it is, the whole works could be shut down with a pinch of sodium hydrogen carbonate and acetate. Seemed a bit funny to me that a smart-ass butler wouldn’t know where he could lay his hands on some of that, but our gal Peggy doesn’t seem fazed in the least. That dame’s got a solid head on her shoulders. Not ol’ Jarvy, though (THAT was it, “Jar-vis,” gotta try and remember the V – I – S . . .). As soon as he hears his wife, it’s off the line, thank you, mum. Makes a fella wonder what kind of dame could wield that level of authority over a man.

Downstairs, the SSR’s finest, led by Thompson, crash Spider’s party as Carter gets physical with the stationary supplies on her way out of Raymond’s office. She sidesteps her male colleagues while a camera flashes as she tries to make the door without getting spotted. Meanwhile, it looks like it’s curtains for Spider-boy upstairs when the silent shifty seller returns and points the business end of his heater at him for losing the nitramene grenade.

Peggy dips, dives and twirls her way out of the party as the SSR fellas bust into the office to find one very dead Spider on the floor.

When she gets back to her apartment, Peggy finds her roomie Colleen in the bachelor pad’s only murphy bed with the sniffles. As I’d expected, Peg grabs bottles of baking soda and vinegar, along with a bottle of Scudders bourbon (which reminded me that my own bottle in the desk drawer was nearly empty . . . I’d have to run out and get another before I settled into the second reel later on) and then dashed to the loo.

Once inside, she mixed the soda and vinegar with liquid soap from the sink to disarm the ugly glowing little beastie she’d been hauling around in her purse. Then it was straight to business emptying the Scudders, the only way a reasonable person should after that kind of stress. Fully and completely. Something rustling outside the door gets Peg’s attention before she can finish, though and she steps out into the apartment proper to find Colleen shot dead on the bed and the gunman, the shifty silent guy who’d ventilated Spider, creeping up behind her. They tussle for a bit, Peg gives him a burn he won’t soon forget and then she sends him out the third story window to the alley below with a thump. Only thing is, he ain’t there when she looks down. At least he’s out of her hair for the moment, anyway. And with that, Peg sits down on the edge of the bed and has a good cry for poor, lost Colleen. Caught in the crossfire and never even knowing why.

She meets Jarvy at the L&L to seek out assistance. He bolsters her confidence and then puts her in touch with one of Stark’s pals, a Russkie lab-geek by the name of Vanko. Anton Vanko. Never heard of him, myself. He gives the dud grenade casing the hairy eyeball, suggests it had been built by Stark’s chief competitor, Roxxon and tips Peg off on how to trace the chemicals used in the grenade through the Vita-radiation they give off. Same stuff they used to zap Cap and give ‘im the muscles he’d only dreamed of before that. Better than Charles Atlas, I hear. Peg’s thinking the same thing, I think, because while digging through the Project: Rebirth file she’d been given by Colonel Chester Phillips, Sousa crutches in to find her looking a little misty in the eyes. He shares his own story from the war, how he’d lost his footlocker when recovering from the wound that took his left leg and sets Peg at ease. Sometimes, it’s all about timing and delivery and then even the worst situation can be looked back on and laughed at . . . as long as you can survive it. Sousa stumps out and Carter finds what she’d been looking for: one of Professor Abraham Erskine’s very own Vita-ray detectors.

Shifty Guy, meanwhile, is holed up in a cheap hotel room having a conversation with a typewriter. The topic of this unusual means of discussion? Carter’s interference in the recovery of the nitramene and whether to eliminate her to expedite the results. Conclusion: Complete the mission at all costs.

Recovery? Say . . . I thought Howard Stark had invented the stuff. He’d put Carter on to the trail of his bad babies to begin with. So who else would want to recover it? Roxxon? Okay, maybe. They were the likeliest makers of the grenade casing. If they were trying to recover it, then who’d sold it to Spider Raymond to begin with? This mystery was starting to smell . . . and not like roses.

When Jarvis drops Peggy off at the Roxxon plant just outside of New York City, she notices right away that the security detail is heavier than an old wrecked oil refinery warrants. Looks like Roxxon’s our prime suspect after all.

Super-spy that she is, Carter makes easy work of getting over the electrified fence and slinking her way into the heart of the factory where two mooks in milk-man coats are pulling another grenade out of a shed-sized white doohickey that seems to be laying them like eggs. One of the mooks is a real card, the other stays stone-faced and silent as Shifty Guy. Suddenly, Carter’s cover is blown and whose fault is it? Why, the butler did it, of course. When Jarvy’s voice carries loud over the 2-way radio Peggy’s carrying, she ducks out of sight. As Chuckles goes to investigate, Long, Tall and Quiet grabs the grenade and heads for the door.

When Peg’s led Guy Smiley far enough out, she releases a flash-bomb, stunning him and then chases down the quiet one. She gets a few shots off, but then he swings open the back of the milk truck he’d been running towards and reveals that it’s filled to brimming with little golden glowing grenados.

He sticks a little whatsis to his scarred throat and tells Carter, in a voice that tells anyone listening that his trachea’s been removed, that he’s just an independent businessman. He tells her that the Shifty guy, whose voice box was also removed, is no friend of his and that if he’s anywhere nearby, they’re all dead anyway. Then he declares: “Leviathan is coming,” telling Carter she’s not going to like the future. Then he drops the grenade in his hand, activating it inches from the truck containing what look like dozens of them. And all ready to blow.

Peggy gives Jarvis a jingle and tells him to bring the car around and then it’s off to the races as he plows his way through a hail of bullets and then, as Carter jumps onto the sedan’s roof and climbing in, they put the pedal to the metal and just manage to beat the big blast before it’s bye-bye to Roxxon’s rubble strewn refinery care of Howard’s bad baby. Minus a back bumper and license plate, that is.

Back at SSR HQ, Agent Dooley is burning the candle at both ends when Thompson drops in and dishes on a witness who noticed the blonde at Spider’s nightclub just before he turned up dead. Thompson drops a camera on the desk and says he thinks the photo hound that belongs to it might have gotten a shot of her. At that moment, a call comes through about the Roxxon refinery explosion and they head out to snoop around.

At the L&L, Jarvis and Peg trade notes as he promises to check Stark’s files for more dirt on Leviathan. As he leaves, Peggy jots down the address of the dairy farm, Daisy Clover, that the truck loaded with nitramene grenades had come from and then does her waitress pal, Angie a favor by giving the handsy, mouthy shlub at the next table the bum’s rush, but not before he leaves a handsome tip.

Just outside in the Stark sedan, Jarvy’s on some kind of newfangled wireless telephone hooked up in the car (who’d ever heard of such a thing outside of “Dick Tracy?”) giving Stark step by step instructions to mix a martini, before suggesting enlisting Agent Carter for something she can’t know about.

“Not suspicious at all,” I repeated out loud, not concerned with who heard me or who wasn’t even there for that matter.

I unspooled the filmstrip from the projector and, remembering that I needed to grab a bottle of bourbon before heading back to the apartment for the night, I dropped the reel into my coat pocket next to the second one, planning to watch it at home later and headed out the door . . .

Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter!

From the files of Joseph Thompson:

Just A Guy Named Joe, Comic Detective

It was hot.

Not “dog days of summer” hot, but hotter than any day in January had a right to be. I was behind the desk in my office, pouring another 10am bourbon and wondering how I’d fill the bottle again when there was a knock at the door.

“It’s open!” I growled and in walked the sort of dame that’s on a first name basis with a guy I know named Trouble.

“I understand you’re some kind of . . . detective?”

Kind of? Not at all, really. I was a “comic” detective. What’s that mean? Truthfully? Whatever I needed it to be. Looking for a Tijuana Bible? I can get it for you. Want to figure out what Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers meant when he laid down that heroic schmaltz in last week’s funny pages? I can help with that. Hell, if you just need a good zinger to roast the bride at your brother’s wedding, I’m your man. But an actual private dick? I could sniff around, maybe piece a puzzle or two together . . . but no, I wasn’t a for real licensed gumshoe.

Just a guy named Joe . . .

I gave her the short version of that speech and she said, “I see . . . well then, perhaps you’re the man for this job, after all.”

I’ll admit I was curious why she thought so. “Go on,” I bluffed instead.

“I’ve acquired a number of newsreel filmstrips featuring the female wartime liaison of Captain America and need some help investigating them before they’re sent to theatres.

Cap’s best gal? “You mean Betty Carver? The 107^th triage nurse?” I blurted out, tipping my hand that I was already a fan of the radioshow.

“Ugh, not hardly,” snapped back. “I’m referring to the actual SSR Agent who assisted the Living Legend of WWII. Not some dimwitted little twist those radio play hacks dreamed up while knocking back whiskey sours and leering at the waitresses during happy hour.

She looked miffed. I guess I was taking the case, whether I liked it or not. I always was a sucker for a lady that looked that good when she was mad.

“Alright, I’m your guy. What do you need?”

“Just review the filmstrips and send me your assessment . . . we’ll work out a standard communiqué protocol after your first assignment.”

“Well, when you sell it like that–” I started to say, meaning to turn her down after all.

“One other thing,” she interjected. “You’ll need to do double duty for the first week, but it should get easier as you go along.” And with that, she dropped two reels on my desk and left the office, promising the rest to be delivered each week at the same time.

Well,” I said to no one in particular, as I looped the first reel to my private projector, “I might as well get this over with.”

Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter!

I take my station as a We Got The Geek contributor with the greatest honour and respect. After all, what I say here will be read and considered by many others (at least, I hope!) and although any primate can clack a few sentences out in this instant, press-button, emoji generating, mobile device, webbernets era, it’s important to convey an honest critical opinion about whether the products released deserve our attention or not and that’s why I hope I’ll have yours, Dear Reader.

Although my own attention is usually devoted to Marvel comics and related products, I’ve been known to enjoy the occasional foray into independent comics from time to time, as well. I also have a love of all things spooky and horror-themed, so it’s a true joy when all my passions come together perfectly.

In this case, it’s not just the works of Stephen King set to comic book form. No, I’ve enjoyed King in the four-colour world of comics since first reading “Creepshow” in the dim, dark recesses of childhood past. So what could set my dark soul alight with such glee? Nothing greater than King’s Magnum Opus, his “Great Work,” could hold me so transfixed, but the story of the Dark Tower has been told in comics before. Told and told and told and truth be told? In the end it sort of just died much like in the lines of the T.S. Eliot poem it borrows so much of it’s imagery from: not with a bang, but with a whimper. Really.

When Marvel first announced a Dark Tower comic series back in . . . what was it? 2005? 2006? I flipped! The novel series had just recently wrapped up the tale of Roland Deschain of Gilead and his ka-tet and I like so many others still hungered for more. Particularly more of Roland’s mysterious past which, sad to say, had not really been touched on much beyond what was shown in the fourth Dark Tower novel, “Wizard and Glass.” Instead, the story ran a breakneck pace through multiple worlds towards it’s ending rather than doing much exploration of the past . . . at least not Roland’s past anyway (*cough**FatherCallahan**cough**cough**I’mlookingatyou**cough**cough*).

Marvel’s comic series though, then proceeded to, almost painfully at times, slowly fill in all the details of Roland’s past, mostly using tidbits and odds ‘n ends dropped here and there throughout the novel series to flesh out fuller adventures. This went on until there was nothing left to tell except the story as it played out in the books themselves. And that’s pretty much when everything just ground to a halt. With a few inventory stories printed and then collected in a trade paperback (still the only Dark Tower collection not to be given the hardcover treatment) the series was quickly wrapped up and forgotten about.

Or maybe not completely forgotten. Now, over a year later, with most of the Dark Tower fatigue having passed, we have a new installment in the Marvel produced Dark Tower series “The Drawing of the Three: The Prisoner. Co-plotter Robin Furth and scripter Peter David have both returned, not to the land of Mid-World this time, but to Co-Op City, Brooklyn, New York . . . in the land of 19. For me personally, the most refreshing thing about this series is the complete departure from Roland’s world into one (at least marginally) familiar to most and VERY familiar to Tower Junkies like myself.

While artists like Jae Lee and Richard Isanove used unique styles to visualize Mid-World, later artists lacked the skill to emulate that style and so later arcs of the series were the worse for it. The artwork rendered by Piotr Kowalski and colourist, Nick Filardi however, along with a series of stunning covers painted by Julian Totino Tedesco, is a style far more accessible to classic comic book readers, peppered with Easter Eggs all over the landscape of young Eddie Dean’s Brooklyn, sharp-eyed Dark Tower readers will surely spot and enjoy, while also telling Furth/David’s story in fluid, clear sequential art.

Whether you’re a long time Dark Tower reader such as myself, a new one looking to gain an accessible foothold into this enormous universe of a story or just a casual comic reader in general, “The Dark Tower – The Drawing of the Three: The Prisoner” might be one hell of a long title for a series, but fortunately, it’s also one hell of a good read.

“The Dark Tower – The Drawing of the Three: The Prisoner” issues #1-5 are currently on sale now, with a collected edition sure to follow shortly after.

-DE

Agent Darryl reporting in with this week’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.10, codename: “What They Become”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that agents not read this review until after they have watched the MAOS episode “What They Become.” Enjoy!

As the HYDRA Quinjet containing Ward, Skye and Raina disengages from the “Bus,” May, Trip, Hunter and the brothers Koenig scramble to find cloud cover as the full wing of HYDRA Quinjets circle around to blow them out of the sky. Hunter and the Agents Koenig strap in (to hilarious effect) as May takes the “Bus” into a power dive for the nearest cloudbank. As soon as they they’re locked onto by HYDRA’s missiles they reach cover and May releases several cargo pods to serve as an alternate target for the missiles to lock onto as Trip cloaks the “Bus.” The missiles detonate harmlessly, the “Bus” exits the cloudbank while decloaking and I can’t help but recall that the same tactic had worked for Tony Stark in the first Iron Man movie. Well hey, if the trick works, keep doing it until it doesn’t.

As they land just outside San Juan, Coulson orders FitzSimmons to prep for another excursion back into the tunnels as May brings him up to date about Ward grabbing both Raina AND Skye. He asks Morse to reach out to her contact and advise him to clam up if HYDRA comes sniffing around and promises to do what they can to save Mac, still crazed and trapped in the hidden city’s tunnel system.

Trip busts out some of his vintage Howling Commando explosives and while Agent Koenig (Sam I think, but don’t ask me to swear by that, unless they’re actually using each other’s names, I can’t tell which is which) wishes they had more (and that they could be operated by remote) he’s nevertheless as happy as a certain mustachioed ol’ Walrus would’ve been. They plan to plant the mechanical explosives at key points around the Obelisk station in the hidden city for maximum damage.

As FitzSimmons prepare to re-enter the tunnels, Simmons tries to buoy Fitz’s spirits following the loss of his new friend, Mac. Although he fears the worst for him, Simmons suggests that he may not be dead, only under some kind of alien zombie control.

Speaking of Mac, Bobbi roots around his workshop on the “Bus” looking for a flash drive. Something to do with “the other thing” they talked about last episode, no doubt. Hunter pops his head in and offers her some support following Mac’s entrapment in the tunnels. Bobbi gets word from her contact to meet and asks Hunter to come with. He asks about the flash drive she’s trying to hide from him, but he’s not talking. He gives her the benefit of the doubt and assumes it has nothing to do with him. Yeah, we’ll see.

May beats herself up over letting Ward take Skye, but Coulson assures her that the training she’d provided Skye will keep her alive and safe.

Meanwhile Skye, as Ward’s captive, is led through the halls of a building somewhere in San Juan to a door where Grant tells her he’s kept his promise. He opens the door and Skye is finally, for the first time since infancy, reunited with her father, the Doctor.

Face to face with her father for the first time she can remember, Skye is speechless as her father, amazed at the resemblance to her mother, tries to keep his emotions in check. He introduces himself as “Cal,” her father and thanks her for meeting him. This spurs Skye to speak, reminding him that she’d had no choice, having been kidnapped at gunpoint. Dr. Cal gets a little nervous and goofy, but despite the accusation of being a monster, he defends his actions after she’d been stolen from him. He promises to protect her now, though, but when Skye asks him to help her escape, he tells her that she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be.

Across town, Bobbi and Lance round a corner to meet her contact, but see HYDRA agents have gotten to him first. As they walk past, Morse and Hunter do the old “make out in public so no one will notice us” trick (if you’ll recall, Black Widow and Cap pulled the same stunt in Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and her contact slips a scrap of paper with an address on it into Bobbi’s pocket . . . huh, how about that? Makes me want to re-watch the scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier to see if Widow pulled the same trick with Crossbones. I’m betting she did . . . and that would make her HYDRA to at least all the way through to nearly the end of the film.

Back at the address in question, presumably, Skye tries to impress upon her father that he’s working for the bad guys, but Cal takes offense at the suggestion that he answers to Whitehall and confesses he’d used him to get to Skye. Then he begins to unfurl the story of Skye’s unique nature and HYDRA’s capturing and killing of her mother before humming the same lullaby (which I’d failed to notice earlier is “On A Bicycle Built For Two” featuring the name “Daisy”) that Skye had heard in her dream from the beginning of last episode. A HYDRA guard enters, telling Doctor Cal that Whitehall wants to speak to him. As he stands, he promises that, now that his purpose has been served, he plans to kill Whitehall, the architect of all his misery. Still humming the lullaby’s tune, he steps out.

Back at the parked “Bus,” FitzSimmons prep hazmat suits to wear in the tunnels, while May, Coulson and Trip plan to set the explosives. Trip asks Sam where his brother is at, and he gets more head games as he’s led to believe the Koenig brothers are actually “Life Model Decoy” robots . . . either that, or HE’S an LMD and they’re making fun of him for it. I could almost buy that as a twist later in the season. Coulson orders both Koenig brothers back to the “Playground” to be prepared to enact something called the “Theta Protocol” if things go bad and then receives a call from Morse about HYDRA being holed up in a theatre on the other side of town. When Koenig superimposes the map of the hidden city over the map of San Juan, it’s revealed that HYDRA are perched directly over the chamber everyone is looking for.

At the theatre, HYDRA has set up a plasma drill and plan to drop straight down into the city. As Whitehall gathers Ward, Raina and the Doctor, he first thanks each of them for their assistance before bringing Skye in and asking what she’d been brought for. Ward claims it was for insurance purposes, but Whitehall reminds him that he didn’t follow orders to shoot down the “Bus,” which he’d personally countered. He opens the case holding the Diviner and tells Skye to pick it up. She hesitates, but seeing that her father isn’t concerned that it will harm her, she grabs it and, as it activates, she quickly presses it to a HYDRA soldier’s face, killing him, as Doctor Cal zips a scalpel across the throat of another before they’re all hopelessly surrounded by the remaining HYDRA guards, including Agent 33, all with guns trained on them. They disarm both the Doc and Skye, not to mention Ward, and then Whitehall confesses to not immediately recognizing the Doctor when he’d shown up with the Obelisk. The Doctor says that if Skye weren’t there, he’d rip Whitehall and his goons apart. Intriguing . . . it sounds like Doctor Cal would be able to use his “monstrous” powers, but Skye’s presence might somehow suppress his ability to do so. Or he just doesn’t want his little girl to see what he looks like as an enormous, (insert applicable colour here) rage monster.

Whitehall probes deeper into Ward’s involvement in this wacky family reunion. Raina, however, with her greater knowledge of the powerfully attractive nature of both her and Skye, provides the answer. Ward is obsessed with winning Skye’s love by helping her achieve her destiny. Whitehall, however, promises to spoil all love interests, fateful birthrights and duplicitous revenge schemes and orders his guards to be doubly vigilant when detaining Ward, before insinuating that he’ll soon have a date with Whitehall’s “Faustus Method” machine.

May lands the cloaked Quinjet, also carrying Coulson, Hunter and Morse, on top of the HYDRA infested theatre and they debark.

In the tunnels across town, FitzSimmons and Triplett argue about the best method of setting the timed charges and what to do if they encounter Mac, dead or alive.

Inside the theatre, Ward gets inside “Maygent 33’s” head before Whitehall steps in and uses a subdural doo-hickey (like the one he’d used on Raina earlier in the season) to knock out Doctor Cal. He tells Skye about her mother’s gift of extended youth before wondering aloud what Skye’s gift could be. “Discovery requires experimentation.” As Whitehall promises to show him what he intends to do to his daughter, Coulson and May break in upstairs.

Meanwhile, Fitz, Trip and Simmons . . . make a left turn. Seriously, we cut away from the action packed firefight for this?! Must be some seriously important future plot point.

In the theatre’s kitchen, Ward, while tied to a chair, uses his silver tongue to distract the guard keeping watch over him and the Doctor, as Cal slowly recovers from Whitehall’s “compliance disc.” Just long enough for the Doctor to sneak up behind the guard and snap his neck like a chicken bone. Then, refusing Ward’s request to watch, he sets out to kill Whitehall.

In the tunnels, Simmons sets the second charge before Trip tells them they’re running behind. Fitz suggests splitting up to finish and TripSimmons reluctantly allow him to finish the job on his own.

Above, Whitehall gives his last order to “Maygent 33” before Doctor Cal advances on him. Whitehall raises his pistol to defend himself and with a crash . . . Whitehall falls to the ground, the victim of Coulson’s well-timed intervention. The Doctor, however, is furious at being denied the one thing he’d dedicated the last 25 years to. Revenge.

After confirming Whitehall is dead, the Doc rounds on Coulson, but Phil tells Cal that he’s there to take Skye. Not a good idea there, Coulson buddy. “Maygent 33” breaks up the stalemate sending both Coulson and the Doctor scrambling for cover only to find Daniel Whitehall’s lifeless corpse and an end to her continued purpose.

Covering the stairs, Morse and Hunter run afoul of a HYDRA goon and Hunter gives the recruitment slogan that has worked for centuries before shooting the goon and knocking the shutters off the window behind him, casting clear light into the darkened stairwell.

Coming down another stairwell equally brightened by unshuttered windows, Phil is suddenly struck from behind by the Doctor. As he turns to face the Doc, an eerie red light emanates from the plasma drill in the next room. Cal declares that Skye doesn’t need Coulson, but him, her true father . . . and then curb stomps Phil.

In the kitchen, while the battle is heard through the walls, Ward unties Skye to help her escape and immediately regrets the decision when Skye puts four bullets in him from the downed goon’s gun.

Coulson’s beat up pretty bad, but he holds his own for a few seconds before Doc Cal gets the upper hand and nearly kills Phil . . . before Skye yells for him to stop. Nothing stops a cold-blooded killer in his tracks better than the ol’ “No, Daddy, no!” trick. He claims that his just revenge was thwarted, but Skye lays it out plainer: Phil stopped the Doc from becoming more of a monster. She swears to see the hidden city destroyed before the Obelisk can reach it. Then the Doc, accepting this, yet knowing her change is inevitable, tells her he’ll be around to help her afterwards, saying “I’ll always love you, Daisy,” he just walks out of the poor girl’s life, yet again.

So, that’s that then. Doctor Cal appears to be none other than seminal Marvel villain Calvin Zabo a.k.a. Mister Hyde. Which, if Skye’s real name IS Daisy, would make her his daughter Daisy Johnson a.k.a. Quake (and now apparently also a.k.a. Mary Sue Poots!). I have to confess, aside from the occasional appearance in various Avengers titles, I know very little about Quake. What I do know is, she first appeared in the “Secret War” mini-series from 2004 and eventually went on to feature in the S.H.I.E.L.D. team title “Secret Warriors.” Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to catch up on ALL of that before the show returns in the spring. But hey, we’ve still got a program to watch here!

“Maygent 33” comes across Ward as he’s slowly bleeding out and he once again entrances her with that hypnotic voice he’s acquired as of late and, without any other directing force in her life now, she essentially comes his new padawan learner. And hey, while we’re on the subject of Agent 33, doesn’t she look just a wee bit like Madame Hydra with that scarred eye? Just sayin’! But really, anyone who’s listened to the We Got the Geek: Make Mine Marvel Movies podcasts with JStew and myself knows that I’ve been rooting for a Madame Hydra appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a while now. As great as “The Wolverine” was in the FOX-men Cinematic Universe, their mutant Viper just didn’t satisfy.

Anyway, May breaks off from Lance and Bobbi to search for Coulson, who Skye has just left along with a green lantern (heh, see what I did there?) to stop Raina, who’s taken the Obelisk and her own purple lantern down into the tunnels and encountered Mac, still zombified and amenable to coercion by Raina as a guide to the Obelisk’s activation chamber.

Phil, looking pretty beat up, is found by May, but he doesn’t waste time and, grabbing another green lantern, he signals May to switch on the blood red-lit cable winch to lower him into the tunnels.

While at that moment, at the other end of the city, Fitz is pulled from the Fort entrance to the tunnels wearing his white hazmat suit and Simmons tells him they’ve got ten minutes to spare. Good thing too, because when Trip makes contact with May, she tells him that Raina, Skye and Coulson are still in the tunnels. So, without hesitation, Trip leaps into action lowering himself down to the tunnels to deactivate all four charges in under 10 minutes.

Mac and Raina reach the Obelisk chamber and Raina enters. Trip gets the first charge. Coulson waves his green light around yelling Skye’s name. Bobbi and Hunter catch up with May. Skye finds Mac and when he won’t budge, she moves past him, Mac putting up no resistance, and enters the chamber. Raina’s expecting her and Skye declares her intention to stop her. Trip gets the third charge (although I have no idea what happened to the second one). Raina goes what Darcy from Thor would call banana balls cuckoo and the Obelisk floats onto the pedestal in the centre of the chamber. Trip gets the last charge in the . . . heh, nick of time. Coulson finds Mac and takes another beating before getting past him and continuing toward the chamber, which somehow Trip has gotten to before him, because he enters the chamber just as it closes, sealing Phil outside. As the Obelisk opens to reveal crystals contained within (these would be the Terrigen crystals of the Inhumans), they begin to vapourize, shooting towards Skye and Raina like iron filings to a magnet. Outside the chamber, Mac advances toward Coulson menacingly, but then immediately stops and drops to the ground. Inside, Skye and Raina both are quickly encased in a hard cocoon-like shell. As Skye calls out to Trip for help, he kicks the pedestal causing the opened Obelisk and remaining crystals to explode. As Trip watches Skye appear to die before his eyes, he himself quickly dies due to a shard of the Obelisk’s metal shell piercing him. Skye bursts forth from the cocoon with a seismic blast that the rest of the team feels throughout the underground complex as her true identity as Daisy Johnson, which had been hinted at since last episode, is pretty much confirmed. She looks on in horror at the petrified body of Agent Triplett as it crumbles to nothing as a result of her Inhuman birth blast. But the question remains: What has Raina become?

Looks like we won’t find out until well into next year, because somewhere a box glows, reacting to Skye and Raina’s Terrigenesis, a man sets down his book, lifts another Diviner/Obelisk out and makes a call saying: “Are you seeing this? There’s someone new. Tell the others, I’m on it,” before the camera pans up to show that, despite seeing the Obelisk’s light and reading a book, HE HAS NO EYES.

Who is he? Not Daredevil, but obviously another Inhuman with a Diviner, speaking to others who also have their own Diviners about a sudden and unexpected birth into the Inhuman population. What did Raina become? Why does Ward give me a snakey, slithery vibe? Is Mac gonna be okay? Trip! Ah Trip, you were cut down too soon. He hardly had any chance to shine this season, at all. Very disappointing. I’m hoping that more clues into his connection to the Howling Commandos will be further explored in next month’s 8-part Agent Carter mini-series before we get back to the good old gang next spring. One thing’s for certain, the shape of Phase Three has been cast and it’s only a matter of time before Wars both Civil and Infinite break on the horizon . . .

Well, that’s it for me this year, folks. Of course, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on Agent Carter once it premieres and in the meantime, if you got something out of these reviews, check out the We Got The Geek’s periodical podcast with JStew and myself: “Make Mine Marvel Movies!”

This is Agent Darryl signing off.

Agent Darryl reporting in with this week’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.9, codename: “Ye Who Enter Here”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that agents not read this review until after they have watched the MAOS episode “Ye Who Enter Here.” Enjoy!

Skye (while wearing what looks like one of Raina’s flower dresses) runs down the halls of the “Playground” calling out for Coulson as the overhead lights continually shut off behind her, enclosing her in darkness. Hearing a lullaby playing, she investigates. Suddenly appearing in the “Playground’s” lab, she’s faced by Coulson holding a newspaper with Chinese characters on it. He reaches forward to open a small steel box on the table, but Skye pushes it to the floor to stop him from touching it. Cut to her sitting on the floor looking at the now opened box and she turns, looking up toward the table again and Coulson, now dressed in civilian clothing, is joined by a Mom-jeans wearing Melinda May as he gently holds an infant child. May tells Phil, “Sacrifices have to be made. Poison tree, poison fruit” and he reluctantly agrees, setting the child, who Coulson calls “Angel Eyes,” down on the table while turning to leave with May. Skye calls out to them, but then she’s holding the steel box and it begins turning her to stone, like the Obelisk it passingly resembles. As she calls out again . . . Coulson suddenly shakes Skye awake on the “Bus,” rescuing her from the nightmare she’d been trapped in and tells her they’re now back at the “Playground.”

Inside, rolling down the very halls Skye had fled in her dream is a remote-control toy version of Lola – complete with a tiny little Coulson driving – operated by Mac. Fitz takes the RC sized Lola to the foot and Mac tells him he’d made it for Coulson, in an effort to get him to loosen up and let him work on the real Lola. Fitz asks if the RC version flies, but Mac, looking distracted by Lance and Bobbi’s blossoming flirtations with one another, tells him that no, it doesn’t fly. Fitz then asks for some help with something and when Simmons’ name comes up, Fitz gets flustered and bugs out. So will it be FitzSimmons or MacFitz? Who knows?

On the “Bus,” meanwhile, Simmons tends to Agent Triplett’s bandages following his near-fatal gunshot wound last episode and asks about Skye’s father. Before he can fully describe the complete level of crazy the Doctor, uh, “operates” on, Skye steps in to let them know about the latest mission prep in the cargo hold. She then levels with them about how not only is her father completely crazy, but everything they’ve been dealing with lately is too, before admitting to an overwhelming sense of impending doom.

In the cargo hold shortly after, Coulson brings everyone up to speed on the next mission: finding the temple located beneath the hidden city, which as of the end of last episode, is no longer hidden . . . well, from S.H.I.E.L.D. anyway. Trip makes the same guess I did: The Bermuda Triangle, but Coulson confirms that it had been solved in the 80s. Trip then shoots for Atlantis as a second guess (oh, how WONDERFUL it would be to finally introduce Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner into the Marvel Cinematic Universe!), but nope, the Agents are going to . . . Puerto Rico! Once there, in order to prevent Hydra from developing a weapon of mass destruction with the Obelisk/Diviner and the hidden city it unlocks, Coulson intends to blow it up completely, much to the seeming dismay of several agents, including both Bobbi and Mac. Hmmm . . .

In Vancouver, British Columbia, Raina uses her powers of persuasion on a well-heeled older gentleman to get . . .well, whatever she wants really, when she spots Agent May shadowing her at a table. Confronting her with the fact that having a tracer implanted in her makes a physical shadow fairly redundant, she discovers it’s actually Agent 33 with the busted up morph mask still stuck to show . . . well, MOST of Agent May’s face instead. She tells Raina that Whitehall wants to speak with her, but Raina doesn’t stop to chat and runs for the street . . . which is completely covered by undercover HYDRA agents. She walks down the street and Agent Billy Koenig directs her to walk around the corner quickly. Not having any other options, she does, only to find . . . Agent Koenig?! Well yes, but this is SAM Koenig: latest in a series of creepily expanding identical twin brothers working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Using a retro-reflective panel-equipped umbrella, he gives HYDRA the slip, telling Raina she’ll need a lanyard.

On the “Bus,” which is also retro-reflectively cloaked and en route to Puerto Rico, Coulson receives the update about Agent 33 and HYDRA from the Agents Koenig and then advises them the REAL Agent May will arrive shortly (to the delight of Agent Sam) with an extraction team.

Skye and May, meanwhile, review the news footage of the Ward family murders and vow to take Grant down. Coulson, all wrapped up with the brothers Koenig, advises then they’ll need to split teams. He sends Skye with May and Hunter on the “Bus” to Vancouver while the rest pile into the Quinjet for San Juan. When Skye leaves to spread the word, May calls Phil out saying he’s keeping Skye from the secret city, but Coulson corrects her, saying he’s actually keeping her away from her nutty doctor dad.

While looking for the “Dwarf” case, Simmons and Bobbi have a brief girl talk rap session about Fitz and his feelings for Simmons, while finally filling in the gaps about what really happened between the end of last season and the beginning of this one. The teams then split up and Skye hugs Coulson out of the blue (“Hail Skyra?”) and May’s got a look like “What’s that about?” Mac gives Bobbi what appears to be a very tired, old lecture about being involved with Hunter . . . yet again, before asking if they’ll be bringing him in on “the other thing” since they’d already lost Hartley. Um, what?! Okay, now I’m really wondering what’s going on with, well pretty much ALL of the new recruits. “The other thing?” I wonder if it’s got anything to do with Mac wanting to get his hands on Lola. In either case, Bobbi says she doesn’t want Hunter to have any part of it.

Speaking of which, once in Vancouver, Hunter casually thumps the HYDRA agent shadowing Agent Sam as he’s walking down the street while May disables another two in a van around the corner. Skye shows up at the safe house where Billy is holding Raina, but HYDRA attacks before they can clear the building. As Skye squares off against “Maygent 33,” she tells Billy and Raina to make a break for the stairs. She tunes up on the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned brainwashed HYDRA operative, but when 33 gets the upper hand, it takes the well-timed intervention of Agent Hunter to finish things up.

In San Juan, Bobbi and Phil make their way across town to meet with Morse’s contact as they discuss the plan to destroy the hidden city. Morse seems unconvinced that Coulson really plans to follow through with it and wonders what the point of destroying the city is. Coulson gives her a lesson on the importance of the everyman before telling her he hates the concept of “acceptable losses.”

Back at the Quinjet, parked just outside San Juan, Mac decides he’s had enough uncomfortable silence and takes a walk, leaving Fitz and Simmons to finally work out their problems. Simmons tries to express that her leaving to do the undercover assignment had nothing to do with Fitz, but he cuts her off and announces that he’s leaving the science division of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be run by her and he’ll relocate to the garage on the “Bus” to work with Mac. Well then, looks like it’s FitzSimmons: 0 MacFitz: 1.

Heading to the Fort San Cristóbal historic site, Bobbi and Phil locate the entrance to the hidden city at “La Garita del Diablo” and then, because it’s not accessible to the public, try to work out how to get their equipment to the site. Bobbi figures her contact can help out.

In Canada, Skye, Hunter and Raina try to get back to the “Bus,” but are surrounded by a wide perimeter of HYDRA agents. As Hunter breaks off to look for May, Skye lets slip to Raina that Whitehall now has the Diviner and Raina confesses that he’ll need her to hold it before trying to surrender to HYDRA. As Raina runs toward the closest Hydra perimeter guards, a van backs over them at high speed and May and Hunter hustle Skye and Raina in. “Maygent 33” calls it in to Whitehall, but gives him the tip that Raina’s been implanted with a tracker.

A little later on the Bus, Sam and Billy mess with Triplett’s head a little before May calls Coulson to let him know about Raina being able to touch the Obelisk.

Phil’s got his own problems though, because Bobbi’s contact refuses to help the field team load equipment into the city due to a “devil’s curse” on the area they want to enter the city from. Making do with the “Dwarves” instead, Fitz sends them down a pit that opens up for them, but then has another spell when trying to get the right word out. Mac is clueless to what he’s talking about, but Simmons gets it right away, tying it up with FitzSimmons: 1 and MacFitz: 1. At that moment, the “Dwarves” sent down go dead.

On the “Bus,” Raina talks up the Doctor to Skye, before giving her the whole street urchin-turned-little-orphan-Annie backstory.

In the hidden city, they toss some glow sticks down the pit to establish the depth at around 150 feet and then Mac volunteers to do a little spelunking to recover the dwarves.

On the “Bus,” Raina continues to get into Skye’s head, teasing the unique-yet-distinctly-NON-alien origins of both of them and their relationship to the very alien blue-skinned angels, otherwise known as the Kree (the worst of which, Ronan the Accuser, was featured in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and I fully expect next week’s mid-season finale will dovetail nicely with both the home video release of the movie AND lead into next month’s “Agent Carter” event). Arriving in Puerto Rico, they receive a message over the comm direct from Daniel Whitehall advising them that they’re surrounded by HYDRA Quinjets and a “representative” will be boarding to take custody of Raina. And who is this representative? Why none other than newly restored HYDRA agent, Grant Ward.

On the ground, or rather under it, Mac is lowered down into the pit with a rope and once he reaches the bottom, while recovering the “Dwarves,” he touches one of the alien hieroglyphics on he floor. It lights up and then, holding his arm in pain, Mac starts screaming. The team pulls him back up, but then Mac freaks out, smashing everything like . . . well, like the Hulk, really.

Ward takes Raina . . . and Skye, as well. The brothers Koenig show amazing restraint toward the killer of their other brother, Eric and May immediately objects to Skye being taken as a hostage, but what choice do they have? Raina reminds Skye to grab her tablet before leaving. I suppose the question is, does it contain valuable intelligence for HYDRA or is it simply a piece of S.H.I.E.L.D. tech that they’ll be able to track them with afterwards?

After Simmons nearly falls down the pit in the hidden city, Mac actually DOES and then Coulson orders them to seal the pit saying that it wasn’t truly Mac at all.

Elsewhere, “Maygent 33” meets Whitehall to update him. She tells him that in addition to taking Raina, Ward had also taken Skye as a hostage. He doesn’t seem too bothered by that, but when she also confirms that he’d let the “Bus” and her passengers go, that rankles him and he orders her to call in a new airstrike against them . . .

To be continued next week in the mid-season finale!

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Agent Darryl reporting in with this week’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.8, codename: “The Things We Bury”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that agents not read this review until after they have watched the MAOS episode “The Things We Bury.” Enjoy!

Austria 1945,

Herr Reinhardt conducts experiments with the Obelisk on an Asian man confirming that, so far, it kills indiscriminately, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but with no discernable pattern . . . until the next female subject is brought in. She refuses to touch the artifact, but when two HYDRA soldiers press her face to it, she survives and the object of unknown origin reacts just as it had to Raina’s touch, earlier in the season. Reinhardt orders her to be held for further examination as he learns of the dire fate of the Red Skull. Mourning the passing of HYDRA’s founder, he forebodingly promises that “discovery requires experimentation.”

Flashing forward to the present, Herr Reinhardt (now in the guise of Daniel Whitehall) dismisses all the information the Doctor, has shared as old intelligence before having him brought before him. Once again the phrase “scratching,” first mentioned by Baron Strucker during the mid-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, is used by the Doctor to describe HYDRA’s experiments with the Obelisk/Diviner, suggesting that Whitehall is insane to expect any different results than he has so far. Whitehall confesses to be on edge following the disappearance of Mr. Bakshi and orders his guards to train their firearms on Skye’s father during the remainder of the meeting. When Whitehall refers to the Obelisk/Diviner as a weapon, the Doctor corrects him, telling him it’s actually a key to a special place containing vast power. Whitehall, of course, is intrigued.

Meanwhile, May is stuck holding the fort at the “Playground” as Coulson, with a field team consisting of Agents Skye, Triplett and Fitz, jets off to Hawaii on a secret mission. Phil reminds May that the traitorous Agent Ward is still on the loose. May confirms that Ward’s Senator brother, Christian has demanded S.H.I.E.L.D. stay out of it as his own men search for him. She also gives Phil the latest on Agent Morse’s attempts to interrogate the imprisoned Bakshi in Vault D. Meanwhile, as Hunter observes the proceedings in Vault D on the monitor, Mac expresses his unease over Coulson’s behavior after subjecting himself to Edison Po’s memory machine last episode. Agent Simmons steps in, commenting on how Bakshi had nearly killed her several times over. Mac asks offhandedly if she’d like to see his head bashed in and Jemma is impressed by Bobbi’s civility.

In Vault D, Agent Morse chips away at Bakshi, but a lot of the discussion feels like an encrypted conversation between two HYDRA agents in unfriendly territory (seriously, Morse actually offers to HELP Bakshi take down Whitehall and become the two new heads that would emerge!). Afterwards, Mac asks if she thinks Bakshi had been brainwashed, but she confirms that any HYDRA agent could have been brainwashed without even knowing. Something Simmons immediately agrees with before quickly shutting up, remembering her own time in the enemy’s camp. Bobbi suggests that Bakshi’s use of the phrase “Red Skull’s disciple” when referring to Whitehall is a slip revealing that Whitehall is much older than he appears. May steps in, everyone says “Red Skull” so much I honestly expected him to just appear out of nowhere like Bloody Mary or Candyman, but no such luck there, I don’t expect to see Hugo Weaving making an appearance in full Skull gear any time soon. Simmons suggests checking the old SSR files in the “Playground” to try and locate more intel on the Obelisk and it’s effects.

Elsewhere, Senator Ward blows off his wife over the phone for a “political strategy meeting” before making another call to what appears to be his mistress instead. As he finishes that call, the window is smashed in and Grant Ward pulls his brother from the car, throwing him to the ground.

The “Bus” de-cloaks and touches down on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and Coulson advises Trip and Skye to ditch their guns to try and be a bit subtler. He gives Skye a watch to be repaired and inscribed to someone named “Darren.” Then he warns Skye that if the watch starts leaking to drop it and run. Coulson then gives Trip a button (or a button sized device of some kind) to drop off at a dry cleaner (as well as pick up one of Coulson’s favorite ties). As they head out, he coaches Fitz to improve his motor-skills. Turns out he’ll need Fitz to install parts on a transceiver with only one hand . . . in six minutes flat. No pressure there.

Back at the “Playground,” Hunter and Morse put their heads together to figure out Bakshi’s motivations for serving HYDRA. Bobbi believes he’d betrayed Whitehall before being given a second chance to prove his loyalty. Then she ACTUALLY SAYS “Hail HYDRA!” Ruh-oh. I mean it’s couched in a phrase that appears to place it in the context of Bakshi saying it, but even still . . . I’m watching you Morse. We never did see what went down during her escape and rescue of Simmons when her cover had been blown . . .

In Coulson’s office, Simmons tells May she’s finally located the report on the original 0-8-4 known now by S.H.I.E.L.D. as the Obelisk as she totally geeks out over Agent Carter. You and me both sister, I’ve always been Peggy’s biggest fan. She’s one of a kind, that’s for sure. She identifies the head of HYDRA’s Obelisk research team as Werner Reinhardt, but no other information on him is included in the file. May crosses Coulson’s office and opens a secret compartment. Taking out a key, May reveals there are other vaults in the “Playground” and Agent Carter buried quite a few secrets in them before she’d retired.

Flashing back to 1945, we’re treated to a scene featuring Peggy herself as she interrogates Reinhardt in the SSR base dubbed “The Rat.” Reinhardt wishes to make a deal, but Agent Carter is unmoved. He tells her a tale of blue skinned angels who emerged from a fallen star to conquer the world.

In the present, the Doctor offers his own variation of the tale, saying that the “blue angels” hadn’t come to Earth to conquer mankind, but to end it completely . . . except for a very select few. Whitehall asks the Doctor if only someone who can hold the Diviner can enter the hidden city with it and Skye’s father mentions that it’s actually the temple BENEATH the city that’s more important. Interesting . . . a temple containing immeasurable power under a secret city . . . very much like the temple the legendary outlaw, Star-Lord breached at the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy perhaps? Whitehall is naturally suspicious of the Doctor’s motivations, but Skye’s father confesses that he’s not interested in power, he only wants the opportunity to kill the one responsible for taking everything important to him away and reuniting with his family in death.

Speaking of family reunions, Senator Christian Ward doesn’t seem too thrilled about seeing his brother. As Grant leads him into the wilderness, the Senator tries to convince Ward that he’s now free because of him, but Grant’s not buying it for a second. As they come to a clearing, Ward pulls a shovel out from behind a tree and tells the Senator to start digging out the old well that their parents had had buried.

On the “Bus” meanwhile, Fitz struggles while practicing to assemble the transceiver parts in under six minutes, as per Coulson’s mission requirements and wonders aloud to Skye and Trip if he’s either being tested . . . or just kept busy. Trip has faith in Coulson, though and assures Fitz that everything Phil needs done is for a reason. At that moment, Coulson steps in and Trip delivers the tie he’d picked up when delivering the button Coulson had given him. He tells them their next stop is Australia and when Skye asks about the tie, he says it had been a gift from the cellist that he’d stained with poi during his last visit to the island. Well, I suppose that’s a hint that we haven’t seen the last of Phil’s great love, Audrey. He gives Fitz a quick pep talk and then it’s wheels up.

At the “Playground,” after searching through all the old SSR files, they find one for Werner Reinhardt. When Simmons sees the attached mugshot, she immediately identifies him as Daniel Whitehall and his connection to the Red Skull is finally confirmed, but May finds another photo of him after years in confinement in the SSR/S.H.I.E.L.D. prison “The Rat,” meaning that he HAD grown old over time, but had somehow been rejuvenated.

Flashing back to “The Rat” facility in 1945, Agent Carter promises to see Reinhardt locked up and buried for life. Time passes in the cell and then in 1989, at the order of Under-Secretary Alexander Pierce, he’s set free by HYDRA sleeper agents. As he’s wheeled out in a chair, Reinhardt is told that the mysterious young woman who’d been locked up at his order in 1945 has been found by HYDRA once again alive, still youthful and being held by S.H.I.E.L.D. Curious about this unique woman’s youth and ability to touch the Obelisk, he again promises: discovery requires experimentation.

At the “Playground,” Simmons and Hunter confirm in the SSR files everything that had just played out and then Hunter goes to watch Bobbi, through the Vault D monitor, use that intel to get Bakshi to open up and spill. Interestingly, Morse says the famous HYDRA trigger phrase “compliance will be rewarded,” in a sarcastic context, but again it feels more like the two are actually communicating much more to each other in code. I’ve got to say, it’s quite the elaborate spy story when you suspect EVERYONE. It’s like a goddamn game of “CLUE.” Bakshi teases Morse with unspoken juicy gossip about what she’d done in the name of HYDRA while operating undercover, but when Morse shows him that, without even realizing it, he’d given them far more for them to work with Bakshi looks worried, almost panicked. As Morse steps around the table to seemingly intimidate him, Bakshi suddenly smashes his head against the table, breaking open the poison capsule surgically inserted into his cheekbone. So . . . one good punch in the face will kill a HYDRA agent with his own poison? Good to know. Good. To. Know.

At the family well, the brothers Ward spar with words as Christian digs and eventually strikes the well cover buried beneath. Realizing what Grant intends to do, the Senator makes one last bid to escape, but Agent Ward is well trained and catches him with almost no effort at all. Dragging him back to the now completely uncovered well, Grant threatens to throw Christian in as he begs for mercy and then finally confesses to forcing Grant to try and kill their little brother Thomas when they were children. The reason why? Because he was jealous of him. Jealous of the fact that Thomas was the only one their mother didn’t torture. Pretty dark stuff. With the confession and an apology, Grant appears to be fine with his brother once again . . . or is he?

On the “Bus” now landed in Australia, Coulson lays out the entire plan that they’ve been working on in the dark. In order to access a certain satellite array in orbit they would need to first shut down the Air Force base computers in Hawaii where the relay is located, but it’s too heavily guarded to get in. However, the feed will redirect to a smaller, less guarded backup facility in Australia if it ever goes offline in Hawaii. Hence why the team is now there. But why the seemingly useless trip to Hawaii in the first place? Well aside from picking up Phil’s necktie, it turns out the watch Skye had dropped off to be repaired and the button Agent Triplett delivered to the dry cleaners both belong to two different top level Air Force officers. When they unsuspectingly shake hands at the beginning of their next shift, they’ll trigger the devices implanted in both watch and button, each mostly harmless and undetectable by themselves, and emit a powerful electromagnetic pulse. This will knock out the Air Force Base’s communication array, including the satellite relay, thus causing it to reroute to Australia, where the field team can then implant the transceiver and piggy back their signal back at the “Playground.” The catch? When Hawaii goes back online their window will close, so they only have six minutes to install the transceiver once inside.

When the two Generals meet, the EMP goes off as expected and the relay reroutes, but when Coulson, Fitz and Trip breach the complex, they’re ambushed by HYDRA agents trying to hijack the satellite relay as well. They find the room Fitz needs to connect the transceiver to and as he gets to work, Trip and Coulson cover him. In the firefight that ensues, Trip takes one to the chest and Coulson does what he can to stop him from bleeding out. At that moment, Skye’s father, the Doctor, offers his help to save Trip. As we’ve seen before, he is quite adept at extracting bullets, but during the procedure, the Doctor slips that he knows who they are. When Phil goes on high alert, the Doctor threatens to let Trip die. With his agent’s life literally on the line, Coulson accepts the Doctor’s deal and drops the gun. As the Doctor continues working on Trip, he reveals Whitehall’s intentions and worries over what Skye would think of him and flips out when Coulson actually refers to her as “Skye,” shouting that that isn’t her true name. The Doctor gives Coulson instructions to finish the work on Trip’s near-fatal bullet wound to ensure Phil’s hands are busy as he makes his escape. But Coulson promises it isn’t over between them. The Doctor leaves and Fitz completes the installation of the transceiver, giving S.H.I.E.L.D. access to the satellite array in order to continue the search for the hidden city.

Daniel Whitehall, while ruminating on the value of second chances, reflects on the months and years of experimentation on the unique woman who defies both aging and the deadly threat of the Obelisk, eventually succeeding in restoring his own youth and vitality in the process . . . at the expense of the poor woman’s life. As he returns his attention to the present, it’s revealed that he is, in fact, interviewing Grant Ward, out of the cold and home at HYDRA at last. After reviewing his resume, in the form of a news broadcast stating that both Senator Christian Ward AND his parents had died in a fire at their home, it looks like Grant’s got the job. Included in the recovered debris of the fire was Senator Ward’s killer confession, taped by Grant and the true reason for hunting him down and tormenting him first. To frame him for the deaths of himself and his parents. Definitely HYDRA material.

In the “Playground’s” sickbay, Bakshi is recovering from his attempted self-poisoning, as Bobbi and Hunter observe through the glass. Hunter leans on Morse, insinuating that she didn’t want Bakshi to talk and had pushed him too far by triggering his HYDRA suicide reflex . . . and then the whole thing devolves into a post-divorce squabble that resolves itself in a passionate romp in the back of one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles. Hope you clean that up afterwards guys . . . and then get a room!

In the command centre of the “Playground,” Coulson begins to tell Skye about her father’s involvement in Trip’s recovery (and also, presumably, his involvement with HYDRA) when they get a match on the satellite relay for the hidden city. And unless I miss my guess, next episode they’ll be heading to the Caribbean. Possibly the Bermuda Triangle?

Later, in a space that appears to be Whitehall’s temporary office, complete with HYDRA red area rug (matching the one seen during the after credits scene in Iron Man 3 with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, incidentally), he introduces the Doctor to Grant Ward. They discuss their mutual past dealings with Coulson and while advising Grant of the wisdom of looking your enemy right in the eye, he then proceeds to stare directly at Whitehall, who meets his gaze and looks directly back.

Flashback to 1989 again (and I’ve got to say, the makeup department did an amazing job of making Kyle MacLachlan look 25 years younger) and the young Doctor, fleeing through the woods, stumbles across the torn remains of the once uniquely young woman and vows to do the same to the one who had done this to her, his wife.

Agent Darryl reporting in with special mission debrief codenamed: “Marvel, 75 Years: From Pulp to Pop!” which aired while “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” went dark for a week. Enjoy!

Well, to start with, although it’s not really the fault of Marvel or Disney or maybe even ABC, it was quickly apparent why this special aired on November 4^th thanks to the intermittent Election Day coverage through the show’s broadcast. Well, at least it’s not cutting into my regularly scheduled “Agents,” but since it didn’t air here in Canada (just like the “Agent Carter” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” promos just last week and the “Marvel Studios: Assembling A Universe” special late last season), the only chance to watch it was on a U.S. TV station that had no qualms about frustrating the living hell out of this fan-boy turned Agent by pre-empting the show for some silly little thing like the democratic process. We’ve got a super-hero special on here, people! C’mon! Let’s prioritize!

Anyway . . . hosted by Emily Van Camp, who played Agent 13 in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” as she strolls around the set for the “Playground” on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (and at one point, featuring juuuuust the tiniest little peek at what looks to be a fully restored “Lola”), we’re treated to an (all-too) brief recap of Marvel’s history from it’s humble beginnings in 1939 and sharp decline in sales and quality after the second World War to it’s revival in the early 60s, sales successes of the 80s and eventual bankruptcy due to gross mismanagement through the mid-nineties to early-2000s before the long shot gamble of founding “Marvel Studios” in 2006 and the blockbuster multi-billion dollar success story that has resulted and continues to surprise with every movie released since. With even more groundbreaking films just announced and currently in production!

The special features a slew of guest interviewees ranging from many of the comic creator legends themselves such as Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, to family members of late legends such as Jack Kirby and more recent creators like Fabian Nicieza Todd MacFarlane (perhaps yet another sign that a rumoured Spider-Man appearance in the MCU could at some point be happening!) and Brain Michael Bendis to actors Clark (“Director Phil Coulson”) Gregg and Patton (“Agents Eric and Billy Keonig”) Oswalt. These personalities bring a lot to the special with an inside view of the workings of both Marvel’s comics and film and television divisions, as do segments including former and current Editors-in-Chief Jim Shooter, Joe Quesada and Axel Alonso. Other segments with Kevin Smith (who is misleadingly credited as “Director/Writer of ‘Daredevil’”), Seth (“Howard the Duck”) Green and Jimmy Kimmel contribute their thoughts as fans, both as children and adults, enjoying Marvel’s new golden age.

Although the special did naturally put forth Marvel’s greatest triumphs over the years, I was also impressed that they didn’t shy away from the dark days of the 50s and the 90s and the near dissolution of the Marvel brand during both those periods. However, despite this seeming forthrightness, though, a large number of details surrounding those periods were glossed over, in fact, my biggest disappointment overall was the sheer number of years that were skipped over throughout Marvel’s history, both good and bad.

But that’s the past, I suppose, and what’s done is done. Like so many fans, what we really tuned in for is a glimpse into the future and Marvel doesn’t disappoint there. Although lacking in details, there was a brief tease for the upcoming Mother Of All Marvel Comics Events “Secret Wars,” before some early footage of “Ant-Man,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the Netflix “Defenders” series and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy animated cartoon and then a special extended sneak peek at a scene of “Agent Carter” was shown, which reunites Peggy Carter and Howard Stark for the first time since “Captain America: The First Avenger” before introducing Edwin Jarvis, Stark’s butler and Peggy’s (soon to be) partner in fighting crime.

Overall, a good way to catch a breath from the non-stop thrills we’ve been enjoying this season on “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and get at least a little backstory on where all these characters came from. Hopefully, it will air at some time here in Canada without annoying election coverage interrupting it, but if not, like the “Marvel Studios: Assembling A Universe” special last season, expect this to show up as a bonus feature on the MAOS: Season 2 DVD and Blu-ray when it’s released next year.

Agent Darryl reporting in with this week’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.7, codename: “The Writing On The Wall”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that agents not read this review until after they have watched the MAOS episode “The Writing On The Wall.” Enjoy!

In Rhinebeck, NY, about the halfway point between Manhattan and Albany, a young woman invites the tattooed guy we’d first seen last week into her apartment while trying to figure out where she’d met him before. As she pours them drinks, still trying to figure out why he seems so familiar, he quickly scans her apartment, noting a large number of art history books on the shelf. He asks if she’s an artist, to which she says she is, as well as an art history teacher and then asks if that’s where she knows him. He simply says that he does some occasional “carving,” a phrase that we’ve become all too familiar with. Intrigued by this seeming coincidence, she suggests that it was destiny that they meet. Tattoo Guy admits they have met before, setting down his glass and beginning to unbutton his shirt. Realizing things are moving pretty quickly, she tries to slow him down, but the alien script tattooed on his chest and arms is immediately recognizable to her. She asks how he knows about it and, while opening a switchblade knife, he promises to help her remember.

As she screams in terror we cut to Coulson doing a little carving of his own on his office wall while listening to freestyle jazz loudly on a record player (I’ll bet anything we’ll learn later the player itself used to belong to Agent Carter, back in the day). Phil’s pretty sweaty and deep into the work as his own knife blade suddenly, frustratingly, breaks at the tip. As he turns to retrieve a fresh blade, Skye shuts off the record player. Reminding Coulson that he isn’t supposed to be left alone when carving, Skye then confides to him that the connections between Ward’s information about her father, who has the Obelisk (referred to here by Skye as “the alien buzz-kill device”), which is covered with the same alien hieroglyphics that Coulson is carving out as a result of the GH325 formula that had been administered to both of them is giving her trouble sleeping and frustrating her attempts to solve the riddle of it all. Phil confides that the secret will need to be uncovered soon because his carving compulsions are affecting him more and more frequently and with greater intensity each time. Skye asks when May will be back from the field and Coulson, as he returns to his perplexing task, tells her not until Ward is found and recaptured.

Meanwhile, out there on the hunt for Ward, Morse calls in to May, who’s currently circling around in the Quinjet, to advise that there’s been no sign of Ward since his escape. May knows Ward has multiple drop boxes set up in the area, though, and tells Bobbi to sit tight and keep her eyes peeled. When Bobbi asks why a nationwide manhunt isn’t underway, May confirms that Senator Christian Ward, Grant’s older brother, is keeping the knowledge of his brother’s escape under wraps. In Philadelphia, Ward enters the bus terminal and opens a storage locker. Agent Triplett spots him, but May orders him to stand down and observe. Coulson, also on the comm back at the “Playground,” advises Trip to keep him alive and bring him in. Somehow sensing he’s being watched, Ward lifts his shirt to show that he’s fully loaded with C4 explosives connected to a dead man switch. If Trip gets the urge to confront him or even tip off the police, Ward goes ka-boom and a lot of people die. He walks out and Trip has no choice but to follow.

As Skye steps into Coulson’s office, he let’s her know about Trip spotting Ward, but for once she looks like she’s got something more important on her mind. According to one of her hacker community sources going by the name “Micro” (who old school Punisher fans would probably know better as “Microchip”), an alleged crime-scene junkie (yeah, I’ll bet) passed along some photos of the tattooed man’s victim and he certainly does do a little carving . . . all over her body. Coulson immediately recognizes her a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, but Skye’s intel backs up what the victim had told Tattoo Guy at the beginning of the episode: artist/art teacher. They decide to go and investigate her apartment and eventually come across her artwork in a back room – dozens of canvas paintings of the alien hieroglyphics. Connection confirmed.

They take the artwork back to the “Playground” and, like missing puzzle pieces, they connect exactly with the carvings Phil had been doing, as well as the Spanish painting from Miami. Skye checks the S.H.I.E.L.D. archives and confirms the victim WAS a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent stationed at the “Triskelion,” but that she’d died of cancer five years ago. Coulson orders an autopsy and lo and behold, Mac and Fitz just happen to show up with the body. Turns out Mac had just swung by the morgue and took it, no questions asked. His philosophy in life: “if you want something, just grab it and walk out like you own it,” an outlook on life that Simmons certainly doesn’t share and isn’t afraid to show it. Looks like there’s some lasting tension between these two after last episode’s little confrontation. I foresee a tug-of-war battle in the near future between them . . . with Fitz as the rope, most likely. Jemma’s got nerves of steel, though, because no one feels like sticking around as she conducts the autopsy. But then, who would?

Ward gets off a bus in Atlanta, Georgia and immediately notices a blonde girl reading. It’s Morse, of course and Ward, smelling S.H.I.E.L.D. nearby, offers to help a single mom and her young son board their bus to Dallas. Ah yes, pull a few innocent passersby into the mix to ensure your own safety. I loving survival-mode Ward, much more interesting to watch than most of last season’s clean-cut, straight-laced, model-agent Ward. Bobbi’s quick, though, and already on the bus, but Ward’s a specialist, and he doesn’t back down from danger. He declines single mom’s invite to sit with them and goes right for the seat next to Agent Morse, sizing her up while letting her know her cover’s been blown. He quickly gets up and debarks the bus, apologizing for not paying close enough attention and instead boards the bus to Boston. No worries though, because “cowboy” Lance Hunter is hanging out a few rows back. Turns out May knew exactly where Ward would be heading and exactly how he’d try to throw them off first. And the chess match between former lovers continues . . .

Jemma concludes the autopsy and presents her findings to Coulson. Although she’d been profusely and deeply cut, the victim died of a heart attack brought on by the pain she’d suffered. Not only that, but Tattoo Guy had continued to carve long after she’d died, in a ritualistic fashion. Simmons also connects the carvings to Garrett’s behavior late last season and after confirming that GH325 was present in the blood of both killer and victim, she immediately asks if either Skye or Coulson have had the urge to write or carve anything. Phil brazens it out easily and immediately realizes that a former T.A.H.I.T.I. patient is targeting other former patients and it’s up to them to stop him. Trouble is, the only way to start looking for answers is to hook Coulson up to Edison Po’s memory machine from last season’s episode “The Magical Place.” Looks like S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to hang onto it in case it ever came in handy.

As Skye, Simmons and Coulson debate the wisdom of using the machine, Mac expresses what appears to be just a smidge of squeamishness at the sight of Coulson being strapped into a mind torture device as they talk about bringing people back from the dead using alien blood. Yeah, and you can call me paranoid if you like, but I’m starting to think he’s working over Fitz ever so subtly. Trying to get him to WANT to leave the team eventually. The question is, to go where? Coulson’s trip in Po’s Wayback machine puts him in the interview room of the “Guest House” when he was overseeing the GH325 experiments. He experiences interview flashbacks of six different patients, including the tattooed killer, who all seem perfectly normal at first, but as Coulson’s flashbacks continue, each patient’s stability is shown to degenerate as they scream and try to continue carving out the mysterious symbols . . . all except the man who is now a tattooed killer. In each flashback concerning him, he simply asks when he’ll be allowed to leave.

During another flashback intercut with a shot of Coulson’s discovery of the “Guest House” alien last season, here referred to as the “Host,” he argues with one of the project’s scientists about shutting down the experiments and destroying the alien. The scientist defends the project’s results, reveals the “Host” alien is thousands of years old, predating even the pyramids and then, interestingly, uses the same phrase Baron Strucker does at the end of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” about having only “scratched the surface” of it’s potential benefits. When flashback-Coulson declares that he’s going to contact Fury (as we saw in the recording May had recovered from Coulson’s grave late last season), she proposes the GH325 is genetically overwriting memories in the patients and the only way to save them is to wipe all previous memories and implant false ones (which Coulson also covered in his recorded debrief to Fury). Present-Coulson struggles with the recovered regret of what he’d ordered done as Skye tries to prompt him to remember the names of the six patients, to give them a place to start their manhunt.

Meanwhile, in Boston, Ward’s off the bus and his first stop? An Irish pub by the name of “Goldbrix Tavern.” A lovely little nod to Sgt. Fury’s favorite shouted epithet to the Howling Commandos of old. Parked across the street, Hunter advises May, while inside, Ward sidles up to the bar and, given the choice between a Columbian necktie or a bullet in the head, he goes for the latter on the rocks. Yeah, I’m not a fan of getting my throat cut, either. The bartender welcomes him back as a Mercedes Benz arrives out front, under Hunter’s watchful gaze, and Mr. Bakshi steps out. Moments later at a table inside, Bakshi expresses surprise that Ward is still alive and Ward, dropping Strucker’s name, asks for a meeting with the North American head of HYDRA. Bakshi balks, but Ward promises him some time face to face with Coulson in return.

With the names of the T.A.H.I.T.I. patients finally recovered, Skye confirms that one died in the fire in Miami where the painting was found and three others had turned up dead recently leaving only two remaining, the killer and one last victim. Phil remembers the one unusually calm patient, finally losing control and being carried out of the interview room after Coulson uncovers the carvings, self-mutilated on his arms. As he’s dragged out, Coulson’s memory flashes on his own face during his own T.A.H.I.T.I. recovery and crying out that he needs to know the symbol’s secrets. Skye contacts May to let her know of Coulson’s condition after making them put him in the evil memory machine and May flips out and orders Skye to lock Coulson up until they get back to deal with it. Skye grabs an “Icer” and manages to calm Phil down and convince him to cool his heels in Vault D. Or not, because after sharing the last bit of crucial intel on the tattooed killer, named Sebastian Derek, a S.H.I.E.L.D. assassin who was also most likely really HYDRA, Phil turns the tables on Skye and locks her in Vault D, instead. Silly girl, there’s a reason he’s the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. now, you know. Shortly after, at a residence with a sign reading “Thompson Welding and Electric,” Mrs. Thompson tells her husband there’s someone at the door to see him . . .

MacFitz put in some quality “Call of Duty” time, but I don’t know, Mac’s still giving me a weird feeling in this scene, like he’s trying to get inside Fitz’s head, literally and figuratively. Jemma steps into the room looking for Skye and then notices her on the Vault D monitor, locked inside. They let her out and we cut to Coulson outside the Thompson residence, but when Thompson answers the door and Phil asks if his family is home, it’s immediately apparent that he wasn’t the first to call on the Thompsons, which Coulson figures out just too late to avoid being knocked out by the tattooed killer, Derek.

Outside Goldbrix in Boston, Agents May, Trip and Morse have caught up with Hunter. They prepare to storm Ward and the Hydra agents inside, but once they break in, there’s no Ward, only a bunch of unconscious HYDRA thugs and Mr. Bakshi, trussed up with a note to Coulson (friendly-neighbourhood-Spider-Man-style, just like Coulson had done with the Absorbing Man to General Talbot at the beginning of this season).

In Thompson’s workshop, Coulson hangs from a rope as Thompson, arms tied behind him, is forced to watch Derek torture him. The toy train on the elaborate track system he’d built for his son continues to run, as his wife and son cower, locked in the next room. As Derek continues to torture Phil, he reveals that he’d been able to recover his true memories through pain and then, in a shot lifted directly from “Red Dragon,” Derek dramatically pulls his shirt off to reveal the full alien script tattoo all over his body, asking Coulson what it means. Thompson, meanwhile, succeeds in cutting his bonds on a nail and escaping, as Coulson looks at the multi-level train track system recognizing the same familiar pattern . . . only in three dimensions instead of two and something clicks in his mind. Thompson tries to sneak off to save his family, but the door creaks and Derek throws his knife at his head. The next sequence of accurate knife catching and throwing directly into the rope suspending Coulson, thus setting him free is hard to swallow at first, but considering these are three highly trained S.H.I.E.L.D. agents slowly regaining their repressed memories, it’s at least slightly more believable. Setting them free, Thompson makes for the door with his family as Coulson grapples with Derek and leads him into the rafters of Thompson’s workshop.

As Skye and Mac drive in pursuit, she brings him up to speed on the T.A.H.I.T.I. project before finding the Thompsons at the end of the driveway waving frantically for help. They head up to the house, where Coulson has gotten the upper hand on Derek and desperately tries to get him to see the 3D construct of the carvings. As Skye and Mac confront what appears to be a Coulson gone completely mad, Derek finally recognizes the pattern in three dimensions and with that, the struggle is over. He and Phil have found the hidden meaning of the symbols . . .

Back at the “Playground,” Hank Thompson learns that he was once Cameron Klein (“One of the best,” Coulson says, but in the comics, the truth of it is Klein was first introduced as a low level S.H.I.E.L.D. technician whose grandfather was rescued by Captain America and the Howling Commandos during the Battle of the Bulge in Word War II. In the handful of appearances afterwards, he was pretty much just a background character in one of the worst Captain America storylines ever, serving as a face for Dum Dum Dugan to occasionally shout at before falling into obscurity). He’s happy enough with his life now (can’t blame him), but doesn’t seem too fazed about being blindfolded before leaving the super-secret S.H.I.E.L.D. hideout, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if the business card he gave Phil before leaving has a HYDRA tracker in it. Thompson/Klein might be a sleeper. He’s been mind-wiped once, after all, whose to say it hadn’t happened before . . . or since? HYDRA is everywhere . . . including Mr. Bakshi, down in Vault D, now. Coulson tells May that Derek will answer for his crimes, both during and after his time in S.H.I.E.L.D., but the compulsion to carve is no longer there. Same goes for Coulson, himself. He then assembles the entire “Playground” staff currently present (haven’t heard from Agent Billy Koenig who’s been out in the field for a while . . . that can’t be good) to advise them of his full recovery and to reveal the entire map of the hidden city he’d discovered in Thompson’s train set, a hidden city that looks remarkably like the Inhuman royal city of Attilan . . . but who knows? K’un L’un is another hidden city in the Marvel Universe, there’s Atlantis and Lemuria, too. But something tells me after last month’s announcement by Marvel, this has Inhumans written all over it.

Later, while rocking out to some sweet Bill Withers, a still fugitive Grant Ward reinvents himself yet again, shaving his head and beard before placing a call to Bakshi’s cellphone, which Skye just happens to be analyzing at that moment, while also rocking out to some sweet Bill Withers. Interesting. Answering, Skye is shocked to hear Ward’s voice as he promises to deliver future gifts on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s doorstep. He slams the quality of Coulson’s replacement agents since his betrayal and promises to see Skye again before hanging up. Then, packing up his trusty arson gear, he heads off to see his Senator brother . . .

Agent Darryl reporting in with this week’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.6, codename: “A Fractured House”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that agents not read this review until after they have watched the MAOS episode “A Fractured House.” Enjoy!

During a special meeting of the United Nations in New York City, General Talbot reminisces during a speech about the Chitauri invasion, how everyone was affected learning they were not alone in the universe. At first seeming to extoll the virtues of S.H.I.E.L.D. during the battle, he quickly changes his tune when describing the organization’s behavior in the aftermath leading up to the fall of the Triskelion, concluding that S.H.I.E.L.D. is now a widespread threat to global security. When the Italian ambassador asks for proof of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s wrongdoing . . . he quickly receives an answer as he’s shot in the chest by a small disc shaped device (a favorite design of HYDRA’s, it seems), which appears to be an even more efficient version of the Obelisk’s disintegrating power. Several armed men dressed as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents burst in and declare “S.H.I.E.L.D. is done hiding” as Talbot and the rest of the UN delegates run for their lives in the melee.

At secret S.H.I.E.L.D. facility referred to as the “Playground,” Skye and Simmons watch Ward on a security monitor of Vault D as he wakes up exactly at 5:30 am to begin his morning exercise regimen. Jemma remarks that even without any indication of what time it is in in cell, he’s always gotten up at the same time everyday without fail since his containment. Simmons and Skye exchange admiration for each other’s recent successfully completed mission assignments before May bursts in to let them know about the UN attack. Okay, so since it appeared to be early afternoon at the UN in New York (let’s say 1:00 pm-ish) and it’s only just after 5:30 am at the “Playground,” after doing the time zone conversion that COULD put it somewhere in Australia. Interesting, very interesting . . .

Hey! Is that Liberte Chan giving the news story as they all run out the door and down the hall? Well, I’ll be, it is! My wife and I honeymooned in Los Angeles and we still watch the KTLA morning news broadcast to this day back at home. I can still remember young Miss Chan’s first day as the nervous weekend weather girl. You’ve come a long way, lady Liberte, good for you! It’s no Megan Henderson in “Iron Man 3,” but, hey, it’s all part of the MCU, right? And while I’m still chuckling over that, here’s Coulson with an “Angry Cat” mug someone brought from home. Hilarious! Probably new resident Bobbi Morse, who immediately enters the shot sporting a “Star Wars” tee. Cool, but it also smacks a bit of Uncle Walt’s love for inter-branding synergy. I like Easter Eggs, but keep it related to the MCU, fellas.

Alleged corporate shilling aside, Agent “I don’t care what you want us to call you, sometimes I need to mix it up and be a little formal” Morse DOES give us some juicy intel on the bogus S.H.I.E.L.D. officer from the UN attack: Marcus Scarlotti, a mercenary who’s tussled with Hawkeye sometime in the off-camera past (as well as numerous showdowns in the comics). So does that mean there’s a new Whiplash in the MCU? If so, it would make him the second after Mickey Rourke’s ARC reactor powered Ivan Vanko in “Iron Man 2.” Or perhaps despite being the original Whiplash in the comics, he could be going by the alternate name, Blacklash, which the Mark Scarlotti character in the comics also went by . . . in any case, he’s never referred to as anything other than Scarlotti, so I suppose it’s all pretty much academic, really. Jemma drops some connect the dots intel and Bobbi’s recent HYDRA security clearance helps to fill in some of the blanks, but not all, so they decide to follow up a promising lead by the name of Toshiro Mori in Okinawa, Japan. Coulson assembles the field team consisting of Agents May, Hunter and Morse and we’re immediately treated to some of the post-relationship tension that’s clearly palpable between the two newest agents under Coulson’s command. Good! The writers have been quietly setting this up all season, so I’m hoping they’ve got something worth watching between Hunter and Morse. So far, they’re easier to watch than last season’s ridiculous SkyeWard romance that bloomed and fizzled, at least.

General Talbot, meanwhile, pays a visit to his U.S. Senator benefactor in Washington D.C. and during their conversation, Talbot suggests that the attack on the UN hadn’t been S.H.I.E.L.D., after all. He also confides that he’s well aware who the Senator’s brother is and that’s when we learn it’s Christian Ward, older brother to S.H.I.E.L.D. turned HYDRA agent, Grant Ward. Senator Ward is a bit off-balance about Talbot’s knowledge of the Ward family tree, but is unconvinced of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s innocence, vows to go on the attack to destroy them and then proceeds to do just that, the way Senators always do: as a talking head on the cable news networks. Julian Beckers, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, argues on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s behalf as Coulson and Skye watch the broadcast in Coulson’s office. Skye suggests leaning on Grant for any useful intelligence on his Senator brother and Coulson agrees, but warns her to stay focused and on topic when questioning him. As Skye leaves, Coulson contacts an Agent Walters in Holland to advise her European team to “go dark” until the anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. furor dies down. As May pilots the jet to Japan, Hunter appears to try to work out some of the social discomfort between him and Bobbi before she gives up and heads to the cockpit for some straight girl talk with May. Yeah right. May, in her usual stoic fashion, succeeds in bestowing dubious wisdom with little more than a look.

Simmons drops by the labs of the “Playground” to ask Fitz for help analyzing the hard drive that she and Bobbi stole from HYDRA last episode, but what was formerly a routine team-up between two totally in-sync geniuses quickly reveals itself to be a cumbersome, awkward nightmare between them. Geez, and Hunter thinks HE’s got relationship issues? Yikes. Meanwhile, downstairs in Vault D, Skye quizzes Ward for info on his older brother, Senator Christian. Grant gets agitated and a bit sketchy right away and reminds Skye of the cruelty his older brother was capable of when he’d told her of the time when they growing up together. Then, he slyly tries to veer the subject onto Skye’s father before Coulson intervenes and shuts down the interrogation by opaquing Ward’s cell wall, reminding Skye to stay on track.

In Okinawa, after reviewing their options, Morse decides to use her HYDRA security cover to infiltrate and collect as much intel as possible. Once she’s entered Toshiro Mori’s HYDRA compound, Morse appears to successfully to charm Mori-san, as Hunter and May keep tabs over the comm. Bobbi dismisses rumours that she’d defected to S.H.I.E.L.D before learning that Mori himself had built the weapon used at the UN attack, calling it a “Splinter bomb.” She also discovers that Skye’s father, the Doctor, had furnished Daniel Whitehall with the “Diviner,” formerly known as the “Obelisk,” formerly known as THE original 084. Then, as Mori’s security detail receive an alert at that moment to eliminate Morse on sight, Hunter and May bust in to the rescue. Cue fisticuffs and witty banter. It’s pretty much all said and done with after that and, though I’m still not entirely sure why, they decide the next stop is Belgium . . . soooo next stop Belgium? Okay, and here I thought Coulson wanted to conserve valuable S.H.I.E.L.D. commodities like jet fuel. Guess not?

Back in the “Playground’s” labs, Fitz tries to confront Simmons about the rift that’s grown between them, but just like before, Simmons leaves. That’s cold, Jemma. Ice cold. As she leaves, Mac steps in and offers Fitz a comforting look.

As Christian Ward enters his office in Washington D.C., Coulson pulls his favorite trick of stepping from the shadows and introducing himself (a nice little callback to the pilot episode, when he’d done the same to the other Ward brother). Phil quickly clarifies S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn’t attacked the UN, but rather HYDRA had and then reveals he has Ward held prisoner. In two suspensefully orchestrated intercut scenes, Senator Ward reveals to Coulson that his younger brother has a dark side that he projects onto him, as Skye confirms she’s gotten everything of value from Grant and lets him know that he’ll be transferred into his brother’s custody to answer for his crimes.

As this is going on, apparently the Scarlotti’s HYDRA team is on it’s way to Belgium to assassinate Minister Beckers in an attempt to further defame S.H.I.E.L.D, so May, Hunter and Morse head out to save the day. Strange bit of doubling here since I thought they’d decided Belgium was the next stop anyway . . . Hmmm.  I can’t decide if this should be blamed on sloppy writing or perhaps they just didn’t get the point of going to Belgium across clearly enough earlier. I’m blaming the writers in either case here. Believe it or not, there are people like me who analyze these episodes in depth and this “globe-trotting (on an empty tank of gas!)” plot thread is stretching beyond the realm of suspended disbelief, even for Marvel. Step it up, guys. Disney’s paying you good money to keep us properly entertained.

In the “Playground,” MacFitz are ribbing each other like old pals as Simmons enters the lab. They share some of the data they’d successfully recovered from the hard drive about one of the Red Skull’s top scientists, Vincent Beckers and Simmons immediately recognizes the last name, running out of he room to alert Coulson of the trap the field team is walking into (funny, it was Mac and Fitz who did the very same thing just a few episodes ago, making this either: a) very lazy writing or b) a set up for two parallel storylines to converge later, which would make pretty good writing . . . I’ll wait and see which one it turns out to be). Coulson’s in a meeting with Ward and you better believe Simmons ain’t getting anywhere near THAT just yet. Before the big move, Grant looks like he’ll say just about anything to stay away from his brother and pisses Coulson off by actually having the temerity to suggest that he’s still part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. Agent Triplett steps in to grab Phil and they advise him of the Beckers connection . . . but too late. Minister Beckers is a legacy HYDRA sleeper agent now activated and luring unsuspecting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to their deaths at a safe house in Belgium. The first ones to go down? Agent Walters and her European team in hiding, at the hands of Scarlotti, and just so it all ties together, he does it with one of Toshiro Mori’s Splinter bombs.

When the field team arrives in Belgium, Hunter strolls into the (now compromised) S.H.I.E.L.D. safe house and appears to betray the rest of the team, but it’s really just a half-hearted misdirect highlighting Hunter’s natural moral ambiguity, while giving May and Morse time to launch a surprise attack by storming through the windows. In the climactic fight sequence that follows, May and Scarlotti face off as he wields his nifty meteor hammer (similar to Gogo Yubari’s weapon in “Kill Bill”), while in the next room, Hunter saves Bobbi’s life fighting HYDRA thugs for the third time that day. Scarlotti’s got moves, but May still makes short work of him before contacting Coulson to give him the agent death toll.

In the garage of the “Playground” afterwards, Simmons reaches out to Mac to thank him for being there for Fitz, but he turns it around and pretty much tells her she’s the worst thing for Fitz right now. Bros before former lab partner love interests, I guess. Hunter, apparently sick of squirming in the glare of his she-devil ex, makes some noise about leaving the team, but Bobbi might just have convinced him otherwise. Or perhaps that’s just what Hunter wants her to think . . . more on that later, I’m guessing. As Ward is hustled off to face the music, Simmons stands between him and Skye promising to kill him if she ever sees him again. Maybe. But if there really is any kind of “Faustus Method” stuff going on with Simmons, she and Ward may both find themselves on HYDRA’s side together . . . what then? Senator Ward makes a flowery speech exonerating S.H.I.E.L.D. before confessing his brother’s sins. As May stays behind in Belgium to assist with the clean up, Talbot confirms disgraced Minister Beckers had been captured crossing the border before doing the previously unthinkable by consoling May for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s losses and shaking her hand. Senator Ward promises to see his brother brought to justice, while at that moment Coulson completes the prisoner transfer. As the van drives off, Grant slips his handcuffs and escapes.

In a tattoo parlour, a man walks in and pays to finish his inkwork. As he takes his shirt off, his chest and arms are covered in the alien symbols that Coulson has been compulsively carving. As the tattoo artist starts to work, the tattooed man presses down harder on the needle to feel the pain . . .

Well, it looks like S.H.I.E.L.D. are the good guys in everyone’s eyes again, but if there ARE “Faustus Method” manipulated sleepers in the fold, for how long? And who is this tattooed guy? Did he carve the same symbols in the back of the Spanish painting from a few episodes back? Or are there more “carvers” out there? What about Raina, Skye and her father, the Doctor? Is it possible that they’re all members of the “Inhumans,” who’ll be getting their own movie before the end of Marvel’s Phase 3?

Who knows? But guessing is fun so let the speculation begin!

Agent Darryl reporting in with this weeks “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.5, codename: “A Hen In the Wolf House”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”! For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that agents not read this review until after they have watched the MAOS episode “A Hen In the Wolf House.” Enjoy!

This week begins with a wedding ceremony, featuring a very large fountain in the centre, where a number of Naval officers are in attendance. As everyone raises a glass and takes a sip to toast the bride and groom, many of the guests fall to the ground, suffering from what appears to be the effects of the deadly 084 known as the Obelisk. The banquet porters all load up in a van and hightail it out of there as they report in to Bakshi with the results. They’ve tested a derivative of the Obelisk using another victim’s flesh as a sample, but by HYDRA’s count, the results are not great: Only 8 confirmed dead, the rest, sick and frightened.

At the “Playground,” Trip, Hunter, Skye and May are also reviewing the deadly wedding’s results with slightly more empathy. As they enter Coulson’s office, Phil is scratching some very familiar symbols onto the top of his desk. As the team reviews options to get a closer look at the scene of the crime, Phil confirms the case is being dealt with tightly through the Navy and CDC, so there’s no access. Trip suggests pulling Simmons’ strings to get some intel, HYDRA-side, but there’s been no contact from her yet. Skye notices Coulson’s desktop carvings, but he brushes it off, so she and Hunter try to get Coulson to open up about the “source” of fresh carving samples he’s been providing her. Coulson immediately and aggressively pulls rank and shut them down. Yeowtch! That stings. After the team vacates the office, summarily chastised, May hangs back and suggests to Coulson that he open up to Skye, since she is personally involved in the alien hieroglyphic mystery, as well.

Meanwhile, we get a glimpse into the life of Skye’s mysterious father, “The Doctor,” as he performs a back alley bullet extraction for two petty thugs. Raina interrupts and begs for the Obelisk back. In a dramatic exchange between the two, we learn that Raina can’t decide who she fears more: Daniel Whitehall or the Doctor. It seems Big Skye Daddy is also aware of Whitehall’s advanced age . . . interesting, not to mention the hints about Raina’s own backstory. Instead of turning over the Obelisk though, he sends Raina to beg for mercy from Whitehall and seems to give everyone in the room the impression that he has some serious control issues.

In HYDRA’s labs, Simmons and her former supervisor/current lab partner Kenneth are trying to untangle the secrets of Bessie the Hellcow (an enemy of Howard the Duck’s in the Marvel comics and fun little nod to Guardians of the Galaxy’s after credits scene starring the web-footed wonder himself), when Bakshi calls them both into a packed boardroom and they’re both given information packets. Kenneth immediately recognizes Whitehall as ONE of HYDRA’s new heads. Although it’s quickly determined that the reverse is not the case, Simmons however, does make an impression on Whitehall. Of course, Bakshi did talk her up quite a bit a few episodes ago and who knows what’s happened in the meantime . . . He quizzes her on whether the Obelisk could be turned into a weapon once it’s hand and seems happy with her response. Kenneth thinks it’s pretty awesome to kill billions of people. Simmons, less so.

On the “Bus,” “Jemma-ny Cricket” and Fitz quietly note the actions of Skye and Hunter before “Phantom” Simmons takes an interest in Mac’s physique and Fitz boldly confronts her with her own unreality. Seems I’d put all my money on the wrong reveal here. So now Fitz finally manages to overcome his sense of loneliness in Simmons’ absence and with that, she disappears. Skye and Hunter’s actions, meanwhile, amount to her swiping the painting from last week’s caper to study it privately and Hunter following to make it a little less private. Hunter slyly pushes Skye into snooping further into Coulson’s involvement with the alien script while once again dropping nebulous backstory details about him and his ex-wife before suggesting Skye question Ward to learn more. Which she then immediately does. Ward spills that his source for information on Skye’s father is Raina before they get into the business of the hieroglyphics, a conversation that really amounts to a recap of last season’s appearances of the alien writing.

Meanwhile, Raina shows up at HYDRA’s very public corporate HQ and notices Simmons leaving the building to scarf some “Pescado Loco” and follows. Simmons gives us, and a snoopy little Raina, a demo of the fast food dead drop protocol we’ve only gotten glimpses of so far to alert S.H.I.E.L.D. of HYDRA’s plans to use the Obelisk to cause a global disaster.

Skye bursts into Coulson’s office to confront him about the truth of his carving source . . . himself. Phil quickly surmises Skye pieced it together after speaking with Ward and assures her he’s got it under control. He also admits to Skye that she’d been closely observed (which might explain May being her SO now) to see if she exhibited any of the side effects Garrett and Coulson had after being injected with GH325. Because she hadn’t, Coulson confesses it may be because she’s an alien herself (it’s not completely out there, I mean it had been pretty firmly established last season that Skye was an 084). As Skye tries to wrap her head around this, May steps in to let Coulson know Raina is calling again. We don’t even know where the “Playground” is! How did she even get this number? Coulson picks up and they set up a meeting over a matter she describes as urgent.

At HYDRA, we’re introduced to Security Chief Barbara Morse and she’s on the hunt for the mole sending secret messages to S.H.I.E.L.D. in crazy high-tech fish taco wrappers. Look out Simmons, it looks like Raina went dumpster diving and then dropped that off at reception to blow your cover! Morse gives Simmons the hairy eyeball and Jemma continues to impress me with her skill at brazening out a tense situation, but it’s not solid. Fortunately, at that moment Kenneth gets pinched for having a flex screen/taco wrapper in his desk drawer. Jemma, Jemma, Jemma. I know he wants to see billions dead, but you are so naughty planting that on him!

Phil waits for Raina at a restaurant named “La Comtesse Furieuse.” Uh, hello! What? “The Furious Countess?” Sounds to me like one of my all-time favorite female S.H.I.E.L.D. agents might be showing up some time soon. That would be Nick Fury’s main squeeze, the Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Suddenly the prominent fountain in the opening scene is taking on a lot more meaning. Hunter sits at a table nearby as May covers the kitchen door and Skye sweet-talks the Chef. Raina steps in and immediately begins charming Phil as they sit down. Hunter picks up on Raina’s flirtatious nature right away. Coulson’s definitely running the smart play keeping level headed agents around to back him up when dealing with her. They exchange some soft-spoken banter over the Obelisk and the Raina throws down her trump card: A picture of Simmons crumpling up a fish taco wrapper. Wow. Such damning evidence. But still, I suppose it would be enough to set HYDRA’s Amazonian watchdog on point. And geez, she is TALL standing next to Simmons in the bathroom as she continues to menace her. It’s clear to see why Adrianne Palicki had been cast as the Distinguished Competition’s Wonder Woman at one time. Raina threatens to send her photo of “FishSimmons” to HYDRA in exchange for Skye, which totally blindsides Phil . . . to say nothing of Skye’s reaction as Coulson asks why and she hears the answer over the open comm: to be reunited with her father. Phil doesn’t negotiate and May holds Skye back from busting in. Skye SAYS it’s to save Simmons and questions Coulson’s judgment in his current state, but it’s pretty clear her desire to find out who her father is completely overrode any S.H.I.E.L.D. training May had drilled into her up to now. May’s backing up Coulson though and holds her back. Raina’s poker face begins to slip and then it’s all over.

The cat is out of the bag. The photo is sent and we cut to Simmons very awkwardly walking to her desk as every HYDRA agent in the room stares her down. There’s a picture of her and the taco wrapper on every monitor. Way to go, Fish Breath. Bakshi enters with two goons and Simmons makes a break for it, but is soon faced down by another two goons and HYDRA’s answer to Isla the She-Wolf herself when, with a look that clearly says “My God, this little twit can’t do a thing and now I’ll have to blow my cover,” Morse suddenly pulls out a distinctive pair of short battle-staves that any regular reader of the now classic “West Coast Avengers” series would recognize right away and whacks the living hell out of the two HYDRA goons as effectively as either Agents May or Romanoff would have. For once in her life, Simmons has no idea what’s going on, but that’s alright, this moment’s for the fans anyway. THIS is Mockingbird and a finer introduction to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent/West Coast Avenger extraordinaire could not be made.

Raina, not knowing Simmons had unexpected backup on the inside, is shocked Coulson would hang her out to dry and so, having the upper hand in this battle of wills, Phil presses her for intel. The Doctor is running Raina to get Skye and HYDRA is running her now to get the Obelisk. She begs Coulson to take her in, but he declines. However, it seems he’s got something for her to do anyway because Hunter zaps her leg with a “shieldy-tracer.” So now, being run by the Doctor, HYDRA and Coulson, she’s officially the hardest working spy on this show!

Simmons and Agent “Call me Bobbi, everybody does” Morse make a break for the roof to meet the extraction team she claims is already waiting there, as Bakshi and his two thugs close in. Simmons hits the roof as Bobbi stays behind to confront them, but we never actually see the exchange . . . part of me feels like this might be a setup for Simmons. On the roof, there’s no extraction team. Nothing. Looks like it was all a setup after all. Then, Morse bursts out onto the roof as one remaining HYDRA thug pursues, firing at her. She grabs Simmons and pushes them both over the side of the building seemingly to their deaths . . . only to land ten feet down on nothing! As the Quinjet decloaked, I had to admit I’d forgotten all about both it and Agent Triplett, who opens the hatch of his formerly invisible plane to let Simmons and the former Wonder Woman in. Ha! Take that, DC comics!

As Raina leaves, Phil and May go over the intel she’d just given up and since the Doctor’s address just happens to be close by they decide to swing by and knock . . . but Skye’s already gone to find her father, leaving everyone else behind. At his back alley practice, Skye searches for her father, but it’s abandoned, except for a photo of a much younger Kyle MacLachlan. I’m talkin’ production still from “Blue Velvet” young here. Phil catches up and when she needs it, gives Skye a shoulder to cry on . . . as her father watches it all on a hidden spy camera. Hunter shows up and suddenly Skye is dropping one-liners again. There is definitely some kind of chemistry at work here. May calls in with her recon report of the rest of the building. Seems Doctor Daddy lost control after all and took it out on the two petty criminals we’d seen him with earlier. Yikes. Skye calls him a monster and the Doc, still watching it all on spy cam, flips out.

Afterwards, Agents Triplett, Simmons and Morse . . . er, sorry “Bobbi,” return to the “Playground” and Jemma immediately drops some very disturbing language about brainwashing and complying before we’re treated to the reunion we’ve been waiting for all this season. FitzSimmons is back! Or are they? A lot has changed for both of them and suspect we’ll find out exactly how much next week. Mac is happy to see Bobbi again, but Hunter not so much. THIS is the evil ex-wife he’s grumbled on about at length! This will definitely require a review of every mention Hunter has made of her now. Wow. Did not see that coming. Well done, “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Turns out, it was Morse who’d vouched for Hunter to Coulson in the first place, too. Skye spends some time working out some father issues with Coulson, the substitute father figure himself. And after agreeing to keep Skye fully in the loop, he reveals his latest “carving.” He has no idea what it means, but Skye thinks she does. It’s a map.

In Whitehall’s HYDRA office, Bakshi gives his latest report as the Doctor casually strolls on in, rather jocularly, looking for all the world as deadly as a vacuum cleaner  salesman about to start his pitch. Then, when Whitehall orders them to eject him from the room, he kills two elite HYDRA guards like it’s nothing. He opens a case holding the Obelisk and reveals that it’s called a “Diviner” in its native tongue. The Doctor offers to teach Whitehall not only how to USE it, but to SURVIVE it, as well.  And why? Because they both want Coulson, and everyone else, dead. EVERYONE else? That doesn’t sound good at all . . .

Agent Darryl reporting in with this week’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.4, codename: “Face My Enemy”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”! For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that you not read this review until after you’ve watched the MAOS episode “Face My Enemy.” Enjoy!

The episode starts in the burned out wreck of a Miami, Florida church where, miraculously, a Spanish painting of the “Madonna and Child” dating back to the early 1500s is the sole object to survive the flames. When the church officials examine the back of the painting, the same curious alien hieroglyphics we’ve seen all over since last season are carved in the painting’s wooden backing. Shortly after, Agents Hunter and Skye do a little clever spy work on South Beach to wrangle an invite to the church’s quite expensive and very exclusive fundraiser where the miracle painting will be on display. “The rabbit’s in the hutch.” Eww . . .

Mac finally gets an assignment outside of the “Playground!” Aaaand it’s for about 10 whole seconds as Coulson and May’s chauffeur. Gee Mac, think ya can handle it? Although, as he shows off his restored 1962 Rolls Royce, I can’t help but wonder what other four wheeled beauties might be parked in the “Playground’s” garage. Phil still won’t let him near “Lola,” although Mac thinks it’s only a matter of time. I don’t know about Mac, but I’m just glad to hear “Lola’s” still in the game. She took a pretty hard fall outside the Nokia Theater last season . . . after also being shot the hell up by both Deathlok and the vile traitor Ward. I hope it’s not too much time until we see her again. As we all know, May’s “I Hate” list includes working undercover, especially, it seems, when wearing high heels. “”You never know when a better offer might come along!” Hmm. I know May’s just joking “in character,” but I definitely smell betrayal on the wind. Maybe not right now, but something’s going down later this season, I’m sure of it.

Once Phil and Melinda are in the party, they switch off their comms and do a little “private dancing” to do some dance floor recon and review Coulson’s contingency plan. Phil is reminiscing about May’s first field op in Sausalito which started in a coffee shop and ended with 5 hours treading water in the San Francisco Bay before Coulson picked her up. Sure hope we get a flashback to this some day. I’ll bet young May was a wild party girl. Phil’s stuck in the past, but May is all about the personal nature of the mission they’re on in the here and now and doesn’t want to think about Coulson’s possibly very short future. She spots General Talbot mingling amongst the fundraiser elite and Coulson decides to get the worst over with by stepping right up to quietly confront him directly. Something’s off, though. Coulson notices Talbot acting a bit funny . . . like for example, not dropping everything and grabbing him for the kidnap gag they’d pulled a few weeks ago, but Talbot simply attributes it to one too many drinks . . . yeah, right. Sure . . .

Back on the “Bus,” Hunter starts to spill some backstory on him and the ex-wife. Mac’s heard it all before, though . . .

At the party, May chats up the fundraiser’s host and Phil gets a high-res photo of the host’s eyes with his spiffy S.H.I.E.L.D. camera as the team listens in on, and is floored by, May’s chatty undercover performance. She might hate undercover, but damn if she ain’t good at it, anyway. “We’re modern.” Ha! Talbot comes along and gives them the buffalo eye, so Phil figures the jig is up and he and May boogie for the basement vault the painting is being held in. I love when Phil and May do these undercover ops, so much wonderful deadpan humour. Coulson warms up on a pretty beefy guard with just one punch and they crack the vault with an “Avengers”-style digital projection of the host’s retinal scan before facing down a room-wide laser grid. Just when you think we might get some sweet slow motion Coulson acrobatics in a hilarious “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer” type sequence, instead May breaks the moment and the laser trigger since the bad guys already know they’re there. Funny maybe and sure, punching out the big guard in one go establishes him as a badass, but it’d be real cool to see another slo-mo “Action Phil” moment sometime soon.

In the end, it turns out “Talbot” already snatched the painting earlier on. More disturbing however, is him calling Dr. Whitehall of HYDRA looking for more intel on Coulson and May. No, this is definitely NOT the Talbot we’ve gotten to know so well. As they try to extract themselves, Phil is still on May about putting a backup plan in place should the side affects of the GH325 ever cause him to go insane like Agent Garrett did. “Talbot” corners them and, to Coulson’s chagrin, asks for their help deciphering the alien glyphs on the back of the painting. Seriously, even the way “Talbot” is standing in this scene feels off somehow. Coulson buys them an hour and immediately knows something is off. Talbot would never just walk away and let Phil go. NEVER. Coulson heads back to the “Bus” as May follows “Talbot” to verify if his deal is on the level.

On the “Bus,” Skye is digging as deep as she can into the mysterious hieroglyphics as the rest of the gang continue to bond over horror stories involving their “exes.’ Pretending to like Quinoa? Dark times indeed, Mac. “Ghost” Simmons, or “Jemma-ny Cricket” as I’ve taken to calling her, tries to encourage Fitz to play in their reindeer games, but he’s still pretty withdrawn and brood-y.

Tailing “Talbot” back to his hotel room, May surreptitiously spots Agent 33 going through a HYDRA dossier on Coulson like a gas station attendant with a Playboy centerfold. She busts in and tussles with Agent 33 before “Talbot” shows up and a high tech “morph-mask” is knocked from his face in the ensuing melee. Turns out it’s been Mr. Bakshi all along. Now the call to Whitehall and Agent 33’s presence make better sense. Agent 33 gives May a good tasing right in the back and she’s down for the count. She resets the “morph-mask” to appear as May in a scene that plays out like a behind-the-scenes set up to Black Widow’s climactic reveal at the end of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and also gives deeper meaning to the episode’s title this week. Bakshi gives “Maygent 33” a gizmo and after decrypting and checking the call history on May’s phone, she gives Coulson a shout to “confirm” Talbot’s deal and zero in on his location.

Just as an aside here, thanks to the wonders of freeze frame video playback, I took a moment to transcribe May’s call history as it was shown during Bakshi’s decrypt. The last 15 calls May had received were from:

J. Larner

Agent 60

Mom

Nat

Lt. Stone

Miu

Burk

S. Johnson

Coulson

M. Huff

Bell

Woo

Lt. Crouch

Mom

Lt. Stone

Looking at the list, I don’t recognize every name, but I’m thinking there’s a chance we might see some MI-6/Shang Chi, “Agents of ATLAS.” and/or “Code: Blue” action before too long. Goodie.

“Jemma-ny Cricket” is still trying to get Fitz to come out of his shell and interact with the rest of the team, but he’s too busy complaining about the changes the team had made to the laboratory. We all know how Fitz feels about change, but what it really sounds like, though, is that he’s upset Simmons left without telling him why. “Maygent 33” shows up at the “Bus,” breezes past Fitz mumbling to himself, completely ignores Skye and conspicuously pulls Phil aside to set up what he thinks a is real deal with a suddenly agreeable Talbot, but is really a HYDRA attempt to capture him. She slaps the gizmo Bakshi had given her to one of the panels on the “Bus” with an electric crackle as no one is looking and then she and an unsuspecting Coulson head out.

Bakshi reveals his fondness for sado-masochism by tying May to a chair in her undies as he questions her in an attempt to discover the identity of the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course, May’s not giving it up that easily and so Bakshi steps it up and uses a few loose lamp wires as an impromptu electro shock torture method. Meanwhile, “Maygent 33” winds up getting the exact information May is fighting to keep from Bakshi simply by casually chatting with Phil en route to the rendezvous/capture. But she’s setting off Phil’s alarms as he notices some very un-May-like behavior.

As the HYDRA gizmo takes effect, the “Bus” starts shutting down and the team is completely puzzled. Fitz, however, quickly spots the gizmo doing the damage and advises them the “Bus” will explode if they don’t act fast. As Coulson slowly confirms that he’s not with May after all, he finally blows “Maygent 33’s” cover. It appears we can add coffee to May’s “I Hate” list . . . and being tied to chairs! The real May gets loose of Bakshi’s bonds and takes a moment to smash the chair she’d been confined to. My first thought was that she’d use the splintered pieces to smack Bakshi around, but no, as May has mentioned in the past, she prefers to use her hands . . . and she DOES.

Fitz plays charades with the team on the “Bus” while trying to describe the computer virus running through it causing system shutdowns in increasingly deadlier intervals. Just outside Bakshi’s hotel room, Coulson grapples with “Maygent 33” . . . until the one true May steps through the door. Then, it’s May vs. May as Phil stands speechless. That is until Bakshi recovers from May’s beating and scrams with the painting in hand. Phil pursues and we see flying fists, whipping hair and a lot of fast camerawork as May beats up on herself . . . in a manner of speaking.

Then, in a ”no brakes” sequence, Fitz steps up and gives Hunter a crash course in saving the day tech support-style as the “Bus” continues to fall apart. Phil runs down Bakshi and gives him the business end of an “Icer” in the back as May gives “Maygent 33” a gorgeous drop kick to the face. Phil scoops up both the painting and May . . . after her amazing table stomp finishing move. As HYDRA’s back up squad storms the hotel room, they duck out just in time . . . but Bakshi and Agent 33 are left behind, as well as the sensitive info she’d gathered from Coulson.

Later, back at the “Playground,” Hunter swings by the lab with a six-pack to tip a few celebration beers with Mac and invites Fitz to join them after a job well done saving everyone’s butt. Finally feeling accepted as part of the team again, Fitz opens up and shares his own tale of heartbreak . . . a tale we all know too well at this point, but is completely new to both Mac and Hunter. That’s TWO original agents Hunter has gotten to open up to him. You sly boots, don’t think I can’t see what you’re doing there . . .

Meanwhile, I have no idea what’s going on between Triplett and Skye. There’s a weird energy between them this episode and I’m having some trouble reading it.

In his office with May, Phil Skypes the one and only Glenn Talbot to fill him in and they do the banter dance. But when it comes to handing over the painting – this week’s big, bad bugaboo MacGuffin – it seems Coulson can’t quite let it go, not even to buddy up to Talbot. He casually lies that the painting was destroyed and essentially valueless, but as soon as he hangs up, he confides to May that while the painting is actually 500 years old, the carvings are far more recent. Seems there’s someone else out there with an alien carve crave. I’m thinking Skye’s father might be the connection there, but who knows really. Frankly, that’s interesting and all, but I’m more intrigued by May’s distaste for coffee. Seriously, what caused such a bitter animosity? Was it a Colombian op gone sour? The Sausalito coffee shop/5 hour Bay swim? We saw a lot of May this episode *insert sexy growl here*, both literally and figuratively (we even got that very detailed cellphone call history peek!) and now it’s left me wanting more.

Phil presses May one last time and she lays out her contingency plan if he ever goes Garrett-level cuckoo. Which pretty much amounts to hanging out in the Australian Outback with the kangaroos. Phil sees it for what it is, though, and is touched, but ultimately unmoved. His orders in that scenario? Shoot him in the head, be sure he’s dead. Shocking? Not all that much really, when you consider we’d seen him begging to die last season. A situation it sounds like we may see again before too long.

Somewhere in the wide world, Raina steps out of what appears to be her office while trying to schedule arrival plans in Miami when HYDRA thugs surround her car and Whitehall himself steps into the backseat. Before she can lay on her patented charm, one of the thugs slaps a tiny button-sized gadget on her hand which painfully locks her to the steering wheel. Whitehall gives her his first name, Daniel, and 48 hours to retrieve the “Obelisk.” He takes off and Raina looks worried, conflicted maybe . . . or maybe she’s just feeling pressed for time now.

At first blush, the episode as a whole feels like a filler episode, a breather between two major arcs. But when you break it down, even without any cool new character introductions (unless you count several of May’s gentlemen cellphone callers, that is) there was another great expanded view of S.H.I.E.L.D. spy tech first shown in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and a lot of much needed focus on Melinda May: still S.H.I.E.L.D.’s deadliest weapon . . . unless she somehow runs afoul of Whitehall’s “Faustus Method!”

Arrow  Season 3 episode 1 ; The Calm

Arrow returned for its third season last week and I couldn’t have been more happier. The story picks up five months after the events of season 2. Crime is on the decline thanks to Oliver Queen a.k.a the Arrow. It’s this lack of crime that makes Ollie think that maybe he can have a life for himself and be happy. Diggle convinces him to admit his feelings for Felicity Smoak and ask her out on a date.  Diggle himself has reason to celebrate; he’s about to become a father. Ollie’s life gets even better when Captain Lance deactivates the  Arrow task force. Arrow has helped to bring peace to Starling City and Lance refuses to let the police hunt him ever again.

After the events of season 2, Ollie is now broke and doesn’t run Queen Industries anymore. He decides he wants back in and sets up a meeting to pitch himself to the board of directors. Unfortunately, he loses out to Dr Ray Palmer, who also has big ideas.

Ollie and Felicity plan their date. Sadly for them, a new threat looms on the horizon. There’s a new Vertigo in town. This new Vertigo wants Arrow dead and has a lot of the Vertigo drug at his disposal. He manages to plant a tracker on the Arrow, who unknowingly brings it with him to his date with Felicity. Ollie is clearly nervous on the date and confesses that he wasn’t on the island for the whole five years he was away. He was also in Hong Kong some of the time and we are shown some of these adventures in flashback. He admits when he came home from the island, he had a hard time trusting anyone until he walked into Felicity’s office. At this point the restaurant blows up. Ollie wakes up and brings Felicity back to the Arrow cave.  Later on, Oliver admits that being anything but the Arrow is impossible.

Team Arrow finds out that Verigo is planning to take out the other crime bosses in town at a heavyweight fight. Oliver and Roy Harper–now wearing a crime fighting mask and costume, suit up but tells Diggle to go home. Now that Diggle is going to be a father, Ollie refuses to let him out in the field ever again

Oliver and Roy arrive at the fight. Roy disarms a bog and Arrow takes on Vertigo himself. He gets a surprise assist from the Canary who has recently returned to town.

Soon Diggle and Lyla have their baby–a daughter. Diggle is no longer angry at Oliver for benching him and agrees that it was the right thing to do. Ollie then tells Felicity that although he loves her, they can’t be together. At that moment his phone rings. On the other end is Barry Allen in what should be the first of many crossovers with the Flash. Barry has come out of his coma and needs to talk. That meeting was shown in the first episode of the Flash.

Spoilers if you haven’t watched the episode

As the Canary says goodbye to her sister she is shot with three arrows and falls off of a roof. Rumour has it that Ra’s Al Ghul is behind her death. Canary’s mask falls to the ground and the episode ends.

It’s no secret. I love Arrow. In my opinion, it’s the best comic book related tv series out there. I’m a lifelong Green Arrow fan from the age of five. I feel that Stephen Amell is the right guy for the job, The whole supporting cast is wonderful as well. Welcome aboard Brandon Routh. I can’t wait to see what he will bring to the character of Ray Palmer. Will we see the Atom some day? It was awesome seeing Roy finally suit up. Will he be called Arsenal? Red Arrow? Speedy? Time will tell. It was a shocker to see the death of the Canary. It feels like Laurel Lance is being groomed to take over the role. It would have been nice to see Ollie and Felicity become a couple. The reasons why they cant be together makes sense. I love  the character of Felicity, by the way, and Emily Bett Richards really brings her to life and does a fantastic job. I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that Ollie actually got off the island for a year. We know he eventually gets back to the island, so we’ll have to wait and see. All in all, it was an excellent season premiere. Five out of five boxing glove arrows.

Agent Darryl reporting in with this week’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.3, codename: “Making Friends and Influencing People”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”! For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that you not read this review until after you’ve watched the MAOS episode “Heavy Is the Head.” . . . ZZZZXXXHHKXXZZZXSSSKKRKZZZXZZZ . . .

. . . ENCRYPTED S.H.I.E.L.D. TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED . . .

. . . RECEIVING DATA PACKET . . .

. . . DECRYPTING . . .

. . . DATA LINK . . . OK

. . . ORIGIN . . . UNKNOWN

TAKE A DEEP BREATH . . .

CALM YOUR MIND . . .

YOU KNOW WHAT’S BEST . . .

WHAT’S BEST IS YOU COMPLY . . .

COMPLIANCE WILL BE REWARDED . . .

ARE YOU READY TO COMPLY “WE GOT THE GEEK” READERS?

. . . END INCOMING TRANSMISSION . . .

. . . Ahem. My apologies for the transmission break there. Let’s continue.

Herr Whitehall reveals that he’s been a wine snob since he was a broke-@$$ Nazi-era HYDRA recruit while speaking with HYDRA Guy (Bakshi, his name is Mr. Bakshi!). Let’s see, $10 for a case . . . now they’re worth $2000 a bottle . . . carry the 2 . . . wait, how many bottles to a case? Sorry, math was never this agent’s strong suit. Oh hey, and reference right off the bat to that patience “Ghostie” Simmons was prescribing last week. I have no idea who Agent 33 is, but things don’t look good for her in the immediate future. My first thoughts during this scene swerved from “Jacob Loves You” from “LOST” to the “Ludovico Treatment” in “A Clockwork Orange.” And it’s called the “Faustus Method!” Awesome! This is totally up Doctor Faustus’ alley and now I’m really hoping we’ll get an actual appearance from the bad doctor himself soon.

And we finally get to see “for real” Simmons! Ah “Belle & Sebastian,” I’m not going to lie, seeing my wife geek out to the music just a little during this segment pretty much made the whole episode for me. Well done, Marvel.

Geez Simmons, you get up, run and then hardly even touch your breakfast burrito. God help the girl, indeed. That’s hardly any way to start your day now that you’re working for . . . oh, I see. HYDRA. Well then . . . THAT’s what you’ve been up to.

Cut to Skye blowing away HYDRA targets in the shooting gallery of the “Playground.” Looks like we’ve got this season’s major conflict being set up here. May gives Skye the standard SO lecture of the week before throwing a hot pose with a sniper rifle. Mac and Hunter roll up and Hunter quickly loses a bet to Mac over whether Skye had attended S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy or not. May drops some heavy hints that it isn’t over between her and Hunter since last week’s “Icer” incident. Hunter gets Skye to give up how she’s never crossed anyone off and I’m left with the distinct impression that he’s fishing for intel on her.

Coulson gets back from a trip in the “Bus” and confirms to May that Agent 33 has been lost to HYDRA. We already knew that she’d been captured, of course, but something about the wording Phil uses makes me think he’s referring to something deeper.

Simmons meanwhile, is on the hot seat with her new boss. He needs as much information as possible on “Project Blizzard” and Simmons happens to notice the subject in question is actually Donnie Gill from last season’s episode “Seeds.”

Aaaand then we cut to Donnie himself, now hiding out in Marrakech, Morocco. Funny, there was a mention of Morocco last season, too. I’ll have to go back and look into it further. After Donnie’s suspicions are roused, he freezes his host and when two HYDRA agents try to intercept, he turns one into a spy-sicle and spooks the other into rabbiting. Donnie checks the frozen agent’s itinerary and confirms they were to capture him and meet up at a ship docked nearby before he splits the scene.

After a long day of hailing in the name of HYDRA, Simmons finally gets home . . . but someone’s gotten there first. It’s Coulson and after a quick fake out, which ultimately confirms Simmons’ breakfast was an undercover communiqué to S.H.I.E.L.D. after all, they sit down to a grass-fed steak and potato dinner (And kale! Can’t forget to note Trevor Slattery’s favorite from the One-Shot “All Hail the King”, can we?).

As Simmons gives Coulson the low down on HYDRA’s interest in Donnie Gill, Coulson in turn drops some tips on how to advance while undercover and let’s her know Fitz is doing okay. Then, through the magic of television, we’re whisked ahead a day with Coulson back at the “Playground.” We get a quick fill in on what Donnie had been up to at the “Sandbox” since last season and since Fitz knew him best, Phil presses for as much as he can remember about him. Fitz has some trouble finishing his sentences and Mac does his best to do it for him. It really does look like the beginning of a beautiful friendship for MacFitz.

Maybe it’s just me, but it sounded like each of Mac’s sentence-finishers was a description of the seven dwarfs. “Angry? (Grumpy) On drugs? (Dopey) Friendly? (Happy) Sleepy? (well duh, that’s the one that got me thinking on this track)”. Fitz then makes a crack about contacting Simmons if they want more intel and, considering the scene just before, it hits pretty close to home.

Meanwhile, the Skye/Ward angle continues to bore me to death as Grant spills fairly obvious HYDRA policy when recruiting “Gifteds.”

Donnie arrives at the Port of Casablanca and freezes the ship in its berth. Subtle.

Simmons tries to lay on the charm with her boss, but gets called to the principal’s office for her efforts. Seems Bakshi’s not happy about something he’s found out about her. Uh oh. As it turns out though, HYDRA’s well aware of where Jemma is from, it’s her previous connection to Donnie Gill that has Bakshi’s hackles up. He presses her for more information and she brazens it out. Well done, Simmons. However, Bakshi all but promises that her loyalty will be tested.

Dr. Whitehall, all the while, is giving Agent 33 a lesson on how the giant sequoia flourishes as a metaphor for HYDRA when Bakshi steps in to set up Simmons’ loyalty test just as promised. Whitehall continues applying the “Faustus Method” to Agent 33 and I can’t help feeling this might be a sneak peek into Simmons’ own future.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. gang catches wind of Donnie’s “ice-capades” and then it’s off to Morocco. Trip needs a geography lesson, though. He says ”an iceberg in the Middle East,” but Morocco is in northwest Africa, technically the Near East.

MacFitz stay behind and we learn that we haven’t seen Koenig in awhile because he’s on assignment. Call me crazy, but I have a bad feeling about Billy and his mission. Somehow I don’t think Patton Oswalt will have to worry about losing a regular role on the show, though. Between Coulson’s mysterious “source” and Skye’s cryptic “asset,” Fitz is feeling left out of the loop, but Mac’s just hot to play some X-box since Koenig’s out. I expect it’ll be “Call of Duty” he’ll be playing later.

Meanwhile, Simmons gets trotted out and suited up to meet Donnie on Hydra’s behalf, but it’s pretty bad timing because Donnie’s taking a stand, telling HYDRA he’s not interested and tired of running.

“Ghost” Jemma’s a bit like a twisted Jiminy Cricket. I can’t quite decide if she’s really on Fitz’s side anymore. But, in the end, it looks like her trying to stop Fitz from opening up Vault D while everyone is out is for Fitz’s benefit because he sure seems pretty shaken up facing Ward, his and Simmons’ attempted killer.

In Morocco, Bakshi assures Simmons he’ll be in her ear the entire time she’s with Donnie.

Up above, waaay up above, Skye’s about to leap out of the “Bus” for the first time since last season’s “Lola dive” with Coulson. She looks a little nervous around Hunter, but then just before jumping out of the plane, not so much. Huh. Go figure.

Ward gives Fitz the old prisoner BS, but Fitz ain’t buying it. Finding it too hard to express his hatred with words like Skye, Fitz instead opts to show Ward what it was like to nearly die by purging all the oxygen from his cell. Ward’s a slick talker, though and gives Fitz just the right intel to get Fitz to back off and run for the comm to alert the field team of the jeopardy they’re in.

Simmons makes contact with Donnie, as May, Skye and Hunter board the ship. Fitz interrupts Mac’s X-box time in the “Playground” and sure enough, it’s “Call of Duty” on the screen. He needs help contacting the “Bus” to warn Coulson of whatever juicy tidbit Ward had fed him.

As Simmons continues to try and calmly talk down a deadly Donnie Gill, Bakshi gives her the Zen mantra that helps HYDRA assets to comply.

Fitz lets Coulson know that Donnie had already been recruited to HYDRA at the “Sandbox” and just needs to be activated with the trigger phrase, which of course, is what Simmons is repeating to him right now. Coulson gives the team the order to silence any HYDRA agent speaking to Donnie. Hunter’s got Simmons dead to rights . . . and has no idea who she really is! This really is spy drama at its finest right here.

At the last second, May recognizes Jemma and more than happily shoots Hunter to prevent his kill shot. Trip’s bummed he didn’t get to do it, though (Yeesh, these guys really do hold a grudge against last week’s “Icer” incident!). So now the field team knows Simmons is Coulson’s HYDRA mole and they’ll need to keep her cover from being blown.

Simmons is running from a now very alert and angry Donnie when Bakshi intervenes and puts the HYDRA Zen whammy on him. And just like that, Donnie’s full on HYDRA now. Bakshi’s first order to him is to freeze every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent on board.

It looks bad for the gang, but Skye gets the shot (now that she’s completely proficient with the sniper rifle that May introduced her to the day before) and appears to cross off Donnie in cold blood . . . heh, see what I did there? Simmons shoves Bakshi out of the line of fire, “proving” her loyalty and they escape unharmed. Skye confirms her cover is intact to the field team and it’s all wrapped up.

Later, at the “Playground,” Hunter confirms he and May are now even for the “Icer” animosity, but she just pretty much lets Hunter know that Trip is the next in line to get some sweet come-uppance from him. Trip’s happy he’s still got a chance to get his own licks in, too. May and Skye discuss Simmons’ limited ability to lie under pressure and Skye describes it as a “horrorshow.” Cute. Nice little reference to “A Clockwork Orange,” there. Very appropriate.

Fitz and Coulson have a heart-to-heart about both Ward and Simmons and when Fitz gets just a little high and mighty, Phil reminds him that he IS Director and has all kinds of secrets now.

Back in Whitehall’s office, we’re introduced to his new, completely loyal admin assistant, Agent 33 while Bakshi asks him to move Simmons further up the ladder. I don’t know, I’ve got a really hinky feeling about this being Simmons’ future at HYDRA.

Skye drops in on Vault D to discuss the finer points of brainwashing with Ward. Something Grant confesses to have never partaken of. He says it’s the truth and then once again tries to intrigue Skye’s daddy issues with news of his continued existence. Skye acts like she’s not interested, but then we see her heart rate going through the roof afterwards.

So, now we’ve gotten the payoff to the mystery of what Jemma’s been up to, but there’s still Coulson’s post-GH 325 affliction, Skye and her blood-dripping dad, Raina, the Obelisk and how it all ties back to Agent Carter and the Howlers, plus the strange family history of Eric and Billy Koenig and the fate of Simmons’ career in HYDRA to look forward to!

Agent Darryl reporting in with this weeks “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” mission debrief – S2 Ep.2, codename: “Heavy Is the Head”

Warning! This debrief is fairly detailed and contains multiple spoilers for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”! For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that you not read this review until after you’ve watched the MAOS episode “Heavy Is the Head.” Enjoy!

Picking up exactly where we’d left off last week, Hunter is still trapped in the tipped over Tahoe which also houses dead agents Hartley and Idaho. May swings by on the motorbike she’d just lifted from Talbot’s compound and after confirming Hunter survived, she tosses what appears to be one of Fitz’s nifty little “Mouse-hole” laser cutters and takes off in pursuit of Creel.

At that moment, just as Hunter cuts himself free and begins to limp away, Talbot’s goon squad converges and takes him into custody. May, meanwhile, is running down Creel on her souped-up Harley Davidson (which Creel’s stolen pickup truck is really no match for) and although she gets a clear shot, Coulson orders her to stand down and continue her recon. Reluctantly May complies and falls back into surveillance mode.

Back at the “Playground,” Triplett and Skye debark their newly acquired Quinjet as Trip drops a few words of wisdom “No need to think the worst, ‘til it shakes your hand and says hello.” Skye asks if it’s another of his grandmother’s sayings as Phil stops them and congratulates them on completing their mission. Skye then fills Coulson in on the glyphs she’d seen on the 084, but he seems far more concerned about what Hunter might reveal to Talbot. As it turns out, he may be right to be so concerned.

Shortly after, Trip, Skye and Mac give the cloak tech hardware they’d boosted from the Quinjet a good ogling. Fitz absent-mindedly observes as Mac reassures him that he’d actually gotten pretty close with his own cloak work. Fitz tries to engage in the conversation, but keeps losing his train of thought. The rest of the gang looks pretty concerned and we’re left wondering if this is the result of brain damage sustained at the end of last season or if Fitz is actually in contact with Simmons somehow and is just distracted by whatever she may be saying. At least, that’s what I’m laying all my chips on, anyway.

As it turns out, Coulson’s worst fears prove correct as Talbot tries to cut a deal with Hunter: In exchange for leading him to Coulson, Talbot will pay Hunter $2 million and provide a proper burial for Hartley (we’re never really sure if Idaho will get one too, though).

In Coulson’s “Playground” office, Phil seems to be getting much better using holo-table technology. The “toolbox” Fury had given him must have a great tutorial in it. He pulls up files on both Agent Peggy Carter and the 084 we now also know as the “Obelisk” before leaving a note on the file to “keep an eye out for this.” He shuts down the “toolbox” – now embedded in his desk – just as Skye enters his office. She tries to get tough with Phil, wanting to do more than she has been and wanting to be filled in more on what she HAS been doing, but Phil just puts her on locker clean-out duty. As she leaves, Skye suggests he take up yoga, but Coulson says he’s tried, but he’s just not flexible. Feels like a lot of code-speak going on here.

Back in the lab, “Ghost” Simmons is prodding Fitz into some kind of direction . . . but is it good or bad, though? Hmmm . . . She does drop the line “That’s the problem these days, everyone needs answers immediately. No one has any patience anymore,” which pretty much confirms (in my mind, at least) that there is much more going on here than meets the eye.

She prompts Fitz to swipe a printout detailing Creel’s DNA results and they start getting up to something . . . more on that later. So far this season, I’ve found Fitz’s story to be the most compelling and I’m really looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Obviously though, patience will be required as “Spectral” Simmons has already pointed out.

It seems absconding from a secret military complex with a possible alien artifact works up a powerful appetite, so Crusher Creel stops in for a bite at the “Halfway House Café” (looks like Talbot’s secret base might not be too far north of Los Angeles, then), while May keeps tabs on him from outside. When a waitress accidentally touches Creel’s arm while clearing his table, she quickly convulses and dies the same way Hartley had begun to after touching the 084. Creel bolts as May checks out what the commotion is all about. Looks like Crusher might have picked up something from the “Obelisk,” rubber hand or no. May calls it in and Coulson orders her to “go dark.”

As Hunter returns to the “Playground,” Trip gives him the unfriendly frisk before Coulson debriefs him, sizing him up and confirming Talbot attempted a deal. Hunter claims to be loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., though, at least until Hartley’s funeral. At which point, Hunter says he’ll be “in the wind . . . or three sheets to.” Very reminiscent of Fury’s words to Banner in “The Avengers.” This may bear further looking in to . . .

Fitz and “Ghostie” Jemma are close to solving the riddle of countering Creel’s absorbing powers. Fitz says “I didn’t solve this today,” somewhat cryptically just as Mac steps into the lab in another attempt to try and connect with Fitz on any kind of level. “Spectral” Simmons seems to like him okay and when Mac asks what he’s working on, it looks like Fitz might just have a new buddy. Yay. He really needs to catch a break this season.

As Skye packs up Hartley’s personal effects, Hunter pops in, helps himself to a necklace that he explains had belonged to Hartley’s mother that he means to pass on to her sister and gives Skye (and we, the viewer, in the process) some background on both himself and Hartley before leaving.

Creel’s back at his hideout trying different substances and looking pretty worried. Rightfully so it seems, as nothing he tries can get rid of his 084 infection. He tries calling his HYDRA contact, but gets a call on a disposable cellphone from HYDRA guy first, setting up a meeting to exchange the “Obelisk” for being taken care of “the way HYDRA has always taken care of you.” HYDRA guy hangs up and Creel trashes the phone. At that moment, Raina – who we haven’t seen since last season’s final episode end cap – steps from the shadows and suggests they have important things to discuss.

Creel shrugs off Raina as just a super-groupie, but we know she’s far more than that. She offers Crusher a gift. “Carbine:” three times harder than diamond and incredibly rare. Creel warns her to stay out of his affairs and then grabs the “Carbine” and runs off.

Back at the “Playground” Coulson, Triplett and May discuss how to catch and disable Creel, when Skye (who displays several “super-groupie” tendencies when describing Creel’s powers) shows up to report a message had been sent on the HYDRA frequency they had uncovered with Ward’s information in last week’s episode. When Coulson tracks and responds to the message, Raina picks up. After a few minutes of super-hero/super-villain banter between the two, she sells out Creel by informing Phil of a tracking signal in the “Carbine” he’d stolen. With this valuable information S.H.I.E.L.D. can now track and intercept Creel. As the gang suits up, Hunter says he wants in on the mission. Coulson seems hesitant, but May advises that Hunter could be useful and away they go.

Fitz, meanwhile, is still struggling with the Creel DNA puzzle. With a little prodding from Mac, they soon have a breakthrough when he suggests that Fitz may have solved the problem some time in the past. After a quick review of Fitz’s notes, he recognizes the “Overkill” device from last season’s episode “The Hub,” is the answer they’ve been looking for.

While staked out and trying to zero in on Creel’s current location, Hunter grouses to May and Skye about being stuck with nothing more powerful than “Icers.” At that moment, they locate Creel and his HYDRA contact before radioing Coulson and the already embedded triggerman, Triplett. As orders are given and each field team member calls out, Hunter then back shoots May and Skye and then bugs out on his own. Hunter eventually intercepts Trip and ices him before Trip can do more than exclaim an exasperated “Ah, hell no!”

As Creel makes contact with HYDRA guy, he’s worried the 084’s effect can’t be cured, but his HYDRA contact assures him “compliance will be rewarded” and then uses some kind of weird Zen cure to heal Crusher of his infection. Hunter takes a shot at Creel in revenge for Hartley and Idaho’s deaths and we’re treated to a super slow-mo shot of the bullet bouncing off Creel’s head as he absorbs the iron armrest of the park bench he’s sitting in.

Raina dashes off with the case containing the “Obelisk” and Hunter nearly buys the farm as Creel attacks. Fortunately, Coulson, disregarding May’s advice to stay out of the field, shows up with Fitz’s “Overkill” device, disabling Creel and saving Hunter’s life.

Later, after Hartley’s funeral, Hunter places the necklace he’d grabbed earlier into her sister’s car as Coulson catches up to him. He offers Hunter a permanent place on the S.H.I.E.L.D. team and his first mission: Sell Coulson out.

Mac starts to make headway befriending Fitz, and it looks like Fitz may be starting to accept Simmons’ absence. Still no answers as to exactly why she’s absent, though. Argh.

From there we jump from “Fitz” to “fits.” It seems that about every two weeks or so, Coulson has an itch he needs to scratch out . . . on the wall in those strange alien-looking hieroglyphics, as May video records and documents the whole episode as it happens.

And to finish things off, there’s Raina and . . . is that FBI Agent Cooper? No, no, it’s Skye’s drippy daddy and it looks like both he and Raina (and possibly Skye?) may just be able to hold the “Obelisk” without it killing them . . . at least, as long as it decides to let them live, anyway.

After Coulson’s little episode (presumably), we see him standing alone in a field as Talbot’s trio of trucks roll up to confront him. Phil offers up a caged Creel in a “your friendly neighborhood Spider-man”- style gesture. Talbot turns down Coulson’s offer of non-aggressive co-operation, but Phil isn’t fazed as he then shows off his cloaked jet collection and does a mike drop exit.

So, once again, we’re left wondering where on earth Simmons really is and what she’s been up to all summer. Hopefully, with the help of some of the patience she’d prescribed earlier this episode, we’ll get an answer next week!

Gotham episode 2; Selina Kyle

Last week I raved about the season premiere of Gotham. I loved the interactions between Jim Gordon and Harvey Bulloch and wanted to see more of their love/hate relationship. This week, I wasn’t disappointed.

As you can tell by the title of the episode this week, the focus shifted to Selina Kyle or Cat, as she prefers to be called. Selina is a tough 13 year old living on the streets and doing her best to survive. When the episode opens, Selina is hanging out with a group of homeless children and teenagers. A truck shows up offering sandwiches to everyone. Instead of sandwiches, the kids are drugged and taken away by a couple played by Lili Taylor and Frank Whaley. One of the teens escapes this horror. A homeless adult is not so lucky and is killed by the couple.

The police are called in to investigate the crime scene and Jim Gordon isn’t making himself any new friends. He calls out a cop on the take for being late to the scene and has words again with his partner Bulloch. It’s very clear that Bulloch is not a fan of Jim, and their scenes together are full of tension.

We are also re-introduced to the Penguin as he hobbles his way out of Gotham City. Jim Gordon faked Penguin’s death and told him to never come back. He is picked up by a couple of troublemakers in a truck. He’s not a fan of their insults and soon he is stabbing them with a broken beer bottle.

During the investigation, Gordon finds out that the kids being kidnapped are part of a human trafficking ring. The criminals are using a compound to drug the kids. The drugs were previously used at Arkham Asylum.

Selina has her time to shine in this installment. The kidnappers hijack a bus headed for a juvenile detention. Selina is on the bus and manages to get away. Gordon then shows up to save the day. After the kids are taken into custody, Selina demands to speak with Gordon. She tells the arresting officer that if he refuses, she will tell everyone that he touched her. She eventually gets face to face time with Gordon and tells him that if he lets her go she’ll tell him what she knows about the Wayne murders. That’s how this week’s episode ends. Don’t you just love those cliff hangers?

So what did I enjoy this time around?  The acting between Ben McKenzie and Donal Logue continues to dominate. At times you really think that punches may fly. It’s great to see how a good cop and one not-so-good play off of each other. It’s a wonderful contrast. This relationship is really what’s selling the series for me so far.

Also worth mentioning is that it’s great to see Gordon becoming a role model for young Bruce Wayne. We get a few glimpses of Bruce clearly not dealing with his parents murder. He has some nice scenes with Gordon.

The Penguin continues to steal the show. I can’t get enough of watching his story play out.This is the first time I’ve loved a live action version of the Penguin. Sorry Danny DeVito. Robin Taylor plays him in such a fantastic way. For the first time ever, I find myself being fascinated by the story of ol’ Oswald Cobblepott. More Penguin please.

This week I’ll even give kudos to Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney. I wasn’t that impressed with her on the premiere . This week, as she schemed to take over the underworld in Gotham, I found myself digging her portrayal of the character.

A good solid effort for Episode 2. I was absolutely happy for more Gordon/Bulloch conflict and am really enjoying the origins of Selina Kyle and the Penguin. I’ll give this weeks episode 4 bat signals out of 5.

Agent Darryl accepted the assignment of reviewing Marvel’s Agents of Shield for We Got The Geek…

“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Season 2, episode 1 – “Shadows”

Reviewed by Darryl Etheridge

Warning! This review will be fairly detailed and contain multiple spoilers for both “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”! For the best possible experience, it’s recommended that you not read this review until after you’ve watched the MAOS episode “Shadows.” Enjoy!

We open on 1945. In the closing days of World War II, Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos raid one of the last remaining HYDRA bases in Europe. The facility’s overseer, Herr Rheinhart (Rhinehart?), reluctantly surrenders what we can clearly see is “an object of unknown origin.” During the cleanup, the object is sealed in a metal container and marked “SSR 084.” Other items, including what appears to be the blue “Guest House” alien that drips GH325 are packed and sealed with similar serial #s. Marvel is making a smart move by re-introducing Peggy, Dum Dum and the rest of the gang early on this season in advance of “Agent Carter” this winter. I can’t wait to see more of them.

Flash forward to the present day, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Hartley, Hunter and Idaho are attempting to purchase information on the 084 we’ve just seen back in 1945 from another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned traitor. Unbeknownst to them, they are being shadowed by May, Skye and Triplett, who break cover when an unknown assailant breaks in, kills the turncoat agent and steals the 084 documents. With nothing to show for their efforts, Hartley contacts Director Coulson, revealing they have been working for Phil, albeit without knowledge of the shadow team’s presence. Coulson advises they “go dark” and scrub the mission.

Once both teams return to the “The Playground,” Koenig lets May know that Coulson wants to talk. Trip and yet another agent named Mac are speaking vaguely about what sounds like Agent Simmons, but nothing truly clear is revealed. Meanwhile, Hartley reminisces about Hunter’s cooking while they had been stationed in Budapest. This line feels a lot like a reference to Black Widow and Hawkeye’s very different memories of Budapest in “The Avengers.”

In “The Playground’s” labs, Fitz appears to be staring blankly without comprehension while Simmons tries to prompt and encourage him to take the next step in his scientific process, asking if he can even hear her. Uh-Oh. But it turns out to be a classic S.H.I.E.L.D. misdirect as Fitz pulls out a tiny earpiece and responds in an annoyed tone that he can hear Simmons just fine and knows precisely what to do next before trailing off, losing his train of thought completely. Something we’ll soon learn had been happening with greater frequency since we’d last seen him in Season 1. May stops in and asks how the progress on the cloaking technology Fitz has been struggling with and, with some coaxing from Simmons, Fitz assures May all is going well, just slowly. May offers to stay and help anyway. Feels like a bit of a slight towards Simmons who is Fitz’s usual steadfast companion in all things science-y.

While identifying the unknown assailant as Carl “Crusher” Creel – who had been on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s gifted index, before allegedly being crossed off by John Garrett – it’s quickly surmised that Creel’s death had been staged and he’d been recruited into HYDRA. During this whole exchange, Hunter confesses his interest is purely for financial gain and Hartley states that he’s not a “big picture kind of guy.” Hunter also mentions an ex-wife of his. Is it just me or are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents (who are known for having no family at all) constantly and cryptically referring to family members? What’s up with that? More than we’re being explicitly told, I think.

In yet another part of “The Playground,” Skye is laying on top of a table with the alien hieroglyphics being projected onto it from beneath. As she sits up from contemplating this puzzle, Trip walks in expressing his suspicions about Agent Billy Koenig and his ever-expanding number of brother (it seems Trip, the “Legacy” himself, is wondering the same thing I am, but in a more specific way). Coulson enters and asks for a private moment with Skye, at which point he asks her to downstairs to find out more about Creel. Skye is reluctant and turns eight shades of pale at the thought and, in the following scene, we learn why.

Cut to a quick scene of Koenig showing Skye how to manipulate the controls on a handset before opening the door to “Vault D.” Net, in a scene cut almost whole cloth from “The Silence of the Lambs,” Skye descends a staircase to confront an imprisoned (Ex-)Agent Grant Ward. Ward begins by cataloguing the scars of his suicide attempts and then shows Skye the bruises he’d sustained when he then started running into the walls instead. Skye fires off a retort about how he should have run faster. Sounds to me like the writers are calling back to the mid-credits scene of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” where Quicksilver is running into his cell’s walls at high speed. Skye doesn’t manage to get much more information about Creel except to confirm their initial suspicions, but then Ward reveals HYDRA’s communication secret using the white noise in the background static of S.H.I.E.L.D. transmissions. Ward assures Skye that the information is true and pledges to her that “so will be every word I say to you for the rest of my life.” He also tries to intrigue Skye with information about her father, but she shuts him out completely using Koenig’s doo-hickey and leaves. It seems I can’t stop making mental parallels to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” because Ward’s obsession with Skye (which even Coulson confesses to not fully understand) sounds much like Tony Stark’s feeling towards Pepper Potts (“the one thing I can’t live without . . . and that’s you”).

In a Washington D.C. area scene, we then see the recently promoted Brigadier General Glenn Talbot taking a stroll with his family when Agent Triplett shows off his reverse pickpocketing skills by slipping a cell phone into Talbot’s pocket. Coulson calls and tries to warn Talbot of Creel’s intentions, but at that moment Crusher attacks. In the ensuing melee with Talbot, his covert operatives and a swashbuckling Melinda May who swoops in to the rescue, Creel grabs an ornate chain and fencepost top to sport his signature ball and chain look while absorbing and transforming his arm into solid brass. Nice.

May bugs out while Talbot’s men subdue Creel and take him into custody, but not for long because as Talbot is hustled to a private car, he’s intercepted yet again, by the one-woman-army who detests being referred to as “The Cavalry.”

So far this season has a soldier-of-fortune-on-the-run like “The A-Team,” as opposed to most of last season’s “X-Files” creature of the week format. Feels like a step in the right direction to me.

The A-Team had their constantly pursuing Colonel Dekker and S.H.I.E.L.D. has Glenn Talbot. Who, as he banters back and forth with Coulson while strapped to a chair, confesses a grudging respect for Coulson’s crew (probably more than Hannibal ever got from Dekker), admiring their ability to avoid capture all winter. This line struck me, as well. First, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” had been confirmed as taking place in real time in conjunction with the Phase 2 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies thus far, but the time since Coulson and Talbot faced off at “Providence” amounts to a full summer, not winter. Still, when it comes to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the U.S. military complex, you never can tell what’s being deliberately encrypted. Plus, the line feels like a pretty clear reference not only to “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” but also the snowy wastes of the Canadian wilderness where “Providence” was located. Coulson the calls out Talbot’s blind spot and informs him that Creel allowed himself to be captured so he could infiltrate Talbot’s base and get his hands on the 084. It’s really not surprising that Coulson saw this development right away, after all, Loki pulled the same stunt on the Helicarrier in “The Avengers.”

Geez, why is Fitz the only one who even speaks to Simmons, let alone look at her? What’s everybody else’s problem?

Speaking of “infiltrating Talbot’s base,” here comes Trip dressed to the nines as “General Jones.” Seems like the writers REALLY want us to believe Howling Commando Gabe Jones is Triplett’s granddad. Maybe, but personally, I think it’s another misdirect. It’s likely we won’t get any real answers about that until “Agent Carter” premieres early next year, though.

After a hilarious moment where Coulson (digitally modified to sound like Talbot) chews out a low-ranking gate grunt and then invites him to shake his hand the next time he sees Talbot (I can’t wait for the set up to that gag to pay off!), May and Skye drop pretty heavy hints that the 084 isn’t the only thing on the team’s checklist. This calls to mind Black Widow’s “compartmentalized” mission on the Lemurian Star in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Meanwhile, the “Silence of the Lambs” homages hit high gear as Creel breaks out of his Lecter-style glass cage and then shortly after stalks the S.H.I.E.L.D. team in the dark, like Buffalo Bill did to Clarice Starling before Hartley discovers the 084, foolishly grabs it to try and get the upper hand on Creel only to have that hand frizzle-fried on the spot instead. Ouch. That’s gotta smart. Creel takes off and the rest while the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. gang rush to Hartley’s aid. Skye immediately notices the same hieroglyphics on the 084 that Coulson scratched out last season. Coulson tells them to continue the rest of their mission, but Hunter’s had enough and grabs Hartley and boogies. They reach Idaho who’s been idling the getaway Tahoe “General Jones” arrived in (which looks exactly like Fury’s Tahoe . . . right down to the Virginia plates) and they flee. Hartley tells Hunter to amputate her arm before the 084 still clamped in her hand kills her.

Back at Talbot’s base, May, Skye and Trip grab a cloakable Quinjet and in a flash of activating retro-reflective panels, they scram as Coulson finally voice-over explains the secondary mission. Get that cloak tech because Fitz is getting nowhere and had has appeared to become less and less stable since Simmons left several months ago. So . . . it looks like Fitz is far worse off than it has appeared up to now. Or is he? On the surface, it looks like Fitz might be hallucinating Simmons’ presence as a coping mechanism in his severely reduced mental state, but what if they really are in contact with one another? They did try to set up an encrypted secure line between each other last season. There have been so many fake-outs during this episode anything is possible at this point.

In a finishing move that puts “Mortal Kombat” to shame, Creel attacks the fleeing Tahoe in a sequence which, sure enough, is nearly a perfect mirroring of Bucky’s first attack on Fury in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Hunter looks like he’s in a bad way and as we’re left wondering if Hartley and Idaho are really dead, Crusher Creel rubberizes his hand with one of the flipped Tahoe’s tires and absconds with the 084, leaving Hartley’s severed, scorched and scarred arm behind.

In the end tag scene, which closely resembles the mid credits scene from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” Herr Rheinhart (now going by Doctor Whitehall and not appearing to have aged at all in the last seventy years) gives the 084 a name of it’s own, referring to it as “The Obelisk.”

Lots to process in this first episode of the second season of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” but I think the biggest question is what has Simmons been up to if she hasn’t been at Fitz’s side all this time? Here’s hoping we’ll learn more next week!

JStew reviewed the first episode of Gotham, the new TV series on Fox.

Going into the season premiere of Gotham, I had my reservations. A Batman show that didn’t feature Batman. How could this possibly work? It seemed like we were getting another Smallville. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Smallville, but I didn’t see how this approach would translate to the world of The Dark Knight. Let’s be honest, prequels don’t exactly have a great track record. Phantom Menace, I’m looking at you.

I’ll give anything comic book related a fair shot. Hell, I even sat down to watch Jonah Hex. Don’t get me started on that one. With low expectations, I watched the premiere with my wife and was immediately blown away.  The story takes place in the past. Gotham City is a dirty crime filled place full of corrupt politicians and dirty police men. Much like the Bat films, it’s not clear in what year the story takes place.

Spoilers ahead, so now is your last chance to look away.

Our story begins with a familiar scene from the history of The Caped Crusader–the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. We are introduced to a very young Bruce Wayne as portrayed by David Mazouz. Not to long after that we meet a new beat cop, James Gordon, and his crooked partner Harvey Bulloch. They’ve been assigned to the Wayne murder case. Gordon makes a vow to young Bruce that he will find his parents killers. This may be a running theme for season one of the series, which will be 16 episodes.

While investigating the crime  we are treated to glimpses of future members of the Dark Knight detective’s rogues gallery. We  meet the future Riddler, Edward Nygma, who actually helps the Gotham  police department.  Other villains include a young Selina Kyle, who has witnessed the Wayne murders, and the scene stealing Oswald Cobblepot, aka the Penguin. Robin Lord Taylor is a believable and crazy Penguin. I would love to see him play Cobblepot in an actual Batman film; he’s that good. He eats sardines, has an umbrella and is looking to rise to power. It’s very much like his comic book character and that made me  very happy.

Gotham turns out to be a great police drama reminiscent of shows like Wiseguy and The Killing. As a comic fan, I was happy that it reminded me of the great GCPD series that was written by Ed Brubaker. Some  familiar characters from that comic show here as well–Montoya and Allen. To geeks like me, they’re better known as The Question and The Spectre. Little eater eggs like that warmed my geek heart.

The acting in Gotham is top notch. Ben McKenzie plays Jim Gordon, the idealistic young officer who wants to clean up the city. McKenzie has some huge shoes to fill following Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Gordon. He does a fantastic job. I’m looking forward to seeing where he takes the character in future episodes

Sean Pertwee portrays Alfred Pennyworth. He plays him as a tough no-nonsense type of guy, much like how he was written in Geoff Johns excellent Earth One graphic novel. As a fan of that book, it was amazing to see on the small screen. The crown jewel of the cast is Donal Logue as Harvey Bulloch the cop on the take. This is actually the first live action appearance of Bulloch. Logue is fantastic in just about everything he has appeared in before and doesn’t disappoint here. The interaction between Logue and McKenzie is priceless–like two opposite sides of the coin. I can’t wait to see how they play off each other in upcoming episodes.

Overall, I was impressed with the pilot of Gotham. All the actors contributed in their own way and the script was amazing. I loved all the cameos from the different corners of the Batman universe and was a fan of all the Easter Eggs from the comics. I’m looking forward to seeing more. I would highly recommend Gotham to not only fans of comic books, but to people who love good tv in general.