Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2X13 Recap: One Of Us

Agents of SHIELD
Season 2, Episode 13
Wednesdays 9|8 EST
Spoilers, obviously
 
 
Karla Faye Gideon is your average lonely woman with razor-blades for fingernails, but her life changes when Cal and two thugs - a genius who doesn't like food and a jacked-up thug with .5 brain cells - show up at her door, release her hands from their SHIELD-induced bonds, and invite her to come on Cal's mission of revenge. Because she has nothing better to do than watch black-and-white movies on TV and eat alone, she accepts.
 
Back at SHIELD, Skye has been put on the Gifted Index, but she's okay with that - in fact, she thinks she's got herself under enough control that she can get back in the field sooner rather than later. Jemma is still highly upset that Fitz lied about Skye's condition, and not even Bobbi's coercing can get her to hold a real conversation with him. Mac calls Bobbi from a mysterious safe house, where he has Hunter handcuffed to a bathroom sink, and Bobbi promises to plan an extraction for them.
 
May goes and finds Garner, her extremely likable psychiatrist ex-husband, and brings him back to assess Skye. Skye is less-than-enthused about talking to a shrink, but she accepts, telling Garner that with May's help, she's calming herself down and learning how to stop the tremors.
 
Meanwhile, Cal and the Scream Team break into a psychiatric hospital that secretly housed SHIELD gifted. Coulson and Bobbi fly down to investigate, and this conversation happens-
 
Coulson: Hey, you know, we haven't seen Hunter - one of our top field agents, the guy I offered a permanent job to, remember him? - in a while.
Bobbi: He probably didn't want a permanent job here. NBD.
Coulson: Oh, okay.
 
They arrive at the hospital and find one man missing; David Angar, a man whose experimental cancer treatment went really, really wrong and gave his voice the ability to induce catatonia to whoever hears it. I would have gone with chemotherapy, to be honest. Turns out Angar's riding with the Scream Team now, but Cal left the words 'FIGHT ON' painted across the walls of Angar's former cell.
 
On the Bus, Fitz comes across the shocking sight of May being human around Garner and takes his coffee elsewhere. He and Jemma actually have a brief conversation about the Marner situation, but things quickly get rough as Skye sets off an earthquake in her sleep.
 
Meanwhile, Cal tells his tale of woe to the Scream Team in a diner booth - about how nasty SHIELD took his baby girl away, how he couldn't protect the people he loved, and how he turned to chemical enhancements which were, erm, of dubious success.
 
Coulson and Bobbi share some heart-to-heart lies, and then follow Cal and the Scream Team to Coulson's hometown (yay for Coulson Holmes and Bobbi Watson)! Coulson calls in to the Bus and tells May, who says they'll come immediately for backup. Immediately is right - she doesn't even give Warner a chance to get off the Bus before she takes off, headed for Wisconson.
 
Cal and the Scream Team arrive at Coulson's hometown highschool and Angar puts the entire football field of students into catatonic states. (A few birds get the short end of the stick, too.) Using the stadium microphone, Cal lures Coulson onto the football field where the students are lifeless (are they dead? Asleep? We never really find out) and Coulson is surrounded by Angar, the Genius, the Brute, and Faye. Cal firmly believes he has the moral high ground, and proclaims that he's not going to let SHIELD abuse Skye just because she's Gifted.
 
Bobbi and Coulson take on the Scream Team, but the standoff becomes more complicated when May arrives on the scene with a gun to Skye's neck, bringing Cal onto the field and telling him she'll shoot Skye if he doesn't quit it. Cal freaks out again (apparently he really hoped Skye got wings with this whole package deal) and gives the microphone to Angar, but before Angar can send the entire town into catatonia, blue light appears and Gordon -
 
 
- arrives, grabs Cal (no 'hello beautiful' for you, Mr. Crazypants) and whisks him away.
 
 
Everyone is really weirded out for a few seconds.
 
 
Then May, Coulson and Bobbi start fighting the Scream Team. Skye begins to quake, bruises appear all over her forearms, and she passes out. Skye wakes up on the Bus, and Simmons (who appears to have come down a little from her DISEASE!PLAGUE!MUTANT!GENOCIDE! high) + Garner tell Skye that she has a bunch of bruises and hairline fractures because she wasn't subduing her abilities, but dangerously internalizing them.
 
Garner recommends that Skye quit SHIELD, which May doesn't seem to agree with. Garner says, "After Bahrain, you of all people should know how badly this can end." He says that SHIELD is exactly the same as it was before, but he and May part on decent terms.
 
Simmons brings a report to Coulson and tells him she thinks they should put two categories in the Gifted Index - those who are 'Enhanced,' i.e. not born with abilities, and those who acquired them naturally. (I have an idea. Let's call them Inhumans. Yes?) Coulson tells Simmons to keep studying, but also gives her a gag order. GREAT, BECAUSE SIMMONS DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH STRAIN YET.
 
In the post-credits scene, Mac and Hunter are extracted. Mac pulls Hunter's blindfold off and when Hunter demands to know what's going on, Mac says that he and Bobbi are working for SHIELD - the new SHIELD. We get a shot of a newly-designed SHIELD logo on the wall.
 
Hunter isn't the only righteously indignant individual around, as we get a shot of Gordon, who has absolutely no sympathy for the tantrum-throwing Cal.
 

(actual footage of Gordon's brain)
 
Gordon tells Cal he extracted him because he was "making too much noise," and adds, "You're not one of us." (Considering the fact that he's had three speaking scenes and probably 90 seconds of total screen time, I'm 100% obsessed with Gordon.) Gordon then sends Cal to someone who's going to decide his fate.
 
I hope it's a doozy.
 
P.S. WE GET WARD BACK NEXT WEEK!!!!!! HOORAH! Seriously, once Ward, Luke Mitchell and Gordon are all in the show - I mean, uh, I watch it for the plot.

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