Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, TV | Tagged: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chloe Bennet, clark gregg, entertainment, marvel entertainment, tv

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D…Ye Who Enter

By Amanda Gurall

Through me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:

To rear me was the task of the power divine,

Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.

Before me things create were none, save things eternal,

And eternal I endure.

All hope abandon ye who enter here.

– Dante Alighieri

And so we start this week's S.H.I.E.L.D. with a title referencing entering the circles of hell through a city of woe.  It sounds like a fitting description for those who try to enter the temple of the city and are not deemed compatible or worthy. The show continued to have fun with some pseudo artsy storytelling techniques and we started with Skye's (Chloe Bennet) dream sequence.  She is wearing a flowered baby doll dress, running through the empty halls of the playground until she meets Coulson (Clark Gregg) and swipes away a metal box before he touches it. The box is then open on the floor, playing the song Daisy Bell aka A Bicycle Built for Two. This was the first song played on a computer in real life, and the song Hal 9000 played when it lost it's mind in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don't think there is any meaning to the computer nerd angle but it's fun to know. Now is the Daisy song a clue that Skye will be revealed to be Daisy Johnson? Or is it a red herring? We may find out next week.

May (Ming-Na Wen) clutching her pearls, and Coulson appeared with a baby whom most assume is Skye, and they abandon her on the table (safety first) while Skye dreamer holds the Diviner and becomes dust. Another interpretation is that in this dream Skye is actually Raina (Ruth Negga) in the flowered dress, and not herself making Raina the one unpleasantly surprised if she gets her hands on the diviner. Also, Coulson called the baby "angel eyes" which could end up being a bit important.

Mini Lola! We see a mini Lola, helmed by a plastic haired mini Coulson doll and controlled by Mack (Henry Simmons). I would totally buy this, so let's go merchandising department. Mack and Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) have yet another endearing moment, gee I sure hope nothing happens to Mack!

In Toronto we find Raina and her mark/sugar daddy at a coffee shop but Raina spots May and starts to throw her some shade when May removed her glasses and it's Agent 33 stuck in the nanomask! Coulson seemed to think she was lucky to be stuck looking like May but I am wondering with all of their resources couldn't she at least spackle some makeup into that massive scar?  About to be nabbed by Hydra operatives, Raina was saved by none other than Billy! (Patton Oswalt) So that's where he has been, tracking and protecting her after Coulson let her go free range. Wait…that's Sam? One of them opened up an umbrella which turned out to be an invisibility cloaking device, which sounds a bit Harry Potter to me. I loved it.

Everyone is getting ready for the all on assault of the hidden city, as they have decided to bomb the hell out of it once they investigate. Hydra is nowhere to be seen yet so it's all going well for S.H.I.E.L.D.  We have a girl talk scene between Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) which to me came across as Bobbi trying to read Gemma and not legitimate concern for her romantic status. It was a little sad but realistic to hear that Simmons hadn't had time to process Fitz's feelings towards her and so far doesn't necessarily reciprocate. I know it seems like he has been friend zoned but despite Tripp's abs, I am still shipping FitzSimmons.

Sam and Billy add so much humor and fun to the show I hope they stick around for a long time, since they may be either androids, clones or life model decoys it is a good bet. "Their" back and forth including Billy's intentions to get with the Calvary despite not being able to do a sit up add so much to the show and relieved the tension a bit.  Back in Canada half of the team is taking out Hydra and holding onto Raina. There's a big fight scene between Skye and Agent 33 which was both hard to believe that Skye could hold her own as well as she did and a bit annoying that she needed Hunter to win the fight.  They do not kill or capture 33 because apparently they like loose ends.

Fitz and Simmons had a very sad talk where Fitz told her he was no longer any good in the lab and he will be running off to the garage with his man Mack after this mission to make toy cars and brood about love. She tries to talk him out of it but he is determined that he will no longer work with her but for her.  He leaves, she stands alone and has a cry but does not follow him.  I may be wrong about them having a chance together.

Off to sunny Puerto Rico go Coulson, Mack, FitzSimmons and Bobbi and there are some nice moments between Bobbi and Coulson.  Is she fishing for Intel? Ooh hats! Tostones! We heard about the dichotomy between Fury and Coulson when collateral damage comes up. Coulson says the only acceptable number for him is zero.  That's our boy.  They meet up with Diego who is Bobbi's connection and they have some secret conversations wherein Diego passes along an old map.  Because only old laminated maps have the floor plans for El Morro, a National Monument and tourist destination.  Fun fact: locals use the little garrets, or garitas, as spots to urinate in so be sure to experience that on your next vacation. When in Rome!  They are soon making their way down to the entrance where they will blast into the floor and send in the drones.

Up North Skye and Raina have been chatting at length, Raina has drunk The Doctor's  kool-aid and is super excited to get that Diviner in her hands and see what her special DNA will do and what she will become once she's able to enter the city. She cares nothing of the rest of the world since it seems like the regular humans will suffer a mass extinction event. She even tries to surrender herself to Hydra to get close to the Diviner but badass May runs them down and they take Raina to the bus.

Back in the hole it gets really intense as the drones die halfway down and they decide to send brave Mack in to investigate and place explosives.  At the bottom he sees a dark place with writing on the ground, obscured by dirt.  So far the alien technology related to this city has proved to be able to "read" and transform those who touch it with their bare skin. So why the hell did nobody think to wear gloves? Or a hazmat suit? Almost everyone who has touched this junk has turned into a charred mannequin so bearing this in mind Mack uses his finger to touch and light up the floor. He ends up with Kree graffiti carved into his flesh, writhing on the ground in extreme pain.  They drag him up and are all helpless when the poor guy turns into a rage filled murderous being, much like a sentry (wink) who almost succeeds in taking them all down.  It was just as Fitz was going to have to shoot him that Bobbi zapped him and sent him down the hole.  This show sometimes stops just short of soap opera drama, sometimes crosses into it.   Coulson has to accept this collateral damage and orders them to close up the hole, because "that" is no longer Mack. Sigh. Who will make your toy cars now?

Hydra has found the rest of the team using Raina's tracker, it is a good thing for them that Agent 33 was left behind to tell them about it.  They are boarded and Ward slimes his way down the stairs, asking to take Skye in exchange for not blowing them all out of the actual sky.  May was maternal and heroic but she had to let her go.  The brothers Koenig started in on Ward for killing their Brother Eric but stopped short of shooting him, and of course Raina goes along "with pleasure" and reminds Skye not to forget her tablet with the map of the lost city. Jerk.

We had one last scene where Hatchet face Agent 33 meets with Whitehall and delivers the bad news that Ward did not blow up the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane as ordered and may be going rogue.  He is at best playing both sides, at worst starting his redemption arc.

This story was a set up for the last episode before the mid season break but it was a decent one. Lots of action, humor and an invisibrella.  They are setting us up for huge things to happen next week and I am not going to abandon hope that they deliver.

Amanda Gurall is an artist, writer and geek parent living in NYC.

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