And so, we are back with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s more mainstream
streak after Sif took away Lorelei back to Asgard. May has broken up with Ward,
and Fitz & Simmons duo are having their own problems – Simmons wants to
move to the Hub in order to study Skye’s (and maybe Coulson’s) blood in greater
detail as well as the cure that had made them the people they are – but more
about this later.
Firstly, Deathlok. He was very impressive in this episode,
becoming more and more robotic as the show progresses; in fact, the entirety of
Clairvoyant’s scheme is apparently to build a more and more improved
cyberwarrior: it started with the centipede augmentation device and continued
to take over more and more of the host’s human body, requiring greater and
greater body space – and developing ever greater sophistication. Deathlok by
now is very reminiscent of robots from “I, robot” film, based on Asimov’s
works, but very different. Also, “there is no Mike Peterson, there is also
Deathlok” bit? It is very reminiscent of Joker coming into his own in the
first, very first, Batman movie – nice tribute.
Then we got the team. Once again, “Agents” emphasize the teamwork
and trust in S.H.I.E.L.D. – the agents are all but forced to cooperate, which
they do with a very great efficiency, as they battle Deathlok. One on one,
Deathlok is superior to any of them, but as a team the agents managed to put
him on the run, leaving his master, Thomas Nash the Clairvoyant, behind. Only,
it is not him – the Clairvoyant is a clairvoyant (a psychic seer of the future;
think Trelawney from Harry Potter or Drusilla from BtVS), but an agent of
S.H.I.E.L.D. itself, and as “Yes Men” have revealed, agent May is its’ patsy.
Or agent, if you like it better.
This is very important. In “Girl in the Flower Dress” Skye
betrayed the team to Miles because of the history they have shared together,
and because her bond with the rest of the team were not as strong as they are
now. May’s history with S.H.I.E.L.D. goes much deeper than Skye’s, so her
treason bites much deeper, especially to Coulson, who has professional history
with May, it seems.
Of course, May can point out that she is either a) a dupe,
or b) loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., just not to Coulson’s part of it. “The Hub” and “The
Magical Place” episode shows that there are at least two separate branches of
S.H.I.E.L.D., working parallel to each other, but...nothing more. “End of the
Beginning” only reinforces this impression further: there are two teams, they
know about each other – but only in theory, not in practice or in the field –
and this episode gives them field experience in spades – but not enough. Team “Coulson’s”
aircraft is hijacked and agent Hand declares that as soon as the plane lands
everyone is to be killed, making her a strong subject to be the Clairvoyant
instead of the late Thomas Nash, who was killed by Ward – an act that pissed on
Coulson.
To elaborate, by the last third of this episode, Coulson’s
team began to fall apart, as they were at the beginning of the series: Coulson and
Ward were about to have an alpha male showdown, May is working for someone else
in S.H.I.E.L.D., and Fitz is not very happy with Simmons on one hand and has
exposed May on the other. May has to act fast and think faster if she is to
clear her name and regain the loyalty of her team (in her team), which is very
necessary as agent Hand is about to kill them all instead.
So: the Clairvoyant may be down to his (or hers) last tricks
– most potent ones yet; Mike Peterson is dead – there is only Deathlok; and
Coulson’s team about to face their most strenuous test yet! The next episodes
are going to be tense, and this episode was a very good one as well.
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