Warning – spoilers ahead
And so, “Agents” are coming onto the new level of their
existence (as characters of a show) – facing-off against their opposite number,
the Hydra. Named after the multiheaded beast of Greek myths (and yes, the show
had their laughs in discussing head vs. “head”, ha-ha), this evil organization
is set on dominating the world, as evidenced by Marvel’s latest movie, “Captain
America: The Winter Soldier”. No, seriously, Whedon is a genius – he keeps the
Marvel-verse tightly combined, unlike his own opposite number in the DC-verse
(Batman, Superman, etc). Unlike other Marvel threats, Hydra is not a single
opponent (like, say, Loki), that can be defeated in a single battle; it is a
powerful organization whose members are interchangeable and who can always be
‘reborn’ in new and different ways. This makes it a worthy adversary for
S.H.I.E.L.D., whose own agents are quite versatile themselves...
But, anyways, back to the episode itself. As before, it is a
good episode, but not a great one. Why? Let us see.
As it had started in
the previous episode, “Turn, Turn, Turn” was all about trust – whom to trust,
whom to believe, whose loyalty is the strongest. This is always a powerful
motive in any spy thriller, which is what S.H.I.E.L.D. appears to be for the
moment – a spy thriller. All of the multiple levels of trust & distrust
featured in this episode are fine... to a point, but “Turn, Turn, Turn” turns
this situation almost into a game of “Find the Hydra”: it’s Hand, no – it’s
Coulson; no – Garrick and Ward...
Aye, Ward appears to have joined the Dark Side in this
episode (especially since Coulson’s team has escaped from the Helicarrier in a
very Star Wars™ ep
IV way) but all of those facial shots make one wonder if something is going on
with his head, his heart, or the filming crew of the show were just feeling
artsy...
The rest of the team. They have been shaken up; May revealed
to be colonel Fury’s personal contact, whose role was to keep an eye on
Coulson, and if things were to go south with him – she and Ward were to take
him down; only she didn’t. Why? Because they had history together, May trusted
him.
Trust is another topic of the episode; the titular agents
had to learn to trust each other ever since the episode “0-8-4”, and so they had
– with various successes. In the last two episodes, however, this trust was put
to its severest test, as May proved that she had secrets of her own, and Ward’s
relationship with the other agents is also ambiguous (even without him shooting
agent Hand at the end of the ep).
On the other hand, what Fitz and Simmons had was a conflict
of ‘greater’ vs. ‘lesser’ duty; also the trials and anxieties of separation:
“Turn, Turn, Turn” was the first episode where they express their feelings for
each other so openly.
Back to duty. Agent Hand embodied the ‘greater’ duty – not
just to your team, but also to your country, or at least the entire
S.H.I.E.L.D. Her mojo was to do anything in order to prevent a greater disaster
or to achieve a greater good (as it was shown in “The Hub”), and that’s why,
while her death at agent Ward’s hands was over-the-top, it was also karmic – at
least in that it was in the line of duty.
So: agent Ward has either joined the dark side, or something
else is going on. The rest of the team has to pull themselves together or Hydra
will pull them apart for good. Oh, and agent Hand is dead. In short, this was a
very good episode.
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