And so, the amazing funfest that is called “Marvel’s Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D.” continues. No, seriously, this particular episode felt like a clear-cut
break from the previous action, and had more of a spy-vs.-spy feel to it.
Let us start with the basics: what this episode had been
about?
Teamwork. Throughout this episode, S.H.I.E.L.D. clashed with
Hydra, and it was established, that while Hydra got the better technology,
S.H.I.E.L.D. got the better people; staff; agents – call them whatever you
want, but while Hydra sought to get ahead by using technology (including one
that permitted its’ agents to copy the faces and voices of other people – hence
the face in this episode’s title), S.H.I.E.L.D. negated their advantage by
working together: the agents know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and
they also know how to utilize those strengths and weaknesses of each other to
overcome any emergency.
On one hand, this leads us to Fitz. In “Faces”, Fitz had
finally overcome his new low level of self-esteem and returned to be one of the
group, one of the guys, so to speak. His new friendship with agents Mackenzie
and Hunter is a sign of that. Fitz is moving on and returning to his old levels
of competence – maybe even more so, but he is also clearly moving past his
feelings towards Simmons too: the seemingly unsinkable ship FitzSimmons has
just sprung a new, major leak.
Of course, since we still do not know Simmons’ side of the
story (Fitz’s version from Foster’s house of Imaginary Friends does not count),
we should not dismiss this boat just yet – in the next episodes it just may be
patched up and returned into the hearts of fans in style, but still...
It should be noted, however, that while FitzSimmons boat is
in the process of sinking, the boat SkyeWard has largely sunk – Ward didn’t
appear in “Faces” either: the agents’ team is leaving him behind, largely as an
information source about Hydra, which is sad, but nothing more than what Ward
hadn’t earned by betraying his team back in S1, but that’s life, and the
choices we make in it.
Conversely, the ship Philinda, which has not been in
spotlight as much as the rest of ‘ships in the series, has shined in “Faces”
loud and clear. The other side of the agents’ close and personal teamwork is
that they know each other, even on a personal level, which was how Coulson was
able to figure out that agent May had been substituted by a Hydra doppelganger
instead. (The fact that it was the brainwashed agent 33 has not become known,
however.) May and Coulson know each other, they know each other’s flaws and
advantages, and that is why they are such a great team. That is also what Hydra
is lacking in S2 (Ward and Garrett’s relationship in S1 was something else),
and that is why they failed in this face-off of spy vs. spy, though general
Talbot had been made a fool of, as usual.
Finally, there was Ming-Na Wen. She has really shown-off her
acting skills in Faces: as agent May, as agent May undercover, as agent May
having a heart-to-heart talk with agent Coulson, and as agent 33 pretending to
be May. That fight between May and 33 still disguised must have taken some
fancy choreographing for sure. Of course, if agent 33 ever gets un-brainwashed,
May will have some apologizing to do, but both she and Coulson can handle it.
The final component in “Faces” was Raina. She may’ve thought
that she had left Hydra behind when she had left Garrett (incidentally, where’s
Ian Quinn?), but Hydra begs to differ: Dr. Whitehall has put a bug on Raina and
told her to get the Obelisk back to them, or else it’s death by long, prolonged
even, torture. Odds are that Raina is not going to chew off the hand with Hydra
bug on it with her bare teeth and send it to the good doctor by mail with a
note saying ‘You want the Obelisk? How about I give you my finger – five them,
actually?’ No, odds are that she will have to get Coulson and the others involved
to rescue her own heiny – we will just have to wait and see.
So: team S.H.I.E.L.D. is victorious once more, Fitz is an
agent once more, Coulson and May are a couple officially, and Raina is in
trouble with Hydra. All in all – a standard day for the agents.
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