What They Say:
One Of Us – Cal forms a team of super villains with the hope of seeking revenge on Coulson – and destroying SHIELD; A crisis forces May to reach out to her ex-husband.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Agents of SHIELD is certainly playing a long game with what it’s doing in regards to the Inhumans, and it’s certainly appealing from that sense because a lot of shows don’t really have the reason or opportunity to look at such a big picture. The last episode had fun in bringing Sif in, even if she was kind of under utilized, and it had a lot of exposition to explain a lot of the Kree and the Inhumans in general, though you could take only some of what the Kree said as likely being true to some degree. What I was curious about was seeing how those that aren’t familiar with the concepts from the comic with how they’d deal with it all and I was rather glad to see friends and family just digging it and making some of the connections, with a little nudge, to various parts of the series itself and the films.
The cold open here takes us to Coney Island where we see a woman with metal finger covers named Karla Gideon who is on something called the Gifted Index. With Cal showing up using the Index to find the people he needs, he’s building a team of gifted people to work with him to accomplish his goal of revenge. Introducing a couple of other men with him, he makes it clear that he knows what SHIELD has done to her and that he can be the one to help free her from it all. It has a pretty fun little sequence to it with her being freed and showing the kind of way she was changed some time ago where her fingernails are all tiny blades, which makes her more amenable to working with Cal. And Cal makes it clear he knows he sounds nuts with what he’s saying, but he plays it out in a straightforward enough way that appeals to the desire for revenge that all of them have after what they’ve been put through. SHIELD is, sometimes, it’s own worst enemy. Okay, maybe most of the time.
SHIELD isn’t what it was to be sure, but they still follow the protocols in a big way which is why Skye is being put on the Gifted Index herself. That means doing a full eval of her to figure out what to do with her, though Skye feels like she’ll just be back in the field in no time when it doesn’t work like that. What they have to do is get a trusted evaluator in there for her, which as it turns out is May’s ex-husband Andrew. That’ll bring its own complications into things, though May knows its for the best. What’s fun is seeing the two of them together. I’ve long enjoyed Blair Underwood’s performances and bringing him into the show and in this role definitely makes for a fun bit of material for the two of them to play against each other with. With Andrew having worked with SHIELD previously, there’s some decent bringing up to speed moments that reveals a lot with little said between the two, though eventually it all goes as you’d largely expect with the bigger goal in mind.
Andrew’s time with her is certainly interesting and fun as Skye just wants to know everything about this part of May’s life that everyone is in the dark about, though he’s avoiding all of it since she’s doing it partially to deflect. But he does reveal a few things along the way, which is fun since it adds just a little more to her. For Skye though, having grown up in the system with all sorts of evaluations, this is just one more thing that she can’t stand beyond words, though she knows she has to survive it in order to make it past it and potentially back into the field.
Cal’s gathering of people for his team has a comical approach to it overall simply because because he and his growing team drive around in a winnebago. Their latest destination is a federally run institution for the criminally insane which has a sub basement where SHIELD runs things for those on the Gifted Index. This gives him another not terribly adjusted person to work with in the form of David Angar, who has a certain screaming ability that will come in useful. In a way, Angar is kind of amusing as his ability feels like a variant of Black Bolt in how dangerous it is. With Coulson and Bobbi going in to deal with it, there’s a touch of action there with one of the other patients that they keep there, it adds a nice moment or two, but mostly their time together allows them to start figuring out who Cal has brought into his little game. Since Cal likes to let Coulson know what he’s doing to torment him more, there’s not a lot of difficulty in figuring it all out.
With Cal setting up for a confrontation with Coulson in Coulson’s hometown in order to egg him on, the two storylines do slowly intersect as we get May getting the bus into the air to provide backup, which means some of the others are coming along for the ride – Andrew included. While we get that getting into motion, along with a little more obvious stuff with Skye’s session, we also get a really good look at what Angar is capable of with his voice in a really brutal and disturbing way that can impact so much. We’ve had big events in the world so far because of super powered people, but things like this are just going to reinforce the fear that some like Simmons have and will push them in dark directions. Bringing more powers into the world is definitely welcome though as it provides a lot more for the team to deal with.
The confrontation on the football field between Cal and Phil is definitely interesting as it unfolds as Cal really makes a big play here while hitting Coulson in the right way over his need to protect the innocent. What throws off Cal’s plan is the arrival of May using Skye as a hostage to get their way, which certainly causes him to be a lot less rational as one might expect. There’s easy buttons to push with Cal, but it requires the right triggers to do so. When Cal gets ready to make a really big statement though, everything goes wonky in a way that doesn’t make sense for those involved as Gordon teleports in and grabs Cal before teleporting out, leaving the team to fight against the untrained villains that Cal gathered. There are a couple of decent moments, and while there’s threats in each of them in different ways, none really feel like a true threat, though it makes for some decent if simple fight sequences while Andrew protects Skye, mostly from herself.
Hunter’s storyline is spread throughout the episode and it’s given little material overall as we mostly get him tied up in a bathroom in a safe house with Mac watching over him until their ride shows up. There’s some decent little bits mixed into it that goes on about how complicated their relationship is when tied with Bobbi and the number of lies out there between them all, but it has a fun moment towards the end as we learn who it is that Bobbi and Mac have been working for. It’s not a surprise, though there are still twists ahead about what this “real” SHIELD is all about, but the potential for Fury’s secret SHIELD post-Winter Soldier wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. Which could tie in well to what Von Strucker is doing in letting Hydra play with SHIELD while he goes about his experiments. Fury does the same, perhaps, in letting Coulson’s SHIELD stand in the light to gather the attention. Of course, since it looks like the Edward James Olmos character is involved, it could be something completely different as well with another faction. But you’d almost think we’d have heard of that by now too. So, curiouser and curiouser.
In Summary:
Agents of SHIELD once again plays with a few of its storylines and manages them well enough, though sometimes you really just want to focus on one and run with it. Skye’s time is going to get worse before it gets better and we’re starting to see the level of worse that it’s going to work towards with regards to her abilities, though not her mental state. I definitely liked seeing May’s husband brought into play and what he brings to it in terms of interactions all around. Kyle MacLachlan continues to be a scene stealer and there’s a lot to be intrigued by with what he’s dealing with at the end, though I’m also getting fearful that Ennilux is going to be the reveal and that’s going to leave me cold like it does in the books. But overall, there’s some good progress here and a lot of uncertainty to come with what Hunter is about to learn now that he’s been whisked off to some secret site.
Grade: B+