Tag Archives: Patton Oswalt

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Agents of SHIELD – S1E22 – Beginning of the End – Recap

art of level 7 beginning of the end

When last we saw FitzSimmons, they were being “saved” by Ward dropping them into the middle of the ocean. We catch up to them now. They’re still in the cargo container/escape pod that Ward jettisoned from the Bus. But now it’s at the bottom of the ocean. Both of the geniuses are trying to figure out to escape and survive…and are coming up with nothing. Eventually, Simmons figures out how they can blow the window and escape, and Fitz figures out how to save Simmons, but at the cost of his own life. We get a sweet scene of FitzSimmons expressing their feelings for one another. The window blows. Simmons, the stronger swimmer of the two, hauls an unconcious Fitz to the surface. Unfortunately, they’re still in the middle of the ocean. That’s when  FitzSimmons is saved by…Nick Fury! The opening credits gave away that Samuel L. Jackson, aka Nick Fury, would be in this episode, but I didn’t see this one coming. Fitz isn’t doing well. We actually don’t see him for the rest of the episode.

Over in Hydra/Cybertek central, Garrett is going crazy. When he said last episode that he could see the universe, he wasn’t speaking in metaphors. He thinks his perception and brain power have been significantly enhanced. Maybe they have. Or maybe he’s just coo coo for Cocoa Puffs. He talks about being able to see the universe so much that he starts to remind of me of Katamari Damacy. 

feel the cosmos

 

Now that I think about it, Garrett makes as much sense as the King of the Cosmos in this episode.

katamari rainbow

 

Ward is worried about Garret’s sanity and says as much to Raina. But Raina is all in. She likes Garrett’s new crazy eyes. They kind of match her own.

After Fury saves FitzSimmons, he sticks around and helps Coulson take down Garrett. Fury and Coulson get some closure during this climatic final battle against Garrett, and Coulson’s team emerges victorious.  But hold the phone! After Coulson and company think they’ve won and are clearing out, Garrett reemerges more Deathlok-ed out than ever. Ruh-roh. Oh wait, he’s quickly disintegrated by Coulson in what has to be Coulson’s best entrance since the first episode, when he emerged from the shadows and blamed it on a broken light bulb.

garrett deathlok beginning of the end

Coulson’s team is set up with a new base, and a new Patton Oswalt?!?! Say hello to Eric Koenig’s twin brother Billy! Alright, Patton Oswalt as a series regular in season two!

billy koenig

But all isn’t 100% okay. In the final scene, Coulson is asleep in his new SHIELD base. Garrett’s crazy flowchart is next to him. Coulson either wakes up or is sleepwalking. He then proceeds to start digging into the wall with a tool, recreating Garrett’s flowchart and adding to it. Double ruh-roh. Maybe injecting people with blue alien blood while surgically messing with their brains isn’t the best idea after all…

coulson symbols the beggining of the end

Well here we are. The end of season one of Agents of SHIELD. I know some people were disappointed by this show, but it really exceeded all of my expectations. Joss, Jed and company really made me care about these new characters. I’m looking forward to season two in the fall very much. If you haven’t jumped back on the Agents of SHIELD train, I definitely recommend doing so, especially the post-Winter Soldier episodes.

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Agents of SHIELD – S1E18 – Providence – Recap

paolo rivera agents of shield provedence

It was interesting watching this episode to see how much posturing SHIELD agent turned traitor Grant Ward was doing. Was this just overacting on Brett Dalton’s part? Is Ward really as callous as he was acting here? Or is Ward overdoing it in front of Hydra on purpose, in order to sell his betrayal of SHIELD to them when he’s actually playing Hydra?

Part of me wants Ward’s betrayal to be a long con to infiltrate Centipede and Hydra set up by Coulson and Victoria Hand that would make Danny Ocean proud. But I just can’t figure out a way that makes logical sense for that to be the case.

Here’s why I think Ward might still be on the side of the angels. Rewatching last week’s episode, Turn, Turn, Turn, I noticed that Ward shoots Hand in the gut on his first shot. His second and third shots into her are while she’s on the ground off-camera. Could these have been non-fatal shots too? That, combined with how over the top he was trying to prove himself as not a nice guy this week, made me think that maybe he’s still SHIELD.

My Ward still being a good guy theory is completely blown apart by a few things. One, I’m pretty sure that before he shoots Victoria Hand, he shoots the two other agents of SHIELD on the plane in the face. And once inside the Fridge, Ward goes out of his way to unearth the hidden gravitonium, which even Garrett didn’t know was there.

It was interesting listening to Ward explain how deliberately he conned everyone. Pretty much everything he did this season he claims was to further infiltrate SHIELD and keep suspicion off himself, going back to his recruitment by Coulson. Even his sexual relationship with May was a way to keep May, who his considered the most dangerous member of the team (with good reason), from suspicious of him. Ward told people what they wanted to hear from him, whether they realized that’s what they wanted to hear or not. Clearly, thinking of Ward as just the guns and muscle of Coulson’s crew has been a mistake. He’s a serpent. And to drive it home, he even carries a new expression on his face now that he’s a villain.

agents-of-shield-providence-ward-scar

Evil Ward, complete with bad  guy scar.

The other most interesting part of this week’s episode for me was seeing Raina’s reaction to meeting The Clairvoyant and finding out that he wasn’t the mystic she thought he was. Garrett seemed to revel in having tricked her. Ward too. There was just something so classic movie villain about the way Garrett and Ward acted this episode that it slightly irked me. I half expected them to say “Mwa-ha-ha” after each of their lines.

agents of shield all the bad guys providence

Garrett gets the whole gang back together. This is the SHIELD equivalent of the Iron Sheikh, Nicholai Volkoff and Ted Dibiase teaming up.

I really liked seeing Patton Oswalt as Agent Eric Koenig, the head of Fury’s secret base, in this episode. As he was giving the tour of his very isolated base, I couldn’t help but think that he was the Desmond of Agents of SHIELD. I kind of wish his first scene showed him working out to the sweet sounds of Mama Cass’s “Make Your Kind of Music.”

PATTON OSWALT

“Lanyards for everyone!”

The past few episodes of Agents of SHIELD have been great. I’m really enjoying this series, and really like how the creators of the show intertwined it with the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I can’t wait to see how this season turns out, especially now that Ward is reunited with Coulson’s team, and they have no idea who they’re dealing with.