Agents of SHIELD – S1E17 – Turn, Turn, Turn – Recap

Unlike The Well, which dealt with the fallout of Thor: The Dark World in a very ancillary way, Turn, Turn, Turn is directly impacted by the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW for Agents of SHIELD and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  If you haven’t seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier yet, you might want to see that first. But if you’d like to just read about how Captain America: The Winter Soldier affected Agents of SHIELD heading into this episode, I wrote up a handy guide here. But seriously, SPOILERS start after this Hydra logo.hydra logo

Hydra really is everywhere. They’ve even taken over the SHIELD Academy, which I lovingly refer to as SHIELDwarts. I’m hoping we get a special Red Dawn-esque webisode of the loyal SHIELDwarts students and staff standing off against the Hydra students and staff.

Before the real traitor was revealed, I was convinced it would be Triplett (aka Ward 2.0). I thought his flirting with Simmons might have been a ploy for getting info on her research into the drug that helped resurrect Coulson. Plus, he’s the agent we knew the least about. When he took out his knife and flashed it at Simmons, I was completely fooled. But Ward 2.0 is on the up and up, or so it seems. I hope he’s not a traitor. After this episode, he seems pretty cool.

agent leo triplett agents of shield

I also liked Victoria Hand’s reverse psychology for trying to figure out if Triplett and Simmons were Hydra agents. Besides being a nice swerve about Hand’s allegiance, it was a great, tension filled stand-off and cool action sequence.

Now, onto the real traitor…

hydra message

WARD!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO! On the one hand, I can’t believe that Ward is Hydra. On the other hand, I have to hand it to the writers of Agents of SHIELD, and Brett Dalton (who plays Grant Ward) for making me care about Ward. After watching the pilot, he was my least favorite character on the show. I felt that way for a few episodes, but then slowly started caring about him. It got to the point, where as of last week, I didn’t want any of Coulson’s crew to be a traitor. But man, now I’m totally back to hating Ward.

Marvel.com has a really good interview with Brett Dalton about Ward’s turn to the dark side.

dalton paxton shield

BILL PAXTON!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Paxton is just so cool as Agent Garrett. But now…he’s not only a traitor, HE’S THE ACTUAL CLAIRVOYANT! WTF?!? Paxton’s been pulling the strings all along! You know what, Paxton? It’s stuff like this that makes everyone like Bill Pullman more than they like you!

bill pullman independence day

You know who would never betray SHIELD?
President Thomas. J. Whitmore, that’s who.

I’m really interested to see where Agents of SHIELD goes from here. Ward revealed his true allegiance mid-air, so his betrayal won’t be immediately known to his team. Other than Agent Garrett, there were other people on that flight who Coulson might think freed Garrett. Or maybe Coulson’s team will think Garrett’s plane was rerouted remotely, the way The Bus was last episode. They might think they’re headed on a rescue and recovery mission, only to find themselves trapped in a den of vipers…or Hydras as the case may be.

agents of shield turn turn turn poster

Marvel is releasing a series of limited edition prints called “The Art of Level 7.” The different prints will each be based on an episode of Agents of SHIELD between now and the end of the season, and each one will be released a few days before that episode’s air date. If you’re interested in purchasing the prints, you can find them here: Art of Level 7. The first in the series, pictured above, was for this week’s episode, with art by Mike Del Mundo. I love this image. It’s very Steranko.

Looking at this print,  I feel like I should have noticed a rather major clue into the identity of The Clairvoyant based on who is listed in this in the description for the print: Agent Phil Coulson, Agent Melinda May, Skye, Agent Grant Ward, Agent Jemma Simmons, Agent Leo Fitz, Agent Antoine Triplett. Who’s missing? That’s right? Bill Paxton’s Agent Garrett. Then again, so is Victoria Hand. And that traitor, Ward, did make it on the print, so maybe it’s not the best clue after all…

Marvel has also put on sale the print for next week’s episode, Providence, with art by Paolo Rivera.

paolo rivera agents of shield provedence

Such a cool image. I’m tempted to buy it.

Both Samuel L. Jackson and Colbie Smulders are confirmed for upcoming Agents of SHIELD episodes. It will be great to have a face to face confrontation between Fury and Coulson regarding Coulson’s death and resurrection. It will be interesting to see where in the timeline of the Winter Soldier movie these episodes take place. Will Hill already be at Stark when she sees Coulson again? Or will it be before SHIELD’s official disbandment? I like the idea of SHIELD shrinking in size and going deep cover, if that’s an option going forward.

Agents of SHIELD – S1E15 – Yes Men – Recap

Thor: The Dark World once again crosses over with the TV show Agents of SHIELD this week. Like, The Well, Yes Men also deals with the aftermath of Thor: The Dark World. While Lorelei was not in Thor 2, it’s revealed in this episode that she was freed from her Asgardian prison during Malekith’s assault on Asgard. Unlike The Well, sadly, there’s no Dr. Janoch Pohaa. But  we do get Lady Sif in this episode! Can we please have a Zachary Levi as Fandral appearance next?

JAIMIE ALEXANDER

It’s a battle of the sexes this episode as Lorelei as every male character in this episode with the exception of Coulson falls under Lorelei’s spell. Coulson not being under Lorelei’s command leads to my favorite scene in the episode. A spellbound Fitz locks Skye and Simmons in Skye’s recovery room. Coulson plays along with Fitz’s love of Lorelei (lorelove?) just long enough to deck Fitz unconscious.

Ward and May’s sexual relationship ends soon after Lorelei reveals to May that Ward has deep feelings for someone on the team…and it isn’t May. Once Ward is free of Lorelei’s spell, May dumps him. The writing was on the wall for this in the “Previously on Agents of SHIELD” opening sequence.  Why include the clip of May telling Coulson that she had no problem dumping Ward unless it was going to happen in this episode? All in all, it’s an up and down day for Ward. On the one hand, he was dumped by May. On the other hand, he had wild sex with a god.

Questions: Can humans impregnate Norse gods? Do Norse gods even bother with protection? Norse herpes has be at least 1,000 times worse than regular herpes, right?

lorelei agents of shield

I liked that Lorelei picked her man-slaves in ascending order of toughness. Biker gang? Tougher than the yuppie newlywed. Ward? Tougher than a biker bang. Fitz? Yeah, I said it, tougher than Ward! I’m completely assuming Lorelei made time to have her way with Fitz off screen before Coulson happened upon a spellbound Fitz. You go, Fitz. Get yo’ Asgard on.

JAIMIE ALEXANDER

Parting thought: Never bring a gun to a god fight.

The episode ends with Coulson apologizing to Skye for her being injected with alien blood on his orders, but Skye brushes it aside because, you know, it did save her life. Coulson then wants to team up with Skye to confront whomever was responsible for Tahiti.  I really wanted Coulson to hold his hand up, Skye grip it and they rev Lola out the back of the bus midair Thelma and Louise style. It’s cool, the car flies.