28 Years Ago…
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Air Date March 30, 2018, ABC Fridays 9pm
Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen
Production Company ABC Studios & Marvel Television
What You Should Know:
Fitz’s personality did the splits so he could forcefully remove the inhibitor from Daisy Johnson’s neck and bring her powers back to compress the Gravitonium they had and put it in a device that permanently sealed the rift to the Fear Dimension.
What You’ll Find Out:
(SPOILERS AHEAD!)
Coulson is brought to his luxury suite at General Hale’s Hydra hideout. Actually, it’s the same room Alex Braun had which was furnished with a cot in an empty room. The General tells him it’s time for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra to join forces.
28 YEARS AGO: A recording saying “Good morning. Rise and seize the future” awakens young Hale. A pop song plays while Hale readies for class. She dresses, pets her dog and heads off.
Joining Hale in class are young Jasper Sitwell and the younger version of Alex’s (Werner von Strucker) dad. Today they have a special guest speaker: Daniel Whitehall. The young students are being indoctrinated to the virtues of Hydra. Hydra is still trying to create their own super soldier like Steve Rogers. Whitehall shows them a schematic of a particle infusion chamber which can force human cells to take on the properties of a raw material…like a man with the density of lead…sounds a little like The Absorbing Man or rather Carl Creel since the writers don’t like to refer to him as “Absorbing Man” since that’s a little too comic booky. Von Strucker suggests using the Red Skull’s Tesseract and Hale says that would be too difficult to get from S.H.I.E.L.D. without revealing themselves and that they should look to where the Tesseract came from…outer space.
Later, Hale is called in to see Whitehall. She hands him a dog collar. Apparently, her final test was to kill her dog. For her fine work, she’s told she’s to be used to bear the perfect human specimen for the chamber. She is to be artificially inseminated once the seed is perfected.
2 YEARS AGO: Ruby awakens to the same voice recording her mother did over 2 decades earlier. She also has a dog and her own pop music playing. She has lunch with mom in the cafeteria.
General Fisher calls General Hale to his office where he is busy shredding evidence because S.H.I.E.L.D. has captured Gideon Mallick. He tells her about a communications device they found in the Chitauri wreckage during the Avenger’s Battle of New York and they called out to space and were answered by The Confederacy, a group of alien races. Talbot, wearing fatigues, bursts into the room to arrest Fisher but he swallows a poison pill before they can apprehend him.
A short time later, Ruby is arguing with a Hydra leader and refusing to kill her dog. The man is infuriated with her and grabs her only to get shot and killed by Ruby’s mom.
6 MONTHS AGO: Talbot, with his head bandaged, is in a hospital room. His son and wife are visiting. General Hale arrives and has him transferred to the Alex/Coulson “suite”.
General hale takes Talbot to show him a communications device/transporter they’ve been using to meet with The Confederacy. She tells him her predecessors struck a deal for protection from the war that is coming to Earth. When he finds out she is with Hydra he calls her a “dirty calamari Mata Hari”. He refuses to cooperate and threatens to “kick her Kraken ass”. Talbot obviously loves octopus jokes.
24 HOURS AGO: Phil Coulson wakes up and General Hale takes him and shows him the machine. Hale forces him to grab hold of the machine with her and they are teleported to The Confederacy.
The Man in the Shadows shows Coulson’s mind an image of a huge battle cruiser headed to Earth. Then Coulson and Hale are returned back to Earth.
General Hale wants Phil to help her find the particle infusion chamber. Hydra seems incapable of keeping track of things. Coulson figures out they want to put Ruby in it. But Hale feels her daughter can’t control her impulses and isn’t right for the chamber. There may be someone who is a better fit: Daisy Johnson. Hale wants to infuse her with Gravitonium then deliver her to the aliens to destroy them. She says Daisy would be worthy of Whitehall’s code name for the project: Destroyer of Worlds.
Coulson pleads with Hale not to proceed with the program, even revealing to her his trip to the future. She doesn’t believe him and sends him away. Back in his suite, all the furniture has been removed. It’s just an empty room. Ruby visits and figures out Daisy is going to take her place as “Destroyer of Worlds”. She demands to know where Daisy is. When Phil refuses to tell her she has a bearded, beaten and broken Talbot brought in.
NOW: Daisy and May figure out General Hale is Hydra. Hale Hydra! Daisy says they have nothing. May says “We have a super villain”. She goes to visit Fitz who is still locked up. May wants his help. Fitz wants out so he has access to what he needs to help them.
Simmons, whose scientific prowess knows no bounds — no, literally, the chick can do anything the plot requires — has just finished attaching the mechanical arms to Elena.
Fitz begs Daisy to let him out so he can help them find Coulson. Daisy refuses. She calls Fitz Hydra and blasts him into the wall. Daisy comes up with a different idea. They need a fortune teller.
Epilogue: Jemma brings Fitz some tea. She reveals to him that Deke is their grandson. “He’s the worst!” Fitz exclaims. Jemma says Deke is proof she and Fitz are invincible.
What This Means For The Future:
No, sorry, I couldn’t even venture to guess where they are going with all this except I have to assume somewhere along the way the Earth will be saved from cracking apart or there goes the Marvel Universe.
Final Thought: The story is jerking around all over the place and becoming very convoluted. Time Travel, the Kree, Odium, Hydra, Super Soldiers, Gravitonium, Alien Armadas, Bionic Speedster, Coulson dying, Fortune Teller, Whitehall, von Strucker, Carl “not-the-Absorbing-Man” Creel, Robo-Mechs, Destroyer of Worlds, Splits Fitz, Fear Dimensions, Hydra, Hydra, Hydra! With seven episodes left to go this season and the slow, erratic pace the show is going in, it’s likely this mess is not going to be cleared up by the end of the season.
Rating: 6/10
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Fridays at 9:00 on most ABC stations. Check your local listings.
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