Agents ended their premiere story arc with a bang and now begin the rest of the season intently. While the goal for most of the episode was filled with apprehending, helping or killing the returning Donnie Gill, also known as Blizzard, the main focus of this episode is (very specifically) about Simmons and her involvement with HYDRA. I think it's safe to say many people gathered around the TV, who were watching last night, cheered when they realized that Simmons was working deep cover for Coulson and not for HYDRA. I did!
Let's look at this weeks #TheBreakdown for Agents of SH.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episode 3 "Making Friends and Influencing People" and try and get some perspective on new and existing characters in this episode.
Phil Coulson: In usual Marvel bait and switch style the previews of the episode had us thinking that Simmons may have been part of HYDRA and right away Coulson dispelled that notion.
His character feels preoccupied during this episode but was made more relevant when he was peaking to Fitz at the end. I like the general message he was giving Fitz about secrets. I wrote recently about how the secrets need to stop to some degree because that angle of story telling has become plain and boring. While some subterfuge needs to exist for this type of series--it need not exist between all of the characters aligned with Coulson. The need to hide or protect people from truths that they need to learn. While I still hold to those statements, I like how he answered Fitz.
Fitz: "Is there...anything more..."
Coulson: "That I'm keeping from you? Yeah...I'm Director (Bitch!) There's a hell of a lot more."
OK, maybe I added the "Bitch!" part myself based on how I interpreted that dialog but I think this scene was for our benefit. We (in the case above, me) want less secrets and more revelations connecting this Agents to the MCU more directly and to clean up more of the terrestrial mess caused by the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I, like many of you, want the story to progress farther ahead to the Cosmic if not Terrestrially super-powered realm of the MCU much quicker.
For now Coulson is still the central pillar putting all of these pieces together, even if this episode took a more focused narrative look at Simmons and how her role is continuing to play the secret agent game in the series' current climate of espionage.
Melinda May: Her role this week focused more on Skye. Even if she also had a moment of comedy in a serious scene where she shot Lance to prevent him from accidentally killing Simmons.
May continues to play a very strong on the series that has a variety of uses and lately her focus has been all about Skye and her training.
May usually knows more about what is going on then she leads on to know and has been used as a character to eventually reveal more than the audience realizes she is privy to at one point of another.
I expect she'll be aiding Skye in the episodes to come with revelations about her father and possibly may already know more about that scenario than Skye realizes.
Dr. Reinhardt "Daniel" Whitehall: This week this sinister character was showcasing the likely program used on countless others, like Carl Creel and how they employed this form of mind control to keep assets in check.
Originally What Sunil Bakshi had done to Creel had left us with a sense of another possible telepath. After watching this episode we now know that it was an MK Ultra style of verbal triggers similar to a CIA and KGB program from the 70's.
Whitehall was doing this to Agent 33 throughout the episode, trying to break her mind.
He still feels like the general villain for this season but I suspect there is a greater force behind his work. We already know Baron von Strucker is in play and whether or not he'll make an appearance here is unknown.
Grant Ward: Ward had a solid role to play this week. He revealed to Skye that her father is alive which is the only stress point that rattled her training.
While Ward continues to be telling truths there is something about him that still feels extremely sinister and likely is slowly baiting his captors into a trap that won't manifest until much later in the season.
He did reveal information about Donnie Gill but that was likely because Skye was in potential danger. His motivations are still unclear but I imagine he will continue to be a source for "intel" useful or flawed or leading in some way toward his own ends.
Skye: Is now aware her father is alive and it made her pulse race. She seems to be growing as a character in the wake of many things but I'm still on the fence with how her character is slowly turning into May.
I, likely many of you, understand that she is becoming a much stronger female role, but part of what makes her a great character is her lighthearted nature. We seem to have lost that, not completely, but that part of her is dying.
I'd like to see more about her father and get better insight to what actually happened to her DNA with the alien serum injected into her. At least there was a balance in this episode with Simmons trying to maintain her sweet and innocent energy.
Lance Hunter: He is May's whipping boy in this episode over his transgressions, shooting of the team, in episode two. While he didn't injure them, using a Night Night gun; however you have to wonder what he would have done if his statement about not having real weapons would have been corrected with conventional lethal weaponry.
In this episode that question is seemingly answered in a very gimmicky manner by all of a sudden using standard military weapons allowing Lance to create a tense moment prior to a commercial break where he may have shot Simmons in the back.
Prompting May to shoot lance exacting a little bit of vengeance on him and fulfilling her prophetic statement of "Don't be sorry...just wait."
Agent 33: This is an interesting character and has varied aspects of her comic book source material to offer here on this series. while I doubt she will open the door for Hercules, like she does in the comics who eventually becomes an Avengers--She's likely going to be another turncoat character against HYDRA.
This episode showcased how she was slowly converted into a loyal HYDRA agent but parallel to her turning we also know that Gill had undergone the same treatment and seemingly broke free.
This I think was one of the main messages being given during the course of this episode. As well as the potential scenario that Simmons may eventually undergo this procedure, whether or not we see this process in action in the present or eventually find out, in the future, that she ends up being converted and is revealed to be turned while under the guise of working for Coulson down the road is something entirely different.
Whether or not Kara Lynn Palamas, Agent 33, will be utilized for her comic book source or if she'll prove instrumental in another form will be interesting to watch unfold.
Donnie Gill / Blizzard: Blizzard is an interesting turn character that is the central antagonist for this episode. Right out of the gate he displays how easily he can kill with a mere touch and fires up the danger level of this episode.
His premise is in line with the basic need Coulson has been displaying since the premiere. Recruitment. We get a more detailed view of HYDRA's version of this notion from two perspectives. We see that Gill has already been conditioned by Bakshi's mind control construct and we also see how it works and fails.
Skye in one scene questions Ward with a glimmer in her eye, almost in hopes that Ward has been brainwashed. A moment that is very telling in her need (if not hope) that Ward may be forgivable or redeemable down the road.
Last week I posted images from the tablet Fitz was using with Mack. One of the images I didn't recognize and wondered about its possible use and realized last night it was the design for the device that turned Gill into Blizzard.
Whether or not there is significance to why we saw it in last weeks episode and subsequently this episode this week with Blizzard coming back into the fray is interesting to me in terms of the timing.
If I'm honest and not afraid to throw out a crazy theory, which can be a frightening thought in this community (sorry, that's a shameless poke at a few of you) I'd saw these are the breadcrumbs of something we've all been talking about (heavily) as of late. Which is Ms. Marvel.
The bulk of comic book characters we know and love tend to have accidental origins. Ms. Marvel we know had an origin that involved a then disguised as a human Captain Marvel in an explosion that transferred some of his abilities to Carol Danvers.
As silly as it may be, I think this is all just random breadcrumbs leading to the announcement and appearance of Ms. Marvel. While I still think (and hope) she'll be revealed in Agents, it's hard to say what, when and where.
Then again it could have simply been a breadcrumb preceding Gill's return to Agents this week. Likely the latter.
Either way, I doubt Gill is actually dead and chances are he will return down the road.
Short of a few moments helping Fitz he fell to the background in this episode. I'm waiting for an episode that delves into his background a little more.
Antoine Triplett: Why he is being underutilized is still a bit of a mystery to me, if not reinforcing to my earlier theories that Trip is going to become more important down the road. For now his general humor is a nice accent to the ambience of the team.
Sunil Bakshi: We get to see a more revealing set of behaviors from this character. Not only is he right hand to Whitehall, he is rather arrogant. The arrogance is seen when he approaches Gill without the concern for his own life.
We also get to realize he's not a telepath as suggested from last weeks episode and how he controlled Carl Creel.
I hope to see more of this character and who/what else he is hiding in his stable of mind controlled characters.
Fitz & Simmons: Simmons was the real focus of this weeks episode and it was a great moment to see that she was indeed an undercover agent for Coulson against HYDRA's efforts. Which at the moment seem to be very generically rooted in a normal working world. Almost like a political message to evil corporations in our country. Odd as that may sound that is what the scene with Simmons going to work stated. It was political and social commentary adjusted for the source material.
We do see that her cover remained intact throughout the episode and in a ploy to continue that cover feigned saving Bakshi's life from a decoy shot taken by Skye. At the end of the episode, Simmons is essentially elevated to a higher position with deeper access into HYDRA's inner workings. However it is likely that she will put in danger more often or more specifically as she was in this episode--in attempting to bring Blizzard back into HYDRA.
Simmons by the end of the episode was being used a pawn by Sunil Bakshi against Gill which illuminated the details surrounding Bakshi's strange control over Carl Creel in the last episode.
By having her repeat his statement to Gill we're able to determine she has not been put through any type of mind control (yet) as was also pointed out by Bakshi. Prompting a future possibility that they may attempt to turn completely into an asset for HYDRA.
We do know that Mockingbird comes in around episode 5 and that Agent 33 was a character that recruits other heroes, specifically Hercules in the comics. Her likeliness to bring on other characters to HYDRA is more of a possibility now that she is under the full control. I'm curious to see what fruit that will bear.
Fitz on the other hand had a more prominent role and we only got to see the awkward lassie style translative behavior with Mack once in the episode. Something I appreciated!
Fitz was starting to speak more frequently and with less inability to convey a message. He almost killed Ward! Although arguments about Fitz actually killing ward are debatable--admittedly he stated that he's not a killer. Fitz did, if not for lack of follow through or warning from Ward about Gill, try to cripple him. That emotion was palpable, not easy to fake and very likely indicative of the intention of the character. The performance was phenomenal
Although this particular scene leads to happenstance circumstances that led to saving lives. I think that it was a generally meaningful way to add Fitz to the premise of the show for this episode. However, this is the second time he essentially comes through for the team i
?n similar fashion and I hope his development isn't continued this way. He'll become one dimensional and annoyingly boring.
This episode has effectively demonstrated that Agents isn't just going into filler mode inbetween large plot-based episodes that don't affect the overall meta-story. They are (so far) effectively breaking into character pieces that focus development or explanation of the overall story and that will ultimately prove successful, even if for now their numbers continue to drop each week.
We still have a variety of questions and wild rumors and theories that hopefully will either be proven or dispelled over the next few episodes about casting choices, scenarios, appearances and additional tie-ins to the MCU.
Some of those rumors and wild theories still include questions about Skye and Raina Flowers having Inhuman DNA; Skye's father also himself being part of wholly Inhuman. Why Skye has not to demonstrate the same fits of need that Coulson and John Garrett presented to write alien symbols. One comment among CBM members argued her father may possibly be a variation or one and the same as the High Evolutionary. However unlikely, there are some interesting clues that can easily lead fans of the source material and this series toward those types of discussions. Regardless of how crazy and left field they may be.
I still like to entertain those crazy notions...why not! Why else have conversations on a website like ours that opens the door for imaginative fans to find and discover material that may prove to be accurate.
Agent's is getting better with each episode this season but continues to drop in the viewership and ratings numbers with less than five million viewers per week. Keep it here for more of #TheBreakdown! I'll be analyzing every episode of Agents along with all currently available CBTV Series.
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by @EmanuelFCamacho
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