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tori_reviewsAgents of SHIELD 1x05: "Girl in the Flower Dress"
I have to admit I wasn’t exactly looking forward to this one. I know I like this episode, I considered it the first good episode when it first aired, but I don’t find it that much fun to analyze. It’s important to the plot, and it’s a solid showing of the series starting to fire on more if not most cylinders, and it’s fine to just watch. But it also just kind of sits there; competent and fine, without me having a real angle on going more into it.
It has elements that are encouraging on first watch; that there is a larger plot going on and that there is forward motion on plots (not just going to keep teasing things); the actors and characters seem to be settling in, and there is more to do with the character than just make them be a team that gets along with each other; there is room for conflict and consequences and growth beyond the rather flat characters we started with. But it’s still a pretty flawed episode if you want it to be more than that.
It’s yet another episode that focuses heavily on the guest characters and plot of the week when the main characters are still very roughly defined. That it’s another Skye focused episode is understandable considering what the plot is, but isn’t exactly a point in its favor. Finally managing proof of concept in five episodes is not a great look for a modern TV show. Where the audience sympathies are meant to fall both with characters and politically are pretty muddled, and only somewhat in a good way. Everything just seems a little flat and not explored in depth. With 1x04, on first watch it was just okay, but on examination there is a lot to unpack in it; with this one, at first it looked better on the surface, but in time I’ve found it pretty empty beyond that.
Which has made this review pretty hard to write, because I’m just not that into it.
Freedom of information
One of the things that hits after a while with this one, is how much it proposes but doesn’t actually engage with a moral debate. This is sort of three different somewhat inevitable problems, that all inevitably fall on top of each other when looked at, not even too closely.
This is a show about spies, and a hugely powerful government agency. Most people in our modern world have some degree of concern regarding such an organization, but in this case they’re meant to be the heroes that we root for. It’s part of the reason why the team is small and often isolated from Big SHIELD, so that our heroes are less obviously part of the scary Big Brother parts of what they do. Also, while we may have concerns, SHIELD is supposed to be seen as a force for good through the MCU; and one of the ways you convey that is to have good characters be loyal to SHIELD and not having too many of their own concerns with the kind of power they have, because they’re heroes.
And this would seem to be why Skye’s POV is what it is in the earliest episodes. Because she’s supposed to be the outsider that the audience can channel their concern through and have doubts expressed, but not too many doubts. She’s meant to be the proxy of young, largely liberal, counter culture types. Whether or not she was ever effective at that isn’t my point here; it’s that five episodes in they sell out on any actual discussion of her beliefs. She’ll continue to express them, but from here on I find them even more frustrating because it seems to me that she doesn’t actually believe the system is bad, she just wants to not be held accountable to it even though she wants to be part of it.
As I said, these are nearly inevitable consequences of the choices they made. They want these people to be heroes, so the outsider has to become one of them. They need it to be a little reasonable that she’s allowed to stay, so she can’t stand by any principles in this episode that are out of step with the rest of the team. As an audience proxy character she can be made flawed but not wrong or else the audience might feel that they’re either badly represented or attacked by her being wrong.
I’ve always been uncomfortable with the way Miles is treated in this story. Because he’s the only one who actually raises the specter of what SHIELD is and does. Yes, he’s kind of a dick and what he did was objectively a bad move, and he’s used to show that principles tend to lose to actual money; but he’s not wrong that groups like SHIELD always claim that they have to take these steps for the greater good. And are we entirely comfortable with the idea that they can just abduct Myles and leave him in China with no way to get by make it home? Yeah he’d probably be convicted if they actually gave him a trial, but would they have actually done so or just locked him up? Are we entirely comfortable that just because our team are heroes, that anyone with their power and resources would all be heroes?
Granted, I enjoy a number of cop shows, spy shows, and obviously superhero shows, all of which tend to play a little loose with due process for a variety of reasons; but when they actually raise the question, I wish it would get a better answer than what we get here.
Raina, Chan, and Centipede
This may have been another episode with a heavy focus on the guest cast, but it was an interesting focus. Although it also may be one of my problems with this episode. The thing is, I’ve never liked Raina that much; she’s an interesting presence, but I don’t like her as a character. She’s all presence here though, so I’m not sure that explains my issue.
Right from her earliest introduction, there’s something off about her. The scene is still supposedly focused on Chan but there’s something off about this lady who showed up watching him. And even when we get to explaining his powers, you’re kind of always waiting for the other shoe to drop on what brings this lady around. It’s not exactly that she seems to be up to no good (until she clearly isn’t), she’s just a little...almost alien.
I can’t decide if this episode was writing her as if she had persuasion powers, or if they just wanted us to think she had them. Because she is very persuasive, and seems to able almost enthrall people. Both Miles and Chan could be suggestable, but the fact that she supposedly uses very similar avenues of persuasion on both is a little suspicious. And if she was kind of pushing them, or able to read them and play to that, then they’re more victims than the episode focuses on. Obviously they don’t ultimately go with there having been powers involved, but the ambiguity colors this episode.
And while I may find this episode less favorable to SHIELD in some ways than intended, in others I do see this as evidence why they need to exist. As Coulson says in the pilot, if they get to people first, they focus on helping them rather than studying or exploiting them. Now, that may not always apply to every SHIELD team sent to find someone with abilities, but that is at least their stated intent; Chan is a victim of the other side getting their hands on someone.
That said, this raises some problems. Because I can’t believe SHIELD wouldn’t have let him join them and be trained if he had said he wanted that. Also, since Centipede is part of the Clairvoyant web, they had to take a roundabout way to get their Chan intel. Maybe Miles was a way to throw suspicion away from the extent of Hydra influence, and Garrett’s network could have tipped them off for a direction to look, but I still find it circular logic when already hiding behind one supervillain identity.
I was actually about to raise another question when I realized it kind of makes sense of something else. I noted that if they found Chan gone in a routine check in, why did it happen right after he was taken? But maybe is wasn’t a weekly (or whatever) scheduled check in with him, but because of him showing off the night before they came around to read him to power protocols (still routine since apparently that gets repeated to him periodically) and found him missing. Not planning to have to deal with SHIELD on their tail that quickly might account for leaving unnecessary breadcrumbs out in the world.
And mainly, killing Chan seems like a bad move; a bit killing the golden goose wouldn’t you say? If, once they have a decent amount of his platelets, they can culture and synthesize them further, I’m still sure they could have found another use for keeping him alive. If they can’t get any more, then killing him is just dumb. Even if they have a finite amount of some of the other components in the serum, they don’t know what ratio they’re going to want to mix them in, or if some might get destroyed, so being able to get more would be a better idea.
Also, maybe Coulson or May should have grabbed a couple of the vials of serum while they had the chance. Might have come in handy around the end of s5.
FitzSimmons
There is not even the hint of a FitzSimmons story in this episode. They get basically one small moment during the arrest scene of Fitz being confused and Simmons being understanding, which does kind of foreshadow their reaction to worse betrayals down the line. Because of that future stuff I wish we had gotten more of them this time. This ends up not even being a learning episode for them, nor do they have anything to do in the climax; they’re just around.
May
There’s not really a May story either, but she does have a few more notable moments. It’s kind of understandable that there isn’t much May story in this, as May doesn’t really have much impact on Skye’s story at this point; so in a Skye focused episode it doesn’t really require much input from May. FitzSimmons do care about Skye so their lack of contribution is a little weird; while May only really cares about Skye in that she cares about Coulson’s investment in Skye, which does get more play.
There’s very little in this episode that relates to May’s mission from Fury, but it does color that first scene a bit. The intel when Coulson’s captured about him not sleeping because of what happened either comes from May’s reports or Ward noticing the same thing and not using to get all flirty. Because that scene is also an early bit that muddies the waters on what May and Coulson’s past is; it was a not-unreasonable guess at the time that their past had included a romantic or sexual component, even if it was just friends with benefits. Long view (including the s4 flashbacks) more or less support what had always basically been my reading that however long one presumes a romantic attachment, they had never gone anywhere with it; never on the same page or never willing to give it a shot. But at this moment wanting to lay out the mats and go a few rounds like the old days has some definite innuendo potential.
This episode does sort of continue May’s trait of not really being part of the team. While I’ve always known that especially season 1 May is definitely and eventually explicitly there for Coulson above anyone else, I’ve rarely noted the smaller indications that while she is good partner, she is not playing with the team. Granted the moment I’m thinking of here wasn’t with the team exactly, but like times with the team, Kwan is asking how they’re going and May’s in the background already set up to get to the roof. She is friendly with Ward, because they’re Specialists so they don’t have to be that friendly, just drinking buddies at the end of a mission.
While it’s far from the focus of the episode (and rarely is the focus of stories) there’s a lot in this episode showing us how good May and Coulson are as partners, both in the field and in quiet. While the writing is clearly still working out their past, their dynamic is definitely carrying the idea that they have one. Their friendly, she’s the one person who acts as confidant to Coulson rather than a subordinate; when they close ranks, they close ranks together. And their dynamic in the field is smooth and well-matched; they know each other’s skills and tricks beyond compatible trailing, they just slot together like the old partners the show will eventually confirm they are.
On another note though, I have some questions about May tailing Skye to Miles’ place. Starting with how did Skye beat Miles back to the apartment? How was she getting around apparently without a car? If she did need to take a cab, how did May follow her (at least May has the training for tailing someone)? Where was Skye supposed to be during that time, wouldn’t they have been expected to all meet up once Miles got away? And then how long did May stand outside the bedroom door waiting for the appropriately dramatic moment to be found? It works as a plot twist and a decent scene, but I have questions.
Ward
I don’t know whether it’s accurate to say there’s a Ward plot in this one or not; he is important in Skye’s plot but there’s not a lot of exploring his character. It’s debatable if there’s much to talk about long term with his character either.
Long term does raise some question of if the Clairvoyant is running this, why did they need Miles to hack SHIELD? Misdirection and deniability I’m sure, but it creates a weak point that people looking for Chan can exploit, and do. At that point, using someone like Miles instead of a more hardened criminal hacker is a mistake; plus he’s apparently a known person in this world, it’s not just that Skye knows him.
I sort of waffle on whether they’re playing Ward as a jealous boyfriend in this one when it comes to Skye. I didn’t think it so much this time, but I have in the past; and I do think it’s the easy reading of several of their scenes (I’m especially thinking of near then end when he and Miles actually end up on the same side of keeping Skye safe). It’s equally interpretable as a disappointed SO, and guy who doesn’t have a lot of friends being let down by someone he was starting to open up to. Of course, all that falls under his cover identity, so who knows what Ward really is making of all this.
Into the realm of speculation, I would guess Ward doesn’t even know what they’re on the trail of until Miles brings up Centipede. I think he does know that Centipede is one of Garrett’s projects, but I doubt he knew they were going after Chan; especially with those levels of misdirection and deniability using Miles.
Coulson
Coulson definitely does have a story here, it’s just all wrapped up in Skye, and as previously stated, that’s just not a relationship I care about. In fact, I kind of think this episode might be part of why I don’t buy that relationship. He neither inherently gets her or is too accommodating and ignoring signs of her part on this. He doesn’t trust her, and doesn’t forgive her in the end, just decides it would do more harm to turn her away. I’m not quite willing to say this is why I never come around on their relationship though, because that could certainly be the beginning of an arc that I could have gotten on board with in the coming episodes, I just don’t. Then again, there are very few Skye relationships I do care about, certainly not consistently, the common point being how much I don’t care about Skye.
I sort of had a thought on this one, and I can’t decide what my actual conclusion is. This episode kind of ends what 1x03 set up about Coulson still being a little rusty when it comes to field skills, but here he’s fine; whether it’s a car chase or fighting a man on fire. So does that end an arc, or is it contrived in 1x03 and not supported by any other episodes? Used at the time to keep raising questions about what happened to him.
On that front, this episode focuses on the Coulson question a lot less, and it therefore a lot more palatable. The question is there; he brings up that his reactions are different than they used to be, in addition to being up early (either just too much energy or something is on his mind that he’s not ready to say even to May), but it’s not signposted the same way it has been. I understood the signposting in the pilot, but by this point this is where the question/reminder should be, should have been a couple episodes ago.
This does kind of feel like the episode where they stopped needing to do things with Coulson and just let him part of the story. Maybe that’s part of why I liked this one so much at the time, the main character felt less like a prop in his own show (obviously I found a lot to comment on in the previous episodes with hindsight, but...that’s kind of the point, this is more causally settled). It just happens that much of that plot involves what wasn’t then, but has since become, basically my least favorite character.
Skye
Considering all the complaining I’ve been doing, what I have to say now may be surprising: I don’t dislike this Skye in this episode. I didn’t then and I still don’t. Back then, this is an episode that gave me hope for liking her character as we got to know more about her and she actually got to be her own character rather than a narrative role that I wasn’t into. I didn’t even mind too much at the time that she was the first character who finally started to seem like there was some depth of character rather just a blank canvas we were watching in the episodes (you’ll note I not only still combine FitzSimmons but often have very little to say about them), aside from maybe that this was her second go at it when no one else was getting that kind of attention; I just wanted to think we would start to get more on the others. And we do; and it all will do a much better job selling me on the other characters than this does on Skye.
Skye may not be allowed to be deeply wrong or flawed, but this episode also doesn’t pretend that she didn’t screw up; this actually feels like the start of her character growing as opposed to her just showing up and us expected to accept her as is. And while some characters aren’t given much room in the story (which is more a problem in retrospect than it is on first viewing), no one is made to look foolish to make her look better, partly because this episode isn’t making her out to be the best ever. She’s young and inexperienced and naïve and yes skilled, but still with a lot to learn. She’s trying, but she hasn’t got it all figured out, and importantly we’re not expected to think she has the answers or even is right a lot of the time.
I could actually talk about her actions in this episode, but at this point it’s too buried under my levels of future not caring. I can appreciate this as a better Skye episode (like I’ve said s1 is probably retroactively my favorite Skye, and I didn’t exactly like her at the time) but I don’t feel like dwelling on it a lot.
Though I guess I do want to comment on the end a little. I don’t know whether to blame the writing or the acting, but it doesn’t really work. I will blame the writing for having Coulson say that they’d previously risked their lives for Skye when we’ve never seen that (I guess 1x03 counts at a stretch since that was part of the mission, or May going after her in the pilot). But something about Skye’s reaction seems...handled badly. I can’t call it out of character, it’s just not really exploring her character; I want to call it shallow, but that doesn’t quite fit. Maybe if you are attached to her character you read the correct layers into her attitude, but they don’t come through for me.
Because one of her few defining traits set up prior to this, is her fear of abandonment and rejection; they had a whole scene about it in 1x03 and it’s sort of glanced at in passing earlier in this episode. And I don’t feel like that defining trait is in play either when she’s rejected by Ward (who had previously promised they wouldn’t turn their backs on her) or afraid of being rejected by Coulson, or when he agrees to let her stay on in spite of everything. That is a valid character trait that I should feel is underpinning a lot of what she does, especially in moments like this; but I don’t.
Odds and ends
Chan talks about how there’s no real magic in the world, just ricks; which again sets us with where we are in the MCU at this time. Poor Chan, if he’s held out a few years longer his mind would have been blown by some of the things coming up. Although considering the things that are already real in this world (and they remind us of the Avengers being real people here) I would sort of think that kind of cynicism would be different in that environment.
I notice that Coulson, May, and Ward all look kind of uncomfortable when it comes to talking about the enhanced index; which makes sense, we know Coulson and May have seen this kind of thing go badly, and Ward probably has too. Even FitzSimmons seem aware of the seriousness of the situation, even if they’re inexperienced at dealing with it. In my book exploring the adults’ backstory or FitzSimmons’ uncertainly is a lot more interesting and relevant to my interests than Skye’s inane babble on the subject.
Another timeline question; if Miles doesn’t know about Centipede, when did Skye find out about it? How long was it between when she went off to do her own thing and her getting picked up by SHIELD? Their relationship feels like they’ve been apart for a little while sure, but not that long. If it was for a while (he mentions her living in her van for two years, was that recently?) wouldn’t they have been passing information around about what they were researching. Plus she was still in contact with him when she did run off with SHIELD.
Since I commented on it last time, I feel I should acknowledge it here. Ward shooting his way out of the Tadorov building has a somewhat iffy feel to it since we and they don’t know who the people that work here are working for. In this case, when they’re taking out guards at the lab, they do know who they work for. It’s entirely possible that the guards don’t know what they’re guarding and are just doing their job, but it’s a little less iffy feeling since we know a little more about what’s going on.
Closing thoughts
This review took forever to write I just couldn’t find any excitement for it. I consider this a decent episode even now, but it’s all pretty surface level without a lot of threads I really wanted to explore. It’s fine, and at the time they needed a fine, solid episode, but it’s competently bland. I feel the need to repeat that here at the end since it’s been so long for me since the beginning.
Coulson punches
I noted him punching someone with his right hand.
Geography questions
I’m going to give myself the option of doing these in closing thoughts, it’s travel time or positioning questions that niggle at me when I really pay attention to the details.
Where was the plane relative to the lab and how did Ward and Skye get there so quickly?
I have to admit I wasn’t exactly looking forward to this one. I know I like this episode, I considered it the first good episode when it first aired, but I don’t find it that much fun to analyze. It’s important to the plot, and it’s a solid showing of the series starting to fire on more if not most cylinders, and it’s fine to just watch. But it also just kind of sits there; competent and fine, without me having a real angle on going more into it.
It has elements that are encouraging on first watch; that there is a larger plot going on and that there is forward motion on plots (not just going to keep teasing things); the actors and characters seem to be settling in, and there is more to do with the character than just make them be a team that gets along with each other; there is room for conflict and consequences and growth beyond the rather flat characters we started with. But it’s still a pretty flawed episode if you want it to be more than that.
It’s yet another episode that focuses heavily on the guest characters and plot of the week when the main characters are still very roughly defined. That it’s another Skye focused episode is understandable considering what the plot is, but isn’t exactly a point in its favor. Finally managing proof of concept in five episodes is not a great look for a modern TV show. Where the audience sympathies are meant to fall both with characters and politically are pretty muddled, and only somewhat in a good way. Everything just seems a little flat and not explored in depth. With 1x04, on first watch it was just okay, but on examination there is a lot to unpack in it; with this one, at first it looked better on the surface, but in time I’ve found it pretty empty beyond that.
Which has made this review pretty hard to write, because I’m just not that into it.
Freedom of information
One of the things that hits after a while with this one, is how much it proposes but doesn’t actually engage with a moral debate. This is sort of three different somewhat inevitable problems, that all inevitably fall on top of each other when looked at, not even too closely.
This is a show about spies, and a hugely powerful government agency. Most people in our modern world have some degree of concern regarding such an organization, but in this case they’re meant to be the heroes that we root for. It’s part of the reason why the team is small and often isolated from Big SHIELD, so that our heroes are less obviously part of the scary Big Brother parts of what they do. Also, while we may have concerns, SHIELD is supposed to be seen as a force for good through the MCU; and one of the ways you convey that is to have good characters be loyal to SHIELD and not having too many of their own concerns with the kind of power they have, because they’re heroes.
And this would seem to be why Skye’s POV is what it is in the earliest episodes. Because she’s supposed to be the outsider that the audience can channel their concern through and have doubts expressed, but not too many doubts. She’s meant to be the proxy of young, largely liberal, counter culture types. Whether or not she was ever effective at that isn’t my point here; it’s that five episodes in they sell out on any actual discussion of her beliefs. She’ll continue to express them, but from here on I find them even more frustrating because it seems to me that she doesn’t actually believe the system is bad, she just wants to not be held accountable to it even though she wants to be part of it.
As I said, these are nearly inevitable consequences of the choices they made. They want these people to be heroes, so the outsider has to become one of them. They need it to be a little reasonable that she’s allowed to stay, so she can’t stand by any principles in this episode that are out of step with the rest of the team. As an audience proxy character she can be made flawed but not wrong or else the audience might feel that they’re either badly represented or attacked by her being wrong.
I’ve always been uncomfortable with the way Miles is treated in this story. Because he’s the only one who actually raises the specter of what SHIELD is and does. Yes, he’s kind of a dick and what he did was objectively a bad move, and he’s used to show that principles tend to lose to actual money; but he’s not wrong that groups like SHIELD always claim that they have to take these steps for the greater good. And are we entirely comfortable with the idea that they can just abduct Myles and leave him in China with no way to get by make it home? Yeah he’d probably be convicted if they actually gave him a trial, but would they have actually done so or just locked him up? Are we entirely comfortable that just because our team are heroes, that anyone with their power and resources would all be heroes?
Granted, I enjoy a number of cop shows, spy shows, and obviously superhero shows, all of which tend to play a little loose with due process for a variety of reasons; but when they actually raise the question, I wish it would get a better answer than what we get here.
Raina, Chan, and Centipede
This may have been another episode with a heavy focus on the guest cast, but it was an interesting focus. Although it also may be one of my problems with this episode. The thing is, I’ve never liked Raina that much; she’s an interesting presence, but I don’t like her as a character. She’s all presence here though, so I’m not sure that explains my issue.
Right from her earliest introduction, there’s something off about her. The scene is still supposedly focused on Chan but there’s something off about this lady who showed up watching him. And even when we get to explaining his powers, you’re kind of always waiting for the other shoe to drop on what brings this lady around. It’s not exactly that she seems to be up to no good (until she clearly isn’t), she’s just a little...almost alien.
I can’t decide if this episode was writing her as if she had persuasion powers, or if they just wanted us to think she had them. Because she is very persuasive, and seems to able almost enthrall people. Both Miles and Chan could be suggestable, but the fact that she supposedly uses very similar avenues of persuasion on both is a little suspicious. And if she was kind of pushing them, or able to read them and play to that, then they’re more victims than the episode focuses on. Obviously they don’t ultimately go with there having been powers involved, but the ambiguity colors this episode.
And while I may find this episode less favorable to SHIELD in some ways than intended, in others I do see this as evidence why they need to exist. As Coulson says in the pilot, if they get to people first, they focus on helping them rather than studying or exploiting them. Now, that may not always apply to every SHIELD team sent to find someone with abilities, but that is at least their stated intent; Chan is a victim of the other side getting their hands on someone.
That said, this raises some problems. Because I can’t believe SHIELD wouldn’t have let him join them and be trained if he had said he wanted that. Also, since Centipede is part of the Clairvoyant web, they had to take a roundabout way to get their Chan intel. Maybe Miles was a way to throw suspicion away from the extent of Hydra influence, and Garrett’s network could have tipped them off for a direction to look, but I still find it circular logic when already hiding behind one supervillain identity.
I was actually about to raise another question when I realized it kind of makes sense of something else. I noted that if they found Chan gone in a routine check in, why did it happen right after he was taken? But maybe is wasn’t a weekly (or whatever) scheduled check in with him, but because of him showing off the night before they came around to read him to power protocols (still routine since apparently that gets repeated to him periodically) and found him missing. Not planning to have to deal with SHIELD on their tail that quickly might account for leaving unnecessary breadcrumbs out in the world.
And mainly, killing Chan seems like a bad move; a bit killing the golden goose wouldn’t you say? If, once they have a decent amount of his platelets, they can culture and synthesize them further, I’m still sure they could have found another use for keeping him alive. If they can’t get any more, then killing him is just dumb. Even if they have a finite amount of some of the other components in the serum, they don’t know what ratio they’re going to want to mix them in, or if some might get destroyed, so being able to get more would be a better idea.
Also, maybe Coulson or May should have grabbed a couple of the vials of serum while they had the chance. Might have come in handy around the end of s5.
FitzSimmons
There is not even the hint of a FitzSimmons story in this episode. They get basically one small moment during the arrest scene of Fitz being confused and Simmons being understanding, which does kind of foreshadow their reaction to worse betrayals down the line. Because of that future stuff I wish we had gotten more of them this time. This ends up not even being a learning episode for them, nor do they have anything to do in the climax; they’re just around.
May
There’s not really a May story either, but she does have a few more notable moments. It’s kind of understandable that there isn’t much May story in this, as May doesn’t really have much impact on Skye’s story at this point; so in a Skye focused episode it doesn’t really require much input from May. FitzSimmons do care about Skye so their lack of contribution is a little weird; while May only really cares about Skye in that she cares about Coulson’s investment in Skye, which does get more play.
There’s very little in this episode that relates to May’s mission from Fury, but it does color that first scene a bit. The intel when Coulson’s captured about him not sleeping because of what happened either comes from May’s reports or Ward noticing the same thing and not using to get all flirty. Because that scene is also an early bit that muddies the waters on what May and Coulson’s past is; it was a not-unreasonable guess at the time that their past had included a romantic or sexual component, even if it was just friends with benefits. Long view (including the s4 flashbacks) more or less support what had always basically been my reading that however long one presumes a romantic attachment, they had never gone anywhere with it; never on the same page or never willing to give it a shot. But at this moment wanting to lay out the mats and go a few rounds like the old days has some definite innuendo potential.
This episode does sort of continue May’s trait of not really being part of the team. While I’ve always known that especially season 1 May is definitely and eventually explicitly there for Coulson above anyone else, I’ve rarely noted the smaller indications that while she is good partner, she is not playing with the team. Granted the moment I’m thinking of here wasn’t with the team exactly, but like times with the team, Kwan is asking how they’re going and May’s in the background already set up to get to the roof. She is friendly with Ward, because they’re Specialists so they don’t have to be that friendly, just drinking buddies at the end of a mission.
While it’s far from the focus of the episode (and rarely is the focus of stories) there’s a lot in this episode showing us how good May and Coulson are as partners, both in the field and in quiet. While the writing is clearly still working out their past, their dynamic is definitely carrying the idea that they have one. Their friendly, she’s the one person who acts as confidant to Coulson rather than a subordinate; when they close ranks, they close ranks together. And their dynamic in the field is smooth and well-matched; they know each other’s skills and tricks beyond compatible trailing, they just slot together like the old partners the show will eventually confirm they are.
On another note though, I have some questions about May tailing Skye to Miles’ place. Starting with how did Skye beat Miles back to the apartment? How was she getting around apparently without a car? If she did need to take a cab, how did May follow her (at least May has the training for tailing someone)? Where was Skye supposed to be during that time, wouldn’t they have been expected to all meet up once Miles got away? And then how long did May stand outside the bedroom door waiting for the appropriately dramatic moment to be found? It works as a plot twist and a decent scene, but I have questions.
Ward
I don’t know whether it’s accurate to say there’s a Ward plot in this one or not; he is important in Skye’s plot but there’s not a lot of exploring his character. It’s debatable if there’s much to talk about long term with his character either.
Long term does raise some question of if the Clairvoyant is running this, why did they need Miles to hack SHIELD? Misdirection and deniability I’m sure, but it creates a weak point that people looking for Chan can exploit, and do. At that point, using someone like Miles instead of a more hardened criminal hacker is a mistake; plus he’s apparently a known person in this world, it’s not just that Skye knows him.
I sort of waffle on whether they’re playing Ward as a jealous boyfriend in this one when it comes to Skye. I didn’t think it so much this time, but I have in the past; and I do think it’s the easy reading of several of their scenes (I’m especially thinking of near then end when he and Miles actually end up on the same side of keeping Skye safe). It’s equally interpretable as a disappointed SO, and guy who doesn’t have a lot of friends being let down by someone he was starting to open up to. Of course, all that falls under his cover identity, so who knows what Ward really is making of all this.
Into the realm of speculation, I would guess Ward doesn’t even know what they’re on the trail of until Miles brings up Centipede. I think he does know that Centipede is one of Garrett’s projects, but I doubt he knew they were going after Chan; especially with those levels of misdirection and deniability using Miles.
Coulson
Coulson definitely does have a story here, it’s just all wrapped up in Skye, and as previously stated, that’s just not a relationship I care about. In fact, I kind of think this episode might be part of why I don’t buy that relationship. He neither inherently gets her or is too accommodating and ignoring signs of her part on this. He doesn’t trust her, and doesn’t forgive her in the end, just decides it would do more harm to turn her away. I’m not quite willing to say this is why I never come around on their relationship though, because that could certainly be the beginning of an arc that I could have gotten on board with in the coming episodes, I just don’t. Then again, there are very few Skye relationships I do care about, certainly not consistently, the common point being how much I don’t care about Skye.
I sort of had a thought on this one, and I can’t decide what my actual conclusion is. This episode kind of ends what 1x03 set up about Coulson still being a little rusty when it comes to field skills, but here he’s fine; whether it’s a car chase or fighting a man on fire. So does that end an arc, or is it contrived in 1x03 and not supported by any other episodes? Used at the time to keep raising questions about what happened to him.
On that front, this episode focuses on the Coulson question a lot less, and it therefore a lot more palatable. The question is there; he brings up that his reactions are different than they used to be, in addition to being up early (either just too much energy or something is on his mind that he’s not ready to say even to May), but it’s not signposted the same way it has been. I understood the signposting in the pilot, but by this point this is where the question/reminder should be, should have been a couple episodes ago.
This does kind of feel like the episode where they stopped needing to do things with Coulson and just let him part of the story. Maybe that’s part of why I liked this one so much at the time, the main character felt less like a prop in his own show (obviously I found a lot to comment on in the previous episodes with hindsight, but...that’s kind of the point, this is more causally settled). It just happens that much of that plot involves what wasn’t then, but has since become, basically my least favorite character.
Skye
Considering all the complaining I’ve been doing, what I have to say now may be surprising: I don’t dislike this Skye in this episode. I didn’t then and I still don’t. Back then, this is an episode that gave me hope for liking her character as we got to know more about her and she actually got to be her own character rather than a narrative role that I wasn’t into. I didn’t even mind too much at the time that she was the first character who finally started to seem like there was some depth of character rather just a blank canvas we were watching in the episodes (you’ll note I not only still combine FitzSimmons but often have very little to say about them), aside from maybe that this was her second go at it when no one else was getting that kind of attention; I just wanted to think we would start to get more on the others. And we do; and it all will do a much better job selling me on the other characters than this does on Skye.
Skye may not be allowed to be deeply wrong or flawed, but this episode also doesn’t pretend that she didn’t screw up; this actually feels like the start of her character growing as opposed to her just showing up and us expected to accept her as is. And while some characters aren’t given much room in the story (which is more a problem in retrospect than it is on first viewing), no one is made to look foolish to make her look better, partly because this episode isn’t making her out to be the best ever. She’s young and inexperienced and naïve and yes skilled, but still with a lot to learn. She’s trying, but she hasn’t got it all figured out, and importantly we’re not expected to think she has the answers or even is right a lot of the time.
I could actually talk about her actions in this episode, but at this point it’s too buried under my levels of future not caring. I can appreciate this as a better Skye episode (like I’ve said s1 is probably retroactively my favorite Skye, and I didn’t exactly like her at the time) but I don’t feel like dwelling on it a lot.
Though I guess I do want to comment on the end a little. I don’t know whether to blame the writing or the acting, but it doesn’t really work. I will blame the writing for having Coulson say that they’d previously risked their lives for Skye when we’ve never seen that (I guess 1x03 counts at a stretch since that was part of the mission, or May going after her in the pilot). But something about Skye’s reaction seems...handled badly. I can’t call it out of character, it’s just not really exploring her character; I want to call it shallow, but that doesn’t quite fit. Maybe if you are attached to her character you read the correct layers into her attitude, but they don’t come through for me.
Because one of her few defining traits set up prior to this, is her fear of abandonment and rejection; they had a whole scene about it in 1x03 and it’s sort of glanced at in passing earlier in this episode. And I don’t feel like that defining trait is in play either when she’s rejected by Ward (who had previously promised they wouldn’t turn their backs on her) or afraid of being rejected by Coulson, or when he agrees to let her stay on in spite of everything. That is a valid character trait that I should feel is underpinning a lot of what she does, especially in moments like this; but I don’t.
Odds and ends
Chan talks about how there’s no real magic in the world, just ricks; which again sets us with where we are in the MCU at this time. Poor Chan, if he’s held out a few years longer his mind would have been blown by some of the things coming up. Although considering the things that are already real in this world (and they remind us of the Avengers being real people here) I would sort of think that kind of cynicism would be different in that environment.
I notice that Coulson, May, and Ward all look kind of uncomfortable when it comes to talking about the enhanced index; which makes sense, we know Coulson and May have seen this kind of thing go badly, and Ward probably has too. Even FitzSimmons seem aware of the seriousness of the situation, even if they’re inexperienced at dealing with it. In my book exploring the adults’ backstory or FitzSimmons’ uncertainly is a lot more interesting and relevant to my interests than Skye’s inane babble on the subject.
Another timeline question; if Miles doesn’t know about Centipede, when did Skye find out about it? How long was it between when she went off to do her own thing and her getting picked up by SHIELD? Their relationship feels like they’ve been apart for a little while sure, but not that long. If it was for a while (he mentions her living in her van for two years, was that recently?) wouldn’t they have been passing information around about what they were researching. Plus she was still in contact with him when she did run off with SHIELD.
Since I commented on it last time, I feel I should acknowledge it here. Ward shooting his way out of the Tadorov building has a somewhat iffy feel to it since we and they don’t know who the people that work here are working for. In this case, when they’re taking out guards at the lab, they do know who they work for. It’s entirely possible that the guards don’t know what they’re guarding and are just doing their job, but it’s a little less iffy feeling since we know a little more about what’s going on.
Closing thoughts
This review took forever to write I just couldn’t find any excitement for it. I consider this a decent episode even now, but it’s all pretty surface level without a lot of threads I really wanted to explore. It’s fine, and at the time they needed a fine, solid episode, but it’s competently bland. I feel the need to repeat that here at the end since it’s been so long for me since the beginning.
Coulson punches
I noted him punching someone with his right hand.
Geography questions
I’m going to give myself the option of doing these in closing thoughts, it’s travel time or positioning questions that niggle at me when I really pay attention to the details.
Where was the plane relative to the lab and how did Ward and Skye get there so quickly?
