So after episode one, Missing Pieces, we have Mac still adjusting to being the Director, but settling in nicely. Elena has resolved herself to the change in Mac’s and her relationship. She has found someone else in new agent Keller. May has been recruiting new members for the team. Trying to add both muscle and brains while finding peace in her life sans Coulson. However, an encounter with a group of unknowns, one with the face of Phil Coulson, has opened up some old wounds. Meanwhile, after running into a seeming dead-end in space while looking for Fitz, Jemma has committed the team to a deep space adventure in her quest to find him. That leads us into Episode 2, Window of Opportunity. What did we learn in this installment of Agents of Shield.
Sarge taking Charge
1) Clark Gregg plays a great bad ass villain. While I loved him as Coulson, the role of Sarge is giving him an opportunity to stretch out his legs a bit. It suits him and he appears to be just as in charge now as he was as the Director of Shield, just in a more ruthless, and calculating way. Thanks to recently recruited super brain Dr. Benson, we learn that Sarge is genetically a match for Phil Coulson. The question is how this happened and what is his purpose here on earth, other than looking cool in his ill gotten sunglasses.
2) The reappearance of “Coulson” is proving to be an emotional time for May. Although that is to be expected seeing how she had just come to grips with her loss. This is evident when she questions Mack why he didn’t tell the team about the pseudo Phil. Mack explained that since he was counseling the team about the death of Agent Fox and trying to get them to focus on their jobs. It wasn’t the time. Fox was the young man Sarge killed upon his arrival. The toll this is taking on May is also evident in her confrontation with Dr. Benson when he questions if Coulson really died. It is only when Mack intervenes that cooler heads prevailed.
Fitz blows his Cover
3) Meanwhile in Space, Fitz has his own issues. His efforts to blend in with the aliens on the ship failed. This was when he unknowingly disparaged the cargo the ship is carrying. Apparently, the Xandarian Snails they are transporting are considered a delicacy to the Sivan’s he is pretending to be. It doesn’t help when he tells them that he is from “far, far north” which come to find out is an “irradiated wasteland.” Oops.
After Captain Virgo is informed and he realizes that Fitz and Enoch are “Terran,” they are about to be ejected into space. (Of course everyone knows that Enoch isn’t Terran. He is a “sentient chronicom from a planet which revolves around star in the constellation you know as Cygnus.”Just ask him.) The fact that Sidians were extremely xenophobic was somehow not information that Enoch chose to share to Fitz when he taught him the language. Might have been nice to know.
Fitz for his part, explains that while he has been aboard, he has produced more than the rest of his engineering crew combined. “Do the Math.” In addition, Enoch is an expert on Xandarian Snail farming which will increase the ships profits. While this is a convincing argument, it doesn’t phase Viro until Fitz says they will work for free. He is given a task to recalibrate the heat shields and fix a leaky air lock which hasn’t worked properly in a long time. If he fixes them by the end of the day, he will be spared. More on this in a bit.
Dealing with Loss
4) The death of a team member is reflected on Sarge’s team as well. Pax is having a problem dealing with the loss of Tinker who was the man caught half-way through the wall on their arrival. He questions Sarge about what they could have been done differently that might have prevented Tinker’s death. While Sarge hears his complaints, he is becoming concerned about Pax and asks Jaco, the largest member of their group, to keep on eye on him. He also suggests that it might be time to find replacements for them.
Meanwhile they realize that their supply of PEG’s has run out. This was due to the fact that Tinker had them in his pocket for good luck when he became a wallflower. They need to acquire more, so a trip to a Jewelry store was necessary. This will be an escalation, seeing how they robbed a convenience store at the beginning of the episode. This is where Sarge acquired his cool sun glasses and discovered what currency was used on Earth and the wonders of brain freeze from Slurpees.
5) Agent Fox’s death was particularly hard on Agent Keller as he had recommended Fox to Shield. Keller saw himself in the young Agent. May had suggested that Mack talk to Keller, knowing about Keller and Fox’s relationship. Mack responded that he knew that someone else would be there for him. This is a confirmation that Mack knew about Yo-Yo and Keller’s relationship. Yo-Yo consoled him, telling him that she was here for him. It was a good vehicle to try to develop the character of Keller as far as giving him some emotional depth. Being the new kid on the block, it is important to give the viewing audience a reason to care about the character. Good first start.
Shopping for PEG’s
6) Sarge and his team go Jewelry shopping looking for PEG’s. At first, Sarge lays on the charm to the Store Manager Dana (or daNA as Sarge calls her) telling her money is no object to get what he wants. He slowly begins to reveal his real purpose, in a reserved, sinister delivery that is unnerving but fun to watch. He tells her he wants to see the stuff she keeps hidden for her most loyal customers. When she tells him she could show him some things from the vault, his true intentions are made clear. He remarks how her heart rate is probably spiking due to the possibility of a big sale. But it will “go nuts” when she realizes they are robbing the place. Butterfly then brutally dispatches the guards believing they will be reincarnated as beautiful butterflies. Pax reminds her that not everyone comes back as butterflies.
Dana leads the team to her vault and and Pax seals the lock to prevent anyone from easily entering behind them. They then use some tech that allows them to make a doorway into the vault from their truck. (Kind of reminds you of the ACME portable hole from the old Looney Tunes). As they rummage through the diamonds looking for PEG’s, it is learned that what they are referring to is Quartz or other Crystalline gems that would allow for energy transferral. They grab what they find and Sarge goes back through the created entry back into his trailer.
May makes a Discovery
7) May and Yo-Yo go to the truck yard where Sarge and crew had been reported. They find nothing and wonder how it is that they keep disappearing. Meanwhile, Mack gets wind of the Jewelry store robbery and sends the team to confront them. The team converges on the store and find that they are still in the safe. However, when they do a heat signature scan, they find instead of the four people Mack reported, there are now five in the vault. They then see the opening that they made. May quickly realizes that they are going back to where they’ve already been. She makes a quick exit, not telling Yo-Yo where she is going. In the meantime, the rest of the team tries to open the safe.
As May returns to the truck yard, she notices the tire tracks on the ground mysteriously end at a point. Gathering some dirt, she throws it at the point where the tracks end to reveal the now cloaked semi. Sarge, unaware that their semi had been located, goes outside to test the PEG’s on their weapon. Once inside, May knocks on the door of the trailer. When Pax opens it, she punches him in the face and the fight is on.
I Lost
8) Ming Na Wen has always been a bad ass on Agents of Shield as Agent May and the fight on this episode proves nothing has changed. She took on all three of Sarge’s team and took their measure. At least until Sarge entered the picture. He was just testing their weapon outside when he saw Dana come running by after May set her free. “Really?,” he stated.
He re-entered their truck and came across May, who paused looking at him and called to him with the only name she knew, “Coulson?” While they looked at each other, Butterfly was able to drop the portal down and into May’s foot. May tripped on the raised plate, falling back into the safe as they grabbed the tech that created the opening and the wall reformed blocking May into the safe. At that moment, the team opened the safe to find only May inside. When asked what happened, she said, “I Lost.”
Looking Jemma in the Eye
9) Back in space, Fitz completes his tasks. Viro informs him that he has “did the math” as Fitz had recommended to him. By doing so, he realized that his Engineering crew was indeed not carrying their weight, especially since he now had two hardworking slaves at his disposal. He would rid himself of the dead weight by ejecting his engineering team into space as he had planned to do to Fitz and Enoch. While Enoch had no problem with that, Fitz didn’t want those deaths on his conscience. He wanted to be able to look Jemma in the eyes when he reunited with her.
His only course was to either fight Viro, or join the Engineers in the airlock since it was his fault that they were in this position. Realizing that he could not hope to defeat the larger Viro in a fight, he took his place with the rest of the engineers. All the while trying to get Viro to realize he was making a monetary mistake. Viro said he was now forced to follow through to make a point. While this was happening, Enoch slipped behind Viro and opened the outer door lock, ejecting both Viro’s Guards and Viro himself. Enoch was able to reach the outer door lock control and close the door. He then opened the door setting Fitz and the Engineers free. The problem now was what to do next.
Leading into Episode Three
10) Arriving at their current destination, Enoch tells Fitz that the crew will most likely labeled Mutineers and put to death. Since they went to all that trouble to save them, that was unacceptable. Fortunately, they have just enough fuel to go to planet Kitsan, where the crew can find employment. They head off just as the Zephyr jumps into space going in the opposite direction. Jemma and Fitz has just missed each other…again.
Meanwhile, Sarge and crew are back on the road again after their encounter with May at the Jewelry store. Jaco asked Sarge why he froze at the word, Coulson? What does the word mean? Sarge, says that the “it rings a bell.”
Thoughts Overall:
As much as I love Clark Gregg as Coulson, it is refreshing to see him in a new “framework”…as much as that word is a sore spot for the Shield crew. He is killing it so far as Sarge.
There are some growing pains with the new team members as might be expected. Dr. Benson in particular is hard to warm up to. Of course this is only episode two. Agent Keller is also a work in progress.
Fitz appears to be on a personal redemption tour after the whole LMD event from Season Four. Remember this is the version of a Fitz who hadn’t yet gotten to the future in Season 5. The fact that he bases his actions for the crew on his ability to “look Jemma in the eye” is direct evidence of that. It is also great to see Joel Stoffer as Enoch again. Iain DeCaestecker and Stoffer work well together.
This episode left Daisy and crew lost in space for much of the time, so it will be interesting to see the dynamics of what Jemma has committed them to. It’s a shame that Jemma and crew missed Fitz. As Maxwell Smart would say “missed it by THAT much.”
For those of you who watched Episode 2 of Agents of Shield, what did you think of the episode? How do you like Clark Gregg as Sarge instead of Coulson? Share your intel with us at GVNation.
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
