AGENTS OF SHIELD: … YE WHO ENTER HERE (S2E09)

One good thing about Agents of SHIELD is that it isn’t afraid to change.  In the next to last episode before the winter break (and start of Marvel’s Agent Carter), Ye Who Enter Here didn’t waste any time with the whole Hidden City plotline – unlike Season 1!  This is quite refreshing as while the carving on the walls (& skin) from previous episodes was necessary it did tend to drag on a bit and I’m sure you wanted to find out what was going on as much as I did!

• THE WRITING ON THE WALL – the tattooed man from last ep has picked up an artist who is trying to remember how she knows him. “I do some carving now and then,” he tells her, then takes off his shirt and pulls out a knife.

• THE THINGS WE BURY – Once the radioactive button and watch get close enough for critical mass, a magnetic pulse will take down the government a satellite control facility in Oahu.  While that station is down, they will use the less secure Australia Outback station to use the gov’t satellites to locate the alien city.

In “… Ye Who Enter Here” we get a more detailed look at what must be Attilan or another Inhuman locale.  While not directly mentioned, there are enough clues (last episodes’ mention of “blue angels”) and this week Raina’s comments about the Kree, directly ties this back to the alien race that spawned the Inhumans in the comics by experimenting on prehistoric neanderthals.

Episode Summary:

In Vancouver, Raina was having coffee with a friend but noticed that she was being tailed by Melinda May.  Approaching her, she realizes quickly that this is not May but rather Agent 33 who has kept May’s face (the other half being somewhat reptilian in appearance). Realizing that HYDRA had found her, Raina fled the coffee shop and was saved by Billy Koenig and a cloaking umbrella.

Meanwhile Coulson has split the team into two groups – one to find the hidden city and destroy it, and the other to save Raina from the clutches of HYDRA.

Skye travels to Vancouver to rescue Raina despite wanting to go to the hidden city, but Coulson makes her realize that Raina will open up to her in a way she wouldn’t with anyone else.  Acquiescing to his request she arrives in Vancouver but is confronted by Agent 33.  In a fight sequence similar to the one seen in the May vs. May fight of (Face My Enemy), Skye does quite well until she is eventually knocked out.  Hunter eventually arrives however and knocks out Agent 33.

During Skye’s interrogation of Raina – which actually worked quite well, primarily due to Skye’s own interest in her past & disgust with the man that her father is, were things that Raina could actually speak to.  Raina realizing from conversation with Skye that HYDRA now have the Diviner divulges that the reason they want her, is that she can touch it and survive & its only by taking it to the city will her full potential truly be unlocked.  Raina further confided in Skye the stories that her grandmother had told her of the Kree and their desire to destroy humanity and also if the unworthy were to enter the temple – they would be destroyed!  Unfortunately before Skye can warn the other team, the plane is surrounded by 4 HYDRA Quinjets.  It seems that Ward – now working for Whitehall – has managed to trace the signal from Raina’s tracker and has boarded the Bus to collect her.  Ward promised that the HYDRA Quinjets would not attack if they released Raina and Skye to him.  Skye, realizing that she had no choice agrees to accompany him.

While this is all going on, the other team has managed to find a way into the underground temple, but when Fitz sends the flying drones into the hole, they lose their signal.  Mack – in his first external mission I think? – goes down to investigate, but inadvertently touches the ground when examining the drones and something happens.  As the glowing symbols on the ground expand, Mack screams in extreme pain and curls up in a fetal position.  He is quickly hauled up by the team, but has changed … changed into something else (something Inhuman perhaps??) and immediately attacks the team.  Easily defeating the team in hand-to-hand combat through his superior strength and reflexes, Mack is finally stunned into submission by Morse and falls back into the shaft.

My thoughts:

OK as mentioned at the start … lots happening in this episode and if you got up at any point, you were going to miss something.

• Weirdly the May vs. Skye fight didn’t look nearly as realistic as the previous May vs. May fight.
• The sequence where Whitehall tells Agent 33 to destroy the Bus anyways, despite Wards promise … m’eh … just didn’t have the feeling that it was that important to end the episode on.
• Has Mack become something new (something Inhuman) or is he simply the defense of the city brought to life?

Still another really good episode and one that brings up one step closer to the grand reveal as well as explaining who Skye really is!