Agents of SHIELD Episode 7 Retro Review

 Written by Mark Rodriguez

Originally written on November 12, 2013. Keep in mind these reviews were done way back when the show first aired, so we had no idea what future events or movies would bring. Also, before it was retconned away, at least at the moment, the Agents of SHIELD show was in canon with the movies.

The episode opens with Coulson, with a bag over his head, captured by some terrorists. They call for the interrogator to get the info out of him, but the terrorists don't know that he's also with SHIELD. Melinda shows up and kicks some ass while Coulson and the undercover agent make their getaway. As they climb out of the underground facility, we see it's a snowy area and they escape in the SHIELD plane.

On the plane, Simmons extracts a device from the agent's nose. The info he collected it considered Level 8, and only Coulson can know about it. The agents understand, except for Skye that demands to know what's up. They arrive to a huge SHIELD facility known as The Hub. As they enter, Skye asks if such a place would have files on her parents, but Coulson says they can deal with that later. They all get specific badges, except Skye since she still has her collar. Coulson is allowed to enter a specific room, but when Skye tries to pass, a magnet on the wall traps her by the collar.

 Coulson, Grant and Melinda enter the room and are informed by Victoria Hand about a weapon called The Overkill Device that will be used in 24 from some Separatists that are trying to claim their independence from Russia. It will emit powerful vibrations that can set any weapon in the general area including nuclear weapons. They need two people to get in, and one them has to be able to recognize the device on sight and be able to disable it. That means they'll need Fitz... and he's currently struggling with the automatic doors at the place, so he's not exactly making himself look good.

Simmons worried about Fitz and makes him his favorite sandwich. He tells her to not do anything drastic in his absence, like jump off planes. Melinda reminds them the device has to be deactivated in oh-600 hours, and Grant and Fitz are ready to go. 

They show up at the Caucasus Mountains and Fitz sets a beacon down disguised as a rock. They enter a tough looking bar and ask for a friend of theirs named Yuri that will help them cross the border. One of the men says the man they're looking for is dead and pulls a gun on them.

Meanwhile, Simmons is worried about Fitz but Melinda won't update them on the information. Skye demands to find out what's going on their mission. Coulson talks to Agent Victoria (the head of this Level 8 mission) and discusses his healing in Tahiti. 

Grant and Fitz are now captured and are awaiting the boss in charge. A big angry woman shows up telling them they are against the Separatists, and they assure them they're hear to stop them. She pulls a gun on them but suddenly the lights go dark all over the bar.

Skye wants Simmons' help and tells her the mission is more dangerous than they were told. She noticed six squads of tactical assault were sent out. She says they might be torturing Grant and Fitz by now, so Simmons decides to help.

By now Fitz is being held upside down by the men... but not for torture, he's fixing the fuse box and getting the lights back on in the bar. Everyone cheers and the woman gets him a drink. They help him cross the border in a big truck that's delivering barrels. Fitz admits to Grant that he was the one to cause the blackout in the first place. There's suddenly a gunfight going on outside. Grant pushes out some of the barrels to distract them and he fights some of the soldiers.

Meanwhile, Melinda is practicing her Tai Chi (I think that's what it is), when Coulson shows up for a talk. He admits he doesn't like keeping things from his team, but he understands they have to trust the system. He thanks her for the talk and walks off, even though she never actually said a word.

Skye tells Simmons to hack into one of the panels of Hub, and it will give her 3 minutes to search the files. Simmons opens up a panel and looks for a USB port, but is caught by one of the agents (Agent Blake from the last episode). Simmons fails horribly at talking her way out of this situation and shoots him with a paralyzing gun before he could contact security. Skye says that was horrible and send Simmons to talk to Melinda.

Fitz and Grant are hiding in a giant pipe, and Fitz decides to eat his sandwich. Grant grabs it and tosses it in the water, saying they're being chased by dogs and don't need the scent of the sandwich to bring them in. Fitz is upset but Grant reminds him his mission is to keep an eye on him and make sure he's safe.

Skye is hacking the files of the Hub with what little contribution Simmons could supply her. What she discovers shocks her, but she is caught by Coulson. Coulson scolds her on how she has to trust their system, but she blurts out that they discovered that there is no extraction team for Fitz and Grant. They were basically on a suicide mission.

Fitz and Grant wake up in a sleeping bag disguised to match the rest of the sandy terrain. A truck shows up and they sneak under it to catch a ride to the enemy base. Grant signals to the extraction team and pauses when he realizes they're on their own. Grant doesn't tell Fitz and attacks any guards as they get deeper inside the base. They finally find the Overkill Device and Fitz gets to work on it.

Coulson argues with Victoria about there not being an extraction team for his men. She mentions that Agents Barton and Romanoff never needed extraction teams (Hawkeye and Black Widow for those not familiar with their civilian names). She also argues how Coulson found out about the secret mission and asked about the agent that Simmons knocked out.

Grant tells Fitz there's no extraction team for them. Once he disables the device and Grant sets off the beacon, they're on their own. Grant wants Fitz to leave while he takes over. Fitz says he's every bit the SHIELD agent he is. Grant says there's nothing to prove, and he know he's upset about when Simmons jumped out of the plane in the previous episode and he knew Fitz would have jumped out after her if he could. Fitz says he was told by Coulson to watch over Grant and that he's not going anywhere.

Skye, Melinda and Simmons gets ready to rescue their fellow agents on their own if they have to. Coulson says he's also in. Melinda says she thought he couldn't discuss anything with them. He says they're not discussing anything.


Fitz rips out the core of the device and Grant sets off the beacon, and this sets off an alarm. A bomb is heard going off outside and it's SHIELD attacking the enemy base. Fitz uses the Overkill device to disable the enemies' weapons, while Grant fights them off with any weapon he could find, like a steel pole and some chains. As they run upstairs and out of the compound, they are surrounded by men with guns. The SHIELD plane shows up and blow all the soldiers away. Grant and Fitz see that Coulson came to save them.

Victoria is advised that the Overkill Device was disabled. She's also told about Coulson's team went to rescue Grant and Fitz. She smiles, saying all the other teams were busy elsewhere. She knew Coulson would be emotional enough to go and rescue his agents for them.

On the plane, Simmons is glad Fitz is alright and asks if she liked the sandwich. He doesn't have the heart to tell her that Grant thew it away and tells her it was delicious. Skye is also glad to see that Grant came back safe and sound. Fitz asks Simmons if anything exciting happened while he was gone, and she tells him she shot a superior officer in the chest.

Coulson tells Skye he did look into her parents' file. All he could find was that the woman that left her at the orphanage was a SHIELD agent. They're still not sure if that woman was actually her mother or not, so they'll have to dig deeper. Skye gives him a big hug as she is grateful that they discovered at least that much. As Coulson returns to Melinda, shes aks if he told her why the woman left her at the orphanage, and he says he couldn't and some things are better left a secret. Melinda looks over file photos from that file, and one of them shows a woman that's been murdered. Melinda will be looking deeper into this.

Coulson later calls someone at SHIELD for a certain file. A death and recovery file in Haiti, which is of course his file. Apparently even when he's level 8, he has no clearance for that file. He's asked if he wants a request put down for Nick Fury, but he declines. He's left wondering why his revival is being covered up.

My Opinions- 

This is another good episode, and even when Fitz got the spotlight, it was still a good one. Not to say anything bad about the guy, but I'm glad an episode that was devoted to him was still pretty cool. He's a science guy, not an action guy, but his expertise were needed in a dangerous location. I'm glad he was able to pull through and conduct himself well in a dangerous situation. Him purposely causing the blackout that eventually gained the bar people's favor was pretty damn clever. He definitely proved himself to be a valued member of the team and yes, he is as much a SHIELD agent as the rest of them.

I was surprised to find out that Victoria Hand was an actual character from Marvel comics, unlike these new made-up characters like Skye and Melinda, and yes she is also a higher up at SHIELD. And hey, the woman portraying her (Saffron Burrows) even got the red bangs right. She played her role well.

I also like the Hub. It just makes SHIELD looks bigger and bigger than just the Helicarrier and so forth that we've seen so far. I really hope The Hub appears or is mentioned/referenced in an upcoming movie. Hell, with all these Agents that keep popping up, I really hope people like Agent Blake, Agent Victoria and who knows who else they might add, pop up in one of the movies. Maybe Coulson's gang is too small-key, but these higher ranking agents should make cameos at least.

I also like the references to the last episode. There was a lot of mention to Simmons jumping off the plane last time, and there's a lot of extra concern between her and Fitz. She had a near death experience and now he was going off on a dangerous mission. I like continuity within a show, but I really like it when it goes from episode to episode. It really makes it feel like this took place at the most, one week after the last episode.

There's not much I can say about everyone else. I did like the scene where Coulson 'talked' to Melinda and he got his answers by himself, since she was basically ignoring him and working on her stances. I also liked the little fake-out in the beginning. They needed two agents, and it looked like it was going to be an episode about Grant and Melinda kicking ass and taking names... and then Fitz happened. LOL And yes, we got a bit more info on Skye's parents.. and once again more mystery surrounds the revival of Coulson. I wonder if Coulson's return will be explained by the time we get to Avengers 2. Speaking of which, they announced that next week will have the reference to Thor 2 The Dark World.