Written by Mark Rodriguez
Originally written on November 20, 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 up, which I would assume is a few days after the events of Thor's epic cinematic sequel. If you guys remember that University in Greenwhich that was kinda caught in the crossfire in the epic final battle between Thor and Malekith... yeah, it's up to Coulson's group to clean up the mess. Everyone is talking about Thor, in one way or another, and Skye wishes she could have gotten hands onto the Asgardian spaceship... and Thor.
Meanwhile some park rangers run into some graffiti and decide to investigate. A pair of campers are wandering around the woods until they find a particular tree. They cut it down, which brings the attention of the park rangers. They cut out a part of a tree and find a staff with engravings all over it. The guy is wearing gloves, but the woman with him isn't, and when she holds onto the staff with her bare hands, she is full of rage and hatred. The rangers show up and she sends one flying with a palm strike.
Later on the SHIELD crew show up to investigate as Simmons has to work enough nerve to scale that tree (wasn't it chopped down?). Coulson talks to the remaining ranger and he explains the hatred he saw in that girl's eyes. Simmons finds the tree and the empty part where the staff once was and her device tells her it has Asgardian energy. She sends images of the engravings left behind and Fitz determines it's some kind of Asgardian staff. They also see new reports of riots all over the city cause by the couple and the message 'WE ARE GODS' spelled out in flames across the street.
Coulson finds out that they're from a Norse Pagan hate group out against anything Asgardian. Fitz makes a 3D model of the staff and notes that there two other pieces of it left. Coulson says when they first found Thor's hammer in New Mexico (first Thor movie) he went to an expert in Seville Spain to know more about it. They head out there to find Professor Randolph to know about the staff (where it seems he dates his students, even though that doesn't guarantee they'll get an A).
Randolph explains that the staffs belonged to the Beserkers, warriors
that would destroy everything due to the rage brought out from holding
those weapons. One Asgardian loved the Earth so much, he decided to stay
behind. He broke the staff into three pieces and hid them in different
parts of the world, hidden in rhymes and riddles.
Their search takes them to the ruins of a church. Grant and Skye split
up and search around until they sense something moving. Grant finds the
professor there, and he touches Grant with the staff. Memories of a kid
trapped in a well come back to Grant, driving him crazy with rage. As
the professor escapes, he accidently bumps into the couple from before.
When he gets to his car, he soon encountered by more people from the
riot group. Coulson is informed of what happened and he looks for
Randolph. They suddenly see a car being sent flying. Coulson finds the
professor on the floor, his part of the staff was stolen.
Later on, Simmons, Fitz and Skye are checking up on Grant, making sure
he's alright, even though he's acting aggressive and rude to everyone.
Coulson is interrogating Randolph but can't get anything out of him. As
the others worry about Grant, he tells off Skye (basically tell her to
shut the hell up), and rubs into Fitz' face how he might have to rescue
Simmons again if things get too dangerous since he sure can't (ouch).
Grant goes to work on a punching bag. Memories of a child trapped in a
well yelling for help fill his mind and enrage him as he punches the
hell out of the bag. Melinda tries to calm him down.
Meanwhile in an underground meeting, the camper guys from before is
letting new people touch the staffs and be overcome with rage. They
don't want the world to be taken over by gods, so they must become a god
to take them out.
Grant decides to bow out, telling Coulson he can't trust himself in his current condition. Coulson says he realizes he's not himself, so he can be trusted. He then sends him to interrogate Randolph. Grant swings a knife at him, and Randolph catches it in and bends the blade in his hand. Coulson says he's Asgardian.
Randolph is revealed to have been the Asgardian that chose to stay behind and live on Earth. Several years ago he fell for a French girl, and while drunk he told her his story. What he didn't count on was that her brother was a priest that wrote the story and started the legend. Over the years people have been trying to sold the clues and find the location of his staff. He also explains that the staff affects humans and Asgardians the same way, it seeps into their most hidden memories and pulls whatever hatred they must have out.
Coulson threatens to expose him as an Asgardian to everyone, especially since he knows Thor... so Randolph agrees to take them to the third piece.
Grant asks Randolph if the effects of the staff will wear off. He says the rage and hatred will eventually wear off, but the unlocked memories will always stay with him, at least for a few decades. The SHIELD crew arrives at the building and Randolph finds the last piece. Just then he's stabbed with one of the staffs by the camper that started the riots. Grant pulls the staff out of Randolph and feels the hatred and painful memories consume him as he tackles the guy off the balcony.
As the fighting continues, Randolph is slowly dying. Coulson says Asgardians heal faster than humans, so they have to make sure his heart is working long enough. Simmons is hesitant, but Coulson plunges his hand into Randolph's heart and tries to help him out.
More people from the riots come in, and Grant takes his rage out on them, beating everyone down savagely. In his memories, he sees the kid still begging for help trying not to drown in that well. A kid feels bad for him and wants to drop some rope down to help him. The kid that pushed him down the well in the first place threatens that he will do the same to the other kid if he helps him. Even though the kid feels scared, he still drops the rope down to help the kid. That part of the memory snaps Grant back to reality and out of his rage. However, even more rioters show up.
Miranda steps up and holds onto both pieces of the staff and continues the fight. She soon puts all three piece together and they form into one long staff. The woman that was with the camper in the beginning sees that her man is knocked out and is angry at Melinda. The woman says she's not afraid of her, but Melinda knocks her the hell out.
Grant asks Melinda how she was able to control her hatred when she held onto the staff. She says she sees that hatred every day. Coulson looks at the staff and is tempted to touch it. He tells Randolph that he remembered being killed but doesn't remember anything about his recovery or being in the hospital, just him waking up months later and recovering in Tahiti. Randolph says him being revived is all he needs.
Skye and Grant hang out in a bar, but Grant isn't ready to tell her about his past with his brother yet. He later sees Melinda enter her room with a bottle, and he soon joins her....
We end the episode with Coulson getting a massage in Tahiti, a magical place. This makes Coulson quickly awaken in cold sweat, still haunted by not remembering exactly how he was revived.
My Opinions-
Pretty entertaining episode. It was fun to start the episode with the cast cleaning up after Thor's mess. The ep even had a few scenes from the movie in the beginning. It wasn't all that spoilerish, since people that haven't seen the the movie would actually have to see it recognize that place in the movie. Kinda hate how the Asgardians are referred to as aliens instead of gods, and their magic is just science we don't understand.... but this is within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they had to throw logic in there somehow I guess.
The story was a bit weird with the Asgardian Beserker Staff. I mean, it was hidden in that tree for hundreds of years, it's so weird that it was discovered just now, so soon after Thor's visit. I guess they wanted to keep things going with the Asgard vibe since the movie just came out... but this episode could have happened even without the movie.
It is funny to see Coulson mention so many times that he knows Thor and can introduce Randolph to him and so forth, when he still doesn't know that he somehow survived Loki's attack. Speaking of which, his revival keeps getting more and more mysterious, and sounding more and more like he's a clone or something.
The ep was ok, at least to see Grant and Melinda kick some ass. I don't quite understand the deal with the well. Was the kid trapped in the well a young Grant? His brother? Who was the mean kid that shoved him in there? Who was the fat kid that helped him out? Skye kept asking if his rage 'had something to do with his brother'. I'm not completely sure who his brother was in that flashback,
They sure keep alluding to that time Grant lept out of the plane to rescue Simmons. Looks like it's gonna be a constant reminder to Fitz that he's just a science dude and Grant is the action hero who can actually step up and defend Simmons in a fight. I wonder how this will eventually affect Fitz in some future episode.
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