Agents of SHIELD Episode 17

By Mark Rodriguez

This is possibly the biggest episode yet, bringing everything to a head, and throwing twist after twist after twist at you. It also ties in heavily with the major plot twist seen in Captain America The Winter Soldier. If you don't want it spoiled because you haven't seen the movie, don't read this review or watch our review until after you seen it. But anyone that seen the movie opening weekend would know that the plot twist rocked the very foundation of SHIELD as a whole, so naturally this show had to be effected in a big way. Unlike the Thor 2 tie-in where we just saw the crew clean up after the movie fight and then the rest of the episode, while featuring Asgardian references, had nothing to do with the movie... this episode is directly affected by Cap 2. Let's check it out.

The episode opens with Garrett flying a plane and suddenly being chased by planes that are shooting at him. He's surprised to see that they're SHIELD planes.

Back on Coulson's plane, Coulson and Skye still have their guns on May and demand to know what's going on. Fitz also asks why she had to shoot him. They also ask her where the plane is headed and she says she has no idea. May tells them she had a direct channel to Fury but she has orders not to tell. She then asks what Fitz was doing checking for encrypted lines to begin with. The focus switches to him and he says he was communicating with Simmons at the Hub. Coulson says depending on who Simmons is talking to, she might be in trouble.

For those that missed the last episode, it seems the heroes finally found the Clairvoyant, and it turned out to be a paraplegic with tubes and computers hooked up to him. Grant loses his cool when he threatens Skye and shoots him down. Coulson starts to get suspicious that this was all too easy and the Clairvoyant easily could have been a decoy. Fitz caught May reporting to someone with an encrypted line, and she tries to shoot him. Coulson and Skye arrive and pull guns on May, demanding to know who she's talking to. Just then the plane shifts course by itself, and we see that Victoria was waiting at the Hub for them, giving her men orders to take them down.

At the Hub, Triplet runs into Simmons and asks what she's working on. She's a bad liar and then has to explain on how they're studying Skye's blood.

Skye says she's detecting noise from the SHIELD communications. She then picks up Garrett's distress call and he tells them that two SHIELD drones are after him. Fitz helps regain control of the jet. Coulson shoots May down with an Icer and has her carried out. Garrett is nearby so Coulson's jet helps and shoot them both drones down. Victoria is notified of this, and she insists they blow them out of the sky.

With Garrett on the ship with them now, everyone is confused as to why SHIELD is attacking them. They now know that Victoria took control of the ship and it taking them to the Hub. Coulson says the Calirvoyant that Grant shot was a decoy. Coulson suspects that Victoria Hand might be the Clairvoyant. Just then Skye encrypts a message that declares that Hydra is back and has been running SHIELD right from under their noses all along. This is, of course, the major plot twist revealed in Captain America The Winter Soldier. The agents realize that Simmons and Triplet are still at the Hub and they have to save them.

Meanwhile, Simmons and Triplet working on her research when she gets a message from Agent Weaver at the Acamedy that warns her of the Hydra take-over. Triplet locks the door and starts acting creepy with a knife, but it was mostly to test of Simmons wasn't also with Hydra.

May wakes up in the padded room and has her hands cuffed. Grant is with him and accuses her of playing everybody. May is upset that Grant shot down an innocent man. Coulson comes in and says he needs their help since they can't make the current situation any worse and they need any help they can get. Coulson forces May to call Fury. Some random person answers the phone and she's confused. The man informs her that Director Fury is dead (another plot point from the Winter Soldier movie). Just then soldiers come in and start shooting.

After the agents escape the other soldiers, Coulson is pulling bullets out of May's shoulder. He asks what this was all about and finally wants some answers. May says Fury wanted her to join to keep an eye on Coulson and keep him updated on his condition. She also knew about 'Tahiti' and was actually the one that picked the team members and organize the team. Grant tells them the soldiers stopped shooting but May says more are soon to come.

Grant remembers all the technology and info they have in their computers from their past adventures, including the alien drug used to revive Skye and the Graviton technology. They have to make sure all the information is wiped from the computers before Hydra gets their hands on it. Skye downloads it all onto her mini hard drive. The teams split up and Coulson tells them to just use icers. May wants to help but Coulson says the cuffs stay on.

Meanwhile the SHIELD soldiers bust in on Simmons and Triplet. As for the Coulson jet, it landed in the Hub and the soldiers blow up the entrance and get inside.

Victoria has Simmons and Triplet captured and informs them that Hydra took over and the higher ups, including Nick Fury were killed. They can either join Hydra or die. Simmons refuses and Triplet attacks the guards and tells her that if they're going down they'll take some of her men with them. Victoria says she was just testing them and now she knows she can trust them. Simmons is relieved, but Victoria tells her that Coulson must be working with Hydra.

Victoria's men see that May has captured Coulson, but once inside they start fighting their way in. Victoria is watching and tells Simmons that Agent Blake was very suspicious of Coulson and mentions past events, like letting Almador go, his involvement with Mike Peterson and how they found the Claivoyant and Grant shot him before he could be questioned.

Meanwhile, Grant is with Skye and tries to set up some bombs, but he has to get rid of all the enemy soldiers first. They have a little talk about possibly having a drink and talking together if they survive all this. Skye even gives him a kiss, in case he dies. He fights his way through the soldiers, and even though it seems he is overpowered, he does come back to Skye.

Coulson and the rest are thinking what to do and talk about Victoria being the Clairvoyant. Garrett says they can't go easy on her since she's with Hydra and must be taken down. He reminds them of all the stuff they went through, including Quinn shooting Skye and how Raina was inside the memory machine. Coulson tells him that he never told anyone about the memory machine, and that Garrett didn't show up until after that ordeal. Coulson also realizes that Quinn shot Skye so they can find the alien drug that also brought Coulson back... and that's exactly what they did. Garrett sees that his cover is blown and admits he's with Hydra as Hydra soldiers arrive and shoot down the SHIELD soldiers.

Everyone is surprised, mostly Coulson since they both trained under Fury back in the day. Garrett is ready to have Coulson, May and Fitz shot, when suddenly the bombs that Grant set up make the rooms go dark. Coulson fights it out with Garrett while May attacks the other soldiers. Fitz hides under a table but he does manages to find a gun and shoot down a guy that was attacking May. May is a bit surprised he helped save her.

Garrett pins Coulson down with a knife to his head. Fitz tosses some sort of energy wave bomb that knocks Garrett off him. Victoria and her men bust in. Coulson says he's not with Hydra, and Victoria tells him she knows since they heard the whole conversation. All the Hydra agents are arrested, including Garrett.

Later on Victoria confirms that Captain America has taken down the Helicarriers that were controlled by Hydra (watch the movie of course). Coulson and Grant both feel horribly betrayed by Garrett. Grant wants the pleasure of locking him up himself. Coulson gets the jet ready to take flight again and he tells the others now they have to do what they have to do to survive.

On Victoria's plane, she watches over Garrett with Grant and says maybe he can shoot the real Clairvoyant this time. Grant grabs a gun and acts like he's going to kill Garrett. Surprisingly he shoots both soldiers that were guarding Garrett, and then kills Victoria. Garrett gives Grant a look and it's clear to see that he's also a member of Hydra.....

Holy crap. The fans weren't kidding when they said they might rename the show Agents of Hydra.

My Opinions:

Holy crap! This episode kept jumping back and forth from who you could and couldn't trust. We had May's apparent betrayal. Then Victoria. Then Garrett. And then the final bombshell with Grant being a traitor too! I was confused as to Victoria's attitude, but when she thought Coulson was Hydra, I figured she was innocent as well and assuming the worst from Coulson and his gang. Though I guess that means she recieved that encrypted message before the other did. Garrett was a surprise but I suppose if one of the cast had to heel turn, he did kinda look suspicious. But Grant? OMG... Grant?

I mean we only met Garrett a few eps back, but Grant was there since episode one. I just can't believe it, especially when he killed Victoria in cold blood. And all those developing feelings he had for Skye too. They even a little talk during the episode about trying to hang out later. What's going to happen when he reveals himself to the others? Will he try to get Skye over to his side? Will he try to kill her when she says no? I can't wait for the next episode!

But finally I really wanna say... wow... just wow Marvel. Captain America Winter Soldier broke all sorts of records and tons of people saw it opening weekend... but if you're a fan of the show and you happened to miss it due to work or whatever.... this episode spoiled a lot. Hydra taking over SHIELD, and the death of Fury were spoiled here. Sure Fury survived (major spoiler maybe, but c'mon, it's Fury), but as far as the rest of the world knows, he's still dead, so it makes sense for Coulson and the gang to be out of the loop.

With Fury, Captain America and the Black Widow disbanding SHIELD, we really have to see what happens now with the remaining splinters of SHIELD. Coulson says they have to do whatever it takes to survive, and even though the Captain took down the big guns, it seems the rest of Hydra will still be seeking out the remaining SHIELD members. And to drive the point home, the episode ends on the Hydra symbole instead of the SHIELD symbol like every other episode. Damn, that was creepy.

Paige's Opinions:

Over the past weekend I got the chance to watch Captain America The Winter Soldier, and I knew this episode was going to be a tie-in to the movie. To be honest I haven't watched the show for weeks because of Pretty Little Liars, so I had no idea what's been going on, and certain things were confusing to me. Even with that fact, I was very curious how they were going to tie the movie in with the episode, especially with how SHIELD is now gone, and I was curious what Coulson's reaction would be to the death of his friend. It was an intense episode that kept me at the edge of my seat, I wanted to know what would happen next. The final twist was very interesting and I wonder how the series is going to continue after Hydra have shown its fishy face.


Chuck's Opinions: (He reviewed the movie with us, so he might as well review this episode too)

I never would have thought Ward would go Hydra. Such an integral character to the shield crew...just wow... And I love the masterful weaving of the past few episodes with the last 2 marvel movies. I honestly thought my sweet angel Simmons was going Hydra. Chuck would have had to go Hydra. And I never once doubted Coulson...last episode made me think it was Fitz....when you can keep a Rodriguez guessing, you're doing something right.


Even though Johnny doesn't watch Agents of SHIELD, here are his thoughts on Captain America The Winter Soldier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JEybdayz8Q