Agents of SHIELD Episode 18

By Mark Rodriguez

If you haven't seen Captain America The Winter Soldier by now, you might want to turn back. Heavy spoilers from the movie's major plot twist greatly affect the events of this episode and it's literally impossible to review this without mentioning it. If you wanna read anyway... you have been warned.

If you haven't seen it... what are you waiting for?????

Anyways, to recap, it was revealed that HYDRA was still operating in current day, but hidden within SHIELD. Once the truth was revealed in the Captain America sequel, the events also affected the series as SHIELD fell apart and Coulson and his group has to do whatever it takes to survive. We find out that Garret was with Hydra and was also the Clairvoyant the whole time. He gets captured and is sent to be locked up with Victoria Hand and Grant holding him. But the shock ending has Grant shoot and kill Victoria and set Garret free. Grant Ward is a member of Hydra all along!! To drive the point home, they re-runned last week's episode for those that missed it the first time, and it looks like it's gonna be all new episodes from here til the end of the season.

Just when you thought you could trust the guy....

The episode opens with Raina, the woman in the flower dress, in prison until she heard noises of people being attacked. She is surprised to see Grant be the one to break her out. He gives her a gift from the Clairvoyant, which is her flower dress.

Back at a SHIELD base, Skye tells the others there are only 3 known safe SHIELD bases. TV screens also show the destruction caused when the helicarriers that SHIELD made but HYDRA were trying to use to attack everyone collapsed and crashed into buildings, as well as all the SHIELD info that was leaked publicly thanks to Black Widow.

Meanwhile in a barber shop in Habana Cuba, Grant introduces Raina to Garret explaining that he is the Clairvoyant, She's deeply honored, but is disappointed to find out that he really didn't have any special powers, just a lot of SHIELD information. He reminds her that she started the Centipede project to change the world. He sits her down in the barber's chair and it starts to sink down to a secret underground hideout and tells her 'welcome to HYDRA'.

As Fitz and Simmons fix the plane, Skye tells Coulson that they now have 4 safe SHIELD bases. They get a message from the US government that wants them pulled in for questioning. Due to all the damage cause when all of SHIELD's files were released to the world.. the government now considers them a terrorist organization.Coulson doesn't like the sound of this and tells everyone they have to go. Triplet wants to join them, but Coulson doesn't trust him since he was always with Garret. Simmons vouches for him, and Coulson says she'll be responsible for him. Fitz doesn't like that.

Coulson tells Skye to find any information she can on the team, and erase it. They will now cease to exist. She asks Coulson about Grant, who should have been back after locking up Garret by now. Coulson tells her that they're also going to have to turn in their badges.

Skye calls Grant and she tells him how they're going to get their identities erased. He asks where they're headed, but she's not sure. After they talk a little, Garret teases him about her. Grant is upset about their plan involving Skye getting shot. After Garret reminds Grant about the importance of their plan, he tells Reina that she's back in charge of phase 3 for Centipede. She says she thought phase 3 was over after she was captured when they couldn't discover how Coulson was brought back. Garret shows her the alien drugs he managed to steal from the base he and Coulson discovered before when they were trying to save Skye. Plus, they have all the info on the flash drive that Skye gave to Grant. Garret and Grant get ready to attack The Fridge.

At the SHIELD plane, Skye hands in everyone's badges to Coulson. He put them all away in a safe when he notices something on his own badge, some flashing number. They're coordinates leading somewhere. They lead to someplace in the Canadian wilderness and he's sure that Fury must have set this up. After he tells the others, Triplet is suspicious that it could be trap from HYDRA.

Garret and Grant prepare to 'raid the Fridge' and Raina talks to Grant, asking him how he could betray the others. Grant says it didn't take much to convince them. He explained how he jumped out of a plane to rescue Simmons, and selfless acts of bravery like that always work. He says the only threat was May, and he managed to sleep with her. He also managed to gain Skye's trust and become her Superior Officer. He says he's not a team player and prefers to his missions alone. He acted like the kind of person that Coulson could help. Raina says Coulson would give his life for him, he should owe him something. Grant admits that's true, but he owes Garret everything.

Melinda talks to Coulson, worried about where he's taking them since it might be a trap. She says Fury was not in charge of the Tahiti project to bring him back. Coulson demands to know who, but she doesn't know but there's always a chance that person could have been working with HYDRA. Coulson angrily tells her to leave his office.

Grant and Garret arrive at the Fridge, with Grant pretending to be turning Garret in as his prisoner. The guards won't let them in since they need to see Victoria Hand with them for authorization. A helicopter shows up, shooting at them, and Grant convinces the guards to skip protocol and let them in. Once inside, Grant shoot the guards and they make their way inside, the helicopter guys working with them all along. Once inside they find all the goodies SHIELD has been stowing away for years, even stuff they were supposed to have gotten rid of. Grant was surprised but Garret reminds him that Fury was working on weapons using Tesseract technology before. They find the plasma particle beam device they recovered from an earlier adventure in Peru (from episode 2).

The SHIELD gang arrive in Canada and start to head out. As they start their long snowy hike, Garret and Grant continue to loot the Fridge. Grant even finds the Asgardian staff that made him go crazy in an earlier ep. He then remembers a certain spot in the base and uses the plasma beam to blast a hole in the ground. Grant and Garret marvel at what they found hidden underground.

After a long hike in the Canadian cold, they finally find the spot the coordinates led them to, and find nothing. Everyone starts arguing with him, pointing out that they used the last of the plane's fuel just to get there. Coulson suffers a breakdown and argues that after all they went through, they're still Agents of SHIELD and it HAS to mean something. He angrily tosses his badge and it gets blasted by hidden guns. They're motion sensory weapons and the team hide to avoid getting shot at. Coulson steps out and identifies himself ast Phil Coulson, Agent of SHIELD. The secret base reveals itself and they are welcome to enter.

Grant and Garret return and Raina tells them there's a problem with the flash drive. Skye designed it so it would erase everything on it if anyone except her tried to access it.

At the SHIELD base, Agent Koenig shows up and welcomes everyone. He tells them that Fury is dead and the Fridge has been taken down. Skye worries about Grant and quickly calls him to make sure he's alright. Once alone with Coulson, Koenig says Fury is actually alive, but disappeared, the only ones knowing where he is being Maria Hill and Captain America. He doesn't want the other know, those were Fury's strict orders.

Garret says Grant has 24 hours to charm the info out of Grant, or they'll drag her out and get the info their way. Garrett then beats the crap out of Grant to make their story more believable. Now, looking bloody and beaten, Grant arrives at the Canadian base and Skye welcomes him inside.

Elsewhere, Garret released Quinn, who is angry at how he was treated and how he was even sent to the lock-up by Garret himself. Like Raina, he was also pissed to find out that the Clairvoyant didn't really have any powers. Either way, Quinn doesn't want anything to do with them anymore. Garret then shows Quinn something he'd like. The Gravitonian device. Quinn is quite pleased....

My Opinions:

Wow, things are heating up with this show. I do have to say, it's episodes like these that make everything come together. This one was packed with references to past episodes. Even the plasma device from the Peru episode that many felt was a waste of time. Now that we saw Raina and Quinn coming back, it really feels that 'it's all coming together' as all the show's villains are gathering together.

Not sure what to think of Grant. Is he really a traitor? Is he under deep deep mega-deep undercover to find out what the Clairvoyant was up to? If so, I really don't see how they could have faked Victoria's death. I can't believe he shacked it up with May just to gain her trust, and is basically smooth-talking Skye for the same thing.

Coulson had his intense breakdown moment as everything around was destroyed. At this point in his life, being an agent of SHIELD is basically his very being, so it really does suck for him. That whole speech about being an agent of SHIELD should hold weight, even when the others have lost their faith in him, that was a powerful and well acted scene.

The killer for this episode is, despite the trailers asking 'How will Skye act when the guy she has a crush on is revealed to be a traitor?', we have to wait until the NEXT episode to see this. All the scenes they showed of Skye crying or breaking down upon learning the truth....were shown again as the previews for the NEXT episode instead of this one. Way to tease us you jerks.

I was really hoping Fury would have been at the base.... but I know if they did that, the advertising would have been all over the place with some sort of  'GUESS WHAT WINTER SOLDIER CHARACTER CAMEOS IN TONIGHT'S EPISODE' kind of thing. I know it's to draw people in... but I think sometimes these cameos would be sweet surprises if they were kept surprises. The episode ending with Fury stepping in would have been an 'OH CRAP!!' moment without any advertising spoilers.

And as for 'OH CRAP' moments... they finally find a secret base they would be safe from HYDRA... and Skye goes and tells Grant where they are and shows him the front door. Of course she didn't know... but oooh crap. It's gonna hit the fan next time.