Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Heavy is the Head

September 30, 2014 7:45 PM - Season 2, Episode 2

HYDRA, Creel, and Talbot are all hunting down Coulson's team, and Coulson has no choice but to put his team at risk to ensure their safety. Fitz continues to struggle.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (38 comments total)

Friendly reminder: We're not supposed to discuss previews for next week's episode in this week's episode thread.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:52 PM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed Hallusimmons goading Fitz into being naughty, and then how Mack finally figured out how to communicate with him. The whole Fitz plotline this season is shaping up to be really great.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:54 PM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

So far they are doing a really impressive job of forming up a new framework for the new season. Lots of little things that could turn into big things. Will watch next week.
posted by localroger at 8:03 PM on September 30, 2014

Especially considering how all the disparate plotlines from last season ended up tying together at the end.
posted by Jacqueline at 8:23 PM on September 30, 2014

Yeah, I'm enjoying this season's setup a lot more than I enjoyed most of last year's. I'm also really enjoying the new additions. The Mack and Fitz scenes were nice, and Trip continues to be ridiculously charming (Hoping that Peggy is his grandmother, too)

Also, I really want a throwaway scene with the george foreman grill. Just a shot of Coulson making some burgers during the exposition. C'mon.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:29 PM on September 30, 2014 [4 favorites]

Things are moving along just great, the series is doing a great job of making you feel that the stakes are high, while still injecting a bit of humor in. Good to see that Flowers is still around, she's a great character and even Skye isn't annoying, while Fitz problems are adding depth for him and Mac. Plus Trip just continues to be awesome.

It sucks that there's no more Lucy Lawless, but Hunter is nice addition. He makes a good counter point to straight arrow Coulson. He's the Ward we always wanted, but were doomed to never have.

I wonder where Simmon's is though. It's odd that she would completely leave Fitz. The Team, sure, but her very close and special friend Fitz? Not being it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:52 PM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm glad this show got a full season to show what it can do, because now we're getting the payoff. Yes, lots of characters, lots of disjointed, disparate plots and bits that make it seem like it has no clue what it's doing or where it's going... until suddenly it does, and it turns out everything that appeared haphazard before was just the build to a much bigger reveal. So they can play things out over a whole season without losing the audience.

This is starting to look like the show I imagined when they first announced it. Frankly I was expecting it to take a lot longer.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 4:10 AM on October 1, 2014

Recap of the episode added, as we relive the exciting moments of everyone trying to get an alien device.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:55 AM on October 1, 2014

Maybe it's just because I'm currently neck-deep in the Twin Peaks rewatch threads (JOIN US!), but the greatest thing that could possibly happen this season would be finding out that Skye's father (Kyle freaking MacLachlan) is actually a BOB-possessed Special Agent Dale Cooper that works for HYDRA now. I have nothing further...
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:04 AM on October 1, 2014 [4 favorites]

Friendly reminder: We're not supposed to discuss previews for next week's episode in this week's episode thread.

*Pulls Jacqueline in for hug*

Hail Hydra.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:41 AM on October 1, 2014 [4 favorites]

Maybe it's because I watched this while kinda dozy, but I have some confusion here:

-why was May - the kick ass pilot - on the motorcycle while the Quinjet is taken? Shouldn't she be, like, flying it rather than Trip and Skye?
-why the hell could Creel just suddenly handle the infection from the Obelisk after being reminded of his training by Hydra?
-not liking Hunter at all at this point; they would've been smarter to keep Lucy Lawless around than this unshaved Brit.
-I have to admit, as much as it is nice to see Skye as a full team member, making into just another field agent feels like a poor decision. She brought the mad hacker skills to the table; it made her stand out and be different. Now it seems the only thing different about Skye is the wardrobe - same basic black as everyone else, but with cool rips or tears or openings in her clothing!
posted by nubs at 8:44 AM on October 1, 2014

I'm sure the actor who plays Hunter has his own name, but in my house, he's called "Discount Jonny Lee Miller."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:24 AM on October 1, 2014 [5 favorites]

-I have to admit, as much as it is nice to see Skye as a full team member, making into just another field agent feels like a poor decision. She brought the mad hacker skills to the table; it made her stand out and be different. Now it seems the only thing different about Skye is the wardrobe - same basic black as everyone else, but with cool rips or tears or openings in her clothing!

I kind of like that Skye no longer dresses like she's going to a sorority sister's baby shower. THey could stand to use her magic hacking powers more, though.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:26 AM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think they're pushing the 'Skye now has other training!' bit a lot at the beginning just to establish that's the case... hopefully they'll pull back on that soon enough. She is investigating weird alien algorithms, at least?

I do wonder about Coulson's recruitment criteria - has he ever tried to recruit someone who hasn't attacked the team? It'd go a long way to explaining why he didn't realize Ward was evil, I guess.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:47 AM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

-why was May - the kick ass pilot - on the motorcycle while the Quinjet is taken? Shouldn't she be, like, flying it rather than Trip and Skye?

No, the most experienced field agent, who's handled people supercharged by Asgard weapsons, should be chasing down the super powered bad guy. Trip can handle the cakewalk flight back to base.

-why the hell could Creel just suddenly handle the infection from the Obelisk after being reminded of his training by Hydra?

I took that to mean that Creel is a creation of Hydra and been given specific training in dealing with the superpowered object he was sent to steal.

Now it seems the only thing different about Skye is the wardrobe - same basic black as everyone else, but with cool rips or tears or openings in her clothing!

She still has the hacking skills, but can now handle herself in the field. This is a good thing.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:16 AM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Agents of Shield's Main Superpower is Accepting Each Other's Damage
posted by nubs at 12:16 PM on October 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

No, the most experienced field agent, who's handled people supercharged by Asgard weapsons, should be chasing down the super powered bad guy. Trip can handle the cakewalk flight back to base.

Except that they didn't know that May was going to wind up chasing down the super powered bad guy when they left the base...

But hey, it's a minor annoyance. I'm hoping this show keeps going strong, they just occasionally do things that leave me a little puzzled.
posted by nubs at 12:18 PM on October 1, 2014

Except that they didn't know that May was going to wind up chasing down the super powered bad guy when they left the base...

But they did know they'd get some resistance, so she was probably told to linger behind and deal with that (as most experienced agent) while Trip and Skye did the milk run.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:06 PM on October 1, 2014

I'm liking Coulson so much better. He was a little too emo last season.
posted by double bubble at 1:54 PM on October 1, 2014

ok so that dude at the end, he wasn't the dude from hydra from the last episode, right? Was he in the previous season?
posted by rebent at 7:45 PM on October 1, 2014

I'm playing catchup, fell out early last season. Was the diagram carving thing related to Coulson's resurrection, or is this a separate thing?
posted by middleclasstool at 8:40 PM on October 1, 2014

ok so that dude at the end, he wasn't the dude from hydra from the last episode, right? Was he in the previous season?

Nope, the head HYDRA Nazi from last episode is a new character played by Reed Diamond. The gentlemen at the end of this episode is Skye's probably super-evil father, who we saw from behind and in shadows at the end of last season, but is now played by Kyle MacLachlan. I have a feeling they're either best pals or arch-rivals.

I'm playing catchup, fell out early last season. Was the diagram carving thing related to Coulson's resurrection, or is this a separate thing?

We don't exactly know just yet, but since Bill Paxton's character also drew the same diagrams after undergoing a similar process to Coulson's revival, it's probably all connected.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:15 PM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

why the hell could Creel just suddenly handle the infection from the Obelisk after being reminded of his training by Hydra?
The way he reacted, the Hydra agent might as well have asked "Would you kindly? "

I'm liking it so far. And Reina is back, on her weird mission.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:28 PM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh yes. Even in pulp, I like a little nuance in my antagonists (there are days when I have to be General Talbot in my own small way, and I feel for his frustration), even working at cross-purposes.

I like that Raina's obsession with superpowers seems to be an aesthetic one -- in another life, she'd be rabbiting on about Van Gogh and shooting people to get her hands on an undiscovered watercolour. They're not a means to an end, they're an end in itself.
posted by Mogur at 5:43 AM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Everyone's clear that Skye, Raina, & Agent Cooper are almost definitely Inhumans, right? That's why the Kree cure stuff didn't kook out Skye; that's why Raina can touch the paperweight; that's why Agent Cooper's a 'monster'.

Also, Marvel can't introduce mutants because they're licensed to 20th Century Fox, so Inhumans fit rather nicely.
posted by leotrotsky at 8:31 AM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

No, everyone is not clear on that. Everyone does not read the print version.
posted by Mogur at 8:53 AM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Everyone's clear that Skye, Raina, & Agent Cooper are almost definitely Inhumans, right?

Possibly, but not definitely. There's various indications, particularly at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is building in a way give normal humans powers, that avoids the mutant abilities problem (Fox owns the rights to that word and concept for movies, I think), while not completely disregarding it. 'Cause Marvel wants those characters back, eventually.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:05 AM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

I found it interesting that Raina's shtick seemed less polished and confident, and she was also more obsessed. Yet at the same time she recovered from Creel not buying her line, and used Shield to get the McGuffinite. Also, Creed touched her without her being affected, which I think was subtle forshadowing for the final scene.
posted by happyroach at 9:37 AM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm sure the actor who plays Hunter has his own name, but in my house, he's called "Discount Jonny Lee Miller."

Ok so it's not just me then!
posted by Hold your seahorses at 11:11 AM on October 2, 2014

Also, Creed touched her without her being affected, which I think was subtle forshadowing for the final scene.

Hmm. It would be nice if Lucy Lawless wasn't DEAD dead and eventually became as Capt. Marvel.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:20 AM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

If Lucy Lawless is Captain Marvel, then it's a good thing this is a Whedon show... he's got experience with the whole "climbing out of a graveyard" scene.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 11:25 AM on October 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hmm. It would be nice if Lucy Lawless wasn't DEAD dead and eventually became as Capt. Marvel.

You mispelled "Katee Sackhoff". Nerd.
posted by middleclasstool at 12:06 PM on October 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

I quit watching this show about five episodes into season one (The blandness! It hurts!) but decided to check out the new season based on good word of mouth. And, yeah! It's actually a nicely made bit of spy/SF goofiness and very enjoyable.

I knew a little bit of what happened near the end of last season (Agent Male Model ends up being a baddie, for instance.) but I think I'm picking up a lot from context as well.
posted by brundlefly at 12:09 AM on October 4, 2014

Also, the relationship between Fitz and Big Muscly Science Dude is just slash fiction waiting to happen.
posted by brundlefly at 12:14 AM on October 4, 2014 [4 favorites]

I quit watching this show about five episodes into season one...

You quit one episode too soon! Seriously, everyone thinks that "FZZT" (S01E06) is when the series started getting really good.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:11 AM on October 4, 2014 [2 favorites]

There was a poll a while back on rpg,net as to which episodes were the crucial ones to watch:

3, 5, 7, 8 (maybe) 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 (maybe), 16+

After episode 16 things are pretty good, wth reveals strongly based on the earlier "Boring" stuff.
posted by happyroach at 2:12 PM on October 4, 2014

Thanks, Jacqueline and happyroach. I may have to binge through at least some of S1. I really, really like the MCU and was pretty let down by what I saw of AoS. I want to like it!
posted by brundlefly at 2:36 PM on October 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Am I the only one who would watch an Agent May solo show? She's so consistently the best thing in this.
posted by octothorpe at 6:04 PM on April 23, 2016