Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, Episode 3: Uprising

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back after taking last week off for the incredibly important and riveting vice presidential debate. Yawn.

Sorry about the lame image above. For some reason whenever I search for S.H.I.E.L.D. screencaps, all I can find are incredibly dull ones like this.

So far the storylines are racing along at an amazingly fast clip. That's definitely a good thing, and something I'm not used to. I sat through several interminable seasons of LOST, which took twenty four episodes to tell a story that could have been handled in three or four, and last year I endured eight episodes of The Walking Dead that all took place in the same day. It's refreshing to see some fast-paced plotting now and then.

Sorry, Ghost Rider fans, but your favorite flame-headed vengeance demon doesn't appear in this episode at all. I'm betting his absence is due to that ol' devil the Television Budget.

Parminder Nagra (of Bend It Like Beckham and E.R. fame) joins the cast this week as Senator Nadeer, a rabid Inhuman hater. Is her name supposed to be a play on words? Nadeer? That sounds a lot like "nadir." As in, she's the nadir of humanity. Coincidence, or in-joke?

Lastly, the first five episodes of this season are titled:
1. The Ghost
2. Meet The New Boss
3. Uprising
4. Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire
5. Lockup

I wonder... is every even numbered episode going to be a classic song title or lyric? That would actually be pretty cool. I guess we'll find out in Episode 6.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

Yo-yo's at a bachelorette party in Miami, when something knocks out the power all over the city. Cell phones, cars and aircraft are affected as well, as a helicopter drops from the sky and crashes into a nearby building. Obviously this is no normal power outage.

At S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Director Jeffrey Mace watches a televised message from the Inhuman Resistance, who've taken responsibility for the blackout. The Resistance is protesting the government's Inhuman Registration Program, and threatens to black out a major city every hour until it's repealed. Fitz says the power outage was most likely caused by an EMP device. Mace sends Coulson, Mack and Fitz to Miami to check it out.

Just then, Chen (the Chinese mob boss who was infected by Lucy the ghost in the season premiere) dies in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s medlab. Simmons worries that the same thing will happen to Agent May, who's also suffering from the ghost infection. She tells Mace she knows someone who may be able to help May, and he gives her authorization to do whatever's necessary to save her.

In LA, Robbie tells Daisy he's going to visit his Elias Morrow, his uncle. Morrow is in prison for attempted manslaughter, and used to work at Momentum Labs— the same place where Lucy and her coworkers were changed into "ghosts." Just then a blackout hits LA. Fortunately Robbie's Dodge Charger was built before 1980, so it's not affected by the EMP. He races back home to make sure his younger brother Gabriel, who's in a wheelchair, is OK.

Dr. Radcliffe is working in his lab with AIDA, his Life Model Decoy. Radcliffe deactivates AIDA and hides her shortly before Simmons arrives with May, as he's not ready to debut her yet. Radcliffe examines May, but can't figure out what's wrong with her. He's not even phased when Simmons tells him May was infected by a ghost.

London, LA, Moscow and Miami are now blacked out. Coulson realizes that S.H.I.E.L.D. relocated Inhumans to all those cities, and believes there's surely a connection.

Meanwhile, Robbie and Daisy see a group of looters threatening Gabriel. Robbie punches out several of them without becoming Ghost Rider (hey, those flaming head effects are expensive), while Daisy quakes another one. Once again, without her protective gauntlets, her powers damage the bones in her arms.

In Miami, a group of armed men infiltrate Yo-yo's party, claim they know there's an Inhuman present and demand they hand "it" over. Coulson, Mack and Fitz arrive in the city, and are surprised when their equipment fails. Even Coulson's bionic hand stops working. Fitz deduces that the EMP is continuous, not a single pulse. Back at the party, Yo-yo uses her superspeed to steal the gunmens' weapons. One of her friends sees what she did and squeals. The men begin menacing Yo-yo just as Coulson and the others arrive. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents make quick work of the thugs.

In LA, Robbie, Daisy and Gabriel wait out the blackout and lootings in the Reyes home. Robbie notices Daisy's arm looks pretty gross and alarming, so he runs out to get some medicine for her. Daisy and Gabriel talk. He says he looks out for Robbie instead of the other way around, and doesn't want to see him get hurt. He tells Daisy he knows she's really Quake (since he saw her use her powers to knock a looter for a loop). He says her secret's safe with him as long as she never goes near Robbie again. Gabe then tells her to get lost.

Dr. Radcliffe runs a brain scan on May, and determines that the ghost virus has put her adrenal system into overdrive (technobabble!), causing her to have vivid waking nightmares. He suggests killing her, in order to "reboot" her brain to normal factory settings. Because the human brain is exactly like a computer, dontcha know. Simmons says, "That's so crazy it just might work," and gives May a lethal injection. May dies, and amazingly her brain resets itself. Simmons then grabs the ol' defibrillator paddles to shock her back to life (sigh...). Right on cue, the power goes out as the Inhuman Resistance blacks out another D.C, which I guess is where Radcliffe's lab is located. Drama!

Simmons then starts performing CPR on May to try and bring her back, without much luck. Radcliffe gets an idea— he excuses himself, sneaks into AIDA's closet, removes her power supply and hooks it up to May. She's jolted back to life, with no memory of the past few days.

In Miami, Coulson interrogates the Resistance thugs. He discovers they're really members of the Watchdogs, who were posing as Inhumans to stir up hatred and distrust toward them. 

Fitz uses science to pinpoint the location of the Watchdog's EMP device. He, Coulson, Mack and Yo-yo head out. They find the EMP device in a guarded warehouse. Yo-yo disarms the guards at superspeed, and the others start with the punching again. Fitz shuts down the EMP and the city's power is miraculously restored, which isn't how it works, but whatever.

Couson gives his report to Mace. They realize the Watchdogs couldn't have pulled off their global plan without the help of someone rich and powerful. Coulson suggests they ignore the schedule and reintroduce S.H.I.E.L.D. to the public immediately. Mace agrees, and calls a press conference, announcing that S.H.I.E.L.D. is back. 

Immediately after the announcement, Senator Rota Nadeer appears on TV denouncing S.H.I.E.L.D., saying they're a puppet of the Inhumans, whom she despises and opposes.

In the tag scene, we see Nadeer at home. She gets a call from a Watchdog agent, and says she'll be right there. She tells her brother she's leaving, and we see he's inside a Terrigenesis coccoon in the middle of her living room.

Thoughts:
• It's nighttime when the blackout hits Miami. An hour or so later another blackout hits LA, but it's broad daylight there.

Yes, the two cities are on opposite sides of the country, but  there wouldn't be that big a difference in the sunlight—  they're only three hours apart. Yo-yo was at a party in Miami, so it was probably pretty late— at least 10pm. That means it was 7pm in LA. Plus the Watchdogs were blacking out a city every hour, so LA's power probably went out at 8pm. It definitely should have been dark there.

Who directed this episode, Ed Wood?

• I was really expecting Aida to be "outed" and come out of the closet (heh) in this episode, but Dr. Radcliffe managed to keep her existence a secret from Simmons for another week.

• It was a nice touch when Coulson's bionic hand went kaput when he and the others entered the Miami blackout zone. Looks like Fitz is gonna have a new project when they get back to headquarters— EMP-proofing Coulson's hand!

One thing about his shorted out hand though— the way I understand it, an EMP pulse (yes, I know the "pulse" is redundant) will fry any piece of electronic equipment that's turned on. If something was shut off when the pulse hit, it should still work if switched on later. 

Coulson's hand was most certainly up and running when they entered the constantly-refreshing EMP zone. So it should have been irreparably fried and shouldn't have started working again when the EMP was switched off.

• During the LA blackout, one of the gangbangers touches Robbie's car. When Robbie tells him to get his filthy paws off it, the gangbanger says, "Just admiring her, Holmes." Do people still say "Holmes" in 2016? Or more likely is that how the S.H.I.E.L.D. writers think LA gang members really talk?

• Kudos to the writers for having Dr. Radcliffe say, "You know, it's a myth that we only use 10% of our brains." I don't know how that incredibly erroneous trope ever got started, but it's like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees— it just will not die.

Immediately after his 10% comment, Radcliffe says, "However, it is true that it's only a few neurons that make all the noise. The rest keep quiet." Hmm. I don't know whether that statement's true or not. 

• Dr. Radcliffe tells Simmons it's necessary to kill May in order to "reboot" her brain.

OK, I have a legal question about this. In order to save May, Simmons deliberately gives her a lethal injection of something, and most definitely kills her. She resuscitates her a few minutes later of course, but... would Simmons be considered guilty of murder? Or attempted murder, at the least? I honestly don't know.

• Naturally, the second Simmons kills May, the power goes out so she can't resuscitate her. I KNEW that was going to happen. In fact I called it the minute Radcliffe brought up the idea. You could see it coming down the street from a mile away, like a Thanksgiving Day parade balloon.

• After Simmons kills May, she tries to revive her with defibrillator paddles. Sigh. Do I need to say it again? Defib units DO NOT work that way. You CANNOT use them to jump start a person's heart like you would a car battery. In fact they work just the opposite way— they actually stop (or at least slow down) your heart!

• When they're fighting the looters in LA, Daisy tells Robbie, "Calm down before you go all Carrot Top again!" Actually I think seeing Robbie transform into everyone's least favorite prop comic would be scarier than seeing Ghost Rider.

The Flash Season 1, Episode 7: Power Outage

This week's episode of The Flash was quite the jam-packed affair. Not only did Barry lose his powers, but he got them back with an upgrade to boot. And we got not one, but two villains. Three, if you count the brief return of Girder.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
In a flashback scene, we see the origin of yet another villain who got his powers from the particle accelerator explosion. This time it's a young man named Farooq Gibran, who's watching the particle accelerator come online with his two friends. Farooq is blasted by the wave and becomes and "electricity vampire" called Blackout. He blames Dr. Wells for his transformation, and for the death of his two friends.

In the present, Dr. Wells uses his fancy computer to monitor the news from Barry's future. He tells Barry he needs to "kick it up a notch," whatever that means. Blackout arrives at STAR Labs to exact revenge on Dr. Wells. Barry confronts him, but Blackout zaps him and feeds on his energy or life force or something, which steals his speed. When Dr. Wells checks his computer again, he discovers the future's been altered and there's no mention of the Flash anywhere.

Now powerless, Barry begs the STAR Labs Gang to restore his super speed. Dr. Wells suggest "jump starting" him with an electrical charge similar to the lightning that gave him his powers in the first place. It's dangerous, but when Blackout breaks into the Lab, Barry realizes he has no choice and goes through with it. Unfortunately the jump start doesn't work.

Dr. Wells is bummed about the power loss, but he seems less concerned with Barry's health and more upset that the future's been altered. He secretly frees Girder from his cell as a diversion. Blackout attacks Girder and kills him. Whoops! So much for a rematch between him and Barry.

Eventually the STAR Labs Gang figures out that Barry's powers are back, but he's suffering from performance anxiety. He finally gets his groove back when he sees Blackout is about to fry Dr. Wells. He rescues him at very super speed, traveling faster than Blackout's lightning bolts. One of Blackout's stray bolts catches him though, and he begins to feed on Barry's energy. It's too much for him to handle though, and he overloads and dies.

Meanwhile, the Clock King takes a short leave from Arrow and holds the entire Central City Police Department hostage. Detective West, Eddie and Iris are all inside and in danger. Eddie's shot but gets better later, and Iris ends up taking out the Clock King by herself, without the Flash's help.

In the Obligatory Creepy Dr. Wells Tag Scene, Creepy Dr. Wells checks his computer and sees that the future's back to normal. He then takes some blood from Blackout's body and chuckles to himself that he can use it to unlock the secret of the Flash's super speed.

Thoughts:
• The title of this week's episode is pretty clever, referring both to Blackout's power and Barry's loss of his speed.

• Blackout is a newer character who was introduced in the 2011 miniseries Flashpoint. This TV version has little or nothing to do with the comic version.

• Farooq is transformed into Blackout by the particle accelerator wave. Man, the show's really getting its money's worth out of that explosion. I hope that's not gonna be the origin of every metahuman all season, or it's going to get old fast.

• As the wave approaches, Farooq warns his two friends to get in the car. So apparently a car can shield you from a particle accelerator wave. Good to know.

• Barry tells Caitlin how much he enjoys being the Flash and having super speed. What a refreshing attitude! I've grown very weary of DC's stable of grim, mopey superheroes who resent their powers. It's nice to finally see someone who enjoys being super.

• This is some hardcore nitpicking, but here goes. Barry stops for coffee on the way to work (although apparently not at the same place where Iris works) and is frustrated to see a long line. He then uses his super speed to make everyone's coffee for them, including his own.

A couple things here. First of all, unless this coffee shop offers just one type of coffee, there's no way in hell he could possibly know what everyone wanted. 

Secondly, Barry might have super speed, but the espresso machine doesn't. Unless he can make objects speed up by touching them, the coffee's going to pour out of the spigot at the normal rate. He'll be super frustrated as he watches the stream of coffee pour excruciatingly slowly into the cups.

Told you it was hardcore!

• Outside the coffee shop, Barry's held up by a mugger. He smiles broadly as he uses his super speed to disarm him, remove his clothing and bring a cop over to arrest him, all in the blink of an eye.

So what's the cop supposed to do? By the time the cop appears, Barry's already taken the mugger's gun away. Unless he whispered in the cop's ear at super speed, all he's going to be able to do is arrest him for wearing his underwear in public.

• Dr. Wells' futuristic computer has a female voice and is called Gideon. Is that something from the comic? I'm assuming the name is somehow relevant, but if it is I'm not sure how.

• Dr. Wells tells Barry that his super speed could lead to dozens of discoveries and medical breakthroughs. He conveniently leaves out the part about how that might work though. He then tells Barry that "Speed is the key to progress. You need to kick it up a notch."

I'm not quite sure what he means here. Does he think Barry's been slacking? Does he think he can run faster and just hasn't been doing so? Has he been watching too much Emeril?

• When Barry loses his powers, Dr. Wells checks his futuristic newspaper and sees that it's changed. There's no longer any reference to the Flash in it, which causes him to freak out.

This pretty much cements the idea that Wells is from the future. If the future is changing, might that mean he could change as well? Or even disappear altogether, Back To The Future style? No wonder he's so anxious to restore events!

And by the way, that headline in the altered newspaper about the Postal Service collapsing in 2024? Haw! I wouldn't be surprised if we see that particular news item long before then.

• Blackout attacks Barry and sucks the life force or speed energy or something from him, rendering him powerless.

That's definitely bad news for Barry. But what about the fact that there also appears to be a lightning bolt going.completely through his chest? Shouldn't that kill him? Or is his "altered" DNA protecting him somehow?

• After Barry loses his powers, he mentions he had to make his way back to STAR Labs by using Uber. I wonder if someone watching this episode ten years from now is going to scratch their head at that reference.

• Caitlin is puzzled by Barry's loss of power. She says his DNA was transformed by the lightning strike, and it's not possible to untransform DNA.

Why not? If lightning can transform him, why can't another strike untransform him? Seems reasonable to me.

• I had a feeling we'd see Girder again at some point, but I didn't think it would be this soon. The second that Dr. Wells got up out of his wheelchair and stood in front of Girder, I knew he was toast. He wouldn't have revealed his secret to him if he expected him to survive the encounter. Too bad. He could have been a fun character to keep around.

• When Barry learns that Dr. Wells released Girder as a diversion to buy them more time, he accuses him of using them all as pawns in an unholy chess game. He's right of course, and I was interested in seeing just how this would drive a wedge between the two of them.

Then after the commercial break the whole matter is apparently forgotten. I guess Barry also forgives at super speed.

Girder's death also neatly wipes out Barry's boneheaded move to reveal his secret identity to him last week. Well, that was certainly convenient!

• Over at the Central City Police Department, William Tockman, aka The Clock King, escapes custody and holds everyone inside hostage.

Clock King made his debut over on Arrow in Season 2 . He was a former employee of Kord Industries (which I assume is a nod to Ted Kord, aka the Blue Beetle) who suffers from MacGregor's Syndrome, a fatal made-up disease. He's using his remaining time to steal money to help his sister, who has cystic fibrosis. Talk about your hard luck cases!

He tells Detective West he's trying to escape from custody sohe can say one last goodbye to his sister.

Sigh... must we make every single super villain sympathetic? Must they all be poor, misguided souls? Why do their illegal activities always have to be justified somehow? Why can't a villain just be evil for the hell of it? I guess it's a sign of the times we live in.

By the way, this MacGreggor's Syndrome that Clock King has? That's the exact same disease that Mr. Freeze's wife Nora had in 1997's Batman And Robin. You know, I love all this world building and the shared universe concept. But associating yourself with that particular cinematic turd is a bad, bad idea.

• Eddie Thawne tries to take out Clock King, but is shot and wounded in the process. So I guess that pretty much torpedoes the idea that Eddie is secretly the Reverse Flash. If he was, he'd have simply zipped out of the way of the bullets, right?

Maybe he's just not the Reverse Flash yet.

By the way, I really wish the comic writers had come up with a better name than "Reverse Flash." If he's truly the reverse of the flash, then wouldn't he be... slow? His other name, Professor Zoom, ain't much lot better.

• Blackout stalks the corridors of STAR Labs, looking for Dr. Wells. When Wells tells Barry that he's going to have to kill the electrical intruder, he balks at the notion. Dr. Wells screams, "HE'S A MURDERER!" 

That's an interesting thing to say, considering he's killed at least two people since the series began.

• Blackout says the average person generates 342 watts of electricity. A quick trip to Google tells us that the amount is variable, depending on what a person is doing. You generate around 500 watts when you're running, and about 100 when you're lying on the couch. So I'll give them this one, even if the amount mentioned is oddly specific.

• When confronted by Blackout, Dr. Wells recites a list of names of people who died as a result of his particle accelerator explosion. This list is a goldmine of DC Comics character references.

He mentions Blackout's friends Jake and Darya, who were most likely made up for the show. He then mentions Ralph Dibney (who's the Elongated Man), Al Rothstein (Atom Smasher), Grant Emerson (Damage), Will Everett (Amazing Man), Bea DaCosta (Fire) and Ronnie Raymond (Firestorm). 

It's implied that these people are all dead, but we know for a fact Firestorm is going to make an appearance soon. Who know, maybe the others on the list will as well.

• Barry gets his powers back— and then some— right as Blackout attacks Dr. Wells. From Barry's accelerated point of view, Blackout's lightning bolts slowly make their way across the room toward Wells. It was a very well done scene.

It also means that Barry is now moving much faster than the speed of sound, which has sort of been his limit the past few episodes. Much, much faster. The speed of lightning is variable as it travels through the atmosphere, but most people agree it's around 220,000 mph. Barry had to be running even faster than that! Speedy!

• Blackout tries to absorb Barry's powers again, but this time it's too much for him and he overloaded and dies. Caitlin very seriously tells Barry, "He choked on you." Ahem. Surely there was a better way to phrase that sentence.

• Barry visits Eddie in the hospital and brings him flowers. A nice gesture I suppose, but do guys really do that for other guys?

• So... how is Dr. Wells planning on keeping Blackout's dead body in his super jail? Are the cells refrigerated? 

Wells then extracts some (dead) blood from Blackout, saying it's the key to unlocking the mystery of Barry's super speed. It's all he can do to keep from throwing his head back and letting loose with a patented evil laugh at this point.

This is obviously meant to suggest that it's Dr. Wells who becomes the Reverse Flash instead of Eddie, but at this point, who knows?

• Next week: The Flash/Arrow crossover event! Cool! Now if only the people in charge of DC Comic TV shows were in charge of the movies.

Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1, Episode 19: The Only Light In The Darkness

Another solid episode this week, as we get more of Evil Ward, an actual super villain from the comics, an unexpected death and at long last the appearance of Coulson's ex! Oh, and Skye becomes somewhat likable. Amazing!

BIG SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Plot:
After Garrett frees all the prisoners from the Fridge, super powered inmate Marcus Daniels (aka Blackout) travels to Portland to reconnect with his old flame Audrey Nathan. The same Audrey Nathan who just happens to be Coulson's long talked-about old flame. Coulson splits up the Team and takes FitzSimmons and Triplett to Portland to save Audrey from Daniels.

Meanwhile back at the secret Providence Base, Ward kills Agent Koenig, and Skye discovers he's working for HYDRA.

Thoughts:
• Dang it! I really liked Agent Koenig! Or I guess I should say I liked Patton Oswalt, as he was pretty much playing himself here. I can't believe they offed him after just two episodes. Surely his voice-over work on The Goldbergs doesn't take up that much of his time.

By the way, Koenig was an obscure character from the comics.

• It looks like there's no question now that Ward is a full-fledged HYDRA agent. A few weeks ago I thought maybe he was being mind controlled, or Nick Fury had given him some top secret deep cover HYDRA infiltration mission, but every dead body he leaves in his wake makes that seem less likely. I don't see any way for him to ever rejoin the Team at this point. 

Do not be surprised if in the season finale he takes a shot at redemption by scarifying himself for Skye or something like that.

By the way, now that we know Ward's an evil killer, we could say he's now Psycho Ward. Eh? Get it? Com-O-Dee!

• Agent Koenig forces everyone on the Team to take a souped-up S.H.I.E.L.D. lie detector test before he'll trust them. The test gave us lots of insight into the various characters. We learn that May was married, and Triplett's grandpaw was one of the Howling Commandos (presumably Gabe Jones). And Simmons is a big Doctor Who fan!

During Skye's test she reveals she her orphanage named her "Mary Sue Poots." Ha! I've been saying all season that Skye's pretty much a Mary Sue (an audience surrogate character who never has to work for their wild success). Was this name the creator's way of admitting they're guilty as charged, or just a coincidence?

• During the lie detector test, Koenig asks everyone if they've ever had contact with Alexander Pierce or heard of Project Insight. Those are both references from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Pierce was the HYDRA leader played by Robert Redford, and Project Insight was the plan to kill "undesirables" with a fleet of helicarriers.

• Speaking of references, Black Widow gets yet another name drop this week, as does Bruce Banner.

• This week's episode was rife with coincidence, the crutch of the lay writer. Daniels just happens to get released and immediately heads for his ex, who just happens to be Coulson's girlfriend. Ward needs to decrypt the S.H.I.E.L.D. hard drive, and the only person who can do it is his crush Skye. Coulson just happens to split up the Team, leaving Skye and Koenig alone with Evil Ward. And on and on.

• It's cool that we finally got an honest-to-Thor super villain on this show, but...Blackout seemed more like a bad guy who wandered off the Smallville or Supernatural sets. 

I get that it might have been a bit jarring if Blackout showed up wearing his comic book costume, but cheezus… surely they could have done a bit better than a guy in a trench coat.

By the way, there are two Blackouts in the Marvel Universe. The second was a Ghost Rider villain, who was a half-demon albino who could generate a light absorbing field.

• Blackout had a visually interesting power; too bad we didn't get to see him use it very often. I guess there just wasn't enoguh money in the budget for more Darkforce rays. 

The way his powers worked were also a bit vague. In the teaser he kills a guy by… I don't know. Sucking the light out of him? Absorbing his life force? Who knows? Whatever he did, it established him as a very dangerous entity who could kill with but a touch. Yet later in the show he shoots purplish black rays at Coulson and the others, and all it seems to do is knock them on their asses.  

• After Ward kills Koenig, he sets a penny on top of the storage room door as a makeshift intruder alert, so he'll know if Skye's been snooping. After tripping his detector, she's smart enough to replace the penny so Ward doesn't know she's discovered his treachery.

I'll admit it took me a while to figure out what the whole penny thing was all about. Koenig's body was stashed in the ceiling, so for a minute I just thought change was raining from his pockets every time someone opened the door!

 

• Coulson uses Audrey as bait to capture Daniels, by having her play her cello in an abandoned theater. Do cellists really sit like that when they play? Especially lady cellists? I suppose there's no other way to hold one, but seeing her squatting behind her cello with her legs splayed wide open was the least attractive thing I've seen in quite a while.

• Speaking of Audrey, Coulson's been talking about her ever since The Avengers, and then when we finally get to see her they have absolutely zero interaction. It seems odd that after all this buildup the two don't even get to speak to one another.

• There's no reason I can think of for Coulson to not let Audrey know he's still alive. He gives a weak excuse that she needs more time to heal or something, but it's pretty obvious that they don't want to waste this big revelation on the TV show and are saving it up for The Avengers 2.

It strains credulity though that none of the Avengers know he's really alive. Jeez, Captain America and Black Widow both work for S.H.I.E.L.D.; you'd think at some point during the past two years they'd have passed Coulson in the hall.

• I can't believe I'm saying this, but Skye came perilously close to being likable in this episode. I've been ragging on her character all season, but I'll admit I was actually worried for her safety this week. I know I'm not the only one who actively dislikes the character-- have the writers finally heard our complaints and taken steps to make her less annoying?

Three more episodes to go!