Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2, Episode 4: Face My Enemy

Another very good episode this week. Lots of action, snappy dialog, and best of all we got to see Ming-Na Wen in a slinky dress fighting Ming-Na Wen in her bra and panties. This was the greatest episode of Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. ever!!!

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
When a church in Miami burns down (really, God? You let a church burn?) and the only thing that survives is a painting of the Madonna and Child. Oddly enough, the back of the painting contains alien markings identical to the ones Coulson's been drawing on the wall during his nutsy-cuckoo spells.

The painting finds its way to an art auction, and Coulson and May go undercover to steal it, in order to study the alien markings. Everything goes according to plan until Major Glenn Talbot shows up, threatening to blow their cover.

Things take an unexpected turn when May discovers that Talbot isn't really Talbot, but Daniel Whitehall's Lackey in a high tech HYDRA disguise. He incapacitates May, and the Brainwashed Agent 33 uses the high tech mask to assume her identity.

May eventually escapes and we're treated to the awesome sight of Agent May fighting Agent May. Oh, and Coulson gets the painting in the end.

Thoughts:
• The Flash and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. both aired episodes about duplicates on the same night. The Flash fought Mulitplex, a villain that could create multiple copies of himself, and S.H.I.E.L.D. featured Agent May fighting someone disguised as her.

Coincidence? Or part of something more sinister?

Obviously these two episodes aired on the same night as part of a global conspiracy orchestrated by the Anti-Vaxxers, along with the 9/11 Truthers and the Global Warming Deniers as well.

• Once again I have to mention how amazing Agent May looked in that slinky dress. I'm having a hard time believing that actress Ming-Na Wen turns 51 this year. 51! She was born in 1963. 

And not only does she still look incredible, she's kicking and punching and doing all kinds of awesome hand-to-hand combat. We should all look as good at her age.

It actually seemed weird to see Agent May smiling in this episode! She definitely needs to smile more often.

• Man, Brett Dalton, who plays Evil Ward on the show, has a pretty sweet gig right now. Last season he starred in all 22 episodes and shot a ton of fights and physical stunts.

This season all he has to do is show up on set once every three or four episodes and stand behind a glass wall looking crazy. Cool deal, brah!

• Speaking of Evil Ward, when everyone's chilling at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters talking about their exes, Skye casually says, "The guy I had a crush on is now the psycho living in our basement." Whaa??

I was under the impression that Evil Ward's presence was supposed to be a secret. I guess not.

• I still think the evil she-beast of an ex that Lance Hunter's always talking about will turn out to be Mockingbird, who makes an appearance next week. I could be wrong though, but I feel like there's a reason why he keeps mentioning her.
 

• Poor Fitz. It seemed like he was having a relapse this week. Imaginary Simmons was in his head more than ever in this episode.

 • It seems like Tripp hasn't had much to do since the additon of Mack and Hunter. Last season Tripp was providing Coulson with all kinds of cool retro S.H.I.E.L.D. gear, courtesy of his Grandpa. So far this season pretty much all he's done is stand around and look concerned.

• Once again, the Top Secret, We Don't Officially Exist, Super Spy Organization HYDRA slaps their logo all over everything. This week it was even on a goddamned file folder!

Later when the HYDRA troops come after Coulson and May, they've got logos on their backs. So much for secrecy!

• Does Daniel Whitehall's Lackey have a name yet? Because I'm getting really tired of having to type "Daniel Whitehall's Lackey" whenever I have to mention him.

• Brainwashed Agent 33 takes a drop of May's blood and uses it to recreate her appearance on her Face Shifting Mask. A couple of things here.

First of all, I'm pretty sure that's the same mask technology that Black Widow used in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Cool!

Second, using May's blood to get a DNA sample is kind of iffy. Human red blood cells do not contain DNA. That's why we can have transfusions. Only white blood cells contain DNA. I guess Brainwashed Agent 33 got lucky and there must have been one or two white cells in May's drop of blood, or it wouldn't have worked.

• The May on May fight was very well done, especially on a TV budget. And it went on for quite a long time! My favorite move: when Real May leaped into the air, grabbed Fake May's head and smashed it onto the table.

• May gets pinned down by Fake May, who's about to stab her with a pair of scissors. May reaches up and grabs some bare wires from a broken lamp and shoves them into Fake May's face, shocking her unconscious.
 
Fake May was in contact with Real May when she was shocked, so I'm pretty sure the voltage should have knocked them both out. 

• "Laser grids. Why is it always laser grids?"

• So Fake May plants a piece of HYDRA tech in the bus, which systematically overloads its every system, causing dozens of explosions to rock the plane.

Despite hundreds of these explosions, at the end of the episode the Bus is up and flying like nothing every happened. Must be some of that patented S.H.I.E.L.D. technology.
 
• Fitz manages to save the Bus by basically moving some microchips from one slot to another. Well, actually Hunter moves the chips, while Fitz yells what to do.

I honestly don't see how it was any easier for Fitz to tell Hunter what to do was any more efficient than just doing it himself, but whatever. 

You know what bugs me about watching live TV? This kind of crap. You're sitting there watching an exciting scene of your favorite show, and all of a sudden a second show starts up in the goddamned corner.

You know what, ABC? Because of your stupid-ass little promo that disrupted my concentration, I'm now going to go out of my way to not watch your little Toy Story show.
 
• At the end of the episode, Daniel Whitehall kidnaps Raina, sticks some kind of bomb thing on her hand and tells her she has just 48 hours to deliver the Obelisk to him.

 Does Raina have a super power? She starts speaking to Whitehall and he says, "I'm not like most of the people with whom you interact. I'm not easily confused." His statement implies she has some sort of Jedi Mind Trick power.

I thought she was just a femme fatale, but maybe she has superpowers as well.

• Next week Mockingbird appears, and we'll find out if my theory about her and Hunter is correct.