S.H.I.E.L.D. Exposed – “The Hub”
More returning characters, more ships and more mysteries! This show is really picking up…
Before we get into the episode review proper, can we talk about the new Marvel logo? Isn’t it spiffy? I wonder if it’s on the new Thor movie too (I know, I haven’t seen it, I’m a terrible fan)
The Hub focuses around, strangely enough, a facility called The Hub. This is just one of many SHIELD facilities around the world and I do love that they name drop the Triskelion, the Ultimate universe’s base of operations for SHIELD (and the continuity the movies are loosely based on). The team arrives and is greeted by a returning Agent Sitwell (Thor, The Avengers, Item 47) and intrdocued to Agent Victoria Hand.
Anyone familiar with comics are instantly distrustful of the red-haired temptress and while she does exhibit some shady motives but she does appear to be on the side of good, trusting Coulson to get Fitz and Ward extracted from their suicide mission before SHIELD destroys the “Overkill Device”. Hand is played by Saffron Burrows and after browsing her IMDB, the only thing I’ve seen that she’s in is Deep Blue Sea, but she’s a solid actress in this episode and I’m always for proper Marvel characters showing up.
Apparently, the rather generically named Overkill weapon is something from the Marvel Universe, having the alternate title of “Overkill Horn”. Yeah, that’s not much better. Fitz and Ward are sent in to disable the device before it’s due to be activated. This episode is big on the character building as Fitz tries desperately to prove himself to be every bit the agent that Ward is, despite Ward assuring him that he is, using the events of FZZT to back that up. The girls, meanwhile, are kept in the dark about the operation and Skye is intent of finding out the truth, enlisting a rather sheepish Simmons into her “bad girl shenanigans”. They manage to get the information (after Simmons uses the knockout gun on Agent Sitwell) and Coulson finds out. He’s naturally pissed but Skye assures him that she did it for the good of the team and asks if he knew. He fobs her off but it’s clear that he didn’t. The team heads off to fetch Fitz and Ward and all’s well that’s end well with the mainplot, let’s get on with…
COULSON WATCH! Victoria Hand has a coupleof knowing comments that slightly throw Coulson off his catchphrase but the crux of the subplot comes into play with the redacted files from Girl in the Flower Dress and Skye’s origins. Coulson had promised to look into the file while they were at the Hub and he came through, revealing that the woman who dropped Skye of at the orphanage was indeed a SHIELD agent. Skye hugs Coulson for finding out what little he did but as he talks with Melinda later in his office, it’s revealed that the SHIELD agent was murdered? Possibly! To find out more, Coulson uses his Level 8 status to get the death/recovery report on a SHIELD agent, but mostly the recovery… in Tahiti! He’s denied access and is visibly worried by this.
Not a bad episode but its mostly character building with little bits of mystery to keep us coming back next week as we deal with the aftermath of Thor: The Dark World in The Well.