S.H.I.E.L.D Exposed – “Ye Who Enter Here”
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” – Dante’s Inferno. Oh boy…
For a race against time, Ye Who Enter Here seems to be taking it’s sweet time for the majority of the episode but damn, you can’t argue with the results.
Skye’s nightmare is both odd and terribly predictable. Coulson and May are parental figures, Skye’s abandonment issues, the flower dress… Wait, flower dress? That’s the sticking point for me. Why a flower dress (and a music box playing ‘Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do‘), especially in an episode with Raina? I can’t even begin to fathom the subtext and meaning for that wardrobe choice, if there even was one for it.
It’s great to see the writers playing with the audience with the reveal of yet another Koenig brother, this time Sam. Sam seems a tad more professional than his brother Billy (who we’ve been interacting with all season. Or have we?) but they both share a joke at Trip’s expense about there being thirteen Koenig brothers. These guys have to be life model decoys, there’s no other reason for this. Regardless, always nice to see Patton Oswalt.
Skye and Raina’s conversation confirms that the blue alien we’ve seen is a Kree, all but confirming that we’re dealing with Inhumans and the city of Attilan. It’s just a shame that we have to wait and let the scenario play out how the writers want, when we pretty much know where they’re going. Speaking of Skye, how awesome was that 2-minute brawl with May-33? It’s good to see the lasting consequences of that encounter and allows Ming-Na Wen to stretch her acting chops. That sounded better in my head…
Ward is on top form as the shit-stirring d-bag that I’ve come to appreciate. His smug mannerisms and non-chalantness at boarding the Bus with a squad of Hydra goons is fantastic to watch and it’s a delight to hate his face for it.
And now, a moment of silence please, for FitzMack. In the most brutal, terrifying and heart-breaking scenes of the episode, Mack turns against his SHIELD friends and seemingly dies. The city’s security system is pretty effective, causing immense agony simply by touching a rune and then turning you into an unstoppable rage monster. Whatever infected our beloved Mack; it corrupted his mind, turned his eyes red and gave him enhanced strength and some kind of durability, shrugging off multiple hits with an Icer and Mockingbird’s comabt skills. When he took a dive into the 100ft hole, I assumed he was a goner but thinking back, he could easily survive that in theory. Poor Fitz though, getting some kind of reconciliation (despite his efforts) with Simmons and then his buddy goes all Hulk and he nearly has to put him down. I hope Mack survived and returns to normal but that’s probably way too much to ask for and that sucks.
So where can we expect the show to go in the mid-season finale? Considering last year brought us an explosive encounter with Deathlok, I can only hope something equally as spectacular and we’ll see What They Become.