S.H.I.E.L.D. Exposed: “Heavy is the Head”
“There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a King.” – Orison Swett Marden
Heavy is the Head is essentially the second part of the season premiere, continuing all of the previous episodes plot threads while foreshadowing stuff we’ll see later.
The title of the episode refers to Coulson. He’s become Director of SHIELD and despite the tech at his disposal, we’ve already heard how he’s been run ragged. Between Hunter’s capture by Talbot and, as we find out, he’s been having episodes of rune drawing that he’s attempted to hold back, he’s different to the light-hearted guy we once knew. He still has a couple cute lines here and there and we even see him play with a holo-display (no doubt derived from Tony Stark’s tech) so we could see him slip back into his old self more or less depending on how the team is tested this season.
Making a surprise return is Raina, acting as an agent for Skye’s mysterious father. She’s after the obelisk and does indeed grab it for her employer, The Doctor. I’m not even kidding, Skye’s father (played by Kyle MacLachlan) is listed in the credits as “The Doctor”.
That’s pretty weird. Almost as weird as Raina being able to handle the obelisk without going full on Vesuvius victim and the runes even glow when she touches it, showing them to be the same the ones Coulson is drawing. The Doctor promises to show her what it means once she brings him Skye.
Creel plays second banana mostly because of the larger players for Hydra and The Doctor are trying to manipulate him. He ends up being bested by Coulson and handed over to Talbot in exchange for some leeway. Coulson backs up his confidence with some dick-swinging as he reveals both the Quinjet and a freshly refurbished Bus, now with added cloaking tech. Though he does lamp-shade the event by recommending they leave before the Bus runs out of fuel.
By far the outstanding portion of the episode for me was the emergence of the BROTP, MackFitz. After the heartbreaking reveal last week, it’s more understandable why the team is a little distant with Fitz but our little techie isn’t truly on his own as the new mechanic, Alphonso ‘Mack’ Mackenzie, becomes my personal hero by looking after the little guy. Mack calls him out for acting like a space-case at first but is soon helping him work through his mental stalling. Even HeadSimmons likes him! Mack and Fitz are on track to becoming the new science duo and I wholeheartedly approve.
A fantastic follow-up to the season premiere so hopefully the series can keep up this head of steam. Next week promises a real shake-up so I’ll catch you guys next week for Making Friends and Influencing People!