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Published on March 25th, 2015 | by Sharp-O

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S.H.I.E.L.D. Exposed – “Love in the Time of HYDRA”

I’m not calling them the “Real SHIELD”. That’s dumb and not true.  

Love in the Time of HYDRA, a reference to a book I had no prior knowledge of, can easily be described as a boring episode because this is mostly setup for the new SHIELD faction and for the continuing story of Grant Ward: Damaged Goods.

tumblr_nlqybq18UP1upvr5ao2_540 tumblr_nlqybq18UP1upvr5ao1_540First up, Edward James Olmose! Way to add some legitimacy and gravitas to this alternate director. Okay, so Robert Gonzales isn’t technically the director but if you put Olmose in a room full of people, you’re going to assume he’s the authority figure (So Say We All). This cabal of SHIELD includes Agent Weaver, who we haven’t seen since Turn, Turn, Turn so I’m happy to see she’s A) still alive and B) still part of SHIELD, even if it’s not the proper SHIELD. They do raise some legitimate points against Coulson’s regime; The shadiness of Fury plus Coulson’s recent alien troubles call his faculties into question and under any other circumstances, I’d be behind them! The problem is that they’re the antagonists of Phil Coulson, a man so dad-like and adorable that he couldn’t possibly be doing anything wrong so that makes you stand against them and with the man we’ve been following for past few years. Luckily, Hunter isn’t buying their spiel and eventually escapes, thanks in no small part to Bobbi’s inaction, and heads to the mainland and this forces the alternate SHIELD to accelerate their plans.

tumblr_nlrsq8Hew91sh40dyo1_500Coulson takes Skye off the roster and even takes her to one of Fury’s safe houses (one that Steve Rogers once stayed at) and it’s a pretty rough situation and you can understand why he’s doing it but even Coulson admits that he could have handled the situation better. Though he (and May) does have a handle on Mack being a spy.

tumblr_nlr53qtLxI1unw2ozo3_500 tumblr_nlr53qtLxI1unw2ozo4_500I love that Fitz finally calls out Simmons on her bullshit. I understand that she’s cracking under the weight of everything that’s happened but when she’s acting like a zealot in regards to “fixing” Skye, Fitz has it right. She’s changed far more than either he or Skye has because she’s no longer the compassionate friend we once knew. Plus, comparing Skye to the Hulk? Low blow.

tumblr_nlruykkoKu1sh40dyo2_r1_500 tumblr_nlruykkoKu1sh40dyo3_500OH HAI WARD! Grant Ward returns with Agent 33 (aka Kara) and they seem to have quite the rapport but as their scenes go on it gets gradually creepier until I finally clicked that this is grooming! Sure, he’s finally stopped thinking that he and Skye will be a thing (and I chuckled when he pointed out that she shot him because that is STILL funny to me) but while he may seem to be helping Kara, he purposefully lies about killing his family and is actively encouraging her to take revenge on Bakshi, smiling all the way. It’s quite uncomfortable and I can’t wait to see where it goes!

It might be less exciting than previous episodes but still builds a lot of plot points that we’ll be seeing for the rest of the season.

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