Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D S01E03: The Asset (Spoilers)

Cafe Society
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Invisible forces hijack a SHIELD caravan and kidnap Professor Hall, a former teacher of FitzSimmons. Learning of this assignment allows Skye to take a break from her halfhearted training session with Ward. Investigating the crime scene they find an acorn sized object that was able to upend gravity and destroy the semi. The evidence also shows that there must be a Mole in SHIELD that let them know where this transport was going to be. Tracing back the non crazy-comic book equipment to their source the team is able to surmise that Quinn, a mining magnate, was behind the kidnapping. Quinn had created the acorn sized gravitron using plans created by Professor Hall when they were young associates. He offers Hall to work on a 12 foot model, who’s purpose I didn’t quite pick up, but looked very cool. Quinn’s compound is located in Malta, which is outside of SHIELD’s jurisdiction.

Skye uses her elite telephone hacking skills to finagle an invitation to a party at the compound. Skye is caught trying to break into the office while there and talks her way out by admitting that she is working with SHIELD and playing the double agent. She plays the double agent role convincingly, and takes out her Jane Bond cosmetic mirror to turn on the SHIELD Server Highjacking machine. A rusty Coulson and Ward are able to get onto the compound now. Coulson heads to the basement and finds that Hall is happily gravitronning it up and has no desire to be saved. In fact, his plan is to destroy the device and Quinn along with it. In his mind it is too powerful for anyone, including SHIELD. This is when May figures out that Hall was the mole. Meanwhile, Quinn figured out where her loyalties lied and has a gun pointed at Skye. Surprising no one (except Quinn), she disarmed him using Ward’s move. When Quinn repeated Ward’s question about whether or not she had what it took to pull the trigger she jumped out the conveniently located window into the compound’s swimming pool. Coulson finds out that the gravity machine can really do it’s thing when he attempts to convince Hall to come with him while they are both walking on the ceiling. Skye gets out of the pool and is quickly overtaken by security. She’s overwhelmed. Ward shows up just in time to kung fu all of the guards. They both go down to the basement to see that Hall refuses to turn off the machine. Coulson needs to find a catalyst to turn it off. Coulson makes the decision to use Hall as a catalyst (somehow?) and shoots a hole in the window, which is now the floor. The day is saved. (FOR NOW!?)

Later, back at the ship Skye is wholeheartedly working at her exercises, when Ward comes down and they have a nice moment. Coulson makes sure that SHIELD is locking up the gravity device and forgetting about it. May comes to Coulson mocks his rusty skills, and declares her decision to be in on combat missions for now on. After the credits we get a trip to SHIELD headquarters and we see a hand jump out of the device’s goo and then quickly go back in.

Fun things I liked:
Fitz (or is that Simmons) eating popcorn while he listens in on the mission.
Fitz’s Boobs comment.
May’s “Yeah, you died” after Coulson said he worked with the Avengers.
The Truth Serum uncertainty.
The stereotypical trucker working for a office supply chain who turns out to be a SHIELD agent in a high tech truck.
The cowboy with gold scene.
The “invitation, well an e-vite” gag.
The gravity device in the safe.

Boring things I disliked:
The special effects for Hall in the device. Just have him scream off camera, that’s fine with me.
The dialog with Skye shoehorning Ward’s speech from earlier to describe SHIELD. Sometimes callbacks try too hard.
How quickly May decided to go back into combat.
I’m not sure I understood why they couldn’t destroy the gravity device.

I thought this was a great episode. They were able to move characters along in mostly acceptable ways, and the action was fun. I hope people who complained about last episode’s device found this one comic-booky enough. One of the points of these early episodes is to show Skye integrate into the team. This episode did a good job of showing her buying into the program. On the other hand, as I mentioned, I didn’t really buy May’s decision to go back into a dedicated combat role. If it had been an episode where she spent long spans of time worried about what was going on with nothing she could do, and they really showed her worry, I think I would have believed it more. And, I guess that is what they were going for, but the one line to Ward wasn’t enough to sell the idea to me. That’s a small quibble about a fun episode. I thought the actors who played both Profressor Hall and Quinn did a good job. I didn’t really understand why throwing Hall into the gravity device would do turn it off, but my first thought when he went in was “Hey! Super-villain!” Maybe “Hall would have wanted it that way” is a bad reason to Raiders the Lost Arc the device, instead of destroying it. But, if it makes for a fun episode in the future and a good bad guy I am ok with it. The fact they didn’t slingshot that thing right away is irrefutable proof that comic books are written differently in this Marvel Universe. Coulson, I’m sure read all of the comics growing up.

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Didn’t see a thread yet, so hope no one minds if I go ahead.

This one’s a caper involving a substance called “gravitonium” (probably found in the same locations as the upsydaisium from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons) and a kidnapped SHIELD scientist who also happens to be one of Fitz-Simmons former instructors and, it turns out, doesn’t want to be rescued. Skye and Ward bond, sort of, a little, and the wascally little hacktivist gets to wear a nice frock and have her uncertain loyalty to Coulson’s crew tested. Short sequence on the back end of the ep suggests that this storyline will be revisited.

I rather enjoyed this one, particularly the touch of the surreal surrounding gravitonium’s effects, and the dry, droll performance of the ‘kidnapped’ scientist, and despite some questionable turns to the plot. For example, given that the team ran roughshod over Peru’s sovereignity last week, Coulson’s squeamishness about offending frickin’ Malta was fairly amusing.

We learn a bit about Skye and Ward’s back stories although nothing that’s revealed comes off as very surprising, and there is some development of the recurring theme of conflict between SHIELD’S suppression of the weird and WikiLeak…I mean, Rising Tide’s embracing of it.

Ok, I’ll step aside now.

MODERATOR NOTE: There was an existing thread, and I’ve merged the two. – CKDH

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I call the supervillian name for the professor in the gravitonium as Dr. Gravity!

That wasn’t too bad; I think Skye is all-in now, unless she’s in deep-cover.

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Graviton, because Marvel already has a villain by that name whose real name is Dr. Franklin Hall.

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I had written up another synopsis in this thread up, so hopefully the mods can merge the two threads.

The way I took is that Peru’s government was publicly ok with SHIELD coming in. Coulson’s old flame was acting on her own. Malta, on the other hand, is dead set against any foreign power doing anything at all in their country.

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This doctor’s name was Dr. Franklin Hall? He is going to be Dr. Gravity, then, won’t he?

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Two very, very minor quibbles : when Ward took the shotgun from the cowboy, we distinctly heard a slide action being pumped. The gun was a side-by-side double-barrelled shotgun. Shame on you, sound effects guy !

The second one. In all the clips they showed previous to airing the episode, they showed the scene where Skye jumps in the pool. Every time they showed it, you could see her panties. The scene in the episode, they show an (probably) alternate take where the panties are not visible. I guess the censors got to them, but wouldn’t it have been easier to choose one and to stick with it in the first place ?

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I thought it was fairly routine superhero stuff. The characters just aren’t coming to life for me, and it was missing the sort of Joss Whedon panache that livened up the premiere.

The Skye and Quinn relationship seems very by the book, and Quinn doesn’t have much of a personality. The opening seemed a little contrived (what was the point of hiding Hall in the truck? Why not transport him by air?) and the “sting” at the end was pretty damn obvious. As was showing the change in Skye at the end.

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All in all a very ordinary episode. Still better than 99% of the crap on this year, but it didn’t wow me.

We really needed some long, lingering shots of Skye climbing out of the pool, her dress clinging to her like Saran-wrap. I’m easy to please that way. :smiley:

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This was the first episode I saw. Unfortunately -
[ul][li]The fight scenes are lame beyond belief. Extreme examples of the meme where the bad guys are constrained to attack the hero one at a time, and not try to use their sidearms to shoot him, but fight hand-to-hand until knocked into a swimming pool, which instantly disables them.[/li][li]The scenes where Skye is punching the heavy bag - equally lame, if not moreso. If she can learn a gun disarm in a few seconds such that she can bring it off in combat, why can’t she do more than play pattycake with the heavy bag?[/li][li]OK, magic laser screen that no one can cross. How did the security guards get out?[/li][li]Really - storming the castle in a suit?[/li][li]The castle is so big that Skye has to look around for the scientist, but the SHIELD infiltrator in the suit walks directly to the correct room.[/li][li]The SHIELD guy in the suit has a scrape on the right side of his face he incurred when gravity was going wild, or whatever. When the Asian woman is trying to get assigned to combat, it is gone. [/ul][/li]It’s too bad, I was looking forward to this show.

Regards,
Shodan

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No-as I stated, Marvel Comics(which this is based on) already has a character called “Graviton” with an origin story(and name) that somewhat matches up with the one in the episode. Why would they go through all that then come up with a new name for the character?

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Besides, Dr. Gravity was a character in the box office flop Kick Ass 2. Marvel (and Disney) do try not to engage in lawsuits over names for the most part.

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So Coulson’s inability to rack the slide on his pistol has to be related to his death and Tahiti, doesn’t it? Especially since he called it “muscle memory”, implying the body he’s in isn’t the same one he’s used before.

I did like his complaint that Fury had ruined his card collection.

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I enjoyed this ep far, FAR more than the last one: at least the threat was a credible one, as opposed to “laser that might blow up”. And I appreciated the use of existing Marvel stuff.

And one of the second-banana characters “Mack, the truck driver” (Mack Truck? Really?) was exceptional with the…what…10 lines he was given? I’d actually like to see him in more eps.

That said:

  1. Regarding that last bit about how SHIELD will take care of Skye? No. Just…no. SHIELD is NOT a lame-ass support group where everyone’s family and you’ll never get fired because we wuv oo. I hope that’s just a line of bullshit, because if it’s not, I’m dropping the show. SHIELD shouldn’t care if you’re broken or not, as long as you can get the job done.

  2. The rich guy who kidnapped Hall was another bad actor. Not as horrible as Peru-chick from last ep. but…lord…where in hell is Joss getting these people? One of his strengths is finding relative unknowns and bringing out their best. Even the most generic monster-du-jour in Buffy showed more acting chops than these last two bozos. (That said, the main thug of the rich guy (the bald white one who looked like a refrigerator,) was just a fantastic bit of casting. The guy could have a career as a goon). Graviton was good.

  3. Everyone’s too whiny. Look at I-Spy (especially) or Man from UNCLE…that’s what I want. Maybe with a little more heart, but I don’t want soppy encounter group drivel. Yes, let’s get to know the characters, but maybe a little more organically than the encounter group crap we got here. (Unless this is whatshisface scamming Skye, in which case, awesome)

  4. There’s still some element missing from the cast. They need a snarker. The group just isn’t clicking (part of the problem is that one of the two nerds is superfluous–ditch one and get someone snarky/funny)

  5. The dialogue just isn’t up to Joss’s standards. He needs to either train his writers or…I dunno…something. It’s not horrible (mostly) but still, if Joss’s name is on a show, I’m watching it for the dialogue (I’m certainly not watching it for the plotting or character development :wink: )

  6. Some of it was sloppy–why was Colson in a suit for the assault. Why weren’t they both in camo gear? Or better, some sort of high-tech camo gear. Again, Fringe shouldn’t be cooler than SHIELD. (And my best friend caught the shotgun bit that someone upthread mentioned and said how stupidly sloppy it was.)

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I suspect that’s going to be a running joke in the show. Coulson’s ALWAYS in a suit - he was running around the Peruvian jungle in a suit, there was even a scene in this ep where, I think, he was picking out his suit for the assault, from a closet full of them. Hey, maybe Edna Mode is his tailor and they have, er, special capabilities.

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That’s what I was expecting - some sort of high-tech suit that would disable enemy cameras or repel stains or something. If we’re lucky, The Cavalry will provide some witty banter and snark now that she will be more active in the field. That will also allow Coulson to go back to being the leader, not a field grunt.

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He kinda does. He was Lazer or Blazer or some kind of -azer in Dodgeball(far left).

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I actually had to stop the show to bitch about this to my wife. Stupid!

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My take on the switch to wanting active combat was that she is worried about Coulson. She sees that he is putting himself in danger, so by stepping up she is protecting him.

Isn’t Malta part of the EU?

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In OUR universe Malta is part of the EU. Who can say about Malta in Universe 199,999?