Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D S01E09: Repairs

Cafe Society
1

Directed by Billy Gierhart
Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon

A somber, very creepy May focused episode has the team investigating a mysterious force revolving around Hannah Hutchins, a quality control inspector at a particle accelerator that exploded on her watch. While investigating the mystery we are treated with several versions of the origin of the Cavalry and a closer look at what makes May tick. We are also “treated” to a prank storyline involving FitzSimmons with Skye as their target. Throughout the episode there are allusions to broken people and things along with the repairs to these people, things and problems.

The episode opens with Hutchins buying paper supplies and milk at the Batesville Roxxon gas and convenience store. The clerk recognizes her as someone who was at fault for killing his friend Jack Benson. Right when he starts to threaten her cans start flying at the clerk, and she denies making it happen. The clerk runs outside to find the gas pumps pouring out gas, and we are shown the interior of the store with the woman praying and asking for it not to happen again.

Ward and May are together in the hotel the morning after events of last episode. I guess that answers that question. More than just talking took place over that prop whiskey the night before. May gets a call about a new assignment, and while Ward is going over the plan on how to get back to the plane, May is already gone.

Skye’s hacker skills are, apparently, less valuable to SHIELD than her ability to understand people. Coulson wants her to pay special attention to the Indexed Asset Evaluation and Intake to find out whether or not Hutchins has telekinetic powers. Skye is happy to take the job, but rejects the name. It’s probably good that they didn’t use an abbreviation (IAEI) for it when they approached Hutchins. She would have assumed they were from her union, with more questions about the explosion.

Coulson brings along May and Ward to talk to Hannah. Hannah’s house is surrounded by upset townspeople and local police. While Coulson talks to her the crowd gets rowdier, and a car with no driver starts driving towards the crowd. The local sheriff is understandably upset and points his gun at who Hannah, assuming she caused the car to drive, somehow. Before things get out of hand May takes it upon herself to tranq Hannah. This doesn’t phase Coulson, but Skye and Ward both seem pretty freaked out by it.

Back on the plane Hannah is locked up. Coulson and May go talk to her to see what is going on. Hannah thinks she is being punished by god and he no longer protects her from demons.

FitzSimmpons remembering their fun times at the Academy decide to tell a highly exaggerated account of The Cavalry’s origin. Their story involves riding horses and hundreds of deaths.

The team is together discussing Hannah’s apparent literal demons, and what might be causing them, as someone stands in the background watching them. When I first spotted them I thought “aha! So, there are other people on the plane. Maybe, that’s who drove FitzSimmons to the spot earlier.” And, then he disappeared and the frights began.

May denies Skye’s request to talk to Hannah. When May is telling Skye that Hannah has to be locked up one of Coulson’s nick nacks gets thrown to the floor. Skye complains to Ward about May’s hard assedness. Ward defends May, and tells Skye to cut her some slack. He gives a new version of The Cavalry’s origin. His version has 20 trained assassins and one pistol.

Skye finds evidence that there was one worker who complained about safety deficits twice before the explosion.

While Simmons is investigating the explosion we’re faked out with a bit of silly creepiness as the screen goes to Fitz in a gas mask. Fitz leaves to get some equipment and a mop. While gone Simmons sees what she thinks looks like a window on the explosion. While looking at it the ghost appears and shit gets way creepy as he says “FROM HELL” in answer to her question about where the window leands and breaks the fancy computer with a wrench. He then turns the plane’s power off which forces the plane to crash land.

Skye volunteers to let Hannah know the good news that they are being attacked by an outside entity and she is not at fault. Skye lets her know what is going on, and does her best '70s guitar wielding nun impression to let Hannah know god wouldn’t punish her. God is love, she says, he wouldn’t punish a mistake, he would forgive a mistake. May overhears this and seems to enjoy the message as well.

FitzSimmons, based on what they saw, and the word from Thor realize that window was between an alien world. Simmons speculates that this is the answer for many ghost stories. Is this a possibility for Caspar/SHIELD crossover episode?

FitzSimmons go to repair the power station that was destroyed by the ghost. The ghost shoves them into a room and Ward comes to the rescue. He has trouble fighting the ghost, since it keeps disappearing.

Finally, Coulson gives Skye the accurate May story. Coulson and May were a part of a team that was trying to investigate a powered individual. Followers of the individual took a civilian girl and a few agents hostage. May went in and took out the enemy force and when she came out she was a different person.
The ghost shows up and threatens Coulson and Skye, saying “Let me in or let her out.”
May is in a room alone and senses the ghost.
In what may be the best scene in the series so far, i(n fact, the rest of the episode could have been the team playing war and I still would have rated it highly because of this scene) May is in a room. The lights go out. We see the ghost in the background. The lights go out. May is alone and sensing something. The lights go out. The ghost is right behind May about to swing his wrench. The lights go out. May is gone and the ghost is swinging at air.
May used his time of confusion to get Hannah and escape the plane. She is using Hannah as bait to lead the ghost away from the plane and her people.

Skye figures out that Tobias Ford (who it turns out, is the ghost) isn’t out to harm Hannah, but is protecting her, because he liked her. May comes to the same conclusion during their fight, when he makes himself vulnerable to save Hannah from a falling log. Tobias admits what he has done, and May gives her the tough love speech that Coulson gave her to enable Tobias to let go and leave Hannah alone. Tobias holds Hannah’s hands and allows himself to disappear into the alien planet, or hell. Whatever it was.

Skye goes up to the cockpit and offers to keep May company while they take off. May doesn’t say no. At the end of the episode we see Fitz with his face covered with whipped cream. After everyone denies the prank May is shown in the cockipit with a smile on her face. I guess she is fixable after all.

I thought this episode was effectively atmospheric and creepy, while doing an excellent job of telling May’s story. I thought a lot of the prank stuff fell flat and felt stupid, but that was made up for by the fact that we got to see May smile, and more importantly by the scene where Fitz absolutely screams at the mop prank he made. Other than that, though, almost all of the attempts at humor seemed a bit forced. After last week’s laugh riot, I think this can be forgiven.

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Shouldn’t this plane have its own flight crew?

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Not necessarily. As you noted, they’ve apparently developed a routine. So the scene we saw last week might have been the first hook-up in a series and it might be a few weeks since the previous episode. Alternately, last episode’s scene was last night and that means May and Ward have been hooking up off-camera for several episodes now.

4

Not bad. Gave us some character development with May and Skye, Coulson lost his Dick Tracy wrist watch, and Ward got to be Ward. I am concerned about the lack of crew on that jet, however. Seems like no matter how automated it is, it would need a few more flight crew than just May.

5

Fine episode.

6

Great episode but I’m a little disappointed with May’s prank at the very end. It seems to me, if she were to pull a prank, it would be one of epic proportions, not some stupid shaving cream on the hand prank.

7

Let her ease back into it. She’s forgotten how to have fun, remember?

I also liked the call-out to Marvel’s Universe numbering.

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Far and away, I thought the guest who played Hannah Hutchins was terrific. I think this is the second time (third if you want to add J August Richards) that they found a really good actor and squandered the find on a one shot role.

Ford stalking May and her response in the flickering lights was probably the best sequence I’ve seen in this entire program.

At some point they have to stop giving the characters lines like “telekinesis? But that’s unpossible!” It’s been established that they live in a world where a god dropped out of a sky in a tornado and an angry green guy can smash giant space dragons without getting winded.

Once again, they need to dig deeper into the Marvel universe. These plots have been a little thin, they need to dive deeper into the mythos and start building their world. I imagine it’s coming.

9

Yes, I had to pause and rant for a while. First, they disbelieved the TK. Then, when she claims that it’s demons, they are skeptical, even though there are any number of in-universe explanations that could look like demons to the uninitiated. Then, when they have evidence that there is someone else involved and the suspected TK person is locked in a cell, stuff starts falling off walls and no one even wonders if there is a connection. Stop being incredibly stupid, please.

And then Ward knows that he is hunting a literal invisible man. So what does he do? Shines a flashlight down a corridor, announces “clear!” and drops his guard. Jesus H Christ! You are supposed to be better than this!

10

Decent episode. Not as interesting to me as this week’s Black List, but better than Sleepy Hollow.

11

Yeah, that’s a good point. My assumption that this was the day after was based on the fact that Ward told Skye that staying in a hotel was a rare treat as a SHIELD agent. And, Ward might have just been reiterating a plan that they discussed before going to sleep.

12

Overall, I felt it was a fairly routine episode. A X-filish story and decent special effects with the ghost. But the only overall arc development we had was finding out more about May’s past; nothing new on the other characters. Maybe this just seemed like a let-down after last week’s really good episode.

13

I liked the development of Skye as a catalyst. The point of Coulson bringing her in was ostensibly for her skill set but I think we saw in this episode that there was really a lot more to it - it was actually to change the team dynamic and possibly, down the road, change the dynamic of SHIELD itself.

Maybe I’m stoned as to the latter point and reading too much into what he said about her renaming the intake procedure, but I don’t think so. She was after all an organizer of Red Tide so on some level she has leadership skills, they’re just rough and unpolished. I think Coulson sees a lot more in her than anyone, even Skye can possibly realize and we got a small taste of that in this episode.

I think the fact that we saw May come a little out of her shell to pull a prank and no one had even the slightest notion of it being her is meant to be some indication of Skye’s affect on people and the team generally.

14

Kinda feel sorry for Fitz & Simmons. Everyone else in the regular cast has either gotten laid (Skye, Ward, May) or been offered sex (Coulson from the South American commando girl), but there’s no nerd-nooky.

15

Being offered sex, and having sex, are not nearly close enough to qualify. Fitz-Simmons and Coulson are all in need of getting laid.

16

What was it?

17

I find this surprising in a Joss Whedon show. Doesn’t he usually address things like this head on, deliberately sidestepping and confronting tropes?

18

While this show came from Joss Whedon, he is not the showrunner and isn’t writing any of the episodes(except the first one, which he wrote and directed).

He’s supposed to be involved, but he is nowhere near as involved as he was on Buffy, Angel(for awhile, anyway), Firefly, and Dollhouse.

19

When Coulson was trying to call in from his transmitter in the office wall, he referred to the Bus’ call sign, “616.”

20

Yeah, but his brother is, and I kind of expect the same approach. But you’re probably right.

There was a rumour that one of the episodes had a page one rewrite at the last minute, and I wonder if it was this one. Though rewrites are not uncommon and not necessarily a bad thing, it can compromise a decent idea sometimes.