“End of the Beginning”
Directed by Bobby Roth
Written by Paul Zbyszewski
Coulson brings the greatest minds of SHIELD together to finally track down The Clairvoyant. The expected violence and surprises happen.
The episode opens in Australia. Triplett and Garrett are checking into a safe house after whittling their Clairvoyant list name down to just a few names. (Do you suppose that Paxton has it in his contract that he needs to get 95% of all the good lines in every episode he is in? Or does he deliver them so well it just seems like that?) Deathlok interrupts their SafeHomecoming. They are quick to the trigger, and I guess Deathlok didn’t expect to find violence when he encountered Agents of SHIELD, so he quickly jumped out of the roof and left our friends looking skyward.
Coulson calls together an unconventional meeting of SHIELD honchos. He tells them about Garrett’s work with The List of special people that SHIELD has investigated over the years, and how he believes that They needed to talk on the plane, because apparently psychic ability is limited by distance, and air travel. The Clairvoyant really is a psychic and can be found on that list. He comes up with a convoluted plan to find him, without giving too much information out. (Personally, I think this plan was just Coulson’s way to fasttrack Skye to agent status.)
Meanwhile, Deathlok is at home admiring his more and more robotic self when EVILUPS drops off a surprise package for him. It’s a weapon that attaches to his forearm! But, of course, he knew that already. Ah, it is so hard to surprise those with x-ray vision.
Garrett has a heart to heart with Skye as she gives him his fancy double blind phone. He tells her that the team and her influence has really changed Ward. Which might have something to do with what happens later. But, maybe not, I mean, wouldn’t that sort of foreshadowing be a bit heavy handed? Also, that would mean that Skye made Ward get so emotional that he was just stupid. That can’t be true. Can it? Oh well. I guess it is.
Agent Hand wants no part in this wild clairvoyant chase. She goes back to headquarters to direct traffic when, inevitably, bad things happen. She takes Simmons along to get as much information about Deathlok as she can. (And, Simmons is happy to go along to get as much information about Skye’s blood that she can.)
The agents pair up and go off on their merry way. Is there anyone else who would have liked this episode a lot more, if we saw these agents having more of an adventure together? I was really looking forward to what Ward and Triplett did in that prison. Garret and Coulson started off so well, I just knew it was going to be awesome. Blake and May wasn’t that bad, either. Alas, the pairings didn’t last very long. Because, Deathlok maimed Blake and May jumped out of the way of one of his new rockets just in time.
Blake used a tracer bullet on Deathlok (introduce a gun in the first act…). After getting hollered at by Agent Hand, Coulson and Garrett lead a huge SHIELD task force to the race track to take care Deathlok. He evades them, until Coulson and Garrett track him to a basement, where they lose Deathlok, but find someone claiming to be The Clairvoyant. It’s Thomas Nash, who was supposed to be at the nursing home Blake and May had visited. He is in a wheel chair unable to move or talk, he communicates using a computer generated voice, and text on a nearby monitor (for those unable to hear). He goads them on and on, without threatening anything immediate. Ward couldn’t take any more threats against his Sweet Babooo. I mean. The team. And, he shot and killed who he thought was The Clairvoyant.
Ward is taken into custody. Garrett offers to take Ward in, but Coulson says he wants to talk to him and figure out what is going on.
On the plane, Skye goes in to talk to Ward and find out why he went crazy. Ward said he did it to protect her. And the team. While she is talking to him, Fitz is trying to contact Simmons on the secret phone he set up. The connection isn’t good, and it leads him to find out that there is already another secret phone someone else already set up. This, he must investigate.
Fitz is finding moles. Coulson and Skye are figuring out that The Clairvoyant probably wasn’t killed and probably wasn’t psychic, just someone with high SHIELD clearance. (Not to play the Blame Game, but if they would have checked threads on the SDMB, and probably elsewhere on the internet, they would have figured this out back during Fall Sweeps.)
Fitz and Skye run into each other in a corridor of the plane. She gets peanut butter into his chocolate. But, also Fitz tells Skye that May has a secret phone line. She realizes this fits perfectly in with the SHIELD agent as clairvoyant theory, so she sends him to go cut the line. The line is cut just as May is starting to leave a report. May goes on a scary man hunt, when she realizes what happened.
May tracks down Fitz and shockingly shoots at him when she finds him. Coulson stops her and she tells him that it wasn’t real bullets, but icers that would have just knocked him out. Skye and Coulson finally get May to put her gun down, but then the plane starts going somewhere on it’s own, and noone on the plane knows what’s happening.
Oh, and it turns out that Agent Hand is probably The Clairvoyant. Or, at least wants everyone dead, and she gets to take care of Coulson.
This was a very fun episode, that could have been better without Ward shooting. I mean, that was just stupid. I guess I might be missing something, but I can’t even think of what he was trying to accomplish. Even if that character was The Clairvoyant, he said several times during the speech that WE would do things, not I. So, what does killing accomplish? Kills your only lead, I would say. But, other than that, I thought things were very fun throughout the episode. So many great lines, and some nice action pieces. They’ve turned Deathlok into a bad ass murdering machine, with no conscience to speak of. It’s hard to watch that when you think back to the episodes where he was a pretty good guy.
In spite of my vociferous complaints, this was a good episode. And, it really bodes well for where the season is going. I was pleasantly surprised that they played their hand that (haha unintentional pun) Hand was the bad guy, and didn’t leave it as a cliffhanger. Now the cliffhanger is how are they going to survive this one?! I’m guessing we will see lots of Simmons sending out secret messages to help the guys before they land, and a peaceful settlement between May and Coulson when he finds out who she is reporting to. (Fury?)
I’m looking forward to the last few episodes of the season, thats for sure.
Oh, another complaint, I’d have preferred a couple more minutes of Agents of SHIELD, rather than another commercial for Captain America. Oh well, I guess it is good, now I am even more excited to see the more Cap movie.
Favorite lines (mostly Garrett, and some Fitz!)
[ul]
[li]“I hope it isn’t the Amazing Kreskin.”[/li][li]Speaking of Skye’s two gut shots “More than Sitwell has ever done.”[/li][li]“Are you a Scorpio?”[/li][li]“I already told you that one?” “I was there. You didn’t go through the sky roof.” “It makes a better story.”[/li][li]“Pick up and leave me all by my lonesome.”[/li][li]“I’ve always pictured YOU as the Watson.”[/li][li]“Don’t use my name, Jemma!”[/li][/ul]
