The episode opens in a flashback to Gloucestershire, England in 1839. And, a bunch of guys with many frills are having a key party. But, not the kind of key party any of us would want to go to. Well, I’m not sure I want to got to any sort of key party. But, this one is especially bad. The “winner” gets eaten by the liquid monolith. I wonder if Simmons saw him when she went in there.
Now in modern times the episode picks up right where we left off last week. Skye (DAISY DAMNIT) and Mack are discussing putting together their Inhuman team, while Fitz is still whaling on the Monolith. He finds sand and with that we have the episode’s plot. Fitz never gives up, and space sand leads to Simmons. An Asgardian, Professor Randolph, is needed to help them figure out this monolith/portal, so they go to find him.
Hunter has a plan to get to Ward and Hydra that doesn’t involve Bobbi, and also doesn’t involve Coulson knowing anything about the plan.
Do you know those shows that have blatant car commercials right in the middle of the episode? I mean. The car’s logo is shown prominently, and then they show the in car entertainment system and it hasn’t nothing to do with the plot? I’m guessing this scene with Ward torturing a Hydra employee isn’t an example of that. Unless, they are focusing the Evil Leader contingent. (Too late. BMW owns that.)
Professor Randolph is oh so nerdy and gently sarcastic sounding, it makes it all the more jarring and awesome when he hulks out and takes apart the prison. He took some convincing but Coulson was able to strong arm (Get it! He has no arm! I’ll be here all month.) to help investigate the portal/monoltih.
May’s husband, Dr. Garner is not helping Skye (DAISY!) put together his team. Well, he is, but not as quickly as she wants it to happen. He’s also finding a way to analyze the entire team without even a couch. He’s worried about Coulson being desperate and it leading to mistakes. He’s worried about Skye (DAISY!) handling her maturation into a leader, and her hurry to get the team together. She wants Inhumans to be able to control their own fate, and to aid SHIELD in helping humanity. I don’t know about you guys, but I am looking forward to another team member who not only wants to help humanity, but has a cool power.
May! There she is! I wonder who she’s going to have to beat up this time? Ooops! No one! She’s playing golf with her Dad. And, disappointing to all of us. She isn’t good at EVERYTHING. Golf just isn’t her thing. (Figure skating is. Or was.) (Did we know her name is Lily? I forget. Lily and Daisy. Sisters from another Mister (and Mrs)!) Her dad is played by James Hong. Who you’ve seen or heard in pretty much everything and in each role his hair gets darker.
Ward decides to play a reverse Pied Piper and infests a young rich guy’s boat with tons of rats to get rid of everyone bikini clad party goer, and he just uses his superpowers to take out all of the body guards. (Unlike Bruce Lee when he tastes blood he just shoots.) He then uses torture to trick the kid to show that he is violent just like the Baron, his dear old dad. So, Ward’s Hydra has access to the Baron’s fortunes again, but also a new young evil doer to mold to do his bidding.
In England Professor Randolph, Bobbi, Coulson and Fitz find a secret dungeon that holds science experiments that deal with the portal/monolith. The castle hasn’t held up over the years. But, all the science stuff seems to be working well. They call Mack and Skye to bring the monolith/portal over.
May may not golf, but she is crazy with a knife in a kitchen. She was also obsessed with Dorothy Hamil. During a nostalgic visit with her Dad May thinks Hunter is an assasin and opens the door on him just as he is about to knock. (He did sneak up on the door very suspiciously. Come on Hunter, walk like a human!) He is going to try to convince her to rabbit (or Ward) hunt. She’s not interested in going. She wants to lead a regular life. Which seems silly, but eventually her Dad convinces her that she needs to get out there, or she will always be looking over her shoulder.
So. In that dungeon they are able to use the equipment to get the portal to open. The machinery breaks down and gives Skye (DAISY!) a nosebleed. But after she wakes up Skye (DAISY!) (Quake) (Tremors?) is able to use her powers to open up that portal. I guess the explanation is that Fitz was desperate and didn’t care if he lived or died, so he jumped in. Seems like the probe would have been a better idea. Also. Simmons was right there near the opening when he arrived? Wasn’t she running last week? It must be a small planet. In any case, even though it looked like they might not come back (Fitz really had to stretch to grab Simmons’ hand. SHIELD yoga came in handy), in the end FitzSimmons was sitting in the rubble. Job well done. In what was a very fun episode, the decision to have Fitz jump into the portal/monolith and save Simmons was sort of dumb. And, having it work so quickly in the season seemed bad and anti-climatic. But, hopefully/probably, the story about that planet, and what happened to Simmons will be interesting throughout the season.
Professor Randolph asked Coulson what Skye (DAISY!) is and his response to “Inhumans” was “I have not heard that word in a very long time.”. Whatever that means.
It’s supposed to be a surprise. But, of course, May is with Hunter. She finds out from Dr. Garner that Simmons is safe. She tells Hunter with a small smile, and Hunter wants to loudly celebrate. She doesn’t seem interested.
And, Simmons wakes up with a sharp stick ready to fight. (That planet’s mud must be strong! Her head wound is healed.) She falls asleep on Fitz’s lap.
It’s supposed to be a surprise. But, of course, the Baron’s son has signed up to be in Dr. Garner’s class.
I liked this episode. There were lots of fun bits. Man, Professor Randolph is such a different look at Asgardians, and plenty of fun - I am glad they brought him back. I like the character Daisy is becoming. But, I have to admit to being sick of her story each season being all about waiting. The first season it was learning who she was and where she came from, last year meeting her Mom, and now this year putting her team together. Let’s speed things up people! Also, I do have complaints about the saving of Simmons. It was an exciting scene, but it seems like such a waste to have her saved so quickly. But. Hey. There’s a whole season left, there is almost certainly a good reason they decided to have that happen when it happened.
Also. I feel like the Ward story needs to end this season, somehow. Jail, death, or stuck in a strange planet. Otherwise, if he keeps winning, I think we are all going to start having serious doubts about the effectiveness of this SHIELD team.
Favorite Quotes and Stuff:
[ul]
[li]“A sandwich would be nice.”[/li][li]“Are you threatening me?” “Well. Yeah. This was a threat”[/li][li]“He did it.”[/li][li]“I don’t know what Amazon Woman and Robot hand are capable of these days.”[/li][li]“TO THE PLANE!”[/li][li]“This is why I got rid of all the SHIELD logos on our vehicles. It’s like screaming for attention.” “You know there is a ginormous eagle symbol on top of our jet.” “Well. Sometimes I can’t help myself with the cool.”[/li][li]“What? There’s no bunker under the Louvre? You’re messing with me! Great! Now I have to check.”[/li][li]“You do know that only .3% of the population of Sun City are Asians.”[/li][li]“He said you’re desperate.” “He didn’t say that. Did he say that?”[/li][li]“Let me guess I’m struggling to come terms with physical limitations and losing my sense of self instead of redefining it.” “No. He didn’t mention you.” “Oh.”[/li][li]I’m never going to stop laughing at Coulson having a hard time remembering to call Skye Daisy.[/li][/ul]
