Loved it! Great episode. Answered a lot of questions and raised a lot of new questions. Very, very awesome. I mean, I missed Fitzsimmons again, but we'll get them back eventually. I hope. Let's just talk about what happened first.
So, Bobbi is interrogating one of HYDRA's people, Bakshi. He lets something slip that makes it sound like Whitehall knew Red Skull personally. Simmons, Lance, Bobbi, and May all dig into some old files at the base. These files were hidden there by Peggy Carter. Through these files, and through a series of flashbacks, we learn the true origins of Whitehall.
His original name was Reinhardt, and he was a Nazi scientist working with the Obelisk. He finds out that certain people can touch it, but others die when they do. Peggy Carter arrests Reinhardt, and he remains in prison for several decades. He is then released by Alexander Pierce, and brought to a woman who he had met back in the 40's. The weird thing? She hasn't aged. Reinhardt does tests on this woman, cutting her up and leaving her completely torn apart. He uses what he learns to de-age himself, and then he takes on the name Whitehall and continues on with HYDRA.
Skye's father has been working with Whitehall on the Obelisk, but as part of the flashbacks we see him discover the woman that Reinhardt killed, and vow to do the same thing to Reinhardt. This woman - you guessed it - is Skye's mother.
In the present day, Coulson and his team have a plan to map the world to try to find the mysterious city that Coulson and the other T.A.H.I.T.I. patients have been unknowingly and obsessively carving all this time. So - May, Simmons, and Mack stay at the base, while Coulson, Fitz, Bobbi, Lance, and Tripp all go to hack into the USAF's mapping satellite. If they can get their hands on that information, they should be able to find the city, if it's on Earth. While there, Tripp gets shot protecting Fitz, while Fitz has to assemble an important piece of equipment.
Skye's father shows up, and he helps save Tripp's life. Only thing is, he purposefully injures Tripp even further, so that if Coulson tries to take him in or do anything that he doesn't want, Tripp will die. As Coulson and "the doctor" talk, a few more pieces of the puzzle become clear - only a chosen few can touch the Obelisk without dying, and it is those chosen few who will be able to enter the city. The Obelisk, it turns out, is a key. With Skye's father's instruction, Coulson is able to save Tripp, but of course "the doctor" gets away. Skye and the others are able to use the hacked satellite information to find the mysterious city.
Meanwhile, Grant Ward finds his brother, Christian. He takes Christian to the spot where the infamous "well" has been buried, and he makes Christian dig it up. He then forces Christian to admit the truth about that incident - Christian forced Grant to throw their other brother down the well. Christian eventually admits it, as Grant threatens to throw him down the well. Grant seems satisfied, but later we learn that he has apparently killed Christian and their parents. Ward then presents himself to Mr. Whitehall, ready to be of service to HYDRA.
Flaws? Well, there is this one thing that's always bothered me about Marvel's treatment of WWII history. Like, not just in this episode, but in the Captain America movies and stuff as well. It's just that... the Nazis become these silly caricatures who do ridiculously evil experiments on people and are obsessed with alien technology. Basically, Nazis become conflated with HYDRA until there's no difference between the two things. This effectively erases a lot of the real history, and it might be a bit disrespectful to the memories of the people who truly lost their lives at the hands of the Nazi Party.
Bobbi and Lance Hunter having hate sex was a bit... ugh. I mean, I sort of saw it coming from a mile away, you know? It feels a little predictable. They hate each other, but they love each other... and it's hard, you know, because these two are new characters. I don't care about their relationship very much because I'm still trying to get to know them. Maybe they should have waited? I'm not sure.
But let's talk about the good stuff.
Coulson was really great in this episode. He had a lot of really funny moments, such as commenting on Fury's flawed communication skills, and his weird requests to his team, which included getting a watch engraved and taking a tie to a dry cleaner. Turns out, of course, this was all part of the plan to hack into the USAF's system, but he doesn't bother telling the team that until much later.
Peggy Carter! I love her. I'm probably not going to have time to watch her show right away when it comes on, but I'll probably have to tune in eventually. I'm just too excited about this. I loved the moment when Simmons was fan-girling over Peggy: "Peggy Carter, founder, happens to be British, held this in her hand."
But... speaking of Simmons, she's totally brainwashed isn't she? They keep dropping hints that "anybody could be brainwashed!" and I'm like... no. Don't do this to me. In any case, if that's the angle they're going with, it's probably going to be super awesome an painful. I can't wait.
Fitz was really snarky and adorable and he's getting better! I'm so happy for him. He tells Coulson that he's got his part of the mission down to seven minutes, and when Coulson tells him that's not good enough, Fitz replies: "no, that's with my bad hand, with both I can do it definitely." What a cutie.
They cast Dichen Lachman as Skye's mother! I loved her in Dollhouse, and she did a great job here. However, I'm disappointed that Skye's mother is dead, because I think it would have been cool to see her interact with Skye at some point. In any case, I wasn't at all surprised that she was Skye's mother, but it was still a pretty good way of explaining what happened to her. What does this mean for Skye? What's going on with her? Is she going to be able to touch the Obelisk too?
I think the best parts of this episode came in the scenes with the two Ward brothers. Great acting from Brett Dalton especially... I was so scared of Grant Ward during this whole episode. After Christian admitted the truth, the two brothers hugged, and I was seriously scared that Grant was going to kill him on the spot. Grant was toeing the line between sane and completely insane, and it was really nerve-wracking to watch him teeter back and forth. I love that we don't see Ward kill his brother - we hear about it after the fact. I remember when we first learned that Ward was evil, I was so worried that they were going to just try and redeem him. I'm so happy this is going the other way. Ward as a bad guy is the right move.
So, there you have it! I'm seriously starting to miss the Fitzsimmons interactions, but I understand that they can't take center stage every week. Here's hoping for more of them soon!
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!