Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Aftershocks (2x11)

Okay! We're back! Lots of developments this week. Things are getting crazy! I'll try to get everything written down, but there was so much going on in this episode!

Everybody is struggling with Tripp's death, and Coulson decides to take this rare moment of HYDRA weakness to take a strike at them. S.H.I.E.L.D. still has Bakshi in custody, so they decide to use him as bait, with the assistance of Talbot and the US government. The plan goes off flawlessly- Bakshi believes he's being taken to Talbot, but then "HYDRA" shows up, apparently killing May and Coulson, and takes Bakshi. Lance, impersonating a HYDRA agent, uses him to get in with the other HYDRA agents. S.H.I.E.L.D., with an assist from Talbot, is able to clean up a lot of the remaining HYDRA mess in the area.

Simmons is in charge of examining the underground city, with orders to flood it and close it off once she is done. They succeed in doing so, but but before Raina escapes. Cal and Raina talk, and Raina reveals that she is now a monstrous creature, covered in spikes. Cal is delighted to learn that Skye also went through a transformation, and that she is now special. Raina is almost taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but she is then whisked away by a man with no eyes, Gordon, who we earlier saw getting trained by Skye's mother in the past.

Back at HQ, Skye is being kept in quarantine until they figure out if she's okay after the weird events in the underground city. Mack, who apparently did survive the winter finale, is back among the team, now no longer having his mind controlled by outside forces. Mack is angry and upset about everything that happened, though. Out of everybody, he seems to be having the hardest time with Tripp's death.

Well... the hardest time of everybody... except Simmons. She blames herself for her curiosity, thinking that if she had only eradicated the threat earlier, maybe this "plague" that infected Raina and Mack wouldn't be spreading. Fitz finds out that Skye was transformed during the crazy events, and that she was actually the cause of the earthquake, not a victim of it. Because of Simmons' paranoia and everybody else's grief over Tripp, Fitz lies and switches out Skye's blood sample, wanting to let everybody calm down before they tell them that Skye is not normal.

As everybody sits around reminiscing about Tripp, we see a model car that Mack made for Coulson do a scan of his office, and discover the "toolbox" that Nick Fury had given him. Earlier, Lance had asked Bobbi if there was anything secretive going on between her and Mack, and Bobbi had said that the two of them went to a support group. However, we now see that their secret is something much more sinister... Mack reports his findings to Bobbi. It looks like they're spying on Coulson!

Well... I do have my complaints. Often this show is a bit crowded with stuff, and I found that to be the case here. A little too explain-y, if that makes sense. We had all of these important HYDRA figures, Talbot made an appearance, Cal and Raina were talking about destiny, etc. etc. I felt a little bowled over by information.

I also couldn't help rolling my eyes at Raina's transformation. What sort of logic dictates that contact with the Obelisk would turn her into some sort of a spiky lizard creature? It felt more than a little contrived. The Marvel Movie Universe, and by extension the TV shows, tend to do a pretty good job of mediating on the silliness. I felt myself rolling my eyes a couple of times here, and I didn't want to be doing that. The same complaint goes for the no-eyes man. Hopefully I'll find him more interesting later on.

But hey - this episode, despite perhaps being a bit crowded, actually introduced a lot of really cool elements. Let's talk about the good stuff.

MACK AND BOBBI ARE TRAITORS?! No freakin' way! I'm not sure where they're going with this - hopefully it's not a cop-out like with May reporting to Fury. But equally hopefully this isn't like the Ward situation. I will flip out if they end up being HYDRA. In any case, this is really interesting, and I'm super excited and super terrified to see what's coming next.

I love seeing all the different ways that people are dealing with losing Tripp. Coulson is out for revenge. He's cold and calculating and ultimately successful in taking out quite a few people from HYDRA. I liked that we got a bit of victory in here, because we've been looking at a lot of defeat for a long time.

Simmons is convinced that she needs to shut down any research about these strange happenings, terrified that her curiosity will lead to more people getting hurt. It was so painful to hear Simmons talk about people who have powers as being a "plague," especially since we all know something strange is going on with Skye. Fitz, on the other hand, knows what it's like to go through something terrible and feel completely changed by it. Even if I think Fitz and Skye are being terribly irresponsible about this, it was still so sweet to see them hug, and see Skye feel comforted by Fitz's presence.

I think my favorite scene in this episode was right at the end, when the whole group sat around talking about Tripp. I always love that way of honoring the dead - laughing and talking about memories. I wasn't feeling all that broken up about Tripp, since he was never one of my favorites, but I did get a little misty-eyed when Skye said that they were all going to be laughing a lot less now that Tripp was gone.

I also like the continuing development of Fitz and Mack's friendship. They had a couple of good moments in here. I want more.

I'm excited for whatever is coming next. This episode was good enough that I didn't even mind the lack of Fitzsimmons interactions!

8/10