Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Many Heads, One Tale (3x08)

It happened. It finally happened. Oh my God. I cannot even process this. I've been waiting since the pilot episode and it finally freakin' happened. C'mon, you all know what I'm talking about. Let's... start with some other things, though.

Cons:

So the twist with the ATCU this week is that instead of trying to cure Inhumans, it looks like they're shopping out fish oil pills to as many people as possible, trying to get people to transform. I like this twist, but what I didn't like was the super obvious twist on the twist, which was that Rosalind didn't know about it. I know I'm being sort of fickle, because last week I said that I hoped she wasn't Hydra. And I stand by that. But it just felt sort of obvious. The more Coulson yelled at her to reveal the truth, the more clear it was that Rosalind didn't know what was going on. Maybe I would have felt a stronger connection in this scene if Coulson could have given Rosalind the benefit of the doubt, instead of just jumping to conclusions.

Along the same note, there wasn't really enough time to flesh out certain aspects of this episode. Coulson and Rosalind obviously have a very complicated dynamic, and there were so many other complicated dynamics going on, such as May and Lincoln, Fitz and Simmons, Ward and Malick, etc., that I felt a little bit overwhelmed with all the very important character moments being given to me all at once.

Pros:

This episode felt like a return to form in some ways, because it all centered around a single big plan, where most of our key characters had a role to play. The plan? To infiltrate the ATCU while Rosalind is distracted by finally being shown S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret base. Coulson wants to know the truth about the organization and their plans. I loved the complexities of this plan, and the way everybody had to work together to accomplish the goal.

Hunter and Bobbi go in to the ATCU posing as FBI agents investigating a security breach, while Daisy and Mack are offsite, remotely hacking into the ATCU's system. All of this stuff was great. I loved seeing Daisy back in the hacker role. It's been a while since we've seen her doing that. And then there's Hunter and Bobbi's fake identities. Bobbi is a serious and brutal business woman, while Hunter is posing as a former hacker that the FBI hired after he hacked important governmental buildings. He's playing himself up as an America-hating Brit, including using the user name "God save the Queen" for getting in to the system. Daisy rolls her eyes and says she let Hunter pick it. Too great!

It's awesome to see Bobbi and Hunter working as a bad ass team, as things quickly come to blows inside the ATCU when they figure out they've been infiltrated. Bobbi does most of the work, but Hunter comes in with a critical save at the last second. Go team!

May and Lincoln, meanwhile, are flying above, waiting to extract Bobbi and Hunter if things go south. May specifically asked to bring Lincoln along, and Lincoln is worried that she's going to punish him for what happened with Andrew. However, instead of that, May actually apologizes to Lincoln on Andrew's behalf. After all, Lash did kill a bunch of Lincoln's friends, and tried to kill him too. This was so powerful. May is clearly still reeling over what happened with Andrew, but she has an awareness of how all of this affected those around her too. I'm interested to see her healing process, and how May's relationships with the rest of the team might re-strengthen as she starts to recover.

Ward gets MVP for the night for being a total bad ass villain. I still feel this sort of incredulous happiness whenever I think about how intense and interesting Ward became after such a boring start. In this episode, Malick tries to kill Ward by trapping in him a room with a group of assassins. Ward kills them all, managing to extract information about the Von Struckers' secret vault before he does so. He then gets to the vault, where Malick is waiting for him. The fight scene was awesome. Ward is so brutal and intense and it's just so cool to watch all the fight choreography.

Malick says that maybe he was wrong about Ward - clearly, he's a total bad ass. He might be useful to Hydra going forward. Malick says he'll help Ward get revenge against S.H.I.E.L.D., as long as Ward helps him figure out how S.H.I.E.L.D. got somebody back from the Monolith. You see, it turns out that Hydra goes back a lot further than WWII. The Monolith has been passed down for generations, and Hydra has been sending sacrifices through to appease the great creature who lives on the planet on the other side. This is a whole new element, and I'm very excited to see where it goes. I can't believe I was worried that the Monolith wouldn't fit into the story proper! This is awesome! I can't wait to see Ward and Malick working toward the same goals. That's an intimidating partnership if I ever saw one...

And I've saved Fitzsimmons for last. Duh. Before I talk about... the thing that happened, I have to mention something else. Malick tells Ward that Hydra hasn't been able to get anybody back through the Monolith in all their centuries of trying. But Fitz got Simmons back in a matter of months. Why? Because it's True Love, bitch!

Okay, but now onto more important matters. As Fitz and Simmons are trying to find a way to save Will, Simmons is getting increasingly agitated that Fitz is being so perfect, trying to do the right thing. The two have a screaming match, where Fitz says that they're cursed to be apart. No matter what they do, they can't get the timing right. Simmons admits that she's in love with Will, but later talks about how Fitz "jumped through a hole in the universe" for her. Fitz grabs her and kisses her. And then once he's released her, Simmons walks forward and kisses him back. Oh. My. God. It happened. This is not a drill, it actually happened. It's so deliciously angsty and beautiful and I cannot wait to see what else happens from here.

I'm trying to avoid rambling on and on about Fitz and Simmons and THE KISS, so I think I'll stop there. This was a really solid episode. I might be a tiny bit annoyed about how Rosalind's character is being handled, but besides that, I'm thrilled. And really, any episode that includes THE KISS is going to get high marks from me.

8.5/10