Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 19 of Agents of SHIELD, titled The Only Light in the Darkness, where the SHIELD team has to go through “orientation,” and Coulson takes some team members to protect The Cellist, his long lost love, from a Fridge escapee! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 19: The Only Light in the Darkness
- As Marcus walks down the street, lights turn off as he passes. He asks a man for a ride to Portland, but when he refuses, Marcus man kills him by merely touching him, then drives away with his truck.
- Simmons patches Ward up as he gives his cover story to the SHIELD team. He reports that Ian Quinn escaped, but lies and says he killed Garrett. Coulson has Skye pull up a list of the inmates at the Fridge. Marcus Daniels was there. Coulson wants to take a team and go after Marcus, but Koenig requires everyone to go through orientation first – which means taking a lie detector test.
- Coulson explains to his team, made up of Fitz, Simmons, and Triplett, that Marcus Daniels was exposed to Dark Force and ended up being able to absorb all types of energy. Coulson’s hope is for Fitz to come up with a weapon en route that will deliver more light than he can absorb. Meanwhile, Ward doesn’t seem to be doing too well on his lie detector test, but he is able to talk his way through it and pass, saying that Skye is the reason he is there. Everyone is rewarded with a lanyard for passing the test.
- Ward encourages Fitz that if he has something to say to Simmons, he should do so before it’s too late. But Fitz acts like he doesn’t know what Ward’s talking about. Coulson and May get into an argument. Coulson and his team fly out. On the way, he tells his team that they are going to Portland because Daniels is obsessed with a woman named Audrey Nathan who lives there.
- As Audrey is on a run, Marcus starts to come after her, but Simmons pulls up and tells her to get in the car. After they drive away, Coulson and Fitz show up and try to use some gadgets on Marcus, but he is too strong, and escapes.
- Skye figures out that the lanyards have trackers in them. She tells Koenig that she wants to hack the NSA satellites to get footage of the Fridge breakout. Ward agrees it’s worth a try. He brings up decrypting the hard drive, but Skye tells him the encryption is location-based, and they’ll have to take a field trip at some point to decrypt it. Koenig gives Skye the go-ahead for the NSA hack.
- Audrey figures out that Simmons and Triplett are SHIELD, as Coulson and Fitz listen and watch from the other room. Audrey tells the story of how Coulson saved her. Fitz tells Coulson he has a plan to capture Marcus, but Coulson doesn’t like it because it involves using Audrey to lure him.
- May tells Ward that the Bus is repaired and ready to go. Then she leaves because Coulson doesn’t want her there. Skye succeeds in the NSA hack, and Koenig tells Ward that they’re just waiting on the images to clear up.
- Fitz’s plan is set in motion. Audrey will play her cello on stage to lure Marcus to her, while Fitz will use a weapon based on technology developed by Bruce Banner to cast an enormous amount of energy upon him.
- Ward tells Skye that Koenig is sending everything over to government agencies as a sign of good faith from SHIELD, and that May left. They have a heart-to-heart, and share a kiss. Skye notices blood on his neck, and he claims it’s from his cut and goes to clean it up.
- Coulson refuses to reveal himself to Audrey, who thinks he’s been dead all this time, because he doesn’t want to hurt her. Audrey begins playing her cello, and Marcus slowly heads toward her.
- While Ward is gone, Skye sees Koenig’s location on the tablet and goes to look for him. When she opens the door, a penny falls. Blood drips on the tablet, and she looks up and sees Koenig’s dead body. She realizes Ward did it, and sees him coming toward her on the tablet.
- Fitz, Triplett, and Simmons attack Marcus with the gamma ray guns, but Marcus uses his powers to push back against each of them. Coulson and Triplett go after Marcus again, and it works this time. Coulson goes to Audrey, who has been knocked to the floor, and tells her that he is still here with her. But when Audrey wakes up, it’s Simmons comforting her.
- Skye goes into the bathroom and freaks out about her realization that Ward is HYDRA. Ward goes to the storage closet, and when he opens the door, the penny drops into his hand. Skye finds Ward just then, and tells him that it scared her how close they were getting, but she kisses him and says she’s not scared anymore. Ward tells her that he just got word from Fitz that the team needs their help. He insists on leaving right away.
- Coulson tells Fitz that when they get back, he’s going to make things right with May. But when they get back, they are confused as to where the Bus and the rest of their team is. Meanwhile, Ward is flying Skye to decrypt the hard drive.
- In Ontario, Canada, May’s mother has driven 500 miles from Pennsylvania to pick her up. She supplies May with some information from her own agency, which hasn’t fallen, about finding Maria.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 19 of Agents of SHIELD: The Only Light in the Darkness
Agents of SHIELD continues to keep it up with good episodes! I enjoyed this one, though I was a bit surprised that the Ward reveal came so soon, although Skye is the only one who knows. I wonder what Coulson and the rest of the team make of the sudden disappearance of the Bus and the rest of their team. Will they be able to call them and find out? Do Ward and Skye even have their phones? Ward made Skye leave so quickly, she may not have had a chance to grab hers. Does Ward have a cover story prepared, or will he just ignore any calls? How long does he think he can keep this up without Skye getting suspicious? This he-doesn’t-know-that-she-knows can only last for so long until it turns into she-doesn’t-know-that-he-knows-that-she-knows, and eventually it’ll be she-knows-that-he-knows-that-she-knows.
I loved seeing Amy Acker in this episode, because I loved her as Fred on Angel. I especially liked the scene of her playing the cello that overlapped with the scene of Skye finding Koenig’s body and realizing that Ward is HYDRA, thus providing some dark background music to accompany that scene. I think it also subconsciously reminded me of the Angel theme song that is heavily cello-based. It was so sad that Coulson felt he couldn’t reveal to her that he is still alive, but it was understandable.
One thing that bothered me about the episode, though, was how 3 of them went after Marcus with the gamma ray guns, and it didn’t work, but when just 2 of them went after him again, one of them being Coulson making a dramatic stand against him, it all of a sudden worked. If it was 2 and then 3 it would make more sense, but not 3 and then 2. I suppose you could argue that Coulson was a lot closer so it was more effective? I don’t know.
Oh, and I must say that it was adorable how Fitz was getting jealous over Triplett! I’m actually beginning to really like Triplett. However, one thought that came to me while watching this episode was that I kind of wish J. August Richards was playing Triplett. That way Gunn and Fred could have been in a scene together. Yep, that was the Angel fan in me again.
Best part of the episode: during the lie detector test when Koenig asks Simmons what she would find in the box and she answers, “The TARDIS.” That made the Doctor Who fan in me really happy.
Looks like Agent May and Agent Maria Hill are destined for a meetup next episode! This could be interesting. I really don’t know where the show is going with each of the different storylines going on, and I continue to watch because I really want to know what happens next!
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 19: The Only Light in the Darkness
So this week’s episode of Agents of SHIELD had Agent Ward’s cover blown fairly quickly, which I was actually hoping for. This will put Agent Ward squarely in “bad guy” territory it would seem, which I am happy about, as I have not been looking forward to the “double-agent” Ward too much. I have a feeling Agent Coulson and the rest of the team will find out what Ward has done, and the search for Skye and Ward will begin hopefully pretty quickly. I thought Agent Koenig, played by Patton Oswalt, was a fun character. I was sad to see him go so fast.
The interrogation scene with Patton Oswalt performing the lie detector tests was a lot of fun. We learned a few random facts about some of the characters, and a little humor was thrown in for good fun. I was really hoping Ward would get caught here, but I guess when you use a nail to impale your thumb, you are able to fool even the best lie detectors. That is too bad for Patton Oswalt. He almost had Ward!
As for the storyline of Coulson and the rest of the team, I rather enjoyed it, despite the weapon of choice eventually being a “souped-up” stage light. As I had thought, we are going to have some “villain-of-the-week” type stuff for a while, now that the entire “Fridge” has been released.
I really enjoyed seeing Amy Acker in this episode of Agents of SHIELD. I have enjoyed her acting since she was first in Angel as Fred. I had thought her title has hinted at by Facebook from Agents of SHIELD that her “code name” was the Cellist, but she seems to just be an ordinary cellist with a psychopathic stalker that just happens to be able to drain the energy from what he touches. I hope that we see more of her, and from the way the episode went, it certainly seems like a possibility!
Agents of SHIELD seems to finally be hitting its stride, which I am thankful for! I had such high hopes for this show, a couple years ago when I first heard it was being made. Now finally it is on the right path. Hopefully this rest of this season goes well, and season two makes even greater!
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 20: Nothing Personal
Here are scenes from the next Agents of SHIELD episode, titled Nothing Personal:
I was a little disappointed they got rid of Koenig so quickly. I was hoping he would be around at least to the season finale. It does amaze me that Skye is the only one, so far, to figure out who Ward really is. I thought Coulson would be the first.
It gets better and better. I still think Ward is a dumb character, and making him crazy and evil doesn’t change that. Looks like they might flesh out his character in next week’s episode, so we’ll see if they can do the impossible and make Ward somewhat interesting. Also, he has my same first name, which is unfortunate.
I’ve got a crush on Amy Acker ever since I saw her on Angel and later Dollhouse, so I was pleased to see her on television again, if only for a fleeting moment. I liked seeing her character too, since she’d been mentioned on the show and in Avengers.