Check out Violet’s recap of Season 2 Episode 18 Agents of SHIELD, titled The Frenemy of My Enemy where Coulson teams up with Ward in order to find Skye! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Agents of SHIELD, Season 2 Episode 18: The Frenemy of My Enemy
Coulson teams up with Ward
This episode of Agents of SHIELD begins with Fitz running from his other-SHIELD tail in San Francisco and being picked up by Deathlok, Coulson, and Hunter from the roof of a building. Their only lead to find Skye is through HYDRA, whose new heads, Strucker and List, are obsessed with finding power people. Coulson tells Fitz they’re making a deal with Ward.
Coulson tracks down Ward and Agent 33 to Tijuana. Coulson says if Ward helps him, he’ll let him go free and clear — after putting him through TAHITI. This would wipe away all the bad, leaving only the good. Ward says he might know a guy.
Deathlok drives to pick up a “package” with Ward and Agent 33. While Ward and Agent 33 wait in the car as Deathlok talks to Coulson, it appears that Ward’s plan is to use Coulson to get to their own end game. It turns out that the package is Bakshi, who is in the trunk of the car. Ward tells Bakshi to do whatever Coulson says.
Bakshi arranges a meeting with Dr. List, and has been instructed to act as he would have before the brainwashing. Fitz tries to attack Ward when he tries to talk to him, but the others hold him back. Coulson explains that Bakshi will be going in with a bodyguard – Deathlok.
At the meeting with Dr. List, Bakshi talks his way out of suspicion, and makes up a story about the U.S. Government capturing him, and Mike Peterson helping him escape. Then Bakshi offers Peterson to Dr. List and Strucker as a sign of good faith. The SHIELD team, who is monitoring the meeting from afar through Deathlok’s feed, isn’t happy about this, and Hunter accuses Ward of selling them out, and pulls a gun on Ward. Agent 33 holds a knife to Fitz’s throat, and Coulson pulls his gun on Ward as well.
Ward insists that they need give up Deathlok in order to get to Strucker. Just then, Fitz notices that Deathlok is locking onto everyone in the room as targets, about to kill them. Coulson says they need them all alive. At the last second, they all put their weapons down, and Fitz enters the command to Deathlok to “play along.” Dr. List’s team detects a disturbance and their plane takes off, ready to test Bakshi and Deathlok’s loyalty.
As they land, Dr. List explains “quantum entanglement” to Bakshi: particles can simultaneously exist in two places from a great distance. Fitz realizes that they are tracking the teleport who took Skye. For the first time, Ward figures out that this is about Skye.
Afterlife and Milwaukee
Meanwhile, at Afterlife, Jiaying tells Cal she’ll have Gordon bring him home to pick up some of his things. Skye talks to Lincoln about the family dinner. It also turns out that Jiaying is sending Cal away, he’s not coming back. Skye isn’t sure that’s a good idea, because it’ll upset him, and someone will get hurt. Skye pleads her case to Jiaying for Cal to stay, but she isn’t very agreeable.
Later, Skye goes to see Cal, who tells her that home is Milwaukee. He still thinks that he’s only going there to pick up his things. She suggests that she go with him. Jiaying isn’t happy with this decision, but eventually lets Skye go so that she can gently break the news to Cal.
Gordon drops Skye and Cal off in Milwaukee. Cal shows Skye around the city, and tells her about how his life was, and the life he had planned for Skye. As they walk around, Skye bumps into a guy and steals his phone. While Cal goes into a store to buy ice cream, Skye calls May and tells her that SHIELD needs to come pick up Cal. She has to abandon the phone in a nearby trash can when Cal comes out of the store, but leaves the line open. Bobbi tells May that she and Mack will take a team.
Cal says there’s something he wants to show Skye at his old office. We then see that Lincoln has been secretly following Skye and Cal. Jiaying and Gordon are worried that they haven’t heard anything from Lincoln, and that Skye has been gone so long. However, Gordon informs Jiaying about something else to worry about — Ethan, who he dropped off on a camping trip, is now missing.
Cal brings Skye to his old office, where she discovers what would have been her last name: Johnson. All his stuff is still there because he owns the building. He shows Skye her grandfather’s field kit, which he himself used to put her mother back together. Skye tells Cal that he needs to move on. She starts to say that she can visit — when they hear a noise. They investigate, and see that it’s Lincoln. Cal starts to get offended that they think Skye’s not safe with him, figures out that they were just going to dump him there, and attacks Lincoln.
SHIELD HQ
Back at Coulson’s SHIELD HQ, Bobbi and Mack spar. Bobbi thinks they should be after HYDRA, rather than worrying about Coulson and Fitz. Mack says the only way to move forward is to get the truth out and get Fury’s toolbox open. Simmons goes to May and confesses that Fitz has the real toolbox. May tells Bobbi. May then asks Simmons to find Fitz by hacking into Deathlok’s feed.
Later, May explains her actions to Simmons, saying that they were going to figure it out. Simmons says it was her plan to switch the boxes, and is upset at May for throwing Fitz under the bus, but she says she did it to protect Simmons. May says the only way to understand Coulson’s reasoning is inside that box.
The Stories Converge
Bakshi and the HYDRA team show up in Cal’s office building and find Skye. Lincoln and Cal hold off the HYDRA agents, while Skye runs away. Deathlok finds Skye, and Coulson and the others head into the building to get her. Lincoln tries to attack Deathlok, who tells him that he’s a friend of Skye, but he doesn’t believe him. Coulson and Ward catch up to Deathlok, who tells them which way Skye went.
Just then, Simmons successfully hacks into Deathlok’s feed, and they see that Coulson and Ward are working together. Bakshi finds Deathlok and Lincoln, and orders the HYDRA agents to take them both. They shoot a device toward them, which causes them to pass out.
Coulson and Ward catch up to Skye, but just then, Gordon arrives and teleports her away. Agent 33 and Hunter, who has been shot, meet back up with Coulson and Ward, who thinks they should clear out.
Bobbi and Mack arrive to find the aftermath. They also find Coulson, who turns himself in.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 18 of Agents of SHIELD: The Frenemy of My Enemy
I’m not sure what to think of Ward. We know he’s a master manipulator, so it seems like only a matter of time before he starts working toward his own purposes, which are what? It sounds like it has something to do with helping out Kara/Agent 33, but that can’t be it, can it? Is he really as into her as he appears to be, or is it all just an act to get what he wants, whatever that is? Is he really over Skye, or just pretending? He seemed really interested to learn that this mission was about Skye. I wonder how seeing her again, albeit briefly, affected him.
So it was really cool how all of the stories converged at the end. I surely didn’t see Coulson turning himself in. What’s the game plan there? What’s the rest of the crew doing in the meantime? With no Deathlok, Fitz and Hunter have to hold their own against Ward and Agent 33, it seems. Not sure how that’s gonna go. Also, with Coulson being taken in, I’m also not sure what’s in store for him back at HQ, as I’m curious to know what’s going through Agent May’s mind right now. I feel like she’s secretly still on Coulson’s side, but now having seen Coulson working with Ward of all people, could this cause both her and Simmons to doubt Coulson? I’m really interested in seeing what happens next.
What I’m also interested in seeing is how the next episode(s) connect with Avengers: Age of Ultron. They’ve been advertising that it’s all connected, and I want to see how, especially considering how awesome the show got back when it connected with Captain America: The Winter Soldier last year. We shall soon see!
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 2 Episode 18: The Frenemy of My Enemy
So, Coulson has made a deal with the devil—or as close as the devil as you can get. I have to say that Ward has got the creepy factor sort of down pat. He seems very excited to work with Coulson again—like genuinely. But at the same time, I feel like he is a switch waiting to go off and murder the entire group. We also know that he had an ulterior motive, but it looks like things aren’t going quite the way he or Coulson planned with how things played out with Bakshi.
As for Skye, I find it weird she all of a sudden has compassion for her father. I guess he has presented himself in a way recently that he actually seems like a father in this and the last episode, so maybe that has softened Skye. Unfortunately, it seems Cal knows the plan was to leave him behind, so he is pretty upset. That is probably going to make for some bad blood between him and Skye.
I do wonder a couple things though. What is Agent May’s plan? She basically threw Simmons under the bus. I guess her reasoning makes sense. It would probably be found out, and this at last softens whatever punishment may be ahead. Still, she seems really intent on finding Coulson, coming up with all sorts of ways to help out Agent Gonzalez and his second SHIELD group.
But in the end, it looks like Coulson is turning himself in. I wonder if he is giving up, and will be trying to enlist Gonzalez help to take down HYDRA, which seems to always be creeping back up. Hopefully we get more answers on this next episode.
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 2 Episode 19: The Dirty Half Dozen
Here are scenes from the next Agents of SHIELD episode, titled The Dirty Half Dozen:
