On Season 2 Episode 4 of Agents of SHIELD, people aren’t exactly who they say they are. A lot of deception and also, some awesome action going on this episode. Check out Josh’s recap on this week’s episode of Agents of SHIELD, titled Face My Enemy, and check out both Josh and Violet’s thoughts below!
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Episode Recap of Agents of SHIELD, Season 2 Episode 4: Face My Enemy
On this episode of Agents of SHIELD, the episode opens with a priest heading to a church. An early 1500s painting is the subject of discussion–the only one surviving a disaster.
Moving to Skye and Hunter, they are working a mark, and snag some intel to get into a rich person’s party. Coulson and May all fancied up, and head in to the party. They put on the shmoozing act, and “mingle”. It looks like their plan is to snag this mysterious painting. While dancing, May and Coulson survey the scene for security. May is concerned about Coulson’s “condition”, and Coulson tells her they need come up with a back-up plan if he goes the same way Garrett did. But they are interrupted when they spot Talbot mingling about the area as well.
Coulson pays Talbot a visit, and he seems a little…off. Coulson asks Talbot to help keep his cover, given how much SHIELD has helped his career. Talbot plays coy, so Coulson doesn’t know what to make of it.
Coulson and May decide to move their time table up on snatching the painting now that Talbot is involved. Through a ruse, May plays a guest, getting Coulson to take a photo of the man’s eyes. Coulson uses this to hack a scanner, allowing Coulson and May to get into the storage area, past the retina scanner. They trip the alarms, but look for the painting. But Skye is able to find out that Talbot already snatched it.
Looks like HYDRA is involved, and working with Talbot…?
Talbot confronts May and Coulson outside. Talbot wants to work together with Coulson, to read the back of the painting. Coulson agrees, but wants to meet after speaking with his team. Talbot tells him to meet him in an hour.
May decides to investigate Talbot’s place. She finds a woman looking through files, at Talbot specifically. May confronts her, but is followed up by Talbot. Turns out Talbot is actually a person using a very good mask, and is just a member of HYDRA — Mr. Bakshi. May is tasered unconscious though.
The woman, Agent 33, takes May’s dress and puts it on, and they work on making this woman into Agent May’s doppleganger. Fake-May tells Coulson the deal seems legit, and she heads to pick him up. May wakes up in the meantime, and the Fake-Talbot–Mr. Bakshi, the person training Simmons in HYDRA, interrogates May. Fake-May on the SHIELD plane, puts a device on it, which sabotages the plane, causing it to malfunction. Fitz tries to work through the problems with the plane before it explodes, but is struggling to think and speak properly. After working with Hunter, Fitz gets a job well done.
Coulson and May head back to meet Talbot for the painting. They have small talk on the way, but Coulson was tipped off by her answers, so Coulson decks her in the face. The Real-May breaks out, and takes down her captor, then battles Fake-May. The Fake-Talbot takes off with the painting, and Coulson gives chase. Coulson takes him down with a night-night gun.
Coulson grabs May and they head for extraction. HYDRA’s team moves in, but the two have escaped already.
Aboard the plane, Hunter wants to celebrate their victory, and makes a point to bring Fitz into the group. Fitz is reserved at first, but he joins in awkwardly. But the group accepts him, even with his odd qualities.
Coulson returns to the plane, and gives Talbot a call about his double. Talbot tries to track him, but Coulson ends that quickly. Coulson talks about the painting, and it looks like the writing on the back of the painting is writing like Coulson has been producing. But the writing is brand new–not from the 1500s when the painting was made.
Then May tells Coulson her plan if Coulson goes off the rails. She said if that happens, she will take care of him, and get him to somewhere safe. Coulson insists that she shoot him in the head though, if things go wrong.
In the final scene, our leader of HYDRA, Dr. Whitehall, confronts Raina. He attaches a device to her hand, and demands that she gets the obelisk to him. He gives her 48 hours to do so.
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 2 Episode 4: Face My Enemy
Another pretty good episode of SHIELD, I thought. The deliberate misleading of Talbot was pretty entertaining when the reveal came. But we did not get a whole lot of answers this episode. Really we got more questions. We now have another person who is doing this alien writing thing? Who is this other person, and whose side are they on? Why was it on the back of a painting from the 1500s?
It was pretty awesome to have SHIELD get a win this episode, managing to snatch the painting from the clutches of HYDRA. On top of that, we got some real good Agent May fighting. Actually we got a two for one deal, with May and Fake-May fighting each other. SHIELD has done very well with its fighting choreography, as those scenes seem pretty complicated for a TV show.
I kind wondered why Coulson didn’t try to “arrest” either of the two HYDRA agents they had to extract information, but I guess this might be because of HYDRA’s superiority in numbers, and how quicky they had a team assembled at the hotel Coulson and May fled from.
As for Fitz, I am glad to see him improving both mentally and emotionally. He seemed to have made real progress and is hopefully feeling like more of the team now. Hunter and the gang really have tried to bring him into the fold this episode, which is nice.
But finally, I am wondering where Coulson’s storyline is going. Is he going to go off the rails like Garrett? To be fair, Garrett and had a inclination towards evil anyway. Maybe someone on the other end of the spectrum might be more willing to do good things with whatever this information is stuck inside their head?
And now really finally–it looks like next episode Raina will be returning the obelisk? Or maybe she will turn to SHIELD for some assistance? I guess we will have to see. Either way, I am glad season 2 has been off to a great start.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 4 of Agents of SHIELD: Face My Enemy
This was a pretty cool episode! It kind of felt like an updated version of the movie Face/Off, mixed with a James Bond type spy movie, which was a fun combination. When I saw the preview for this episode, I was pretty excited about it, because it looked like it was going to be a May/Coulson undercover spy/heist mission, which it was, but it was more than that, which made it even better. Not only did we get to see “May” and Coulson face off (see what I did there?), we also got to see May fight against herself! May sure can kick butt! It was also funny to see her out of her usual serious element, pretending to be all social while undercover.
As for the others, I already said a long time ago that I liked Mac. Well, after this episode, I have decided that I like Hunter too! The team is really coming together, even if it looks a lot different than it did last season. No Ward this episode, and no Simmons, either. Well, only the hallucinated Simmons. It’s weird that we’ll only see them every so often. I wonder if Fitz’s little speech about Simmons going away was his way of sending the hallucinated Simmons away for good? Speaking of which, it was so sad when Fitz talked about how he told Simmons his feelings for her, and she didn’t feel the same way, so she went away. I didn’t realize that was why she went away. Sigh. I swear, those two are perfect for each other. I miss FitzSimmons being together. But I guess Fitz has realized that he has to move on.
Well, here’s to hoping we get some info into that alien writing and that they don’t drag it out slowly. Like they did last season with Tahiti. But they’re probably going to. I suppose the focus of action for the next episode is Raina getting the obelisk for Dr. Whitehall though. In any case, keep up the good work, Agents of SHIELD!
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 2 Episode 5: A Hen in the Wolfhouse
Here are scenes from the next episode of Agents of SHIELD, titled A Hen in the Wolfhouse:
All I’ve got to say is WOWZA!! Agent May in that dress….WOW! When they were dancing it totally reminded me of Arnold/Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies. Very cool!
This is my second favorite show 🙂
This was an awesome episode!