Season 3 Episode 8 of Agents of SHIELD reveals HYDRA to be a lot older than anyone previously thought. Check out Josh’s recap of this episode, titled Many Heads, One Tale, along with our thoughts after the jump!
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Episode Recap of Agents of SHIELD, Season 3 Episode 8: Many Heads, One Tale
Ward Versus/With Gideon
This episode of Agents of SHIELD kicks off with Gideon, the seemingly new head of HYDRA, meeting with Ward over dinner. Gideon compliments Ward’s killing ability and adaptability. Ward said he was trimming the fat, but Gideon knows Ward was looking for something–the Von Strucker Family Vault, said to hold HYDRA’s “greatest power.” But Gideon decides that rather than talk things out with Ward, he will have him killed. Ward warns Gideon he will find the vault. Gideon leaves, and Ward has to fend for himself. After some intense shots, stabs, and punches, Ward seems to have things under control.
He then goes for interrogation of these men. He offers great “opportunities” to whoever tells him where the vault is. He decides to use some heat to get people to talk. Using some sort of handheld blowtorch, he grabs a man and pushes it towards face. One of the other men speaks, and tells Ward that Zepcal is where Gideon goes for the Von Strucker vault, but none of them have been there. Ward decides to execute the talker, basically thinking he is disgraceful for actually talking.
Later we see Ward on a commercial plane, hiding in the back. He tells the stewardess that he couldn’t find any other fights, so he had to take this one. But it isn’t quite going to the place he was looking to go (Germany of course), so he has to make do. He tells the stewardess to strap in, and he pulls open an emergency door to parachute out.
Ward seems to have found the vault, and inside is Gideon. Ward asks if this was all a test, but Gideon admits no, he did want him dead, but now wants to look at it from a different angle, wanting Ward to be his second in command. Gideon explains HYDRA is a lot older than World War 2. Opening a safe, he pulls out a small object, encased in glass. It looks much like the big obelisk we’ve seen before…and it seems like it was a part of it, and Gideon tells Ward about its other worldly properties. Gideon then tells Ward a story about an Inhuman who was banished from the world with a portal for being too powerful. HYDRA has had hopes to bring it back. We then get a quick shot of Garner in his containment. It looks like he might be next to go through the portal…
Gideon continues talking to Ward, and seems to be interested in learning how SHIELD brought someone back through the portal…
Operation: Spotlight
Back with SHIELD and Coulson, he is with Rosalind, trying to determine if he is doing the right thing with Dr. Garner, keeping him in stasis as they look for a cure. Rosalind says the ATCU is working as much as they can on a cure. May seems pretty hurt, for May at least.
Mack then confronts Coulson in his office, and he is concerned that Coulson is getting too comfortable with Rosalind. Coulson tells Mack that he is bringing Rosalind to base to keep her busy there so the rest of the team can do some infiltration. Then Coulson talks to the rest of the team, saying they are launching mission “Operation Spotlight,” and issues orders for the ATCU infiltration.
Rosalind is brought in to SHIELD’s base, and Coulson seems to be courting her politely. Meanwhile, aboard the jet, Daisy and Mack put out a signal that draws ATCU’s attention. The ITT Department at the ATCU is then told by SHIELD to expect a team there shortly to help figure out this computer issue, and the very best people will be coming…The very best turns out to be Bobbi and Hunter. Hunter is playing a hacker, with Daisy in his ear to provide the technical mumbo-jumbo. Bobbi and Hunter work their way into the facility, and get to a computer as they had hoped.
Daisy continues to direct Hunter, which then gives Daisy remote access to the facility. Mack then gets Bobbi away from the ATCU, so she can do some investigation of the facility. May and Lincoln in the jet head to get ready for evac. On the way, May apologizes to Lincoln for what happened with Garner, but it’s cut short by Daisy telling them evac might be needed sooner than later.
Then we see Gideon approach Garner’s cage. Gideon tells Garner they are working on a cure, but then asks if Garner even wants to be cured. Gideon seems to be working Garner for SHIELD information.
Meanwhile, Bobbi’s search for Inhumans being held is empty handed. But she finds that there are a lot of fish oil pills. Hunter, meanwhile, has spotted Banks, Rosalind’s righthand man. Daisy and Mack do some digging, and they realize that the ATCU is giving Terrigen to their employees, manufacturing Inhumans.
Back at base, Coulson locks up Rosalind, telling her that she has to convince him she is not HYDRA. He begins his interrogation, and tells her to come clean. Coulson gets harsh, and Rosalind seems to be taken aback by this turn of events. Rosalind is pretty hurt, it seems. Then Coulson asks about Garner, and Rosalind tells Coulson he is not being held at the ATCU facility. The two go back and forth, and Coulson continues to insist that Rosalind is working with HYDRA. Coulson tells Rosalind they found the fish oil pills, but Rosalind then says that Gideon Malick could be the one behind all this, and that he gave the Tahiti intel regarding Coulson to Rosalind. Rosalind seems to convince Coulson that she has been in the dark, and is allowed to make a call.
At the ATCU, Hunter makes to meet up with Bobbi so they can make their evac. The two end up in a fight, with an Inhuman and some agents. Bobbi busts out her batons, and starts to take some guys out. Banks shows up, and tells the two that he can get them out of the building. Then outside May and Lincoln spot the guys, and pick them up.
Fitz and Simmons
At base, Fitz and Simmons talk, and Fitz is still working hard to figure out the portal. Meanwhile, Daisy and Lincoln are chit-chatting, and they are talking about their relationships and Lincoln’s future, which looks to be a part of SHIELD if he wants to stay.
As Fitz and Simmons continue their mission, they discover that the group that sent Will on his mission seem to be tied to blood sacrifices. This has Simmons pretty worried. Simmons thinks that it is impossible to figure out how to open the portal, but Fitz wants to keep working. Simmons gets frustrated and tells Fitz to cut it out. Fitz then approaches Simmons and they talk about their situation. Simmons feels bad that Fitz is helping basically save a man that Fitz would rather not. Fitz tells Simmons he feels like the cosmos wants them apart. Fitz then pops the question–does Simmons love Will? She says yes. Fitz also said that he couldn’t find any dirt on Will. But then the two kiss. Fitz finishes the kiss saying, “we’re cursed.” As Fitz turns away Simmons seemed to have found something, asking him, “Is that what I think it is?”
Everyone meets back up at SHIELD HQ, and Fitz and Simmons present their findings of the evolution of the logo of the group that was behind Will’s mission. They flip one of the images upside down — it’s the HYDRA logo.
Garner and Ward
The final scene of the episode has Ward approaching Garner, and telling Garner that he wants to figure out how to turn on the monster. He injects mustard gas into his containment room, in hopes to forcing the change….
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 3 Episode 8: Many Heads, One Tale
So Rosalind seems to have been an unwitting conspirator with HYDRA That seems to me that she is a pretty oblivious leader of the ATCU. I would think she would receive some sort of reports of either men disappearing from work permanently, or learning of numerous men in her facility turning into Inhumans. How did that go unnoticed by her for so long? That seems extremely odd to be. I guess HYDRA could be extra sneaky…
As for Ward, he is a persistent one. It looks like he might be joining the old guard of HYDRA after all. He and Gideon seem to be wanting to get Garner to turn to Lash again, but I wonder what the purpose would be for. The hint in the episode seemed to be indicating that he would be heading for the other world, but that hint could have just been indicating that this is the same group that sent Will and others to the other world as well.
I guess now we have the answer as to the group that sent Will to the other planet though–an older version of HYDRA. Now that we know HYDRA has a piece of this obelisk, I am guessing we are going to see some sort of offensive actions by SHIELD to recover this. But first, SHIELD needs to uncover it. I am guessing this will come via Ward opening his mouth at some point.
It looks like the end game for this season is going to have whatever the Inhuman is on the other side, coming through the portal and wreaking havoc on Earth. I am wondering if we will be seeing Lash have some sort of redemption story to stop this Inhuman when it does make it across. It would be sad to see Garner go out as a villain, as he was a likable character until his turn.
I am still enjoying this season of SHIELD though. They have a good storyline going, and the action has been great this episode. Bobbi’s batons were really fun to watch, and while I hate Ward, he sure has some great fight/action scenes of his own.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 3 Episode 8 of Agents of SHIELD: Many Heads, One Tale
I enjoyed this episode more than I’ve enjoyed any episode of Agents of SHIELD in a long time. That is, with the exception of the episode that focused solely on Simmons, which is one of my all time favorite Agents of SHIELD episodes. But if you only count “normal” episodes which feature multiple storylines, this was my favorite of the season. It kind of brought me back to the end of Season 1 when things started to get good.
So far this season, it’s pretty much just been the FitzSimmons storyline that’s been keeping me interested, for the most part. But this episode really brought things together for me in a way that I wasn’t expecting. Now suddenly, I’m interested in everything as a whole. But going back to FitzSimmons, we finally got the kiss… but it wasn’t exactly the kiss we would have wanted, or at least I felt that way anyway. It was more of a sad, tragic kiss.
I thought this was a great episode, with lots of action, lots of interesting storylines, and even humorous. I loved Hipster Hunter, that was awesome! So now we know it was always HYDRA behind everything, which in hindsight I should have guessed, but I suppose I didn’t realize they went back that far. I’m really excited to see what happens next, and hope that they can keep the good episodes coming!
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 3 Episode 9: Closure
Here are scenes from next week’s Agents of SHIELD episode titled Closure:
I liked this episode a lot, I think AoS has improved a lot from last seasons especially because they are getting further and further from the MCU, and they just drop hints here and there that they are connected.
This episode may be my favorite this season. I loved the Hydra history lesson given near the end to Ward. The discovery by fitz-simmons and the final scene with Garner and Ward was awesome.