Josh recaps Season 3 Episode 2 of Agents of SHIELD, titled Purpose in the Machine, where the team comes up with a plan to find Gemma! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Agents of SHIELD Season 3 Episode 2: Purpose in the Machine Recap Overview
This episode opens in the past, with some sort of cult-ish group performing some sort of ritual. One man “wins” apparently, but doesn’t seem to be something you would want to win. Turns out his winning is a trip to the same place Gemma went, because he was put in a room with the weird stone.
Returning to the present, Skye is talking with Mack, and irritated that no one they pick up is being released to work. But they are interrupted by Bobbi, who panics when she finds out Fitz broke the containment around the stone. Coulson and the team grab him, and tell him to chill out. But in his fit of rage, Fitz discovered some sand–that came back through the portal, and that it’s really old. But this proves that Gemma ended up somewhere. Coulson and the team think she might be dead, but they all seem set on finding her. Coulson has an idea, and reaches out to a friend–or ally at least.
As people get to their missions, Hunter and Bobbi talk about Hunter’s revenge plot for Ward. Coulson invites Bobbi to visit Randolph, the alien from Asgard, Thor’s home world. He apparently has a thing for discovering portals. Meanwhile, Hunter heads out to look for Ward.
Speaking of Ward, he is driving pretty crazily through a parking garage, with a dude hanging onto the windshield. He has a speech going on about how HYDRA has gotten soft, and he plans to fix that. He apparently is testing the HYDRA members, seeing if they are worthy of his new organization.
Moving on to Randolph, he is locked away in jail, using it as a cover to remain low. Coulson demands his help, but Randolph decides he likes his accommodations. Coulson decides to threaten Randolph with exposing his alien background if he doesn’t help. This changes his mind, and he breaks out of prison–blaming it on Coulson to the guards. One condition Randolph has–to destroy the portal they find after they are done investigating it.
Randolph takes a look at the rock, and sees it do its thing, and he seems perplexed, thinking there must be a trigger for what it does. Coulson, Bobbi, Fitz and Randolph discuss what they know about the stone’s history, and they deduce that somewhere in England is where they should head.
They find a castle to investigate, and Randolph had seen this place before, and matched up some carvings to some of the scrolls Coulson and the team discovered. They take a peek around, and discover that this must have been where they figured out how to control the rock.
Back with the jet, Skye and Mack greet Doctor Garner, who is there to analyze the liquefying metal guy. Of course, Garner denies this guy to work for SHIELD. Skye is ticked about it. Garner tells her these people are dangerous, and that even within SHIELD there is a lot of hazards, with people on edge, including Coulson. Garner does say that Skye is turning into a leader, but worried about how she is going about it. Skye tries to explain she wants to help these Inhumans, but Garner says they should make a “halfway house,” but Skye wants to have these people help society.
Coulson brings the rock down to the room they discovered, and bring Skye along as well. Fitz does some experimenting with the machinery in the room, and sees that it does indeed activate the teleporter. Fitz looks into the portal, but can’t see anything. They fire a flare into it, but the machine goes out. After some thinking, Fitz figures out sound resonance activates the machine, when it knocks Skye out. So, this puts Skye in the position of being able to activate the rock with her powers. The group decides to use her to open the portal, so they can send a probe through. But Fitz has other ideas–he dives into the tunnel with a harness on, so he can look for Simmons. After some screaming and flailing about, he does find her. But Skye is struggling to keep the portal open. Mack and Bobbi begin to reel in Fitz, and he is losing his grip on Simmons who has made it back to him. After an intense few moments, we see Fitz and Simmons back home, and the portal destroyed. Everyone seems relieved. Randolph inquires about who Daisy is with her powers, and he seems familiar with the phrase “Inhumans.”
Then moving to May, she is hanging out with her papa, playing some golf. Her dad seems to think that May is not quite happy. Back home, May is making food, and her father seems concerned that she is hiding from someone. Outside, May sees shadows and seems concerned. She opens the door, with a knife, and Hunter is the visitor. Outside, Hunter proposes trying to find Ward and take him out. Hunter seems to propose the idea her father might have been hurt by Ward, but neither one can be sure. Looks like Hunter plans on playing mole to get into HYDRA and find Ward. May seems to want to stay out though, so she says.
Back in the house, her father seems to be putting things together. He tells her that she isn’t living a normal life with her always looking behind her back. He also tells her that she has to “get back up.”
Garner, meanwhile, calls May and lets her know Gemma is alive, and asks her to come back. But it looks like May is set on Hunter’s mission. Meanwhile, Gemma is having nightmares, and cuddles up to Fitz.
Back with Ward, he is spying on another former HYDRA agent, or more specific, the son of one. They get on board, and Ward takes the kid hostage. Ward tells his cronie to torture this guy for his banking information. But this kid turns the table on the cronie, and knocks the guy out. Ward walks up, and gives the kid props for taking his captor down. Ward decides to let this kid in on the plan to rebuild HYDRA.
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 3 Episode 2: Purpose in the Machine
I think my favorite part of this episode was when Fitz was able to save Simmons in the portal. It was a bit cheesy, and over dramatic, but those two are my favorite characters of the show, and I was glad to see the reunited. I wonder what Gemma experienced there though, and how long she had been there? We don’t know if time works the same where she was, but it couldn’t have been too long as she still looks the same age. I wonder though, what did she do for food, and what did she experience that made her have such a crazy nightmare, that she armed herself with a tiny, sharpened stick?
As for Ward, it looks like he is trying to take over HYDRA. I wonder if this will play out in the movies at all? So far the movies don’t reference the TV show really, but this seems like a way to do it. I guess the movies could reference HYDRA but shy away from how it came back to power. Either way, I am pretty excited to see Hunter go undercover, and see how close he can get the Ward, as well as seeing what decisions Hunter has to make to keep his cover.
Overall I look forward to the season so far. I am beginning to like Skye’s character more, now that she has some powers, and is taking a little bit more responsibility for the team. I guess we will still have to wait to see what this new, mystery organization is that is also tracking down Inhumans.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 3 Episode 2 of Agents of SHIELD: Purpose in the Machine
I was a little surprised that the team got Simmons back already, but I am glad she’s back! I thought this was something that might drag on for a good portion of the season, and that Simmons might get up to something on that other planet she was on. I wonder how long she’s been gone on this end, versus how long it felt to her like she had been gone. From Earth, it seems like she’s been gone quite awhile, as they made it seem like Fitz had invested a lot of time and effort in trying to find her. But she had to have been able to find food and water, or else she wouldn’t still be alive. Maybe we’ll get more of the story about how she survived. In any case, it’s looking like there may be a FitzSimmons after all! So I’m excited about seeing where that goes. I am concerned about Simmons having PTSD about her experience though.
As for Ward, he’s just as crazy as ever, trying to recruit the best he can to rebuild HYDRA. It’ll be interesting to see Hunter go after him. May appears to be aloof to all this, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she jumps back in.
So far, I feel like Season 3 is off to a good start. I hope it keeps up.
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 3 Episode 3: A Wanted (Inhu)man
Here are scenes from the next Agents of SHIELD episode, titled A Wanted (Inhu)man:
