Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 4 of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., titled Eye Spy, where the S.H.I.E.L.D. team tracks a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who has gone rogue! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 4: Eye Spy Recap Overview
Need a quick Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode recap of Episode 4 titled Eye Spy? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode recap for Eye Spy if you need more information!
- A woman steals millions of dollars worth of diamonds. S.H.I.E.L.D. investigates on location in Stockholm, Sweden to try to figure out how she cracked the security system.
- Coulson identifies the thief as Akela Amador, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent he trained that had been presumed dead. Meanwhile, Akela exchanges the diamonds for a key card.
- The team goes to Belarus to track Akela, but she finds them first, rams their van, and gets away.
- Skye hacks into the feed that Akela was using to monitor them, and they discover that the camera is in Akela’s eye, and that she is being controlled.
- Agent May secretly figures out where Akela is and confronts her. However, Akela’s eye has a built in fail-safe: either she kills May, or “they” kill her. Akela and May fight, but Coulson shows up just in time.
- Ward takes over Akela‘s feed with special glasses, and will complete her mission while Fitz and Simmons disable the fail-safe.
- Ward enters a research facility, makes it past a guard and completes the mission by getting a picture of diagrams drawn on chalkboards. However, an alarm goes off and he narrowly escapes.
- When Coulson finds Akela’s handler and shows him his S.H.I.E.L.D. badge, the man’s fail-safe goes off and kills the handler. Coulson hands Akela over to S.H.I.E.L.D. for a fair trial.
- Skye has a little fun with the backscatter glasses
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode Recap: Eye Spy, the Details
Creepy Masked Men and a Diamond Thief
This episode starts off in Sergel’s Square in Stockholm, Sweden. Guys wearing red masks, dressed in identical suits and ties, walk through the square, each carrying a briefcase, and enter the subway. A young black woman closes her eyes, and uses her elbow to smash through glass, causing the lights in the train to turn off. At the next station stop, we see that one of the masked men is dead, with his hand severed from his arm. Meanwhile, the young woman has obtained the man’s briefcase. She enters a code, opens it, and finds diamonds inside.
Coulson tells Skye that someone is stealing millions of dollars in diamonds, and asks Skye to help him figure out how they cracked the security system. He, Skye, and Agent May go on location to Stockholm. Coulson explains that a gem broker hired 55 military men, dressed them in identical outfits, gave each a randomly assigned briefcase, and sent them on 25 different routes in Stockholm. No one knew which briefcase contained the diamonds, yet, they were still stolen. Skye has a theory about how the woman was able to do it. First she thinks ESP, but Agent May says there’s no scientific evidence of that. She then wonders why the woman closed her eyes – was she listening, or was she reading minds? Coulson and Agent May just stare at her. Agent May asks Coulson why HQ wants them to investigate this, but Coulson admits he picked it out. Skye interrupts, saying that she gets four bars on her phone, so if she saw the guys in masks, she would Instagram.
Diamond Thief is Identified as Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent
They quickly go through the pictures of the guys in masks that they find on social media networks, and Coulson recognizes the thief. Her name is Akela Amador, and he knows who she is because he trained her to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Seven years ago she was presumed dead after a mission, but her death was never confirmed. Ward reports that there’s been no contact with anyone who could fence that many diamonds. Rather than notify HQ, Coulson opts to bring the team to Belarus to look for Akela. Coulson talks to Skye about Akela, and how he may have pushed her too hard, but Skye tries to reassure him that this isn’t his fault.
Meanwhile, Akela is in a hotel room, and has her eyes closed. She grabs a golf club and opens the door, finding a man there, who she throws on the bed. She says the agreement was to come alone, and the guy insists he did. She asks about the man in the next room, and the one by the stairs, but he says they’re for his protection. He apologizes, saying he’s never done this before. He asks to see the merchandise, which she has disguised as golf balls. He gives her a key card, which he tells her “will access all the levels.”
The Team Searches for Akela. Or Is It the Other Way Around?
The S.H.I.E.L.D. team, minus Agent May, arrives in Belarus by van. Coulson tells Fitz, Simmons, and Skye they’ll only be searching for Amador electronically, and won’t even need to leave the van, which Ward has dubbed the “short bus.” Ward parks the van outside of town, then he and Coulson go into town to ask about Amador. Skye calls Ward and tells him that they found a broadcast with a weird signal. She also asks about a bathroom break, but he tells them to use a water bottle. Coulson and Ward stop inside a hotel, where the desk clerk recognizes the photo of Amador, and says Amador saved her life by telling her she had a tumor.
Back in the van, Skye is able to unencrypt a competing signal on the broadcast they found, and realize that the broadcast is zeroing in on their van. Suddenly, it switches to X-Ray vision, and they can see themselves inside the van. Just then, they get rammed by a truck driven by Akela. Before they can do anything, Akela rams them again, pushing the van onto its side.
I Spy with My Little Eye
The team returns to the plane unharmed. Akela only did it so she could get away. Skye is able to hack into the encrypted broadcast Akela was using to watch them, and they are able to watch it as well. They see Akela looking in the mirror, and realize that her eye is the camera. Fitz explains that it switches to backscatter when she closes her eyes. Coulson insists on the team bringing her in without the help of HQ, despite Agent May’s and Ward’s protests. Just then, they see that she writes on a piece of paper “Can I sleep?” and gets a typed response of “Stand by.” Coulson realizes she’s being controlled. They take turns watching the feed for clues of where she might be.
Later, Skye gives Coulson a status report that Akela is still in her hotel room. Skye thanks him for valuing her, saying that she believes he’s an excellent judge of character, and therefore she supports his decision to give Akela a second chance.
May Takes Matters Into Her Own Hands
Coulson goes to check on the feed, and discovers that May is gone. Coulson plays back the feed and realizes that May figured out where Akela is, and has gone to confront her. Cut to Akela’s hotel room, where Akela wakes up to May asking if the person monitoring her has audio, to which the answer is no, but they’ll use facial recognition to determine she’s a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. May says Coulson did not send her, and she’s going to bring Akela in to S.H.I.E.L.D. for a fair trial. However, Akela explains that “they” built in a fail-safe: either Akela kills her, or they kill Akela. They proceed to fight. Akela knocks out the lights, so that Agent May can’t see, but she can use her backscatter to see May. Akela is about to shoot May, when Coulson bursts in and shoots Akela with a weapon that knocks her out.
Ward Takes Over Akela’s Mission
Akela wakes up on the Bus, and Coulson explains that as far as her handler knows, she fought Agent May, then left the building to complete her mission. That is because the team hijacked the feed. Ward is now wearing a pair of glasses, and the feed is transmitting his point of view as if it were hers. It even has backscatter, and they also receive the messages that she gets from her handler. Ward is going to complete her mission while Fitz and Simmons disable the fail-safe in her eye. Akela asks where Coulson’s “I told you so” is, but he says that’s not him anymore, he’s just glad she’s alive. She says she regrets not listening to him and trusting her team, because if she had, they might still be alive.
Ward Completes the Mission as Fitz and Simmons Disable Akela’s Fail-Safe
Skye and Ward arrive at the Todorov building, which they think conducts research. Skye finalizes the wireless connection to Ward’s feed. Meanwhile, Akela explains to Coulson what happened to her during the mission after which she went missing. She doesn’t know who the team is that give her the eye implant, just that they were organized. After she got the implant, she soon realized that if she ignored the messages sent to her, she got horrible migraines. She explains that the information only comes through the messages in bits and pieces. Coulson and Akela determine that her handler is English, late 30s – early 40s, and a clumsy typer, therefore probably heavyset.
Ward enters the building and reaches his target. Then he gets the message: “Seduce him.” Skye tells Ward to “bromance” him. However, it doesn’t work, so Ward has to knock him out. He uses his key card to get to the next room, in which which there are chalkboards with diagrams drawn on them. A picture is taken through the feed, and Ward gets a message: “Mission Complete. Good Luck.” Ward figures out that he needed the guard to enter a password. A countdown reaches zero, and an alarm goes off. He tells Skye to meet him on the south side of the building. Meanwhile, May directs Coulson to the location of the handler, and Fitz and Simmons are finishing up removing Akela’s fail-safe. Fitz calls Ward for help, while Ward is trying to get away from a security guard chasing him. Ward tells Fitz to cut the wire. He does, and quickly throws the eye into a container. Ward jumps through a window, and Skye picks him up and drives away.
Akela’s Handler Self-Destructs; Coulson Hands Akela Over to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Coulson finds the handler and confronts him, showing him his S.H.I.E.L.D. badge. The man’s fail-safe goes off and kills him. The handler was as trapped as Akela was, and the real threat is still out there. As for what was written on the chalkboard, S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t sure what it is, and thinks it might be alien. Coulson hands Akela over to S.H.I.E.L.D. but assures her that she’ll get a fair trail, and that he’ll testify. After Coulson leaves, Akela asks May what happened to Coulson, and says that he’s different. However, May only concedes that Coulson has loosened up a bit due to nearly dying prior to the Battle of New York, but when Akela presses, asking, “But what did they do to him?” May acts like she doesn’t know what Akela is talking about.
Coulson and Skye have a private chat, where he explains that he got a second chance, so it seems only fair to extend one to others. Skye says she likes knowing someone has her back no matter what.
A New Form of Strip Poker
The final scene is Fitz and Ward playing poker, while Fitz is secretly wearing an earpiece to communicate with Skye, who has the backscatter glasses. However, she warns Fitz that if she puts them on, she’ll not only be able to see Ward’s cards, but will be able to see Fitz naked. He folds and walks away. She puts on the glasses and looks at Ward.
Violets’s Thoughts on Episode 4 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Eye Spy
Another okay episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Actually, the storyline was pretty cool, overall. I had no idea what to expect during that creepy beginning scene with the masked men. But then Coulson brings Skye in as special consultant for the case, and her brilliant idea is to look on Instagram, because nobody else would have thought of that {sarcasm}. Seriously, is the show trying to make us hate her? If so, they’re doing a pretty good job of it. Anyway, so the gadgetry aspect of the episode was pretty neat, the way that Akela’s eye implant worked, and how S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to mimic its functionality. Though it did seem a bit too convenient how quickly and seamlessly they were able to switch over to the glasses feed. And weren’t “they” supposed to kill Akela if she didn’t kill Agent May? Ward’s scene was actually pretty funny, and his escape, while simultaneously advising Fitz/Simmons over the phone, was fun. I liked the way everything wrapped up, with the handler being just another pawn with a fail-safe. If you only think about the story, it seems like a pretty solid episode.
But I’m still having trouble liking the characters. This episode, Fitz and Simmons were really starting to annoy me. They’re like children. Throw Skye into the mix, and she just makes things worse. It’s kind of hard to get into a show when you don’t like half the characters on it, one of which is the main character, which Skye seems to be, since it feels like she’s the focus of every episode. What’s with Coulson being so buddy buddy with her lately anyway? Guess they were trying to establish trust and closeness between the two, so that in the next episode, where it looks like she has betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D., it feels like that much more of a betrayal. I’d like to get to know more about the other characters, and stop this focus on Skye.
Once again, the mystery of Coulson’s death is brought up, as Akela makes a couple a comments that suggest this is a “different” Coulson. First was when she was telling Coulson what happened during her mission, and expecting an “I told you so,” but even he admitted “that’s not me anymore.” Then later, Akela brings it up to Agent May, who doesn’t seem to know what Akela is talking about. Does Agent May really not know, or was she just playing dumb? My guess is the latter, considering how much history she has with Coulson. Even Akela noticed the difference, so I’m sure May would too. Are they just going to tease us with these little tidbits every episode? For how long? It’s starting to get redundant.
Anyway, so it looks like Skye is a traitor next episode. But I’m sure it’s all just some sort of ruse. And even it isn’t, she’ll probably find a way to get back in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s good graces by the end of the episode with some sort of excuse that she comes up with, or by redeeming herself in some way. I don’t think we’re getting rid of Skye that easily, though that would be nice. One can only hope…
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 4: Eye Spy
I am still on the fence when it comes to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Some parts of the show are very good. For example, I enjoyed Ward’s attempt to infiltrate the base that had been intended for Akela to handle. It had some great James Bond/Mission Impossible moments and well, when he has to “seduce” the guard and fails, it is pretty funny to watch. There are a couple of cool scenes where he uses the “X-Ray” feature of the glasses, for example, when he uses it to take some shots through the wall.
I do like how the show has tried to include all of the agents, and give them all of their niches they are good at. This is typical Joss Whedon work, as we see this in his shows such as Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and even in The Avengers.
I also like that we are learning more about S.H.I.E.L.D.’s/Coulson’s past through various characters. I think that this certainly adds depth to his character, and I think delving into the other agents’ past might be helpful to make their characters more appreciated as well. It is hard to identify with a character you really do not have much information on. I think is why Coulson and May are the best characters of the show so far—both have at least hints of a back-story, while the others seem as if they sprung out of the ground when the show began since we do not really know anything else about them.
Scenes from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Episode 5: Girl in the Flower Dress
Here are scenes from the next Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode, titled Girl in the Flower Dress:
