Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 7 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., titled The Hub, where Ward and Fitz are sent on a dangerous two-man mission, and Skye ropes Simmons into her “bad girl shenanigans”! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
Don’t need the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode recap for The Hub? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode The Hub, click here to get directly there!
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Season 1 Episode 7: The Hub Recap Overview
Need a quick Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode recap of Season titled The Hub? 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 The Hub if you need more information!
- The team rescues an undercover agent, then recovers a data chip through his nose. The data on the chip is classified for Clearance Level 8.
- S.H.I.E.L.D. sends the two man team of Ward and Fitz on a mission to disable a dangerous weapon called the overkill device.
- Ward and Fitz stop at a bar to meet with Ward’s contact, but are met with hostility. They are about to be shot, when the power goes out. Coulson refuses to tell Skye about the mission, so she convinces a worried Simmons to help her.
- Fitz gets the power back on, then negotiates a deal to get them across the border. Fitz reveals he caused the power to go out. Ward and Fitz run into trouble and hide. Meanwhile, Simmons shoots Agent Sitwell with a stun gun when he catches her trying to access a panel.
- Skye hacks the system and discovers there is no extraction planned for Fitz and Ward. She complains to Coulson, who tells her to trust the system. Coulson complains to Hand, who tells him to trust the system. Ward and Fitz get to the overkill device.
- Fitz disables the overkill device. The team provides an extraction for Ward and Fitz.
- Coulson informs Skye that he found the unredacted file she’s been looking for, which reveals that a female S.H.I.E.L.D. agent dropped her off at the orphanage. Coulson calls to get access to his own restricted file, but is denied.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode Recap: The Hub, the Details
The Interrogator
Season 1 Episode 7 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., titled The Hub, begins with Agent Coulson being brought to an underground facility with a bag over his head by two soldiers. The Interrogator arrives, but it turns out he is actually a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent by the name of Shaw. He escapes with Coulson, May, and Ward. On the plane, Simmons extracts a data chip through Shaw’s nose. Coulson says they’re heading to the Hub to drop him off, and Simmons seems excited.
Fitz and Skye offer to handle the data on the chip, but Coulson says this mission is classified: Clearance Level 8. Everyone else accepts this except for Skye.
Field Trip to the Hub
They arrive at the Hub, a massive S.H.I.E.L.D. facility whose location is classified. They each grab a badge, except for Skye, who is still wearing the bracelet. She brings up the redacted file about her parents, and Coulson says he’ll look into it. Coulson meets with Agent Sitwell, who says Agent Hand is waiting in the Situation Room, and his Level 7’s can join them in the briefing room. May and Ward follow Coulson, but when Skye tries to follow, her bracelet stops her. Fitz and Simmons head over the the Tech Corridor.
Agent Hand informs them that the intel they recovered from Shaw tells them that a separatist group has built a weapon called the overkill device, which they plan to use in the next 24 hours to declare their independence from Russia and Georgia, and which creates sonic vibrations powerful enough to trigger weapons from a great distance. S.H.I.E.L.D. needs a two man team to sneak across the border and disable the weapon, including someone who can identify and dismantle the weapon on site — Fitz. We then see Fitz having trouble getting a cart through the door, and Ward doesn’t seem too excited about being paired up with Fitz.
As Fitz packs, Simmons worries about him, but he tells her to stop. She gives him a sandwich she made for him. Meanwhile, May and Coulson go over the plans with Ward. Fitz comes out of his room, ready to go. After they leave, Skye asks Coulson whether this feels okay to him, and shouldn’t they be going with them, but Coulson reassures her that the people who put these ops together know what they’re doing.
Ward and Fitz Stop at a Bar; Skye Recruits Simmons for her “Bad Girl Shenanigans”
As Ward drives through the Caucasus Mountains, Fitz is telling him a story about Simmons, which is supposed to be funny, but Ward is not amused. They park at a run down gas station/bar to meet up with Ward’s contact, Uri, who they’ll pay to get them across the border. When Ward asks about Uri at the bar, a man informs him that Uri is dead. Then the man pulls his gun on Ward.
Back on the plane, Simmons worries about Fitz. Agent May isn’t able to divulge any information. Skye gets frustrated about always being in the dark.
In the Situation Room, Coulson and Hand monitor the mission. She comments about Coulson’s recovery, saying that not everyone gets to go to Tahiti. He automatically replies, “It’s a magical –” and then realizes what he’s saying, though finishes with “place.” Hand hopes his agents are as good as he thinks they are.
At the bar, Fitz and Ward are tied up, trying to come up with a plan of escape. A woman comes in and tells them their friend Uri was friends with separatists, and asks them if they are separatists. They say they’re here to stop the separatists and just need help getting across the border. However, she says they’ve given her no reason to trust them. Her lackey is just about to shoot them, when the power goes out.
Skye catches up with Coulson and asks about Ward’s and Fitz’s mission, but he says she doesn’t have the clearance. She tries to ask more questions, but he tells her to trust the system, and walks off. Skye tells Simmons if they want the truth, they have to get it on their own. Simmons doesn’t want to participate in Skye’s “bad girl shenanigans” at first, but gives in at the thought of Fitz being tortured.
Ward and Fitz Cross the Border, Simmons is Bad at Being Bad
Back at the bar, Fitz is hanging upside down, fixing the electricity. He succeeds in getting the power back on, and everyone in the bar is happy because now they can watch the game. Fitz negotiates for help getting across the border hidden in a beer truck — for 2 million rubles, which Ward is unhappy about. Fitz then reveals that he’s the one that shorted the fuse box by using a localized EMP. The truck stops and there’s gunfire outside. Ward comes out shooting, then he and Fitz run off.
Coulson goes to talk to Agent May, who is doing tai chi. He comments that he likes they way they do things on the plane, with no red tape, and that he doesn’t like keeping things from the team. Though she does not say a word, Coulson thanks her for reminding him to trust the system. She rolls her eyes.
Skye sends Simmons in for their plan. Simmons locates and opens a panel, and Skye instructs her by earpiece to find a USB port. But before she has a chance, Agent Sitwell confronts her. Skye tells her to make up an excuse, but it doesn’t work. Sitwell asks her if she has authorization to access the panel, and Simmons whispers to Skye, “He’s on to me!” Sitwell realizes she’s on coms with someone and starts to radio for help, but Simmons shoots him with a stun gun, then drags his body to the side. Skye tells Simmons she has to go get help from Agent May.
Ward and Fitz hide in a large drainage pipe. Simmons takes out his special sandwich Simmons made for him. Ward takes it and throws it in the water. He explains that it’s because dogs are tracking them. They hear the search party pass overhead. Ward gives Fitz some odorless food to eat.
Trust the System
Skye has 3 minutes to get info about the mission. She starts to look up the redacted documents about her parents, but realizes she doesn’t have enough time, so gives up and looks up information about the mission. She sees that there is no extraction. Coulson catches her, and she accuses him of sending Ward and Fitz in to die.
Fitz and Ward share a large pouch that blends in with the dirt road. When a truck passes over them, they grab on to the bottom of it.
Coulson scolds Skye, and she explains she wasn’t looking for info about her family, she was looking for info about the mission. She accuses him of hiding information from them, but he says he didn’t hide anything, she doesn’t have the clearance to know. He explains that if S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps a secret from you, it’s for a good reason. She hacked a Level 8 secure server, and saw things she doesn’t have a context for. Any information that got out could compromise the mission. He says that some day he may have to trust her with a secret, and he needs to know that she can keep it. She asks if he knew there was no extraction, but he says that’s classified.
Ward and Fitz roll out from under the truck. Fitz sets up a “magic window” that works like a radar system through the wall. But by the time it’s set up, Ward has already been inside and attacked the two guards. They go in and find the overkill device, which Fitz examines.
Coulson goes to talk to Hand, who says that Sitwell is in the infirmary because of one of his agents, and Coulson says it was a misunderstanding that he’ll handle internally. He is also upset that he was told there was an extraction when there wasn’t. He says that the decision whether to go in should have been theirs to make. She tells him to trust the system.
Extraction
As Fitz works on disabling the device, Ward asks Fitz to show him the final steps so he can finish things up, and informs him that the extraction team didn’t make contact — they’re on their own. He tries to tell Fitz to go ahead and go, but Fitz stands up to Ward and insists on finishing the job himself.
May, Skye, and Simmons decide to provide an extraction for Ward and Fitz, and Coulson asks to join as well.
Fitz disables the device, setting off the beacons. Alarms in the building go off as well. Fitz has a plan. They hear an explosion and realize S.H.I.E.L.D. has arrived to take down the separatists. Fitz uses his makeshift device to disable the weapons of their attackers. Ward fights off a couple of soldiers, but gets cornered by one. Fitz kicks the soldier in the face and saves Ward. Fitz and Ward go outside and they see a bunch of guys with guns. Just then, the Coulson extraction team shows up with their plane and uses weapons on the plane to blast the armed men to the ground.
In the Situation Room, Sitwell informs Hand that Coulson’s people are clear, though he thought there wasn’t going to be an extraction. Hand replies that all their resources were needed elsewhere, and it’s Agent Coulson’s team, they didn’t need one.
Coulson Has News for Skye, But Can’t Get Any for Himself
Back on the plane, Fitz and Simmons catch each other up on their adventures. Ward admits to Skye that he was in good hands. Coulson later visits Skye to let her know that he found the unredacted file. It was about the woman who dropped her off at the orphanage, who was an unidentified S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He put in a request to dig further. Skye hugs him and thanks him. Coulson goes to talk to May, who has just finished reading the unredacted file. Coulson says he told Skye the truth, but didn’t tell her why the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent dropped her off. May agrees to help Coulson find out what really happened. We see a photo of a dead woman, as May says, “Poor girl.”
Coulson makes a call to get access to a restricted file. The operator confirms that he’s looking for a “death and recovery” report. However, he’s told he doesn’t have access to that document, despite his Level 8 status.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 7 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Hub
Well, what do you know, I actually liked this episode! Although they seemed an unlikely pair, Ward and Fitz actually made a good team, once Ward got over his cocky self and realized that Fitz can be useful too. I’m liking the direction Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been heading lately, actually letting us get to know the other characters, finally. Although the focus was no longer on Skye, most of what we saw of her was, once again, annoying. Who does she think she is, trying to come into a well organized group such as S.H.I.E.L.D., with established protocols, and she thinks she can just bypass everything and do things her own way? As her bracelet reminded her, she’s not even Level 1 yet, so she shouldn’t even be allowed to make demands like she was doing of Coulson, nor should such behavior be tolerated. Then she manipulates innocent Simmons into helping her, and when Simmons runs into trouble, Skye doesn’t make the slightest effort to help her! Of course Simmons isn’t going to know what to say to get out of that situation, because doing something “bad” is not something that she is used to doing! I thought Skye was going to talk her through it, but instead she’s just sitting there saying, “Say something. Anything,” but not offering any suggestions of what to say! What was the point of even having the comm system then?? I was really angry with Skye for leaving Simmons hanging like that. Maybe because I can relate to Simmons, being a “good girl” who always follows the rules and all. And then Skye yells at Simmons for doing a terrible job. Hm, I wonder why? At this point, I am disliking Skye more and more each episode, which I didn’t know was even possible. I think I’m at the point of no return of being able to like Skye. I don’t even really care about her secret file about her parents either. I cared for the few seconds I thought that Agent May might be her mother, or better yet, that May and Coulson might both be her parents, but then we quickly learned that wasn’t the case, and I lost interest once again.
Coulson is a such good guy, able to listen to his agents and care about what they’re saying, while at the same time upholding protocol, even if he doesn’t particularly like it himself. I like how he told Skye to trust the system, then Hand echoed the same words back to him, and in the end, it turned out that the system worked. All along S.H.I.E.L.D. knew that Coulson’s team would be able to take care of itself one way or another. In contrast to Skye’s mystery, Coulson’s mystery is one that I am interested in solving. Coulson is becoming more and more aware that something is off. In this episode, he realized that he is pretty much programmed to immediately respond, “It’s a magical place” whenever someone mentions Tahiti. I wonder how long they’re going to keep giving us tiny pieces of the puzzle and when we’re finally going to get to see the big picture, or if this mystery is going to sustain throughout the entire season, or even longer throughout the series.
Anyway, looks like tonight is in fact the episode that ties in with Thor: The Dark World. For some reason, everything I read had indicated that last week’s episode was supposed to do that. So I was confused when we got to the end of The Hub and I hadn’t noticed anything Thor-related. I was like, um, did I miss something? But then I saw the previews for the upcoming episode, and understood.
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Season 1 Episode 7: The Hub
S.H.I.E.L.D. is sure sounding like a bunch of heartless souls after watching this episode. I guess that can happen when S.H.I.E.L.D. is the giant cog in the machine. I found it really hard to believe that there could be no exit strategy planned though, especially after seeing how easily Coulson was able to come to the rescue in the end. Did S.H.I.E.L.D. want Ward and Fitz dead? Or was it just a time-saver to have the airplane swoop in quickly for the rescue? Probably the latter if I was to take a guess.
Unfortunately, while I get what they were going for, (the nerd scientist teams up with the brutish field operative, and while they irritate each other, they begin to bond and use each others strengths to complete their mission, all the while humorous antics are involved) I didn’t exactly feel it worked out for me. I have complained about it time and time again, but I cannot get into Ward’s character at all. Fitz, I am able to finally able to appreciate. He seems to have a genuine “quirkiness” to him that is beginning to work for me.
This episode’s main premise revolves around Skye, Simmons, and Coulson, along with Coulson’s superiors. The question being asked is when to follow orders and when blindly following orders is not the best course of action. Coulson and Simmons seem to struggle with this the most—although Coulson to a greater extent. As is usual for the show, Skye is the “anarchist”, convincing Simmons to break protocol, and thus eventually making Coulson as well. Perhaps this is what Coulson sees in Skye—the ability to see the flipside of the coin.
Overall, I thought the episode was pretty good. I just feel like something is missing with the show. It is partially not being able to identify with the actors I thought at first, but I think there is something more. Maybe the stories are a little flimsy, but I can’t exactly put my finger on what my problem is with the show. I really hope it is able to turn around for me though, as I really want to like this show!
Scenes from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Season 1 Episode 8: The Well
Here are scenes from next week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode titled The Well:
What did you think of Season 1 Episode 7 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., titled The Hub? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
