12/11/2013

"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Debrief: Episode 1.10, "Bridge"

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Well dang Trill believers where was this episode like say back in early October after the first couple of episodes? This episode, the last new one for the year basically, took all the stuff we’ve seen in the previous nine and put it together into a fast paced and packed 40+ minutes of entertainment. Was this episode perfect? No it wasn’t but it was by far one of the best episodes of the series so far, second only to the pilot. It helps that this episode shares something with that episode, that being J. August Richards as Mike Peterson. 

This episode even starts off kind of hard-in-the-paint as a bunch of soldiers break into a prison to get this middle-aged bald man we last saw in the episode "The Girl in the Flower Dress". All of the soldiers had that centipede Extremis thing on their arm straight wrecking folks.  This causes Coulson  and his team to get a move on and Coulson has a surprise for his team as he goes to one of the many S.H.I.E.L.D. bases and recruits Mike Peterson (the guy from the pilot that got folks hyped cause we all thought he was a known superhero) to help them with his mission. It seems that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been training him to be an agent ever since the team stopped him from his Extremis rage. Some of the team have reservations about Mike joining the team on this mission but Skye is cool with it, as she should be since she was a criminal hacker who betrayed the team once already.

The usual interpersonal issues crop up as the team does some detective work to locate Centipede, connecting with a soldier's family for a clue.  It seems Ward is catching feelings for Agent May after all their secret rendezvous. Fitz and Simmons learn that the device they made to stop Mike from blowing up stabilized the Extremis, allowing him to continue being a super powered person. The team also learns the identity of the Girl in the Flower Dress thanks to Mike as she was the person who initially came to him to get involved with Centipede. We learn the man they broke out of prison is Edison Poe (don’t bother searching marvel for this people) and he is connected to someone else called “The Clairvoyant” that is somehow directing the purpose of Centipede from the shadows.

 The team ends up tracking the soldiers to Oakland where we get to see all the action agents fall into a trap (shout out to Akbar) except they have Mike with them to help deal with all the Extremis powered guys. Ward and May try to deal with one with Ward taking a sacrificial slam so that May can continue fighting. Coulson gets mollywhopped kind of early on as Mike is left to face them, taking a steel rod in the side yet still overcoming one of the soldiers as the others flee.  The solider that got beat was never interrogated as Centipede killed him through eye implants as he begged for his life. 

As the team licked its wounds and figures out the next move we get more drama as May goes at Ward for what she thinks was a romantic save, and then to Skye as May tells her she needs to stop focusing all of her attention on the mystery of her unknown parents. It then focuses on Mike and Coulson as Coulson gives a pep talk on reaching out to his son since Mike thinks he was monster the last time Ace (Mike’s son) saw him. Soon after Mike talks to Ace on the phone and learns that Reina has his son and wants to do a swap. Earlier, Reina and Edison saw that Mike is with Coulson and unlike their current group of Extremis-powered troops he doesn't need a constant injection of serum to stabilize. Now the team has to scramble to make a plan to rescue Ace and hopefully get these Centipede folks at the same time.

Now here is where things get ramped up. Mike asks for Coulson to go with him. Skye and May are in the car as Ward is up high in position with a sniper rifle keeping an eye on Mike and Coulson. As those two approach Reina comes out with Ace here we learn that Centipede doesn’t want Mike they want Coulson. Coulson goes with Reina and Mike and Ace go towards the car with everyone shocked at what happened.  It seems that Centipede wants to know how Coulson returned to life, something that Coulson doesn’t really know himself. Mike has Ace stay with Skye as he attempts to go back and save Coulson.  Next thing we know huge explosion where Mike is running as we as supposed to think he’s dead (c’mon son GTFOH. No body no dead) and the car that Reina was in then also explodes. Next Ward is shot from an escaping helicopter as Agent May gives it a stare that should have blown it up from pure hateration.  Now the team is in a complete mess as they have seemingly lost Mike, Coulson, and possibly Agent Ward.

Did You Know:

To be honest the only thing you need to know is the previous nine episodes. All of them. This episode brings together every single little moment from each episode basically. This is actually the best episode since the pilot. Now this isn’t the best TV show in the world but in regards to this show it was pretty cool to watch. I really hope that the next 10-12 episodes that air in the next year continue in this pattern and not what came before. 

Also just so you know I won at livetweeting Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. last night
See y'all in the debrief room in a month. Peace