Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 5

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Score: 9

 

Last week’s episode renewed my faith in the series. “The Girl in the Flower Dress” builds on it and is getting me excited about the show. After a lackluster start in the first three episodes, this series is beginning to gain momentum. The episode begins in Hong Kong with Chan Ho Yin. He is a pyro kinetic with the ability to create and control fire. As such, he is visited by a girl in a flower dress, Raina (Ruth Negga), who represents an organization that abducts him. She is able to find him as a hacker helped infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database that has a list of people with powers. On the Bus, Skye is playing Battleship with Agent Grant Ward. They have developed a strong relationship. She has loosened up his robot personality as he actually shows affection and emotion toward her. Agent Coulson gloats to Agent Melinda May that Skye has assimilated well to the team. Similar to a proud father, Coulson enjoys Skye succeeding as a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. as he personally vouched for her despite multiple objections initially from Ward, May, and Director Nick Fury.

 

S.H.I.E.L.D. realizes that its system was hacked by a member of the Rising Tide. Naturally, the team immediately suspects that Skye is involved as she was a member of the group before joining S.H.I.E.L.D. Skye denies any wrongdoing and is supported by Ward. As such, she is given the opportunity to find the actual hacker who turns out to be Miles Lydon (Austin Nichols) in Austin, Texas. Although she directs her S.H.I.E.L.D. team to Miles, she also warns him as they are friends. More specifically, they are friends with benefits. Even though S.H.I.E.L.D. is hot on Miles’s trail, they find time to reconnect physically. Chloe Bennet has looked gorgeous in the series as Skye. She is also beautiful in her underwear in the episode. Of course, she gets caught with Miles. Coulson wisely orders May to follow Skye since she has ties to the Rising Tide. Skye’s betrayal is especially painful for Coulson and he is furious. He stuck his neck out for her to be on his team and believed in her. He realizes Skye had an ulterior motive the whole time for joining S.H.I.E.L.D.  She has successfully infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and Coulson feels duped. Ward is also upset as he took Skye under his wing. There is also a bit of jealousy as there has definitely been sexual tension between the two. Similar to Coulson and Ward, I was upset because Skye has become my favorite character in the show so I did not want her to actually be a villain.

 

Nevertheless, S.H.I.E.L.D. needs both Miles and Skye to help figure out who is behind the kidnapping of Chan Ho Yin to save him. We learn that Miles was paid $1 million to hack S.H.I.E.L.D. for information. The organization that paid him is revealed to be Centipede, the same organization that experimented with the Extremis serum in the first episode. In the meantime, Raina is able to play on Chan’s ego and manipulates him into believing he can be a superhero. She skillfully massages his ambition and even gives him the codename Scorch. However, it is all a ruse as she is tricking him into being a lab rat. Centipede wants to drain Chan’s platelets as his DNA gives him the ability to resist fire. As such, Centipede believes his DNA can stabilize the Extremis formula. On the other hand, Coulson sends a S.H.I.E.L.D. team to save Chan. However, the team ends up fighting Chan after they free him. As S.H.I.E.L.D. has kept tabs on him because of his powers, he believes it is trying to control him.  It leads to a fiery confrontation and the battle is well done. In addition, S.H.I.E.L.D. utilizes the hacking skills of Miles and Skye during the fight.

 

At the end of the episode, Coulson is still furious with Skye and lambasts her for lying to him and his team the entire time at they have risked their lives for her. Nevertheless, he gives her one chance to come clean about her secret. She admits that the main reason she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. is to gain access to the confidential information within the organization that could lead to her birth parents. At that point, Coulson is relieved as she has a noble reason and is not a mole. It proves that his gut feeling about her is not wrong. His mood immediately changes and he even offers to help find information for her even though he warns that she may not like what she finds in the search. The episode did an excellent job with Skye’s backstory. While earlier episodes threw in hints that she could have bad intentions and this episode started to confirm that notion, the twist at the end is very well done. It gives a plausible explanation for her secretive behavior while adding to the strength of her character. Skye is definitely my favorite character in the series now. Raina is also an interesting new character. She is a crafty and smart villain. In the last scene in the episode, she is talking to a man in prison about contacting “the clairvoyant” about “Stage 3”.  I cannot wait to see where the series goes with her, find out who the “clairvoyant” is, and learn more about “Stage 3”.

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