Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Recap: Agents of Nothing

Furthermore, the episode implies that the Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) we've known since the pilot has largely been a false persona invented to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. at the highest levels. In all honesty, making the romantic lead of the show its surprise villain is a bold move, particularly for a show in its first season, but I actually find it pretty damn admirable. Especially since they're pulling it off so well. Brett Dalton's good guy persona has often been accused of having a certain wooden quality, but this plot development retrospectively makes his performance far more interesting, in that it could be explained away as part of Ward's ruse. And really, Dalton has never been more engaging onscreen than he's been when playing Ward as a kind of sociopath, a man capable of mimicking the necessary human emotions despite being a fairly cold, calculated individual underneath it all. "Providence" is far better for its implications than for its content, but ultimately, I'd still say this was a strong installment overall. I've really been digging Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. these past several weeks, as the show has really hit its stride. We see characters begin to unravel as the drama builds toward a crescendo that actually seems worth getting excited over, if you weren't before.

Credit: ABC

So S.H.I.E.L.D. is on the defensive, since their clearances have been revoked, and they've been classified a terrorist organization. Worse, Colonel Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) lets Coulson (Clark Gregg) know that he's coming in with his guys to comb the entire area, and interrogate the full team on how they allowed HYDRA to penetrate their organization. To avoid the inevitable takedown, Coulson has Skye (Chloe Bennet) completely erase all online traces of their identities, essentially wiping them from the grid. In essence, the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. team will become ghosts, with no real identities nor anywhere to belong. This hits home pretty hard for Skye, who'd just felt as if she'd found a family to which she could belong. But this entire team has bigger problems: namely, that Coulson might be going crazy.

May (Ming-Na Wen) reveals to Coulson that Nick Fury had her monitoring him to make sure not only that he didn't learn the truth about T.A.H.I.T.I., but also to make certain he hadn't been compromised. Coulson still hasn't forgiven her for what he sees as a betrayal, which presents a certain irony with the Ward situation, if it turns out Coulson wasn't in on that defection: he's freezing May out for something that isn't really all that serious betrayal (I suppose to Coulson it would be, but at least they're both still on the same side), whereas he still has faith in Ward, unaware that Ward has completely sold out the team. May can see that Coulson is unraveling, and it soon becomes apparent to the rest of the team when Coulson starts claiming that a set of numbers lighting up on his badge must be a sign that Fury is alive. Coulson interprets the numbers as coordinates, and takes the entire team out into the middle of frozen nowhere in order to track down whatever Fury wanted them to find. Yet they don't find anything.

Credit: ABC

In short, Coulson is left with egg all over his face, as he shrinks under the uncomfortable stares of his team, whom Coulson believes see him as a man unhinged. He starts shouting at them about how they aren't "Agents of Nothing," they're Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and that that status still carries weight, even in spite of all that's happened. But it's a gung-ho speech that doesn't really work, which is a neat inversion of the show's usual penchant for rallying cries and teamwork. Coulson is a man who's losing the faith of his team at the point he needs it most. And it might not be retrievable. Well, at least, it seemed that way. However, when Coulson throws away his badge in frustration, a turret pops out of the snow banks and fires it out of the sky. Turns out the numbers on the badge were coordinates, and they've led the S.H.I.E.L.D. team to a secret base called "Providence". It's run by its sole inhabitant, Agent Eric Koenig (Patton Oswalt), an agent who's a total fanboy for Coulson but is less trusting of the rest of Coulson's team. As he explains to Coulson (but not to the rest of the team), Fury is still alive, and Providence represents the last bastion of S.H.I.E.L.D. I like the idea that the skeleton crew of S.H.I.E.L.D. is preparing for war with HYDRA, as it seems like a hopeless situation with no immediate resolution. And those kinds of situations make for terrific drama. But outside of all that, there was some lighthearted goodness here, as Patton Oswalt is a wonderful addition to the cast. His lines themselves weren't gutbusters or anything, but his delivery was impeccable ("Welcome to Providence. Although technically it doesn't have a name, being a secret base and all," and "My bad. Fury's not dead" are the highlights).

Credit: ABC

But there's a more serious arc underneath the brief glimpses of lightheartedness. Namely, Ward and Garrett (Bill Paxton) have met up with Raina (Ruth Negga), who is honored to meet The Clairvoyant, even after learning he never actually had clairvoyant powers. Garrett puts Raina to work on decoding a hard drive recovered from S.H.I.E.L.D. which Skye had protected via intricate encryption, which I suppose is as good a use for the Raina character as any, although I liked her better when she was more mysterious, and less of a clear underling. But I guess that's part of the show's theme of nothing and no one being what they appear to be, for better and worse. Yet while I wasn't crazy about the show's sparse use of the super talented Negga, I did dig the siege of The Fridge perpetrated by Garrett and suddenly-unflinching murderer Ward, who takes out two of the S.H.I.E.L.D. guards without flinching after he and Garrett trick the men into letting them into the compound. Once inside, Ward and Garrett free every prisoner, while raiding the armory for all sorts of weaponry, but Earthly and otherworldly (hey there, Asgardian staff!). They even find the cache of gravitonium, which they return to Ian Quinn (David Conrad). It presumably still has Dr. Hall trapped inside, which could lead to an awesome moment when the future Graviton makes his first appearance.

Credit: ABC

But the action bits aren't the show's main point of concern, it's the still-blossoming romance between Ward and Skye. While his betrayal of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team seems genuine, his feelings for Skye appear to be every bit as real. It's significant enough that Garrett picks up on it, and actually admits he doesn't blame him for being attracted to such a cute girl. But this attachment becomes an issue for HYDRA when Raina proves incapable cracking the hard drive without Skye's encryption key. And so Ward is sent to infiltrate Providence and get the intel from Skye. If he fails, Garrett will have Skye brought to him instead, and what he does to her won't be pretty. And so Ward sets out on his mission, with Skye letting him into Providence after he's come up with a cover story of sorts. Skye is none the wiser to Ward's betrayal, and I imagine that's going to be the source of our undercurrent of dread for the forseeable future. Will she find out the truth? When? And how will she react? I'm not sure it's the best idea in the world to couch so much of the show's narrative in Skye's reaction, especially since I could see May's and Coulson's reactions being every bit as potent, where Ward's betrayal is concerned. But I appreciate the direction the show is taking in showing the team's implosion, and the difficulties faced in the fight against HYDRA. It just feels like a more purposeful show than ever before.

"Providence" is a fine hour of TV. All in all, I've never been more optimistic about the direction of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. than I am now. It's a show that I believe many doubters should give another chance. If nothing else, it's earned a second look with the generally solid second half of this season.