Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Recap: The Human Torch

Credit: ABC

The case this week centers on Chen (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a street performer from Hong Kong with pyrokinetic abilities. These skills bring him to the attention of the beautiful, mysterious woman named Raina (Ruth Negga), whose shadowy organization wants to fund Chen's transformation into a superhero, even going as far as to give him a name: "Scorch". Believing he was given the ability to produce fire from his hands for a reason, Chen is seduced by Raina's sales pitch and decides to join her project. Unfortunately, he doesn't know Raina is actually working for Project Centipede, the faction from the pilot that uses the Extremis serum to change ordinary people into fiery supersoldiers. As the group runs tests on Chen, they learn that the reason he can control his flames without being burned is because his blood platelets are flame resistant. If they can synthesize a serum from his blood, they'll be able to prevent the catastrophic results Extremis has created in their subjects. However, extracting his DNA would leave Chen susceptible to being scorched by his own power. Enter S.H.I.E.L.D., who set out to rescue Chen from Project Centipede before it's too late.

Credit: ABC

It seems like a straightforward enough storyline, yet there's a lot more going on beneath the surface, mainly where Skye (Chloe Bennet) is concerned. S.H.I.E.L.D. tracks a hacker whom we learn has ties to Skye, not simply as her partner in the Rising Tide, but as her lover. The man, whose name is Miles, is shocked at what he perceives to be Skye's betrayal of everything they once stood for. Of course, Miles sits on his high horse without telling Skye that he's basically responsible for Chen's capture by Centipede, having sold him out for a cool million dollars. Skye insists that S.H.I.E.L.D. aren’t bad people, though Miles refuses to believe her, yet she isn't exactly all too forgiving of him either, as his actions now might lead to the death of an otherwise good man. And all of it over money. For his part, Coulson (Clark Gregg) admits to May (Ming-Na Wen) that Skye was a risk after all, and he isn't exactly sure what they can expect from her, going forward. It's clear that the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is unsettled by the sudden need to be suspicious of Skye's motives again, as they had grown to see her as one of their own. Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) affirm their faith in her, and even Ward (Brett Dalton) seems to want to believe the best in his protege. Yet the team is ultimately disappointed when it becomes apparent that, despite her good intentions, Skye is playing a longer con. As the episode progresses, the story becomes more about trust and the desperation that compels personal ambition. We know that Skye has a larger mission at play beneath her infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., but we don't know what it is. Similarly, Chen has larger ambitions as Scorch due to S.H.I.E.L.D. attempting to contain his powers in the past, as he's had unfavorable encounters with a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Kwon. The narratives are separate but trenchantly similar.

As with episodes past, "Girl in the Flower Dress" builds to a tremendously effective action setpiece at the end, as the S.H.I.E.L.D. team infiltrates Centipede's compound to rescue Chen, only to discover that he's fully embraced his role as "Scorch," and no longer wants to help either side. He hates both factions for misleading and deceiving him, and decides to take out his frustrations on all. To this end, he kills the lead scientist from Centipede in a horrific moment, using his abilities to char her to ash. All in all, the effects are pretty great here, as Chen is able to nullify Coulson's attempts to neutralize him by creating a fire shield, of sorts, around his body that looks fantastic when you consider that this is network television. It all builds to the climax, in which May subdued Chen by injecting him with a double dose of the Extremis serum while Miles and Skye alter the ventilation in the building in order redirect the path of the flames upward and safely out of the building once Chen explodes. It's a rare loss in the column for the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, as they are able to save the day and stop Centipede, but at the cost of a good man. They fail to rescue Chen, and they are unable to capture the elusive Raina, who escapes and meets with an imprisoned superior. While the motives of both figures remain as shadowy as the prison setting in which they meet, the same can no longer be said for Skye, who reveals to Coulson here motivations for deceiving S.H.I.E.L.D.

Credit: ABC

Skye explains that her reason for infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. was to discover the identity and location of her parents, whom she's never met. Her life long search has turned up little more than a series of blurry photos and classified S.H.I.E.L.D. documents, implying that there's something potentially sinister behind their secretive lives, or at least something difficult to swallow. She initially became a hacker and joined the Rising Tide in order to get closer to S.H.I.E.L.D., and believed she had a real shot at discovering the truth, once and for all, after being accepted to the team. However, despite her best attempts, she's been unable to solve the mystery of her parents. All she has to show for her efforts is a redacted document with a S.H.I.E.L.D. letterhead that may or may not hold the key to who her parents are, what they did that's such a huge secret, and where they might be today.

Credit: ABC

Both Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet are remarkable here, as the scene runs the gamut of emotions, with Coulson reading Skye the proverbial Riot Act for her duplicity, and Skye eventually breaking down and revealing her desperate motivations. It's a compellingly relatable, down-to-Earth story given just how many kids grow up in the foster care system. The desire to learn where you come from can be a powerful motivator that can compel a person to deceive friends and colleagues alike, all in furtherance of discovering the truth. I don't feel like Skye is wrong for what she did, nor wrong for having the ambition to find her parents, if for no other reason than because she's done her best to minimize the damage of her actions the entire way through. Coulson appears to understand this as well, and it's a credit to Gregg's portrayal that Coulson can be both a total hardass and a complete softie, as he sympathizes with Skye and tells her he might be able to help her after all. Yet, because the issue of trust is never more germane than it has been now, Coulson forces Skye to wear a restrictive bracelet that limits her use of technology. It's a better alternative to throwing her in prison, but the message is clear: it's going to be a while before S.H.I.E.L.D. trusts Skye again.

Credit: ABC

"Girl in the Flower Dress" builds on several weeks of hit-or-miss characterizations to find the kernel of truth in one of the show's central pairings, Coulson and Skye. There's a wonderful mentor/protege relationship there that is different from the similar bond Skye shares with Ward. If the show is going to remain engaging, it will need to further nurture those connections while developing the characters at their center. This was a huge step in the right direction for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., in that regard.

Thanks for reading my recap and review of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Episode 5, "Girl in the Flower Dress"!