Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Recap: Mack Attack

This is a pretty brisk hour of TV, thanks to the urgency of the mission at its center. In search of the alien temple, half the team goes to Puerto Rico to investigate the underground alien city. Coulson (Clark Gregg) is looking to get there before Hydra, since they plan to use the alien technology to create a weapon of mass destruction, according to Morse (Adrianne Palicki). The resulting mission is one that works largely because it tests this new S.H.I.E.L.D. formation by forcing them to make a tough call when one of their own goes rogue. I don't think it's entirely clear whether or not Mack (Henry Simmons) is dead after falling down the open hole in the underground tunnel at the end of the episode, but considering the hole is, by Mack's own estimates, at least 100-feet deep, things aren't looking so great for him. But if it is the end for Mack, at least he went out in a pretty terrific sequence.

Credit: ABC

In short, Mack descends down a hole in the underground tunnel after their electronic gadgets short-out, and once down there, he finds some alien markings on the ground. Upon touching the markings, however, the symbols are burned into his hand. The result? Not only is he left in excruciating pain, but he quickly finds himself transformed by the contact. He begins to convulse and can feel his body being taken over, telling Coulson and the others to "RUN!" before it's too late. However, they aren't quick enough: Mack is now a force of destruction, beating up his own team members with new-found superhuman strength. It's a tense action sequence, as Mack is impervious to the I.C.E.R., and is virtually unaffected by Morse's well-timed body blows. He's like the Terminator, and before long, it becomes clear that they might have to actually kill Mack in order to stop him. Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) even takes up a pistol and tries to talk Mack down, all while Coulson shouts at him to take the shot. The tension is heightened by the relationship between Mack and Fitz, since Mack is pretty much the only person Fitz has been able to connect with in a meaningful way other than Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge). And considering that he'd decided, earlier in the episode, to resign from the lab in order to keep away from Simmons, Fitz's connection to Mack becomes all the more important here.

Credit: ABC

In this sense, it ends up being a bit of a good news/bad news scenario for Fitz: the good news is that Fitz ultimately doesn't have to shoot Mack, as Morse is able to subdue him with a pair of stun batons; the bad news, however, is that Mack falls over the edge and down into the open chasm. In that moment, Coulson makes the heartbreaking decision to seal the opening, over the objections of Morse, who insists they can't leave Mack behind. "That wasn't Mack," Coulson says, ominously. Basically, the story not only leaves us with a stunner of a development, it further illustrates the threat of all this alien stuff both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. are screwing with, since we're seeing up close not only how volatile and unstable its effects can be, but how dangerous. The irony, of course, is that Mack seemed spooked by how Coulson was changed by the alien contact, only to end up changed himself.

Credit: ABC

Speaking of aliens, we get a reveal of just who we're dealing with, as Raina (Ruth Negga) reveals to Skye (Chloe Bennet) the legend of the Kree, the "blue angels" from myth who are the race from whom all this alien stuff originates. The obelisk, or The Diviner, is not only meant to judge who is worthy to enter the temple, it also provides a map to find it, to those deemed worthy. Thus, Hydra needs Raina, since she's among the few who can hold The Diviner without dying a horrific, ashy death. It's a story that's interesting less for the alien plot, and more for how it's used as a springboard to further explore Skye's conflicting feelings about her father. On the one hand, it's clear she wants to meet him, to perhaps confirm for herself whether what's being said about him is really true. After all, her entire team is tip-toeing around her, avoiding talking about what a nutjob The Doctor (Kyle MacLachlan) really is. On the other hand, her teammates wouldn't be saying this about The Doctor if they didn't have some reason for feeling that way, so Skye is understandably skeptical when Raina tries to sell her on the story that The Doctor is some kind of benevolent man who always loved the daughter he lost. E

ven Raina's own origin story, being taken in by The Doctor after running a con artist ring on the streets of Thailand, rings hollow to Skye, since she can't seem to allow herself to believe any story that paints her father as a good man, no matter how much she wishes it were true. However, it's these conflicting feelings that compel Skye to agree to the terms set forth by Ward (Brett Dalton) at the end of the episode, after Hydra invades The Bus to claim Raina. In short, Skye must come with Hydra to meet The Doctor, or else he'll have the entire Bus shot down to the ground. Skye agrees in order to save the lives of her team, but it's hard to imagine that her curiosity isn't another large motivating factor behind her decision to go along. Of course, May (Ming-Na Wen) ends up being correct in her assessment that Hydra was probably going to blow up the Bus anyway. Agent 33, still wearing May's face, meets with Dr. Whitehall (Reed Diamond) and reports to him that Ward allowed the Bus to leave unharmed. A furious Whitehall declares that wasn't Ward's call to make, and orders her to have the Bus blown out of the sky anyway. It's hard to imagine the show will really destroy its most iconic set, but given what a departure this season has been from the first, I'm not sure it would surprise me if they did.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention just how fun "...Ye Who Enter Here" ends up being. Aside from the funny business with the multiple Koenig brothers (all played by Patton Oswalt), the show also dabbles in some really impressive action sequences. Aside from the aforementioned Mack attack, there's a pretty great fight scene between Skye and Agent 33-as-May that just might be my favorite one-on-one battle after May vs. Agent 33 a few weeks back. I'm not sure where all this Kree stuff is headed, but I'm trusting that Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a compelling direction in place for its conclusion. Granted, next week's fall finale might not be the actual conclusion to the arc, but I'm expecting big things either way.