Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Recap: Big Poppa
Recap and review of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 2 Episode 5 - A Hen in the Wolf House:
Since its inception, a long-standing arc on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has been Coulson's role as not just a leader, but as a father figure to his team, Skye (Chloe Bennet) in particular. "A Hen in the Wolf House" expands on that running narrative by putting Skye's loyalty to surrogate father figure Coulson at odds with her curiosity over biological father The Doctor (Kyle MacLachlan). And it results in an episode with compelling dramatic tension.
Credit: ABC
One of the big misses of advancing the storyline forward between Season 1 and Season 2 is that we didn't really get all that much of Skye's tutelage under Agent May (Ming-Na Wen), nor did we see how her development as a field agent changed her relationship with Coulson (Clark Gregg). But "A Hen in the Wolf House" illustrates that Skye is still learning the ropes, not only at a practical level (knowing when to stand down and have faith that her superiors have things under control) but also at an emotional level (learning how to keep her feelings from interfering with the integrity of a mission). It's a story development I'm glad the show is taking the time to show us, since Skye still needs work in the likability department. Naturally, since Coulson is now her boss outright, it's a conflict of interest when Skye tries to use the personal, father-daughterly relationship she has with him as a pretext to be informal. Case in point, Skye is immensely unlikable when she's prodding Coulson to declassify whatever secret he's hiding about the alien markings on the back of the religious painting they recovered last week. In essence, the narrative suggests that she needs to learn how to respect boundaries and have faith in Coulson, while Coulson also needs to learn to be able to trust in her and let her into his confidence.
Credit: ABC
The mission of the episode involves recovering Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) once her cover is nearly blown at HYDRA. Raina (Ruth Negga) attempts to bait Coulson by ransoming Simmons in exchange for Skye, whom The Doctor is desperate to finally meet. And while there's certainly more to the episode, the confrontation between Coulson and Raina is basically its highlight: Skye and May are watching from around the corner, which creates considerable tension when Skye learns that Ward (Brett Dalton) was telling her the truth about her father -- he's alive and he wants to meet her. With her emotions at an all-time high, she nearly interferes and compromises the mission when it becomes apparent that Coulson will allow Raina to blow Simmons' cover with an automated email to HYDRA personnel. It's an interesting moment not only because the show is asking Skye to have faith in Coulson's plan, but because it's also asking us to have that same faith. This entire plot is a test for Skye, to see if she can resist the temptation of meeting her biological father, and hold fast to the ideals instilled in her by her surrogate father figure, Coulson. It makes for an effective character arc in what is, ostensibly, an action-packed episode...
Yes, Coulson actually did have a plan to extract Simmons, and it involved a second, secret mole within HYDRA: Agent Bobbi Morse (a.k.a. Mockingbird, to comic book fans). The scene in which she reveals her true allegiances and bails Simmons out of a surefire trip to the "OBEY" Chamber is a great bit of action to contrast with all the subtler, more character-centric storytelling. And their eventual escape and return to the Bus leads to one of the more amusing moments of the episode, as we learn that Bobbi is actually the (supposedly) horrible ex-wife Hunter (Nick Blood) is always complaining about. For as much the episode focused on building Skye to be an effective, committed member of the S.H.I.E.L.D team, "A Hen in the Wolf House" also effectively built up the S.H.I.E.L.D. team we have now, not only adding Bobbi to the lineup, but returning Simmons to the fold, resulting in an emotional reunion with Fitz (Iain De Caestecker). I haven't always been huge on the "Imaginary Simmons" storyline for Fitz, but this scene almost retroactively justified it when we see Fitz's pained expression after he asks the real Simmons if it's really her, only for her to reply, "Of course it's me. Who else would it be?" These characters have been on separate journeys, completely unknown to the other, which weights their interaction here with poignant subtext.
Credit: ABC
Much like the scene in which Skye finally accepts that her father is a bad guy who must be stopped. It's the culmination of Skye's development as someone willing to put the mission first, and it leads to Coulson finally letting her into his confidence, as he reveals not only that the alien DNA is causing him to create all these strange markings, but also that the lack of a negative reaction to the DNA has caused him to suspect Skye might be an alien herself. It's played for laughs, at first, but it becomes far more serious once Skye recognizes the markings as a map. So it seems like we're getting a lot of progression on the nature of these markings. And not a moment too soon, as The Doctor is meeting with Dr. Whitehall to teach him not only how to use the obelisk (which is apparently called "The Diviner" in its native alien language), but also how to survive it. All of this sounds intriguing, although I still hate the notion that so many on-screen Marvel stories are based around some mystery MacGuffin that will either save or destroy the universe. Especially when stories can often be just as intriguing when centered squarely on the conflict between two characters, rather than a conflict of planetary proportions.