Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Recap: He Ain't Heavy

Interestingly, this is one of the more action-packed episodes of the season so far, as the S.H.I.E.L.D team is hot on HYDRA's trail. The opening attack on the U.N., in which HYDRA agents disguise themselves as S.H.I.E.L.D, is a well-organized sequence, and it's the catalyst for an episode where fists are proven every bit as valuable as negotiation. But the action would be hollow if it didn't have implications for the characters, so the episode smartly utilizes the action to convey more about the relationships on the team. For example, Hunter (Nick Blood) and May (Ming-Na Wen) spring into action to rescue Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) from the compound of Toshiro Mori, the scientist behind the deadly weapons used in the attack. This kicks off a running bit in which Hunter and Bobbi save each other throughout the various action sequences that cover the episode, and then argue over who saved whom. This eventually culminates in Bobbi having Hunter's back in the climax, illustrating the unspoken rapport that still exists between them, and how these two very different people could have been a team at one point. This helps add weight to Bobbi's suggestion at the end that Hunter should rethink leaving the team. She encourages him to stay, and honestly, I hope he does. Lance Hunter has been one of my favorite additions to the cast this season. He's the one newcomer on the team who regularly gets the most screen time, and I feel it mostly works in the show's favor, since it's relatively novel to have a mercenary working with S.H.I.E.L.D.

Credit: ABC

But Agent Hunter is only one element of what turns out to be a pretty exhilarating action climax. Basically, the S.H.I.E.L.D team heads to Belgium to save their agents after it's revealed that one of their allies, a politician named Julien Beckers, is really working with HYDRA, meaning the S.H.I.E.L.D safe house in Brussels has been compromised. The fight choreography is pretty terrific here, particularly with Agent May. If it's the intention of the show to depict May as the team's best fighter, they're doing a tremendous job of it. She's extremely capable but not infallible, and it's that quality that makes her scenes so tense, since it's no guarantee she's actually going to be able to beat her opponent. The head HYDRA baddie, Mark Scarlotti, the original Whiplash from Marvel Comics, who sports a terrifying kusarigama-like weapon, makes for a hell of an interesting antagonist, and his fight with May is a highlight of the episode.

Credit: ABC

But the action is secondary to the real meat and potatoes of the episode, as Ward attempts to politic his way out of S.H.I.E.L.D's basement. This scene is intercut with Coulson (Clark Gregg) speaking with Christian, creating one of the more involving sequences of the episode, in that it presents two sides of the Ward Brothers' origin story, and asks us to choose which brother is telling the truth. Last season, Ward stated Christian forced him to torture their youngest brother, Thomas. But Christian declares here that Ward is lying, that no one forced him to physically abuse Thomas with a screwdriver. That was all Ward's doing. On the one hand, Ward tries to convince Skye (Chloe Bennet) that Christian is a master manipulator who gets off on harming other people, whereas Christian essentially says the same things about Ward. "Underneath every lie he tells is just another lie," Christian declares, just as we see Ward telling Skye that her father only slaughtered a village as retribution for the death of Skye's mother. The sequence casts doubt not only on what Ward is telling Skye now, but everything he's told her throughout the season so far. Sure, his intel has been good, but how many lies of omission has Ward put forward? Even if his information is true, has he really been giving Skye the whole picture?

Credit: ABC

This culminates in a scene that really hammers home what Ward's betrayal meant to his former team members. A delusional Ward still seems to think of himself as a part of the team, and this is enough to send Coulson into a fit, coldly telling Ward that the only reason he's still alive is because he had value. However, since his older brother has greater value, S.H.I.E.L.D won't exactly be needing him anymore. It's a scene that is a long time in coming, in that Ward was never properly shamed for his betrayal. There was never the catharsis of one big emotional explosion, except for the outbursts from Skye and Fitz (Iain De Caestecker). Here, Coulson just tears into his former friend for the choices he made, and it's a bitterness that extends to Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), who vows to kill Ward if she ever sees him again. It's a genuinely impactful scene, since we see that there will be no redemption for Ward, no opportunity for him to win his way back into S.H.I.E.L.D's good graces. That sort of desperate, nothing-to-lose quality makes Ward even more dangerous, as evidenced by the closing scene, in which Ward escapes the guards escorting him, and murders them in cold blood. Maybe Christian did force Ward to torture Thomas, maybe he didn't. But Ward grew up to have ice in his veins anyway.

"A Fractured House" is a solid episode with some great moments, both big and small. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the terrific stuff with Fitz and Simmons, as they continue to struggle to be in each other's presence without emotions flaring up. I also dug some of the comedy bits this episode, such as May revealing she's been married before, and later telling Hunter she doesn't particularly like him. The show is doing a much better job than they did in season one in balancing the various tones of a given episode. There's lightheartedness among all the severity here, and it helps keep things from feeling too oppressively bleak. I'm not sure where the season is headed just yet, but I'm intrigued by the mysteries being presented, such as the post-credits scene in which a mysterious man is getting tattoos of the alien writings. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is still largely a procedural in its approach, but each week takes it farther into the realm of serialization, and frankly, I'm delighted by how well it's all working. It's not a perfect show, but Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has finally developed into a show I feel is worth getting excited over every week.