Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Recap: Magic City

It's smart of the show to change the mission from bringing down Hydra to keeping a valuable alien secret out of their hands. Marvel was never going to realistically allow these S.H.I.E.L.D. guys to defeat Hydra conclusively, considering that they still have a presence in the Cinematic Universe. And so S.H.I.E.L.D. needs a goal it can realistically achieve without compromising future potential stories for the Cinematic Universe. And that goal? Well, as it turns out, the markings that Coulson (Clark Gregg) has been making are not a map, but rather a blueprint -- to an alien city. So S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new mission is to find that city before Hydra. Of course, this begs the question of how a bunch of humans are going to find and access an alien city, and how they're going to get any benefit out of finding it in the first place. I suppose there's alien technology that they can find and use for their benefit (or, at the very least, prevent Hydra from having), but it's a goal with vague implications, since there's no knowing what's actually going to happen if/when this city is found. As for now, all we can really do is try and deduce the motives of the aliens themselves. For that, at least, we get some evidence in this episode, as we learn that the markings are the result of the alien DNA superimposing memories on a subject, creating a compulsive need to...well, carve. As if trying to discover something. Perhaps a way home?

Credit: ABC

In attempting to figure out why some lunatic is out there murdering former T.A.H.I.T.I. patients and carving the alien markings into their skin, Coulson orders Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Skye (Chloe Bennet) to strap him into the aptly-named Memory Machine so he can reach back and remember who these patients were. What's revealed ends up casting a shadow over Coulson's morality. The murderer, an ex-agent named Sebastian Derrick (Brian Van Holt), was a subject whose memories were forcefully erased to allow the GH.325 serum to work its magic unimpeded. Although he had serious objections to the experiment, refusing to allow human beings to be used as guinea pigs in an alien DNA experiment, Coulson inevitably ends up signing off on the memory erasures. Naturally, no one anticipates that any of these people will get their memories back, yet that's exactly what happens, as Derrick begins to recover memories after inflicting pain upon himself to stimulate the recovery.

Credit: ABC

Before long, Derrick is right back to having the compulsive need to carve out the blueprints, and he won't be able to stop until he knows what it means. And so we get Clark Gregg's best episode of the season so far, as we get to see Coulson come face-to-face with the mistakes he's made in his past, while also struggling to rectify those errors by solving the mystery that plagues both Derrick and himself. I'll admit that it's kind of convenient to have Coulson's degenerative illness, which resulted from the GH.325 in his body, to be cured simply by discovering the solution to the markings. But I don't particularly mind that much, since it means we can finally put the Coulson Resurrection Saga behind us. Seriously, it's been nearly 30 episodes, and the show is still exploring the repercussions of bringing Coulson back. Hopefully, now that there's a clear-cut goal in place (Find the Alien City Before Hydra!), Coulson can stop being so tortured over the memories of what he's done, and the memories he still has yet to recover. I don't mind that it's a character history he carries with him, but I miss when Coulson was also a bit lighthearted. It's a silly nitpick, I know, since Coulson must be stern and authoritative by his very nature as director of S.H.I.E.L.D., but sometimes I worry the show is losing track of what made Coulson such a likable figure in those first few Marvel Phase One movies.

Credit: ABC

As for the rest of the episode, I enjoy just about anything Ward does because I find a cold, calculated, brutally efficient character like that to be far more effective than the creepy villains Hydra often employs. It's fairly obvious that the episode is building to the reveal that Ward intends to go after his brother, Christian, but the episode has a lot of fun getting to that point, from Ward dodging S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance team to leaving a battered, bloody Bakshki (Simon Kassianides) as a present for Coulson. I occasionally miss the days when Ward was a good guy, but the truth of the matter is that Brett Dalton is far more effective as a villain. It's downright chilling how nonchalant he is about the way he teases Skye over the phone, or the way in which he goes about altering his appearance in preparation to go after Christian (shaving his head and beard, and calmly filling a bag with supplies like he's an Average Joe headed to work). I'm not sure what his endgame is going to be once he gets his hands on Christian, but I don't imagine it's going to be good. At least not for Christian. I wholeheartedly expect it'll be good for us, though, since I find this whole Ward brothers storyline eminently compelling.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is firing on all cylinders, and it's keeping a certain aura of unpredictability alive in its week-to-week storylines. And I love that about the show. "The Writing On the Wall" is another brick in the solid foundation Season 2 has established, and I'm anxious to see what the show has in store as the season continues.