Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review – “The Things We Bury”
This week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gives us another glimpse of Agent Carter in action, Grant Ward being as crazy as ever, and S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra in a face-off. Something crazy was happening in every single scene, so my “summary” may be more sporadic than usual. Let’s begin!
Not-So-Short Summary: Austria, 1945. Werner Reinhardt (we know him as Daniel Whitehall) is testing prisoners by making them touch the obelisk. It burns them all to a crisp, except one woman, whom he cages up and plans to experiment on. Agent Carter takes care of that, imprisoning him for the rest of his life–44 years, to be exact. Later in the episode, we get a flash-forward flashback to 1989 when Alexander Pierce comes to Reinhardt’s rescue, breaking him out of his cell during a “transfer” to a new facility and giving him a group of prisoners from 1945. The woman who could touch the Diviner is there, still the same age. So, in a horribly gruesome fashion, he cuts her up and uses every part of her he can to turn back the clock of time for himself.
Which is why he still looks the same now as he did in 1945. Also, no German accent. That’s cool, too. It’s an interesting portrayal of Whitehall, showing how he views other living things as literal meatbags for his own use. He wants to use the Diviner as a weapon of ultimate power, but Skye’s dad tells him that it’s a key. It destroys those who it doesn’t deem to be worthy to unlock its true power (Hello, super-evil Mjolnir!); if a person who is worthy brings it to a place and heads to the temple of that special place, the Diviner will do something (scientifically) cool.
Flash to Coulson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. crew. Most of them are on their way to Hawaii; Skye and Triplett are sent inland to do a few quick tasks for Coulson before they head off to Australia. He also gives Fitz part of a transceiver, which he needs to learn how to put together in less than six minutes. More on Fitz’s arc later, because I loved every second of it.
Back at the base, Bobbi is interrogating Bakshi and getting him to talk, but not about anything necessary. She breaks him just a bit–he calls Whitehall a disciple of the Red Skull, which is language that most Hydra people do not use. Bobbi knows it means more, so Simmons and May start searching through the old SSR files. Bobbi’s focus goes from Bakshi to Whitehall, and when Simmons and May find Werner Reinhardt’s file, Hunter has Bobbi use it against Bakshi.
It shakes him a bit, but only enough to break the cyanide capsule in his cheekbone to kill himself. It doesn’t work–Bobbi and Hunter get him to the hospital wing (we’re in Harry Potter now) and proceed to argue with each other. I know a handful of people have hated their dynamic, but I love it, and they get into a lover’s spat–literally, which they take to the backseat of a car.
The items Skye and Triplett gave away in Hawaii are part of a trojan horse for an Air Force base in the Australian Outback that has a satellite map of the entire world. They want to steal it to search for the city. Coulson, Triplett, and Fitz head into the base straight into a Hydra ambush. Coulson and Trip get Fitz to the transceiver and cover him. It’s nice to see Triplett be a badass–up until he gets shot in the shoulder, reminiscent of Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier—because he has been nothing but a background character so far this season and that upsets me.
Skye’s dad shows up and offers his help to Coulson who is attempting to take care of Trip. The scene is intense because Kyle MacLachlan is phenomenal as Skye’s dad as he tries to keep it together, then casually says “Phil,” realizes he does, and continues so blissfully casual, “Oh, I shouldn’t have said Phil…” He gets away by making sure Coulson and Fitz take care of Triplett rather than go after him. It’s an intense standoff and I cannot sing Kyle MacLachlan’s praises enough.
And here I haven’t even covered Ward! He finds Christian at their family’s summer home where he takes him to uncover the well from the “well incident” that apparently seriously matters to them. He makes Christian uncover it, trying to get the truth out of him about what happened that day. When Christian is nearly thrown into the well, he confesses to making Ward torture Thomas in that well. Thomas was the only one their mom didn’t torture and he wanted their mother to suffer like them. Ward says all is forgiven and turns from killer creep to ridiculously happy in two seconds flat.
At the end of the episode, Skye’s dad is called into Whitehall’s office where Grant Ward is getting a second chance with Hydra. There is a passing comment on the nearby television that Christian Ward’s body was found alongside their parents with the remnants of a confession tape alongside. Ward framed it as a murder/suicide, and I feel like this needed more focus rather than just a quick blurb on the news. So much for my theory of ever meeting Mr. and Mrs. Ward. Also, I assume Thomas died in the house fire Ward started all those years ago. Has that ever been confirmed?
The scene with these three–Ward, Whitehall, and Skye’s Dad–are very telling. “It’s always good to look your enemy right in the eye,” Skye’s dad says about his run-in with Coulson. He looks pointedly at Whitehall after he says this, and we get a flashback to 25 years ago when he finds the massacred body of the woman Whitehall destroyed to regain his youth. I called it from the beginning of the episode: It is Skye’s mother.
Badass Moment of the Week: There wasn’t anything super outstanding, so I’m going to go with Simmons fangirling over Peggy Carter. Because I would totally do the same thing, too.
Best One-Liner: “What are we talking about? Power like the Tesseract?” Coulson asks.
“Sure!” Skye’s dad replies happily, then adds after a beat, “…I don’t know what that is.”
There are several flashbacks of Agent Carter versus Reinhardt/Whitehall. The one where he tells her the myth around the Diviner gave me chills. He talks about how “blue angels” brought the Diviner to earth to conquer mankind. It sounds a heck of a lot like Kree. In the present-time, Skye’s dad scolds him for the awful translation; they came to end mankind.
Skye’
s father tells Coulson that he’s not working for Whitehall, that Whitehall is just a means to an end he wants, and the end he wants is Skye. He wants his family. So much has been denied to him that all he wants is the simple things… assuming you think Skye is simple. I want to see him face off against Whitehall because I think that will be a fantastic battle. Kyle MacLachlan puts such a great spin on his character that I’m honestly rooting for him. Maybe not to take Skye away from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Coulson, but to at least take down Whitehall and get retribution for his wife.
Is anyone else surprised that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is taking us to this mysterious city so soon? Was I the only one who believed they would keep this up for the entire season, not reaching it until the season finale and making us wait all summer to find out what the hell it is? I love the sense of urgency about it, how it feels like we’re living in the moment with Coulson and crew in their desperation to find this place before Hydra.
Also, I think it’s due to my love of all things Marvel, but I eat up every single second of every new episode and try to put the pieces together as fast as I can. It’s like my obsession with LOST back when that was reigning the television world. Every tiny little mention of anything, I wrote it down and tried to tie it back to anything that’s been mentioned before. With this series tying into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I feel like I’m going to drive myself crazy if I keep this up.
Fitz! It was wonderful to see him slowly getting back in action again. He made mention that only one of his hands works properly and spent most of the episode challenging himself to build the transceiver in less than six minutes like Coulson asked. The great part is that he came through and he is getting back to normal–or at least getting back to being part of the team again. He does not rely on Simmons or Mac in this episode to help him out, but rather does it on his own.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is off next week for the Thanksgiving holiday, but will be back in action on December 2nd! I, however, will be in Walt Disney World, scouring the multitude of shops for everything Marvel, trying to control myself, and generally doing my normal Disney thing (this will be my sixteenth time there). Therefore, you will be privy to a review written by one of the wonderful gentlemen who also write at Bam Smack Pow!
Be on the lookout Friday for our new weekly “Brainstorm Session” about this episode where I indulge my own fantasies about this show (mostly I want Avengers cameos). I know my theorizing section was a little light in this recap, but it’s mostly because I want to expand on a lot of things in the “Brainstorm Session.” Tune in! Until then, Hail Hydra, everyone!