Bam Smack Pow
Fansided

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Recap – “Who You Really Are”

By Christina Roberts

facebooktwitterreddit

It’s the return of Lady Sif in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD! It’s the reveal of Skye’s powers! It’s the hope of a Tom Hiddleston as Loki cameo! It’s the day after I bought a house and am completely exhausted! If this gets loopy, I apologize, but the plus side is that it will probably be hilarious.

Not-So-Short Summary: We start with youngsters in Portugal making s’mores, so you know it’s going to be a good episode. Lady Sif walks out of the ocean wielding a sword and skinny jeans and punches one of the young men trying to hit on her. He flies about fifty feet.

The goings-on at SHIELD HQ are all covered: May and Skye training, May not wanting Skye to hold back even when she says she feels like she’s on the verge of going postal; Fitz checking in to make sure May isn’t pushing Skye too hard; Bobbi and Hunter knocking boots, Hunter mentioning he’s been offered a permanent position by Coulson; and Mack and Coulson doing inventory with Coulson also asking Mack to be a permanent addition to field work because he’s short-staffed.

That’s when they get wind of Sif being held in Portugal. She has no memories of who she is, only that she is from Asgard and is looking for Cava. Skye finds footage via Twitter, no less, of her taking on another otherworldly being (found later to be Kree), who battled with her and stabbed her in the gut, erasing her memories. When he gets hit by Sif, he oozes something blue, which Simmons discovers is liquid nitrogen from remnants on a sliced lamppost on the pier.

Skye and Bobbi case the nearby hospital to find if anyone’s been injured from the pier incident with the Kree/Sif, only to encounter the Kree fading from blue to pink after refilling his store of liquid nitrogen. Bobbi takes him on and gets her butt handed to her. Skye attempts to shoot him and her quaking powers freak out and her gun shakes apart (flashes of telekinesis?!). Mister Kree gets away. Back on the Bus, relaying what happened to Coulson and May, Skye confides the truth in Fitz only.

They track down the Kree on Puerto Rico with a case that should be full of obelisks, but they’re all missing. Back on the bus with the Kree in tow (now known as Vin-Tak), he returns Sif’s memories with his weapon and explains what he’s doing on Earth.

This is when the massive amount of Inhumans backstory comes into play with another mention of Terrigenesis and the first mention of the Terrigen crystals. Back in the day, the Kree empire did experiments on alien races across the universe in hopes of creating a brand of living weapons; one of the few places it was successful was Earth. Once exposed to the Terrigen crystals/mist/whatever, these things turn into abominations.

Meanwhile, Skye listens to everything and you can see her starting to freak out even before the earthquake powers kick on. When Coulson asks what’s doing the shaking, she says it’s her.

Sif immediately wants to take her to Asgard to eliminate this threat, but Coulson helps distract while May smuggles her into Ward’s old holding cell in an attempt to calm her down. It doesn’t work, especially when Sif arrives wielding her sword. To stop it, Skye shoots herself with the ICER gun and the quakes stop. It’s then that Sif agrees to leave Skye in Coulson’s care, under the idea that leaving her with the people who love and care for her will help her nurture and master her powers while isolating her would drive her to the brink of insanity.

Sif takes Vin-Tak with her when she leaves (who now has no knowledge of what happened thanks to getting stabbed with his own weapon courtesy of the Fitz/Bobbi dynamic duo) and warns Coulson once more of the dangers Skye’s powers pose. “There are tides in the universe you cannot swim against,” she warns, and after her departure, May reminds Coulson that it was once said about Skye, “Wherever she goes, death follows.”

Back on the Bus, Fitz tries to apologize to Simmons for keeping Skye’s secret, but with how anti-alien Simmons and Mack are, the gesture backfires on him. Everyone (Bobbi and Hunter included) gang up on him and say that his secret could have put them in danger, ending with Mack screaming that they need to be protected against Skye…while Skye stands right there. What a way to start her training.

On the complete flipside of the coin for this week’s episode, the focus is on Bobbi and Mack’s secret happenings. With Bobbi and Hunter growing closer now that they’re playing for the same team (at least on the surface) and the fact that Hunter sounds like he’s going to take on a permanent position with SHIELD, she suggests to Mack that they bring Hunter in on their stuff. Mack says they’re beyond that point and how would she feel if Hunter took “their side,” aka the side they are not on? It all sounds very Civil War-esque. Bobbi does mention that they aren’t Hydra, so I’m curious as to what they could be. AIM? Serpent Society? Sinister Six? (Wait…)

In the post-credits stinger, Hunter confronts Mack about this secret with Bobbi. He says he knows the therapy sessions are BS, that there’s a flash drive, and then he asks who Backup is. Mack puts him in a stranglehold until he passes out. I have a feeling we’ll find out who they’re working for sooner rather than later.

Badass Moment of the Week: The first Kree/Bobbi battle. She held her own for a solid fifteen seconds, whupping him with her weapons and landing a few solid hits before he punches her and throws her through a wall. Even I said “ow” out loud after that one.

Best One-Liner: “Answer his question, elderly man!” commands an amnesiac Lady Sif.

Fitz’s sticking up for Skye at the end of the episode was the perfect mix of loving dedication and sheer infuriation. He knows what it feels like to be outcast by the rest of the group and understands that’s what they would have done if they had known about Skye’s powers. And no one else sees the hypocrisy in what they’re saying against Fitz. Am I the only one who is frustrated by Simmons’ sudden closed-mindedness? She’s a scientist; she should be intrigued by the new discoveries. I mean, she seems interested in the “simulation” Fitz makes (aka Skye’s actual blood), calling it “remarkable” and completely different than whatever Raina’s was.

Instead, she throws it all under the bus and takes everyone to that dark side with her. Except for Coulson and May, though we will see how that ends up next week. I’m sure there will be rousing speeches by Coulson telling them that Skye is one of them and just because she’s different doesn’t mean she’s damaged or whatever, which will tick off Mack and he and Bobbi will execute their super secret plans.

On a lighter note, amnesia-riddled Sif may be one of my new favorite characters. Do you think there’s a way we could get Jaimie Alexander as a recurring guest star for Agents of SHIELD? Episodes always feel a heck of a lot more fun with her around. Plus then we can always hope that Chris Hemsworth will want to stop by for a quick Thor cameo, even if he’s wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses.

I also just realized that Vin-Tak was played by Eddie McClintock, who was Sully on Bones way back in season two. It was driving me crazy last night, I couldn’t place him!

Does anyone care what Ward is up to? Just a general question.

Next week’s Agents of SHIELD looks like truckloads of supervillains. Plus an episode focused entirely around Cal/Skye’s dad? Yes please! He is my favorite character by far in this television show.

Next: Previously ... our Agents of SHIELD recap of Aftershocks

More from Bam Smack Pow

Home/TV