Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD Recap And Review – “Watchdogs”

This week’s Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD recap may be even more ridiculous than normal since I’ve been up since 2:45am at manufacturing plants for work while also combating the beginning stages of a cold. But there’s SHIELD to watch, so let’s see how this Bobbi and Hunter-less episode goes.

Not-So-Short Summary: We are introduced to Mack’s brother, Ruben, while Mack is on vacation from work. He lets his brother in on his professional woes in the least descriptive way possible: Management’s out of control, new people keep coming in everyday, and his two closest friends just transferred. That sounds like a complete and utter office setting.

They tune into a breaking news broadcast of a new terrorist group, the Watchdogs, who have imploded an ATCU storage facility with what looks like Stark technology (Fitz confirms it as Nitramine, so thanks for the Agent Carter reference!) Coulson calls in Mack because he’s closest, and it’s obvious from the news footage that he and his brother are on opposite sides of this issue, but more on that later.

Daisy and Fitz rendezvous with Mack at the attack site before any other agencies can touch it. Coulson confirms that the Watchdogs must have  SHIELD agent on their side. And it’s an agent we’ve already met: Felix Blake, aka the Man in Black from LOST! He went off the grid after Deathlok landed him in the hospital.

In the wake of the attack, Daisy and Mack don’t see eye to eye. She’s too emotionally vested in this storyline, and Mack has it right: It’s not about how they act, it’s about how SHIELD responds. He takes off after his brother, who is drunk, angry, and definitely supportive of the Watchdogs, while Daisy and Fitz head off on their own to ignore some civil liberties. They corner a Watchdog member, Daisy with her powers and Fitz with a gun, and I will say that Daisy showing a darker, more intense side of herself and her powers worked quite well.

She finds out where their next attack is going to be, and her, Fitz, and Mack meet up at their location where Ruben shows up, ruins their cover, and some Watchdogs see Daisy’s powers coming from Mack. Mack’s off after his brother again, and Daisy is pulling a Lincoln and ignoring direct orders.

On the boring-side of the episode, Lincoln is working with Coulson after his SHIELD evaluation, which Coulson wasn’t happy with (he wants to see it for himself). I thoroughly enjoyed Coulson giving Lincoln crap for all of his faults that are supposed to separate him from season one bland Grant Ward.

He and Lincoln are checking out all of Blake’s safe houses, only to find him in the basement of the Atlanta location. He can be everywhere at once thanks to technology. He goes on a grandstanding speech about SHIELD never existing, always being Hydra, fighting against weird aliens, referencing all of the Avengers movies, etc.

Coulson tells Lincoln to take him out. And take him out he does, but it’s a hologram. Coulson is proud that he followed orders (but didn’t go through with a kill shot like in the past). Raiding the house, they discover Blake set them up to get their hands on an Inhuman…

But it turns out they’re going after Mack and not Daisy. He and his brother make a run for it through their house against five Watchdogs, and the entire time, I waited for Ruben to turn on Mack. But instead, we get a shotgun axe from Mack and a lot of badass-ness.

In the aftermath, we see the shock in Ruben as he tries to absorb everything and make sure Mack is okay and good at his job. It’s a sweet moment tinged with a hint of bitterness at years of lies and deception.

Still, I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Ruben on this show.

Post-Credits Stinger: The ATCU attack was a cover by the Watchdogs, funded by Gideon Malick. So what did he take from the facility? A bomb. Oh, and Blake is in a wheelchair, definitely not healthy and recovered from that fight with Deathlok.

Badass Moment of the Week: Mack’s recreation of a shotgun axe, then taking out the last two Watchdogs, all after getting shot in the arm.

Best One-Liner: “What does he think you do?” Fitz asks as Ruben shows up.
“Insurance,” Mack replies.
“Well…not anymore,” Fitz responds. Man, I wish my insurance job was like SHIELD.

This episode gives us a bit of Simmons/May bonding over Andrew. Simmons feels guilty constantly about the Inhuman lives she sacrificed to save herself by freeing Andrew. May brings her into the fold on her hunt for him, and Simmons sheds light on how Andrew/Lash may be thinking.

May says that this will lead to Lash’s death, no matter what. “Don’t give me hope,” she says of the vaccine. I can’t blame her.

Next week’s Agents of SHIELD has a definite feeling of mutants to it as one touch from a particular Inhuman gives Daisy a look at her future… and it looks like Grant Ward/Hive will no longer be hidden from SHIELD.