Piece of the Puzzle: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S2 E2 - Heavy Is the Head

In which I review the latest episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

After last week's pyrrhic victory against Hydra, a broken S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to track down "Crusher" Creel, who successfully stole the Obelisk - a mysterious artifact capable of transforming organic tissue into stone.  But with agents Hartley and Idaho dead and the questionably-loyal Agent Hunter captured by Brigadier General Talbot, S.H.I.E.L.D. is running out of options.  When Coulson is contacted by Reina - the former head of Project Centipede - he sees a chance to neutralize Creel and secure the Obelisk from enemy control.

Heavy Is the Head concludes the events of Shadows so completely that the two should have been merged into a two-hour season premiere.  Combined, they compose a far more complete view into Coulson's new S.H.I.E.L.D. and its component members than either alone can provide.  Coulson is not simply bearing the burdens of his responsibilities as Director, but has been regularly slipping into the same fugue state that we saw him in at the end of Season 1 - carving the same circuit-like symbols into the walls that John Garrett was after taking the drug GH-325.  Its apparently increasing frequency raises the question of whether or not Coulson is beginning to succumb to Garret's psychosis, while its impossible cohesion with Garret's designs suggest that it is something altogether more profound.

It appears as if Agent Fitz is not as completely oblivious to his delusions of Agent Simmons as Shadows seemed to suggest.  When fellow technician Alfonso Mackenzie failed to acknowledge the hallucinated Simmons' presence, Fitz deflected his ignorance rather than confronted it.  When asked about how he felt about her leaving, he looked directly at his hallucination while answering Mack's question.  He is not ignorant of his hallucinations, but chooses to believe in them rather than facing the truth of Simmons' absence.  And after the end-of-episode preview for Making Friends and Influencing People, I can only imagine what confronting the real Simmons - and the circumstances surrounding her defection - will do to the increasingly unstable Fitz.

Perhaps the most interesting development of the episode occurs once Reina acquires the Obelisk.  Despite knowing what it has done to every single person who has ever touched it - including the seemingly immune Creel - she grasps it with her bare hands.  Rather than petrifying her, it turned on, calling to mind her question to the "enlightened" Garrett: "what will I become?"  And, given her now suspect physiology as well as her association with Skye's allegedly monstrous parents, I can't help but ask "what will Skye become?"

Like its preceding episode, Heavy Is the Head promise second season that's far superior the show's first.  It continues to broaden the scope of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s missions, plumb the depths of its mysteries and expand the conflicts of its growing cast of characters.  Overall, I give this episode an 8/10 and eagerly look forward to next week's installment.

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