Piece of the Puzzle: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S2 E4 - A Hen in the Wolf House

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

It's no small wonder why Hydra wants the Obelisk, which they were first able to recover in Shadows.  With nothing more than tissue samples from its petrified victims, they were able to weaponize it to mixed results.  With the artifact itself, they could potentially do far worse than that: creating an extinction-level event to kill all non-Hydra operatives worldwide.  When undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is put on the project, her cover within Hydra is blown, resulting in a hasty extraction.  Meanwhile, a desperate Reina comes to Coulson for Skye, whose father desperately wants her back in his custody.

Skye's father - the man that she has dedicated her entire life to learning more about, who was revealed to still be alive at the end of the last season - has been just as desperately trying to find her since the day that she was taken from him.  Coupled with the implicit revelation that Skye is in fact an alien - at least part Kree, given that she did not succumb to Agents Garret's and Coulson's fugue states after taking the Kree-based serum GH-325 - A Hen in the Wolf House ultimately raises more questions about her origin than it answers.  And despite my recent frustrations with Gotham's recently reset plot, I'm 100% fine with this.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has proven over its two seasons that it is more capable of developing, uncovering and ultimately deepening the mysteries surrounding its cast and setting.  These recent developments intensify, rather than frustrate, my appreciation for the show, taking the plot into interesting and uncharted directions.  Skye's father exudes a barely contained menace and an inherent desire to be with his daughter (who he has seen refer to him as a monster) that seems bound to explode in the very near future.  Coupled with the crossover potential with Guardians of the Galaxy, which included Kree among its major demographics, and the possibility of a small-screen adaptation of the Secret Invasion story line, the series has boundless potential with its new key players and plot points.

The reinsurgence of Simmons into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s main base of operations - and her strained reunion with Fitz - was impeccably handled.  Although she was doing incredibly well each week as a double agent inside of Hydra, and her physical absence was off-set by Fitz's hallucinated interactions with her, she is back where her character has the best potential to develop.  Here, her floundered relationship with Fitz can take off or stagnate as it will, with ample dramatic possibilities for the show to explore either way.  Fitz may darken or lighten as a character as a direct result, which again is in the best interest of the series' well-formed characters.

The final highlight of the episode was the introduction of fan favorite and Lance Hunter's she-devil of an ex-wife Bobbi Morse: codename Mockingbird, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  When her cover within Hydra was not enough to gain access to the organization's high-priority projects, Simmons was brought in to work her way up through their scientific division.  In her short time on screen, Morse has proven to be a superior physical threat, a charismatic agent and an incredibly entertaining character.  Her future interactions with Hunter on the team - especially given how fervently he's gone off about her in previous episodes - are bound to be a highlight of the season.

The complications brought up in this episode as both substantive to the series as a whole as well as incessently entertaining to watch.  They're bound to have long-lasting implications for not just Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but the MCU as a whole (even if it takes a while to migrate to the big screen).  Overall, I give the episode a solid 8 out of 10.

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