AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episode 6
Episode Title: “A Fractured House”
Writers: Rafe Judkins & Lauren LeFranc
Director: Ron Underwood
It would be disingenuous to say that this is the best season of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” after only six episodes of the second season. But the show is so noticeably improved over the first season that it’s really growing on me. Hunter and Mockingbird have overshadowed most of the main cast in the last two episodes, but it’s working. They’re really funny, and exciting to watch.
Even the returning cast members have had more interesting things to do this season. This is a lot closer to the “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” that I wanted to see from the very beginning. The only question marks are whether the show can maintain this momentum and whether viewers are going to give “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” a second chance.
ABC can’t run Avengers: Age of Ultron clips every week. So there will only be so many chances to bring people back to the show.
Target: S.H.I.E.L.D.
To kick off this week’s episode, Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) gives a very self-congratulatory speech at the U.N. when the party is crashed by a Hydra team led by Marcus Scarlotti (Falk Hentschel). Calling themselves S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents while wearing their uniforms, Scarlotti’s team unleashes weapons derived from the obelisk.that turn their victims to ash.
In the aftermath, Senator Christian Ward (Tim DeKay) begins pushing for a systematic hunt for the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents even though Talbot doubts that the attack came from S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. In fact, Talbot openly wonders if Ward is just trying to hide the fact that his younger brother, Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) was a Hydra agent and a traitor.
Mr. and Mrs. Hunter
Realizing that they have only a limited time to clear their name, Director Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) orders Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) and Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) aka Mockingbird to track down Toshiro Mori (Brian Tee), the man who weaponized the obelisk.
Along the way, Hunter and Bobbi’s sniping becomes legitimately funny as he praises her skills at deception in a passively aggressive way while May rolls her eyes and reminds him that she doesn’t like him. However, Hunter cares enough for Bobbi that he races into action when he realizes that a kill order is out on her. And they hilariously interrupt their argument to simultaneously shoot Toshiro before picking up where they left off.
I’m really loving this dynamic.
Fitz – Simmons = ?
Back on the home front, Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) finds that the chemistry that she shared with Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) is gone. He no longer likes it when she completes his sentences and his verbal skills actually seem to get worse around her. It gets to the point where Fitz can’t even stand to have Simmons look at him before he accuses her of abandoning him.
The only person who gets through to the new Fitz is Alphonso ‘Mac’ Mackenzie (Henry Simmons). As Mac points out, he never knew the old Fitz and Simmons doesn’t know the new Fitz. Simmons denies that she left Fitz because he told her how he felt for her, but she acknowledges that her presence doesn’t help him.
Ward vs. Ward
Hoping to get some of the pressure off of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson personally visits Senator Ward. And to Coulson’s surprise, the Senator claims that everything that Grant Ward told them about his childhood was a lie. As he tells it, Grant didn’t need anyone to force him to abuse their younger brother. Sensing an opportunity, Coulson offers the Senator a deal…
Seemingly at the same time, Skye (Chloe Bennet) speaks to Grant and he freaks out about the interest in his brother. Grant says that the Senator can’t be trusted before Skye gets him to share all of the information about her father that he has. Once again, he offers to bring Skye to her father.
In a swerve, Skye thanks Grant and informs him that he will be transferred into his brother’s custody.
Whiplash
Eventually, the team figures out that Hydra has tricked them into thinking that Belgium was a safe haven and they lose a few agents to a trap set by Scarlotti. Hunter momentarily gets Scarlotti and his team to believe that he’s a Hydra agent before May and Bobbi make a very dramatic entrance.
As May personally takes down Scarlotti, Hunter and Bobbi fight side-by-side and he saves her life… “for the third time today,” as she gratefully acknowledges. Later, Talbot expresses his condolences to May for the loss of her fellow agents while Bobbi encourages Hunter to stay with Coulson’s team.
The Monster Is Loose
Later, the entire team watches as Grant is led from his basement prison… and Simmons even threatens to kill him if she sees him again. In Washington D.C., Senator Ward gives a press conference in which he admits that he was ashamed about his brother’s betrayal and he promises to make sure that Grant pays the price for his actions.
Yeah… good luck with that. Once Grant is in military custody, it doesn’t take long for him to escape. Elsewhere, a man that we haven’t met before enters a tattoo parlor to get the alien writing etched into his body with ink.
I really liked this episode. But feel free to share your opinions of it in the comment section below!
