TV Corner: Agents of SHIELD

[Content Note: Discussions of violence. Spoilers for the most recent episode of Agents of SHIELD.]


"People think I was wrong about something, and now I am grumpy."
In this episode of Agents of SHIELD, more reversals about Skye's motivations lead to more explicit commentary on how whistleblowers risk lives and shadowy government agencies with no oversight or accountability totally try to save them! (Except when Bad People, as so designated by shadowy government agencies, need to die, obvs.) I dunno, you guys. I had a handful of vague expectations and apprehensions for Agents of SHIELD, but "rank apologia for the NSA" wasn't among them.

Anyway. We join a new bloke named Chan Ho Yin in Hong Kong, where he is doing disappointing street magic for an unenthusiastic crowd. He suddenly conjures a fireball in the palm of his hand and launches it at a disinterested couple of observers, who quickly leave. A pretty young woman in a flowered dress named Raina is, however, impressed. He takes her back to his apartment, where she asks him about his mad fire skillz and he is remarkably forthcoming with a total stranger about his secret power that has warranted personal SHIELD protection. Whoooooooops it turns out she only wants to get into his pants to do experiments on him, and two men in fireproof suits kidnap him.

Meanwhile, back at SHIELD HQ, Chan's handler Agent Kwan informs Agent Coulson and Co. that Chan has disappeared. Something something Skye's hacker group Rising Tide is responsible for disclosing Chan's whereabouts. Skye swears it wasn't her and uses her hack-magic to identify that it was Rising Tider Miles of Austin, Texas. The team travels to Austin, where Coulson chases Miles, and Miles hacks Coulson into a traffic jam, and Skye is waiting for Miles back at his apartment, where she tells him she's "getting close" and he is fucking her shit up. OH NOES! Is Skye pranking SHIELD after all?! We'll have to wait to find out until after Skye and Miles do it.

Something something fucky times. Afterwards, Skye opens the bedroom door to find Melinda May standing there scowling at her. The Calvary is kinda creepy! Skye and Miles are taken into SHIELD custody, and Agent Coulson is pouting because his gut was wrong about Skye. (OR WAS IT?!) Skye swears it's not what it looks like, but she's still hiding something.

Meanwhile, at Nefarious Baddies HQ, Chan is given a serum to make him super powerful. Now he's not just some David Blaine wannabe (that is the most depressing career trajectory ever); now he's a superhero/villain called Scorch! This boy is on fire! He is also drunk with his own fiery power. This is going to end badly.

The doctor who almost got blowed up in the pilot shows up and confabs with Raina. It turns out they're just using Chan to steal his blood platelets in order to stop their enhanced subjects from exploding. Like the guy in the pilot. Remember? Something something Centipede.

SHIELD has to rescue Chan before everything goes up in smoke (literally), and they take the building from its rooftop, only to lose Agent Kwan instantly in a tower of fire. It's a good thing he showed up this episode so someone from SHIELD could die and we could all feel bad (but not TOO bad!) and have a reason to be mad at Chan instead of viewing him as the tragic figure he actually is.

Meanwhile, back at SHIELD HQ, Skye and Miles have a Meaningful Conversation about how he is a dirtbag for selling information, and SHIELD is trying to protect the guy he put in harm's way. And I have many problems with the way this conversation goes, not least of which is how Chan's agency is totally erased from this equation, as well as the circumstances of his life, which include the terrible and worse options of effectively being a prisoner of SHIELD or being exploited by Centipede.

Meanwhile, back at Nefarious Baddies HQ, Chan immolates the doctor, then pauses his fiery rampage just long enough for all the SHIELDies to escape from the building before blowing up. Kaboom. Fire ball. RIP Scorch.

Raina has also escaped, and she heads to a dirty prison to meet with a craggy man and tells him to touch base with the Clairvoyant so they can proceed to Stage 3 now that Stage 2: No More Boomies is complete. He likes her dress. She knows.

Miles is released back into the wild with a fancy bracelet that SHIELD will use to track and control him. Goodbye, Miles! You are not the person Skye thought you were! Skye gets a bracelet, too, even after Coulson demands she reveal her secret and she does: All she knows of her birth parents is a redacted SHIELD document. Let us hope this Mysterious Origin Story now replaces the Skye's Dubious Allegiance Arc, which has overstayed its welcome.

Also: Chiseled White Hero, Fitz, and Simmons were definitely in this episode.

Discuss.