‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ | Intensity rises in S05E17
The adventures of the “invincible three” and the rest of the ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ bring us one step closer to the Destroyer of Worlds.
In this week’s episode ironically titled ‘The Honeymoon’, Mack played doctor, Ruby finally came face-to-face with her obsession, and a declaration of love surfaced.
SPOILER ALERT!
Following last week’s escape from Hale’s HYDRA base, Coulson and Talbot are now lost in the snowy woods – with both HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. following in pursuit. Ruby manages to catch up with the pair but just as she prepares for the kill, Daisy shows up and quakes her. And following a week of teases about the long-awaited showdown between Daisy and Ruby, ‘The Honeymoon’ doesn’t wait long to deliver the goods. They immediately get into a fierce hand-to-hand battle but Ruby’s Chakram is no match for Daisy’s quake powers, and before long, the younger Hale is knocked out.
Unbeknownst to Ruby and Daisy, however, they’re not alone. Hale followed her daughter through the portal and Deke’s been lurking in the background. So, when he makes himself known to Daisy and goes to secure Ruby’s weapon, Hale unleashes a round of bullets on them and Deke is hit. He’s brought back to the Zephyr, along with Coulson and Talbot, but a first-aid kit isn’t enough to stop the bleeding. Coulson and Daisy call for Simmons’ help…but she’s already made off with Yo-Yo and Fitz to find HYDRA’s secret weapon. With no other choice, Mack is forced to put his mechanical skills to use under the guidance of Pipier, who’s studying to be a field medic. Nonetheless, the surgery is a success and Deke survives to live another day (bonus: yes, consent is sexy).
With Coulson finally back home, May pulls him aside to chastise him for abandoning them and leaving Daisy in charge. While she states that Daisy isn’t ready to lead yet, her main concern is Coulson’s reckless and impulsive behaviour as of late. When Coulson argues that he gets to decide how he lives out his final days, May counters that no, he actually doesn’t. The people who love him get a say, “I’m one of them. I love you,” she declares.
Meanwhile, our invincible three are busy infiltrating a secret HYDRA base. Yo-Yo, Fitz and Simmons find Anton Ivanov in charge of the facility but manage to distract him long enough to find Whitehall’s particle infusion chamber. Fitz sabotages the machine by ripping out its ‘heart’ but it isn’t long before a group of robo-guards find the trio. Unfortunately, Yo-Yo’s new robo-arms aren’t built to move at superspeed and are painfully overloading her with electricity, so she’s unable to fight.
Fitz and Simmons decide to stay behind to hold off the robots, and an impressive and downright exciting action sequence follows, while Yo-Yo goes to call for back-up. But of course, she immediately runs into Ivanov and an epic cyborg vs. cyborg fight takes place. Knowing she can’t die, Yo-Yo tackles Ivanov out of a high-story window and the fall crushes him – which conveniently deactivates all of the other robots fighting Fitz and Simmons. And it seems like the team finally have a win… until Ruby and Strucker show up. Having gone rogue, Ruby holds Simmons at chakram-point and demands that Fitz fix the chamber so she can fulfil her destiny.
In the episode’s post-credits scene, Daisy hands Talbot a highly scrambled SAT phone so he can call his family. Talbot’s wife answers and, unbeknownst to Daisy, reads from a script that’s been handed to her by one of Hale’s minions. The scripted phrases, which are all too familiar to ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ fans, suddenly send Talbot into a trance… and ready to comply.
With the season finale fast approaching, this week’s episode of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ ramped up the intensity. In recent weeks, the show has been in a bit of a pacing slump but ‘The Honeymoon’ brought the show back to its own standards and was reminiscent of the show’s earlier days.
Over the course of the show, Glenn Talbot has gone from an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D., reluctant ally, and now friend. But in ‘The Honeymoon’, the character’s journey evolves once again only to go from heartbreaking to gut-wrenching. After escaping Hale’s prison and finding refuge with S.H.I.E.L.D., the military man was finally able to reach out to his family…only to be activated. That’s right, he’s a sleeper HYDRA agent, akin to Agent 33 and the Winter Soldier, and it seems that those months of torture he suffered at the hands of Hale were also months of brainwashed conditioning. The poor guy just can’t catch a break, you guys.
Also, Fitzsimmons having their honeymoon on Friday the 13th? We shouldn’t have expected anything less from our star-crossed lovers.
New episodes of ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ are updated weekly on Amazon Prime Video.
