- Title: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – End of the Beginning
- wiki: link
Several familiar faces return as Coulson calls a meeting with Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows), John Garrett (Bill Paxton), Antoine Triplett (B.J. Britt), and Blake (Titus Welliver) as the search for the Clairvoyant and Deathlok (J. August Richards) heats up. Choosing Skye (Chloe Bennet) to lead the mission and pair off the various members in teams, each only partially aware of their mission and targets in an attmept to keep the mind-reading mystery man from seeing them coming, means the promotion of the hacker to full S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent and all the perks that come with it (including a shiny new badge and the the congratulations of her teammates).
Despite the carefully-laid plans and secrecy the Clairvoyant still sees the teams coming and lays a trap that leaves one member in critical condition, although the attack does give Coulson’s team a suspect and a way to track the man’s cyborg assassin. The investigation, and perhaps Ward‘s (Brett Dalton) career, ends when the agent shoots the defenseless man (Brad Dourif) who S.H.I.E.L.D. believes is the Clairvoyant. However, the entire mission is far too easy for Coulson to accept. Discoveries by both Skye and Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) confirm his suspicions as they discover someone inside S.H.I.E.L.D. is actually using the agency’s extensive files and surveillance to act the part of the Clairvoyant.
The episode ends with all evidence pointing to May (Ming-Na Wen) being the Clairvoyant’s agent. From what we’ve seen its obvious she’s Fury’s agent on-board rather than that of super-villain (something the show doesn’t really set-up as a legitimate possibility, although we can see why Coulson and his team would jump to the wrong conclusion). With Coulson and his team at each other’s throats, the plane hijacked by Hand, and all hell about to break loose, we’ll have to wait until next week to see how things shake-out, whether any fall-out from Captain America: The Winter Solider directly effects the show, and whether or not the true identity of the Clairvoyant (I have my guess) will be revealed.
