“We need to root out all the secrets,” Coulson said at one point during tonight’s episode. Boy is he right, and lately it feels like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been doing just that. Some of the big mysteries from the start of the series are coming to light, finally relieving us from having to over-theorize and over-think everything, trying to dig out clues where their are none. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good mystery. But there’s only so long you can drag something out before it starts to feel like a carrot being dangled in front of my face rather than a puzzle that needs to be solved. So thank you, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for giving us a big piece of Coulson’s puzzle last week, and for filling in some of the blanks in Skye’s story tonight during "Seeds."
Coulson’s situation still seems a bit veiled but that’s ok. We don’t need all the answers. Just some of them. I still don’t think we really know the full situation surrounding Coulson’s survival, but that’s a topic for another tonight. Tonight’s episode revealed that Skye wasn’t abandoned. Quite the opposite in fact. In truth, as a baby, she was classified as an 0-8-4, which we know from the episode by that exact title, is an object of unknown origin. Boom! Coulson and May spent the episode traveling around trying to track down an agent involved in protecting Baby Skye-0-8-4. He revealed to them that pretty much everyone who tried to protect Skye was killed, and a special protocol was put in place to move Skye around to keep her safe, hence all the foster families. So all this time, Skye was feeling abandoned, as if no one wants her, and really it turns out people were literally dying to protect her.
The fact that Skye’s an object of unknown origin opens a whole other can of worms, but that’s kind of ok. They can address that down the line when it needs to be relevant. In the meantime, at least we have some general understanding of the situation. She’s special. On another show that might be a huge deal, but on S.H.I.E.L.D., a lot of people are special. Skye may prove to be extra-special but again, that’s for the show to reveal in time… and hopefully not over-hint, tease and drag out…
Speaking of special, “Seeds” also delved into some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. world by taking us to S.H.I.E.L.D. Hogwarts. Or S.H.I.E.L.D. Durmstrang. Whichever school hosts the Ravenclaws of the S.H.I.E.L.D. world, that’s where the Science and Technology Division educational facility is set up. Ok, no more Harry Potter analogies. What I loved about the school situation is that there’s an evident rivalry between the Sci/Tech division and the Operations division, which draws an amusing line between FitzSimmons and Ward. And it gives us a bit more insight into what goes into training for S.H.I.E.L.D.... unless you're Skye and you hacked your way in.
“Seeds” took the Coulson crew to the Sci/Tech school to investigate a situation involving an extremely powerful and dangerous device that managed to freeze an entire swimming pool in under a minute.
As it turns out, the device was used to lure FitzSimmons back to campus so that its creators — two especially smart students named Seth and Donnie — could get them to help them sort out some difficulties in the energy source for the bigger one they were working on, with the intention of selling it to Ian Quinn, who apparently knows the Clairvoyant.
Of course, Fitz fell right into the trap. As Donnie was present at the pool incident and later victimized by the freeze-device during FitzSimmons’ lecture, Fitz felt compelled to reach out to the kid, realizing he’s a bit isolated, having grown up super smart and socially awkward and all that. While admiring Donnie’s inventions, Fitz brainstormed with the kid and essentially gave him the solution to his energy problem, which inevitably led to Donnie and Seth creating a super-storm in an effort to prove to their buyer that their device was the real deal.
During all of this, Donnie seemed more hesitant to cause problems or do anything bad, while Seth was pushing for the big demonstration at all costs. And Seth was the one to knock Fitz out, which kind of painted Donnie as the less active participant in all of this danger and rule-breaking, but still the mastermind behind the device. As it ended up, Seth ended up zapped to death by the machine, while Donnie was also zapped but not hurt. Instead, he was left to feel the guilt of his friend dying, And the last we saw of him, he was creating ice with just his finger.
If Marvel fans hadn’t already made the connection between the name Donnie Gill and Blizzard, especially when factoring the very icy clues offered throughout the episode, they should have by that point. Where’s this story going? Will he be a super villain or a superhero? Maybe a little bit of both? I don’t know, but it seems unlikely that this will be an isolated (heh) appearance by the character.
All in all, a good episode. Again, I’m happy the series seems ready to start showing some of its cards.
And speaking of showing cards, I loved that May blurted out that she’s sleeping with Ward seconds before Coulson spotted Lumley. Awkward timing is the best. And that cat’s out of the bag too. One more unnecessary twist deflated so we can move forward.
Oh, and Lola can fly. (Apparently, I completely forgot about that!)
Photo Credit: ©ABC
