TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2×19) “The Dirty Half Dozen” + Age of Ultron Tie-In

Today is a day to celebrate AVENGERS, YEAH BABY.

This is the week where you can use the hashtag #ITSALLCONNECTED completely seriously, because somehow this bridges this whole plot of Agents of SHIELD’s into a seemingly seamless tie in to Avengers: Age of Ultron, but we’ll get to that later.


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Hydra

The severed heads have returned, and have a hidden arctic base in which they’re holding powered people captive, looking to replicate the genetic code of natural born mutants*cough*Sorry-Inhumans. Lincoln and Mike Peterson are captured this week in much the same way we saw Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen captured at the end of The Winter Soldier as their new character Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, respectively.

The Gang Is Back Together

Hey, Ward pointed it out first. It’s interesting to see where this original six are now, after they had banded together at a time when people didn’t want to give this series a chance. Now that it’s slightly improved, and well over a season later, it’s interesting to look at just how much each of these characters have evolved over the course of a year since the fall of SHIELD (Except for May sans the last 3 weeks)

As expected, this reunion isn’t one that lasts even for the whole length of a mission before Ward decides to get out of dodge, BUT one would never expect that The Bus would be blown out of the sky in the process! Bummer.

Extra note, it seemed like all the big effects budgets were saved for this whole sequence, because it’s the first time that flying a Quinjet hasn’t looked completely fake and feels on par with the films.

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Simmons Makes Good on a Promise I Scoffed At

I would have never have imagined I’d see Bakshi murdered by disintegration at this point in the series, much less that it was an attempted murder on Ward by Jemma determined to see the antagonistic promise she made to him months ago.

Coulson Be Like “IDGAF”

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Much like Felicity Smoke’s character changing for the worse on CW’s Arrow (Which Ally and I have talked about extensively) this episode has reminded me that the same thing has virtually happened to Coulson where everything he has to say or do the last several months has stripped him of 90% of his genuine sense of humor, and stuffed turmoil and plot gravitas in its place. Here, Coulson is so completely aware of what he’s doing, that he isn’t even taking backtalk from Melinda on her personal gripes through the episode.

Instead of a forced moment of poignancy, an important line is drawn in the sand for May here, regarding how little she’s now willing to trust Coulson as she sees he has his own separate mission on the Hydra base. She threatens to put a bullet in his head if he doesn’t stop what he’s doing. Except by that time Coulson has finished, deflecting her seriousness with the humor that I’ve always enjoyed.

The same attitude oozes from Phil in his interactions with Robert Gonzalez this week, completely certain of his Theta Protocol, that he surrenders the toolbox by the episode’s end and drops the spoiler alert that Nick Fury hasn’t really kicked it yet.

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the Tie-In

Coulson gives Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) a call, and sends her the additional information he retrieved from the Hydra base. It turns out they’re not just holding powered people  in captivity, they also have possession of Loki’s Scepter (ya know, from The Avengers, and makes sense of its brief appearance in the trailers for Age of Ultron)

As it turns out, whatever Theta Protocol is, it unites the Avengers once again by Coulson’s command in the shadows, playing into the introductory sequence of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Back on Afterlife, Raina has discovered her new powers in precognitive visions, and has a really corny glimpse into the future about “Men made of metal” that will destroy everything.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 2.19 “The Dirty Half Dozen” (7/10)

BECAUSE I’M AN AMERICAN, I haven’t seen Avengers Age of Ultron just yet, so I don’t know how the events of the film shape anything going on in the rest of the world. Because I’m publishing this on Thursday April 30th, I’ll likely have seen it by the time you come across this Recap, SO FEEL FREE TO DISCUSS ANY SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS if you want to try to predict how this will impact the show next week, and an upcoming season 3. If you haven’t given up on predicting what is up their sleeves, best of luck to ye.

To all others who are waiting to see the film, any comments, if there are any, may contain spoilers for the film, so below this point is DANGER ZONE.

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