The two intersecting storylines in last night ’s Agents of SHIELD both have to do with selling out — a computer hacker deal out for money , while a magician throws everything off for major power that he ca n’t handle . In the end , it look as though working for the comic - record book version of the NSA is actually the imposing choice .
Spoilers before …
“ The Girl in the Flower Dress ” was more or less a straight - up recapitulation of the Agents of SHIELD cowcatcher episode , just one month afterwards . Except that or else of Mike Peterson being an average guy who gets experimented on by the Centipede citizenry , it ’s a thaumaturge name Chan Ho - Yin , who already has some vestigial pyrokinetic powers . Like Mike Peterson , Chan Ho - Yin is draw by the idea of being a superhero , but winds up becoming something nigh to a supervillain because he ca n’t see to it his mightiness and he ’s working with evil skill fucker .
Meanwhile , in the original Skye is a cyberpunk who ’s steal SHIELD secrets , only to be bring inside SHIELD . This time around , it ’s Skye ’s boyfriend , who goes through much the same arc but turn out to be worthless of SHIELD ’s faith — because unlike Skye , Miles is a money - bum dirtbag who sold some SHIELD secrets to the Centipede folks for $ 1 million .
And in the destruction , Miles is basically just there to make Skye look good by comparing . ( Basically , he ’s Adam from “ Dalek”/”The Long Game . ” ) And to help Skye realize how much she in reality like about her unexampled SHIELDy friend .
So , here ’s the actual game of “ Girl in the Flower Dress ” : The same folks from the pilot are up to their same trick again , and this meter it ’s orchestrate by Reina , the titular bloom girl . She track down Chan , who makes the fault of showing his fire powers in public , and convinces him that her the great unwashed can make him way more powerful , so he can commence calling himself Scorch and become a superhero . ( English not being Chan ’s first language , he possibly does n’t notice that “ Scorch ” is clearly a supervillain name , not a superhero name . )
The SHIELD work party jets off to Austin , where they figure the entropy about Chan was steal , and they find Miles , who ’s actually Skye ’s ex-husband - fellow who instruct her haxxoring and stuff . Miles and Skye boink , only to be caught by SHIELD at almost precisely the same point in the instalment as Skye was caught by SHIELD in the pilot . cue stick lots of mitt - wringing and recrimination , but shortly enough our guys are off to Hong Kong — because they ’ve fancy out where Chan is , and he ’s credibly going to be dead as soon as his utility as a greaseball hog is over .
And the episode moves the overall secret plan arc ahead , a whit . Not only do we meet Reina , who ’s the Bos of the scientist from the pilot burner , but we also meet Reina ’s associate , a inscrutable man who ’s in slammer and whose help she need to contact “ the Clairvoyant . ” There are more tinge that the team is hone the Extremis blood serum ( from Iron Man III ) so it ’ll be stable and allow them to make super - soldiers , and Chan ’s profligate seemingly incorporate fire - proof platelets that will help them do that .
And meanwhile , the morsel of the episode where the squad is feeling cuckold by Skye and Coulson is confront the fact that he may have screwed up royally , has a few moments that ring reliable . Like the bit where Grant defy to go to Skye ’s group meeting with Coulson , because he ’s off the clock and not being her S.O. And the bit where Coulson talks to Melinda May about his massive blind speckle , and Melinda says “ When someone breaks into my sign of the zodiac , I do n’t usually invite them to stay . ” you could sort of buy , here and there , that these mass have protrude to worry about Skye , despite the nagging want of chemistry . And the more we see of Melinda May , the substantially this show get .
The biggest trouble with the episode come from our two sell - outs , peculiarly Chan Ho - Yin . His bout from charming , down - on - his - luck street magician to victim to rampaging psycho feel even more sudden than it did with Mike Peterson . Maybe that ’s just how the Extremis blood serum works — but this time around , it ’s portrayed as “ Scorch ” making the wrong choice , like he did n’t have to come in himself with a ton of that serum and go haywire . In fact , Coulson , who blend in right smart out of his way to offer a second chance to Mike Peterson , basically tells Scorch that he ’s already used up all his chances .
Also somewhat sharp : the team ’s decision to go trusting Skye again , when they decide Coulson is in trouble and they need someone to hack into the edifice ’s systems and stop the lockdown . ( Given that Fitz and Simmons are narrate all of Skye ’s hacking , you ca n’t help but wonder if they could n’t have done it themselves . )
But the theme of “ selling out ” still has a few interesting nuggets — particularly within the show ’s basic theoretical account , where SHIELD federal agent are the good guys because they keep people like Chan Ho - Yin under wrapper .
We ’re supposed to cogitate Miles is the bad guy rope , not because he stole SHIELD selective information ( Skye did that too ) but because he deal them for cash money . ( Even though if he ’d leaked the information about Chan and had n’t taken any money , the same thing would have happened . ) Miles compromise his own ideals of “ information wants to be free , ” but from SHIELD ’s standpoint his crimes are only slightly dissimilar than Skye ’s .
And meanwhile , why should n’t Chan use his power to aid hoi polloi ? Why should n’t he line up ways to exaggerate his flame power and eventually become something akin to the Human Torch ? Sure , casting his lot with the first group of malefic scientist he meets is n’t exceedingly smart of him , but the idea is n’t a defective one .
The common rubric of the Marvel Universe , following on from Spider - Man , is that great force lead to great duty . The first instalment of Agents of SHIELD , of course , tweaked that into “ with bang-up ability comes a whole bunch of unearthly crap that you are not prepared to cope with . ” And in fact , the SHIELD ethos seems to be that it ’s well not to care with the weird bull at all — but rather , to keep it suppressed by any means necessary .
In any example , by the end of the episode we finally find out what Skye has been hiding — she connect up with SHIELD to retrieve her cryptical parents , because the only clue she has about them is a redacted SHIELD papers . And Coulson anticipate to facilitate .
I guess the real interrogation that this episode touches on but does n’t really open up is , who ’s the sellout : Miles or Skye ? Sure , he sell information , but she ’s already been secret to a lot of secrets that she ’s opt to keep under wrapper . She has n’t liveblogged the Gravitonium thing or whatever . If you pronounce them both as crusaders against silence , why are his transgressions worse than hers ?
Agents of SHIELDComicsJoss WhedonMarvelSuperheroesTelevision
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