Coulson took his team to dark places in order to save S.H.I.E.L.D. on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season premiere. Check out our recap, and share your thoughts on “Shadows”!
Austria, 1945
A man in round black glasses watches HYDRA soldiers pack up their nefarious goodies. Among these items is a twisted silver cylinder they refer to as “the Obelisk,” which is responsible for the blackened bodies around them.
“The Red Skull said it may hold the answer,” the man says. “The answer to death itself.”
The German shenanigans are interrupted by Peggy Carter, Jim Morita and Dum Dum Hogan. Peggy arrests the Germans and packs up the assets for the Scientific Strategic Reserve.
The Obelisk goes into a black box, quickly painted with the label “S.S.R. Item #084.” Peggy snaps a picture.
Backup
In the gloomy present day, Agents Skye, May, and Triplett spy on an illicit transaction for a picture of the very same item. Now in government hands, it’s the only object with a Level 10 classified file attached to it — and a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is trying to sell the file.
The meeting is interrupted by a third party, who murders the agent, grabs the file, and dives out the window.
Also, he’s impervious to bullets.
May and Skye step in as unexpected backup for the buyers. The woman — Isabelle Hartley — reports to someone on her phone, asking how to proceed.
“Go dark,” Coulson replies, staring out at the rain.
Warm welcomes
The disappointed crew returns to the Playground base, where a mechanic named Mac listens to Brigadier General Glenn Talbot boast about defeating HYDRA and subduing S.H.I.E.L.D.
May and Hartley leave Skye and Hartley’s men — Lance Hunter and Idaho — for debriefing with Coulson. They are shocked to learn that Coulson is on the premises. Skye takes their only clue — bits of metal that landed near the useless bullets — to the lab.
How I spent my summer vacation
May is irritated that she hasn’t heard from Coulson in weeks. He is worn down from trying to scrape up S.H.I.E.L.D. loyalists, and worried about the Bus’ broken cloaking device. The team is grounded until Talbot can’t find them in the air.
May gives Coulson the copied intel; his eyes widen when he recognizes the S.S.R. logo from Fury’s Toolbox. This is the first 0-8-4 — and it’s got a bloody history.
HYDRA cannot be allowed to get their hands on this.
Which means they probably will.
Simple joys
The bullet-proof man video chats with a British fellow, who conveys a reward from another party — a rare diamond.
The man leans back, sighing in pleasure. His arm crystallizes into diamond.
Flesh and blood
In the lab, Fitz tries to determine the properties of the metal fragments for Simmons. He is frustrated, losing words, and moving slowly. He is also trying to fix the Bus’ cloaking device, but has hit a few bumps.
“You’re almost there,” Simmons says, sounding doubtful.
May asks about the strange metal, which starts to ooze blood. “It looks like flesh,” says Simmons. May stays to help Fitz run analysis on the blood.
Crushed
Hartley, Idaho, and Hunter meet with Coulson. Hunter is unimpressed by ideology; he goes where the money is, though he seems loyal to Hartley.
May identifies the bullet-proof man as Carl Creel, a “gifted individual” so dangerous that S.H.I.E.L.D. actually put him down…or that’s the official story, anyway.
Unfortunately, Creel was never killed – just recruited to join HYDRA by John Garrett.
Drat.
Open wounds
Skye ponders the mysterious alien code (which, as far as she knows, comes only from Garrett). Months of searching have turned up no leads. Coulson gives her a new, very unwelcome assignment.
Skye enters Vault D, where none other than Grant Ward is being held behind a transparent barrier. He smiles when he sees Skye. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”
(Ew.)
Skye is all furious business, even when she sees the evidence of attempted suicide on Ward’s wrists. Ward tells her that Creel can transform the molecules of his body into any substance he touches. He admits that HYDRA communicates using white noise gaps between S.H.I.E.L.D.’s “quantum key distribution channels” — this will be how Creel is getting his orders.
Ward wants to speak to Skye again; he promises to tell her the truth for the rest of his life. “I’m not asking for forgiveness. I just want to help you,” he says, as she turns to leave. “There’s so much I want to tell you about –”
Skye blanks out the wall, disappearing from view.
“–your father,” Ward says softly.
Evidence
Koenig taps the signal and intercepts HYDRA’s directive to Creel — Ward was telling the truth. Skye realizes that she will have to speak with Ward again; Coulson doesn’t seem to care that she is unhappy about this.
Koenig also traced the recipients of the message. Signals pepper the map of the globe — clearly HYDRA is far from defeated. But what is Creel’s directive?
Well, it’s attacking our old friend General Talbot. Lucky for the General, May, Skye, and Trip are there to foil Creel. The army nabs Creel — but S.H.I.E.L.D. nabs Talbot.
It’s very satisfying.
Buddies
Coulson talks to Talbot, who is tied to a chair. He wants the General to stop hunting S.H.I.E.L.D. and let them protect people — like Talbot’s son.
“We save lives, including yours,” Coulson says. “Whether you like it or not.”
Enraged, Talbot grips the arms of his chair — exactly what Koenig needs to copy his fingerprints.
Coulson tries to emphasize the urgency of the situation — Creel is in the same facility as the object he seeks, and there’s little hope of containing him. When Talbot vows he will never help, Coulson pops him with an ICER.
Again, very satisfying.
Getting better
Fitz watches Koenig work, feeling that he has been replaced. Simmons tries to put a positive spin on things, but Fitz feels the pressure of the team’s needs, and his lack of progress on the Bus’ cloaking device.
“They treat me like I’m going to break,” he whispers to Simmons. “Talking to you is the only time I feel clear and calm — like I might actually get better.”
“You are getting better,” Simmons promises.
Exposure
Talbot wakes up in a car. He barks orders into his phone, including his security access code (“Sierra-Victor” – we see what you did there, show!). On the other end, Koenig copies down the code, lying to Talbot that his orders are being followed.
The team, including Hartley and her people, prepare to infiltrate the facility — though Hunter questions the plan. After all, if Creel and the weapon are contained, who cares who is containing them? Is it worth risking so many loyal agents?
“This is a make or break situation,” Coulson says. The weapon is not the only thing they are after. Hartley catches on — the issue is settled.
The haystack
Creel breaks out of his cell as Team Coulson arrives at the military compound. There is a hiccup upon infiltration, but Talbot’s fingerprints and voice-disguising technology get the group into the facility.
They enter a huge warehouse full of boxes and split up to search for the 0-8-4. Hartley finds it, opens the case, and is immediately attacked by Creel. Outmatched, she grabs the silver cylinder from its nest.
Terrible idea.
The needle
Hartley screams in pain; her hand turns black, and traces of those now-familiar symbols shimmer across the Obelisk. Creel flees as the team surrounds Hartley, who cannot let go of the mysterious item.
Skye and May report to Coulson, desperate for orders. They have the 0-8-4, but that isn’t all they came for. Do they go dark and abort the mission?
“Do not abort,” Coulson says grimly. “Proceed as planned.”
Hunter is like, screw that! He hauls Hartley to her feet and they join Idaho in the jeep, tearing out of the compound. Hartley orders Hunter to cut off her hand. The thing is killing her, and hey, robotic arms are all the rage nowadays.
“I don’t wanna die,” she says, eyes glittering with tears.
Hunter takes her knife.
Ghosts
A Quinjet winks away into the sky, piloted by May and Trip, as Skye tears off on a motorcycle. The team has escaped.
Coulson muses that this decision was a tremendous risk — “If we went down today, we’d probably be down for good.” But his soldiers need an advantage. They will need to disappear and live in the shadows in order to save people.
He watches Fitz working in the lab; Fitz can’t fix the Bus’ cloaking device. In fact, the Director doubts that the engineer is capable of much of anything anymore.
“The damage to his temporal lobe was too extensive,” Coulson says. “Since Simmons left, he’s only getting worse.”
“Wait…” says the audience. “Simmons what now?”
In the lab, Fitz continues talking animatedly to his partner…who fades away, a figment of his ruined mind.
This recap will resume in a moment, after we finish sweeping up the pulverized fragments of our souls.
Sweeping…
Weeping…
Whatever.
Okay… we’re back.
According to Coulson, Simmons thought leaving would help Fitz recover, but it “just broke him. We have to fight on for him, for those we’ve lost…
“And then we’ll disappear.”
Cut off
As the audience destroys the nearest box of tissues, the jeep carrying Hunter, Idaho, and the now-one-armed Hartley slams into Carl Creel. When the jeep stops flipping, Creel approaches a piece of debris — Hartley’s severed hand, still clutching the Obelisk. He picks it up with a rubberized hand.
Lance Hunter wakes up inside the jeep; Hartley and Idaho are both dead. Hunter’s eyes widen in panic as Creel walks calmly away.
Time stands still
Creel’s contact approaches a man cleaning round black glasses, reporting that Creel has escaped with the Obelisk.
“I know how long you have been searching for this, Dr. Whitehall,” he says.
The man turns around; his face hasn’t aged a moment from that day in 1945. He puts on his glasses.
“You have no idea,” Whitehall says.