TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episode 9

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

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EPISODE 9: "Ye Who Enter Here"

SYNOPSIS:  S.H.I.E.L.D. discovers the ancient city before Hydra, but uncovering the secrets may require one of Coulson's team to make the ultimate sacrifice. May and Skye race to get to Raina before Whitehall takes her

BREAKDOWN: (The following column contains MAJOR SPOILERS, so I don't recommend reading this if you haven't watched this episode).

With only one episode to go until the mid-season finale, AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. is heading towards a big revelation, or at least a partial conclusion to the arc of the past eight episodes.  Leading up to tonight, we have seen the team come back together, Ward join forces with Whitehall and Skye's father, and the discovery of the Kree city ruins somewhere on Earth.  Now, what comes next?  How about a creepy dream sequence!

Skye's dream contains everything her sub-plot has been about thus far: abandonment, Coulson and May as surrogate parents, and a music box that also demonstrates the power of The Diviner.  Last season developed into the mystery of what Skye's origin was before dovetailing into the Coulson Show.  With this season leading up to the reveal of what Coulson's symbol etching meant, the subplots have circled back to be about both Coulson's alien memories and Skye's potential alien/inhuman origin.

The ancient city is located under San Juan, Puerto Rico and Coulson's team decides to find it and destroy it before HYDRA can access it along with The Diviner.  This of course comes afrer The Koenig Clones (Patton Oswalt) rescue Raina from a pursuing HYDRA for unknown reasons.  I would assume it has to to with her ability to hold the obelisk, but who knows.  We also see May and Skye watching the news of Ward's brutal murder of his brother and parents, yet another sign that the guy will never become a hero on this show again.  Who murders their parents and redeems themselves on a Disney series?

Coulson splits the team, sending May and Skye to retrieve Raina while the rest head to the Kree city.  Clearly, a reunion between Skye and her father is a bad decision, but something feels fated for Skye's origin to finally be resolved.  We do get a pair of scenes discussing the Hunter/Bobbi and Fitz/Simmons relationships with Bobbi telling Simmons she should be honest with Fitz about her feelings while Mac asks Bobbi if she plans to tell Hunter about her "other plans".  Bobbi says no, leading me to wonder what the heck sub-plot did we just get teased about Mockingbird?

During the Vancouver Extraction, Skye comes face to face with Agent 33 in her scarred May mask and the two fight.  Skye has come a long way from the whiny tech geek last season and now can hold her own as an agent.  She eventually gets taken down by 33 but Hunter jumps in to save the day, even making a funny comment about 33's face.  As they await May, Raina reveals to Skye that she can touch the Diviner and that Skye's father believes she can as well.  They are "chosen" by the alient technology as "worthy" which Skye scoffs at.  Raina tries to signal to HYDRA, now knowing they need her, but May and the team whisk her away.  33 calls Whitehall and lets him know she overheard that Raina has a tracker implanted in her.

Meaanwhile, in San Juan, Morse and Coulson head to meet a contact who will help them get plans to locate the underground city.  Morse takes the moment, between hat shopping and plantain discussions, to ask why Coulson is so calm, hoping he doesn't plan to recover the alien weapon.  Coulson launches into a brief explanation as to why he is different and that his motivation as S.H.I.E.L.D. director is to save humanity, not police it.  The team learns that a local guardtower on an old military fort has a corresponding legend about being haunted.  The team cuts a giant hole in the floor, leading to a massively deep hole.  Sending drones, they try to survey the city but quickly lose power to them.

Aboard the Bus, Raina relates her back story as to how she met Skye's father as a conwoman in Thailand.  He took her in and cleaned her up but she assures Skye that he always wanted his daughter back.  Skye questions her humanity but Raina says they are human, possibly more than human.  She also tells Skye that her grandmother and family believe in a legend of the Blue Angels, the same story we heard Whitehall relate to Skye's father last episode.  Raina also reveals for the first time that the aliens are the Kree.

Mac gets lowered into the pit while Skye realizes where the Kree Temple is.  They try to reach Coulson but their signal is jammed by Whitehall who intercepts them midair.  At the bottom of the pit, Mac finds the inactive yet undamaged drones along with glowing symbols on the floor which burn into his skin.  The team pulls him up and see his eyes are blood red.  Mac quickly warns Coulson to run before knocking him across the room.  Bobbi attacks him and Coulson empties an Icer into Mac, but he doesn't slow down at all.  Coulson tackles Mac who knocks him away and then almost sends Simmons down the hole.  Coulson grabs her ankle and Fitz pulls a live gun on Mac and shoots him, sending him fallling into the pit.  Coulson then orders the pit sealed saying that wasn't Mac.

On the Bus, Ward reveals himself as who tracked the S.H.I.E.L.D. team and takes Raina.  He asks Skye to come as well saying she is a part of what his happening.  May tries to step in to stop them but Skye realizes there is no other way and takes Ward at his word he will not kill any of them.  The episode ends with Agent 33 meeting with Whitehalll, acknowledging that Ward retrieved Raina but also that he took Skye as an insurance policy and let the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane go.  Whitehall disagrees and tells 33 to give the order to shoot down the plane.

MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE REFERENCES:

Nick Fury is referenced as are his actions in both THE AVENGERS and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER.

The aliens are officially referred to as The Kree, the alien race also seen in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

BEST LINE:

"Actually, it doesn't have anything to do with the [Bermuda] Triangle.  We solved that back in the '80s." – Agent Coulson

COOLEST SCENE:

The intercut scenes featuring Ward taking Skye and Raina along with Coulson's squad battling the possessed Mac was one of the tensest scenes to date on the series while also leaving the episode with an EMPIRE STRIKES BACK caliber cliffhanger.

EPISODE CLEARANCE LEVEL: 9/10

This was a solid culmination to the first half of the second season which has been far more consistent that the first half of the debut season.  Every episode has counted and built towards the reveals coming in next week's mid-season finale.  We finally heard the word Kree this week and next should know once and for all what Skye, Raina, and possibly Coulson are.  I am going to say it once again that they are Inhuman, but we should know for sure in one week!

NEXT ON MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.:

Episode 10 "What They Become" (Airs December 9th) – Coulson and Whitehall's forces meet in an explosive confrontation that dramatically alters everyone's fates. Meanwhile, Skye discovers shocking secrets about her past, on the Winter finale of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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