Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 13

Episode: T.R.A.C.K.S.
Original Airdate: 2-4-14

After a couple weeks off, S.H.I.E.L.D. Is back and even though it’s starting to feel cliched to say this, but this was once again their best episode yet. It combines one of my favorite formats of storytelling with plenty of action, comedy, and a gut punch of an ending. There’s callbacks, teases, and honestly the weakest part of the episode was the Stan Lee cameo. It’s also a little frustrating that there’s only one quick episode before yet another hiatus due to the Olympics, but hopefully this will be the last one before this show finishes out the season strong. On the villainous side of things, I’m actually not entirely sure I like the direction they are going, but hopefully things will pick up on that front as things start ramping up to the finale.


The action follows a Rashomon style of storytelling where we get to see the same sequence of events from different viewpoints, while at the same time, each new viewpoint brings us a little bit farther along the timeline of events until we get to the end where everyone comes back together. The entire team is on a train, trying to nab an expensive piece of technology being smuggled across Italy on a train for businessman villain, Quinn. The team gets sold out and they split up, some are forced to leave the train, some remain. In between all the action, there’s plenty of humor, like one of my favorite moments at the beginning when Simmons has an over-elaborate and bizarre backstory for her undercover role as Coulson’s daughter involving the urn of her dead mother and a rant involving prostitutes. The other great moment is when Ward and Coulson have trouble trying to figure out the giant holo-iPad without the help of FitzSimmons.

May looking badass as usual.

There are a couple nice reveals at the end of the episode. The first is when they open the mysterious package off the train which becomes a cybernetic leg codenamed “Deathlok” which they attach to J. August Richards’ currently missing leg. He is also fully under the eye-camera control of the Clairvoyant, which does rob him a bit of his personality, but hopefully some of it will come back in later episodes. Skye also does everything she can to be a part of the team, ending up going into Quinn’s lair alone and she pays the price with two gunshots to the stomach. While there was luckily a hyperbaric chamber in the room that Simmons is able to use to stabilize her, the episode ends with her in critical condition, Quinn in custody, most of the rest of Quinn’s squad dead by Deathlok’s hands, and Deathlok himself on the loose to parts unknown. The stakes are high, the action was great, the special effects on the cybernetic leg looked quite good, and once again it was the best episode of the season. Here’s hoping this series gets picked up for a second season and can continue this pace through the rest of this season. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.