Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Recap: “Uprising”
By Ani Bundel
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returns after a week off with an episode heavy on the symbolism of one, world, one planet, one race and one team.
It’s fascinating that ever since the human race became dependant upon electricity, one of the things we fear the most are blackouts. That fear of the dark is where Agents of SHIELD began this evening, as a group of Inhumans determined to stop the registration brought about by the Sokovia Accords caused them across the world in major cities across the world until their demands were met.
"Daisy: I like to vet my vengeance demons before I get in a car with them"
First to lose power was Miami, where Yo-Yo was conveniently stationed. Then London and Moscow, mentioned only in passing since we didn’t have any characters hanging out there. And then finally Los Angeles, where The New Adventures of Ghostrider and Quake had only just gotten underway.
The Adventures of Ghostrider and Quake, thusly derailed from actually making headway on our ghost story, moved on to introducing Robbie’s little brother Gabe and the backstory of his life. The important points? The uncle that raised them is mixed up with our ghost story overarching plotline. Gabe doesn’t know what Robbie does at night, but he has a believe that he’s protecting his older brother as his brother is saving him. And Gabe things Inhumans are bad, and once he figures Daisy is one, he chases her away. That’s going to be very awkward when he learns his brother’s got his own powered issues as well.
Image via ABC
With Robbie and Daisy otherwise occupied, the main thrust of the action was in Miami, where Elena found herself at a bachelorette party gone very wrong. With the supposedly Inhuman-generated blackout underway, the Watchdogs show up, somehow knowing Elena is at the hotel and demanding the party turn “the inhuman among you” in. After your standard “humans are monsters” scene where everyone starts turning everyone else in, until the bride realizes it’s Elena, we get a bonus scene of YoYo’s supposed best friend rejecting her, despite Elena saving her dumb life.
"Fitz: You know what’s a good light source? A guy with a flaming head.Coulson: Sorry I missed that."
Of course, it turns out that the Watchdogs are behind the attack, which, as Coulson points out is not really what the characters were designed for. When they were introduced last season they were a nightmare vision of Trump supporters style stand in, which makes them very US based. Not really into world wide action. But then again, this ties back to our opening episode, where Daisy stumbled into Robbie in the first place trying to track down how the Watchdogs were getting involved with an illegal Chinese overseas deal.
Image via ABC
Meanwhile, in our beta plot, Agent May, who is now deteriorating fast after her ghost run in at the end of episode 1, ends up at Holden Radcliffe’s pad, along with Simmons with a determination to save her. Since Ming-Na Wen is still a full time cast member, the tension came less from the “how will they save her” (“some McGuffin or other, with trippy visuals” turned out to be the answer) but whether or not AIDA would still be a secret by the end of the episode.
"Holden: Then we’ll go and have lots of drinks. Are you ready?SImmons: Hell no I’m not ready, we’re about to kill May!"
Once the rolling blackouts hit Holden’s place at exactly the wrong time, preventing May’s being shocked back to life after being thoroughly McGuffined, AIDA’s battery is whipped out to power the defibrillator and save her life. So AIDA’s secret stays safe, though now Simmons knows Radcliffe is playing about with the technology. I’m sure that will come up in the lie detector tests.
Image via ABC
The episode concluded with two major moves forward in the plot. The new director steps out to take the aftermath press conference and reveals SHIELD’s existence to the world again, declaring it’s here to protect everyone, human and inhuman. We get a love shot of everyone magically listening to it from wherever they are, either the base, or their lab, or in Daisy’s case, the radio of her van, where she’s all alone again, naturally. We also get our first good look at who is watching over the Watchdogs. Turns out it’s the lie spewing flapping head who’s been in the background on the news channels all episode, Rota Nadeer, the anti Inhuman Senator from Every Bad FoxNews Stereotype You Can Think Of. Turns out, like Ghostrider, she’s got a brother too she’s looking after…one who seems to have touched terrigen crystals, but only turned to stone.
Next: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Recap: Meet The New Boss
Next week, AoS continues it’s pell mell rush to bring everyone back together and get the show on the road now that the agency is no longer under cover of darkness. How much of a cool car showdown will it be when Coulson’s little red number meets Robbie’s iconic car? We’ll have to wait to find out.