BWW Recap: Simmons' Dark Side, New Tiles on AGENTS OF SHIELD

We begin the second episode of MARVEL AGENT'S OF S.H.I.E.L.D. where we left off: Mercenary Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) is trapped in an overturned SUV. The other passengers in the car, including Agent Hartley (Lucy Lawless in a much hyped albeit teeny, tiny guest role), are still dead. Agent Hartley, we hardly knew ye.

Agent May (Ming-Na Wen) to the rescue. Er, sort of. Hunter tells her Crusher Creel (aka Absorbing Man, played by Brian Patrick Wade) has made off with the mysterious obelisk. She wishes him good luck and then speeds off on her super sweet black motorcycle. Hunter, meanwhile, is apprehended by the military.

May's ride has hands-free calling! She briefs Coulson (Clark Gregg) and tells him she has a clean shot of Creel in the truck in front of her, but he orders her to stand down. She does so reluctantly.

Back at The Playground, Skye (Chloe Bennet) returns with the stolen invisible jet. She briefs Coulson on the Intel she has found on the object and is pouty when he isn't exuberant about her findings. He tells her it's because they have bigger problems. With Hunter in military custody, if he rats out S.H.I.E.L.D., they will have to "burn the base and evacuate...I know, and we just retiled the bathrooms." He seems pretty disappointed by the possibility. The tile job must have been one heck of a DIY project for the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. team

Hunter is rather unceremoniously left by two MPs in an abandoned field. Brigadier General Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) arrives by helicopter to offer the confused Hunter a ride.

Back at the Playground, we learn why the team risked their lives for the invisible plane. Coulson, wants to retro-fit the technology into the big bus, making it invisible. Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) is still not operating with full brain capacity and is of no use.

Talbot, meanwhile, propositions Hunter. Capture Coulson and he can name his price. He does: a proper military burial for Hartley.

Turning back to the Playground, Skye barges into Coulson's office, itching to get back in the field and help her supervising office (May) take down Creel. Coulson has more important things he needs her to do, however. Namely, pack up the possessions of their fallen comrades. Season Two Coulson is all business. I'm beginning to think every thankless task has Skye's name on it.

Speaking of thankless tasks, Imaginary Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) comforts a pouting Fitz over Fitz not solving the cloaking device issue fast enough and then goads him into stealing a data file on Creel so that Fitz can figure out how to neutralize Creel's abilities. Oh, Imaginary Simmons, you are quite the devil on Fitz's shoulders tonight.

Speaking of Creel, we catch up with him (and May, who is outside watching him). It's a desert diner that, despite being literally in the middle of nowhere, is packed (who knows, maybe they come from miles around for the pie). Creel's waitress bends down to clear the table, briefly touching him. She recoils as if she has been shocked. Moments later, she's turning into a charcoal briquette before May's (and our) eyes. It's the result of Creel touching the object and then her touching Creel.

Back at the Playground, Hunter tells Coulson about the deal with Talbot. He has 48 hours to turn over Coulson, but doesn't plan on it. He still wants a proper burial for Hartley, but he also wants to be paid --and not just his own salary, but Hartley's and the other dead mercenary's pay as well.

Fitz and Imaginary Simmons review the data on Creel and determine there might be a way to destabilize his cell structure. Hunter and Skye share a moment as Skye does the S.H.I.E.L.D. equivalent of clearning out a co-worker's desk. He tells her she should consider going into his line of work . She tells him S.H.I.E.L.D. is her life and he retorts that S.H.I.E.L.D. is a job.

Back in Creel's food truck (ok, it's his mobile lab/ home, but I still envision him selling tacos out of the side of it), Creel is having trouble absorbing anything else since he touched the object. A phone taped to the wheel well rings and it is Sunil Bakshi (the Hydra Agent played by Simon Kassianides who is the right hand man of Daniel Whitehall) He didn't make the pick up because of S.H.I.E.L.D. being so hot on Creel's trail. Creel wants to be rid of the damn thing. Henchman tells him once they have the object, "Hydra will take care of you the way Hydra has always taken care of you." If Creel were smart, he'd get that guarantee in writing. Hydra shouldn't be trusted.

Good thing that Raina (Ruth Negga) emerges out of the shadows. She's wearing another silk Asian dress (she must buy them in bulk).

Coulson and Raina catch up by phone. She is double-crossing Hydra because she suspects Coulson might be able to shed some light onto the carvings on the object. Hyda -in addition to having a bad dental plan, is also only focused on world domination which she says is "so 1945."

Back in the Lab, Fitz keeps saying "I didn't solve this today," which S.H.I.E.L.D. mechanic Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie (Henry Simmons) quickly realizes means Fitz has solved it before. The pair pour over Fitz's past research.

And there isn't a moment to lose as Coulson has dispatched the remaining agents (and let's face it, with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s thin ranks and less-than-successful recruitment drive, Coulson can't afford to lose any other agents in the field).

Hunter, meanwhile, goes rogue and decides he's going to take out Creel himself. Big mistake. As Creel goes after his would-be assassin, Bakshi moves to retrieve the silver briefcase holding the object. Someone else has picked it up in all the confusion, though.

Just a Creel is about to make a briquette out of Hunter, Coulson plunges a super-sized needle into Creel's back, neutralizing his powers. Fitz came through! Without his ability to morph, Creel appears to turn into a briquette.

Coulson makes good on his promise and Hartley is given a proper military burial. He tells Hunter that he doesn't have his money, though. Hunter's choice is pretty clear: run and be killed by Talbot or join S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson may have finally found a recruitment strategy that actually works. He just needs Hunter to do one thing before he attends new hire orientation: sell Coulson out to Talbot.

Meanwhile, back in the lab, Fitz has a budding bromance with MacKenzie. Imaginary Simmons has been pushed off to the side,

Skye confronts Maye about Coulson. May blows her off, but ends up confronting Coulson. Since they no longer have chalk in theS.H.I.E.L.D. budget, he takes out a knife approaches a blackboard and starts carving alien symbols in it. May decides to photograph it (perhaps for the S.H.I.E.L.D. holiday card).

We cut to Raina who is staring at the object (yes, she is the one who swiped the briefcase in all the confusion). The Doctor (seriously, that's all we know about him other than he is played by KyleMacLachlan) tells her to pick it up.

She hesitates, but then finally touches it with both hands. Rather than turn into a briquette, she smiles and breathes a sigh. The device glows.

"It worked," she says.
"No," he corrects her, "It let you live. There's a difference."
"Show me," she says.
"Bring me my daughter and I'll show the both of you."

Since he's not of Asian nor British descent, we can rule out Simmons and May as his kin. Which means Skye is about to meet her pops.

The final twist: Coulson turns himself over to Talbot, but offers to exchange himself for Creel. Creel isn't dead, just turned to stone.

Talbot turns him down, telling him it was stupid for Coulson to come to meet him alone. Coulson isn't alone, though. The big bus materializes as does the stolen invisible plane. The big bus has its heavy artillery pointed at Talbot. Coulson boards the invisible plane and takes off.

The message is clear: S.H.I.E.L.D. might be down an agent or two, but they are still a force to be reckoned with,

What did you think of the episode? Comment below.

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