Agents of SHIELD 'Frenemy of My Enemy' Review- The Calm Before the Storm

Agents of SHIELD was turned upside down after HYDRA overtook SHIELD during Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Coulson was appointed the new director of SHIELD and had to rebuild the organization from the ground up. He has since been overthrown and possibly lost the trust of his agents trying to rescue Skye.

***** SPOILERS for EP 2.18 "Frenemy of My Enemy to follow *****

The eyes of the Marvel universe are focused on the upcoming release of Avengers: Age of Ultron but there is always more happening in the MCU. Daredevil just got picked up for a second season on Netflix and now Agents of SHIELD has started building towards their season 2 finale.

In "Frenemy of My Enemy," written by Monica Owusu-Breen and Paul Zbyszewski and directed by Karen Gaviola, Coulson (Clark Gregg) realizes that his team of Deathlok (J. August Richards), Lance Hunter (Nick Blood), and Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) will not be enough to rescue Skye, who spends some quality time with her father.

Coulson has to make the difficult decision to ask Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) and Agent 33 (Maya Stojan) for their help to infiltrate HYDRA. Coulson proposes wiping Ward's memories after he complies but they instead settle on giving Ward a clean slate so he and Agent 33 can be together.

Meanwhile back in Afterlife, Jiaying (Dichen Lachman) decides it is time to split of the family and send Cal (Kyle MacLachlan) away from the rest of the Inhumans. Skye (Chlose Bennet) is not a fan about this plan so she decides to spend a day with him to try and ease the pain.

Back at the SHIELD headquarters Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) is testing relationships by trying to get to the truth of Coulson's actions. She orders Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) to hack Deathlok and Mockingbird (Adrianne Palicki) and Mack (Henry Simmons) go to track Coulson's team down.

HYDRA, Coulson's team, Skye, Cal, and Lincoln Campbell (Luke Mitchell) all collide in an epic showdown. The battle ends with Gordon (Jamie Harris) taking Cal and Skye away just as she realizes Coulson and Ward are there and working together. Mockingbird and Mack arrive soon after everyone has cleared out to find Coulson ready to surrender after Ward points out they do not have the necessary man power for this mission.

Kyle MacLachlan is the standout in this week's episode thanks to the wide range of his abilities, both as an actor and as Cal. He gets super emotional talking about the life and family he dreamed he would have had and shows the rage multiple times whenever Skye, who now knows her full name is Daisy Johnson, is put in harms way.

Agents of SHIELD returns next week with "The Dirty Half Dozen" as they prepare to take down HYDRA once and for all. Check out a promo for next week's episode below!

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Agents of SHIELD Season 2 EP 13 Review

Now that Agents of SHIELD has returned from its winter break, the focus has turned to the transformation of Skye/Daisy (Chloe Bennet) and the discovery of double agents, again. In the thirteenth episode of the season "One of Us," Calvin Zabo (Kyle MacLachlan) assembles his own team of super powered people to help him seek revenge on SHIELD.

"One of Us", written by Monica Owusu-Breen and directed by Kevin Tancharoen, introduced us to a handful of new baddies that Coulson (Clark Gregg) and the rest of his (dwindling) team will have to face.

***** SPOILERS for "One of Us" to follow *****

Zabo organizes a team that includes newcomers such as a lady with razor blades for fingernails in Karla Faye Gideon (Drea de Matteo), a man with super strength in Francis Noche (Geo Corvera), a tech genius in Wendell Levi (Ric Sarabia), and later a man with a deathly scream in David Angar (Jeff Phillips).

Coulson and Mockingbird (Adrianne Palicki) go off together to hunt down this team of super villains, while Agent May (Ming-Na Wen) recruits her ex-husband Dr. Andrew Garner (Blair Underwood) to help Skye deal with her new abilities.

The super villain team lures Coulson and Mockingbird back to his hometown for a big showdown, but Coulson arrives short handed. Skye is unavailable due to safety reasons, Fitz (Iain de Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) are not reliable field agents, and Mack (Henry Simmons) has kidnapped Hunter (Nick Blood) in order to preserve the secret that he and Mockingbird are hiding.

Just as the showdown is about to begin, Gordon (Jamie Harris) steps in and takes Zabo away before any real harm can be done. The team takes down the remaining villains in typical SHIELD fashion but the battle ended yet again with them worrying about Skye.

We were all lead to believe that Skye had been getting a handle on her abilities and stopping the shaking from happening, but as it turns out, she has only been harming herself. Instead of stopping the quaking, Skye has been internalizing the effects which has caused her arms to become severely bruised and for hundreds of hairline fractures to develop throughout her body.

The episode ends with Mack taking Hunter to the place that will reveal what side him and Mockingbird are on. What side is that? According to Mack, it's the "real SHIELD." We will be finding out more about the "real SHIELD" in the coming weeks and find out exactly what Mack and Bobbi are up to.

The episode itself was good and pickup a lot near the end after a slow first half. Blair Underwood was great as May's ex-husband and the scenes with him and Skye are fantastic. The special effects were once again far and above anything we saw in season 1 and shows the commitment by Marvel to give the show the budget it needs to make the VFX as close to movie quality as they can.

Check out a preview for episode 14 "Love in the Time of Hydra" below!

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Agents of SHIELD Season 2 EP 11 Review

After a two month break that had Agent Carter fill the void, Agents of SHIELD returned with force after a crazy season finale. The first half of the season left viewers with some unanswered questions, but the second half of the season is sure to answer those.

***** SPOILERS for "Aftershocks" to follow *****

The return of Agents of SHIELD promised to be very inhuman and it delivered on every aspect fans could want. The episode followed the journeys of Skye/Daisy (Chloe Bennet), Raina (Ruth Negga), and the rest of SHIELD following the events that happened in the Temple.

Skye has been locked in a quarantine room since the last time we saw them and has not been coping well. She dreams of the death of Tripplet (B.J. Britt) and blames herself for his death.

Raina is also struggling with her new abilities and appearance. She now has spikes coming out of every part of her and is using them for some very deadly and bloody reasons. She tries to find comfort in Cal (Kyle MacLachlan) but ultimately his joy from finding out Skye also had a transformation dominates his thoughts.

For the rest of the SHIELD team, they are all in different places and "Aftershock" was able to really show the differences by fantastic performances across the board. Coulson (Clark Gregg) has put the blame on himself and has become increasingly agitated and angry. May (Ming-Na Wen) is using fighting like always, Mack (Henry Simmons) continues to build, Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) investigates Skye's blood, Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) searches through the destruction and seeks the termination of all super powered people, and Hunter (Nick Blood) and Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) each comfort each other.

HYDRA is scrambling to fill the void left by the death of Whitehall (Reed Diamond) and thinks Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) would be an acceptable replacement. The SHIELD team devises a plan to trick HYDRA into eliminating their main leaders and fulfilling their promise of handing Bakshi over to General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar).

This was also possibly the most emotional episode of the series. Whether it was a large group fight, Simmons announcing her hatred for people with powers, or Fitz discovering that Skye is the one who caused the death of Tripplet, the emotion that each of the actors displayed throughout the episode was a real bright spot for what has been a great second season.

Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) returns next week for episode 12, "Who You Really Are." Check out the promo for next week's episode! 

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Drea de Matteo Joins Agents of SHIELD

We are just three weeks away from the return of season 2 of Agents of SHIELD and Marvel is gearing up for a game changing 12 episodes. The show has plenty of questions it needs to answer before the season finale and it has added some new pieces to the cast to help them.

Today, Marvel announced the addition of Drea de Matteo to the cast as the villainous Karla Faye Gideon. She is a gifted woman who will join forces with Quake's (Chloe Bennet) father Mr. Hyde (Kyle MacLachlan) to take on SHIELD.

Matteo joins newcomers such as Edward James Olmos, who will play Robert Gonzalez, and Blair Underwood as Melinda May's (Ming-Na Wen) ex-husband.

“We’re thrilled to have Drea join us as yet another great villain to challenge our cast,” said Executive Producer and Marvel’s Head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb. “We relished the opportunity to work with her in such a menacing role.” 

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Chloe Bennet and Kyle MacLachlan's Roles Revealed

In the mid-season finale for the second season of Agents of SHIELD, Marvel finally allowed us to know the real identities of Skye (Chloe Bennet) and her father (Kyle MacLachlan). During a long and intense conversation between father and daughter, we find out that Skye's real name is Daisy and that her father's name is Cal.

If those names do not ring a bell, don't beat yourself up. We are here to help. Many sites figured out who Bennet and MacLachlan would really be playing long before the reveal was official. Our hats go off to the likes of ScreenRant, one of my personal favorite sites, for being one of the first to correctly speculate who they would become.

Calvin Zabo (Mr. Hyde)

Calvin Zabo is a medical research scientist in the comics who transformed himself into Mr. Hyde by discovering a new formula. With his new-found powers, he transforms into an raging beast whenever he desires. The transformation distorts his body by adding on bone density, muscle, and superhuman strength and stamina. Agents of SHIELD has not debuted the beast side of Kyle MacLachlan but we have seen plenty of moments where is anger is tested.

Daisy Johnson (Quake)

Trying to figure out just who Chloe Bennet was really playing was a tough task from the get go. Before her life as a SHIELD agent we only knew that she was very good with computers and technology. As we learned in the mid-season finale, Skye's real name is Daisy and after being transformed by the terrigen crystals she seemed to possess the power to create a small earthquake close to her. It is obvious that she is in fact Daisy Johnson, also known as Quake. In the comics, she is the daughter of Calvin Zabo and was rescued by SHIELD as a child. Sound familiar? She also was under the close watch of the Director of SHIELD Nick Fury, just like how she has been under the close watch of the new Director of SHIELD Phil Coulson. According to Marvel.com, Daisy possess the ability to generate seismic vibrations and direct them into objects or people, allowing for a variety of effects including earthquakes, tremors and explosions. As Daisy develops her powers on Agents of SHIELD, her connections to the future Inhumans movie and what her role could be in that film will be interesting to watch.

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Agents of SHIELD Mid-Season Finale Review

Over the past few weeks we have gotten increasingly stronger hints as to just who Raina, Skye, and her father might be and become. Season 2 of Agents of SHIELD has clearly been leading to something and it seems like it something that they have had planned since the beginning.

***** SPOILERS for "What They Become" to follow *****

In the series premiere, it became clear that Chloe Bennet was playing a character whose real name was not Skye. Then when we met Kyle MacLachlan, many tried to figure out who this mysterious father and daughter could be. In tonight's episode we finally got our answer, and it is rather inhuman.

With Skye in the clutches of HYDRA and back together with her crazy father, he finally gets a chance to tell her about her life. He tells her his name is Cal but not much else. He includes her in his plan to avenge his wife's death and kill Whitehall.

Whitehall knows the revenge is on the way and has "Skye" realize that she too can hold the Diviner.

All hell breaks loose as a result. Cal fights HYDRA guards. Coulson fights Whitehall. Cal fights Coulson. Skye fights Ward. Cal nearly beats Coulson to death before "Skye" jumps in and threatens to kill the man who has chased after for his entire life. He leaves, but his final word is the most important. Daisy.

"What They Become" written by Jeff Bell delivers on every front. The first 20 minutes is delegated to heart touching and intense conversation between Cal (Kyle MacLachlan) and Daisy (Chloe Bennet). The scenes featured what could be argued as the best scenes of the season thanks to the acting put on by MacLachlan and Bennet.

While the dialogue and emotion truly stood out from the episode, the amount of information and reveals were truly outstanding. They revealed two identities for key characters in the series. They transformed two characters from the first season that did not seem to serve much purpose into potential Inhumans. They also managed to kill off two members of the show who had become well respected among fans. AND, they introduced a new villain for the rest of season 2.

Agents of SHIELD has improved drastically in its second year and has delivered great episodes for the first half of the season. When Agents of SHIELD returns in March 2015, the expectations should be no less than fantastic. As Agents of SHIELD continues to deliver, more and more people will join the party.

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