Agents of SHIELD Season 2 EP 8 Review

Last week Agents of SHIELD delivered what was possibly the shows best episode ever. Knowing Marvel, we should have expected greatness from "The Things We Bury," and that's what we got.

***** SPOILERS for "The Things We Bury" to follow *****

While Grant Ward sets out to find and terrorize his older brother Senator Christian Ward (Tim DeKay), Coulson and his team hunt down the mysterious city with HYDRA closing in on the trail.

It initially seems like the Ward brother duel is simply a way to flesh out Grant's past and how he became the man he is today, it leads to something much more. After Grant burns down his old home, with Christian and his parents inside, he decides to team up with Whitehall and Skye's dad. His motive behind joining the evil duo is not apparent so far, but it won't be surprising if it's a chance at redemption.

Meanwhile, Coulson, Fitz, and Triplett break into an Australian base to track down the mystery city. Things go south as HYDRA has beat them to the place and shoots Trip in the shoulder. Luckily for Trip, a doctor comes to the rescue. Just not a doctor they can trust.

One of the most interesting aspects of the episode and possibly of the season were the multiple flashbacks to give us backstory on Dr. Whitehall. A devote follower of the Red Skull led Whitehall, formerly known as Rinehart, into the custody of Agent Carter and SHIELD. 

A much older Whitehall was broken out of prison under the orders of Alexander Pierce to meet a familiar face from his past. That familiar face turns out to be Skye's mom, who Whitehall met years ago when experimenting with the Diviner. He killed her and used some of her body parts to permanently regain his younger form.

We do not see much from May, Simmons, or Mack but do get plenty of Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter dialogue and more. Morse interrogates Bakshi to a near death, fights with Hunter about their trust issues, and ultimately make up, make out, and more.

Agents of SHIELD will now be on a two week hiatus before the team searches high and low for the mystery city. Check out the promo below for "... Ye Who Enter Here."

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Comic-Con 2014 - What Should We Expect from Marvel?

The San Diego Comic-Con is the biggest weekend for people of the "geek" community. With the latest news about Star Wars, DC, Marvel, Walking Dead, and more, Comic-Con presents a unique venue for these brands to bring out the big guns. Luckily for us, it officially kicks off tomorrow!

Marvel has not been shy on not announcing things leading up to Comic-Con or making huge announcements during their panels. This year we will learn about season 2 of Agents of SHIELD, season 1 of Agent Carter, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and hopefully more. So what exactly should we expect to learn about each of these properties? Let's discuss below:

Agents of SHIELD

So far we know that Coulson (Clark Gregg), Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), Skye (Chloe Bennet), Fitz (Ian de Caestecker), and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) will be there. Marvel's Head of Television, Jeph Loeb, and producers Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell will also be in attendance. Hopefully we will learn what kinds of problems the team will face throughout season 2 during this panel. I would also like to learn a little more about the fates of Ward and Fitz in the show. Seeing BJ Britt, who plays Triplett, up there with the rest of the cast would be great. Marvel also just announced that Lucy Lawless will join the show for season 2 so getting some word on just who she might be playing would be a pleasant surprise.

Agent Carter

Not much is known about Agent Carter. We know Hayley Atwell will reprise her role as Agent Carter and be the lead. Reports recently surfaced of a rumored character list with descriptions for each character but Marvel has not confirmed that. I would hope we get some official casting news on the supporting cast.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Mark Ruffalo confirmed a while back that the cast will make an appearance during Marvel's panel in Hall H. We got a glimpse of Ultron this past week thanks to Entertainment Weekly's Comic-Con preview magazine cover. I believe they will show some sort of sizzle real to get this movie even more hyped. They are over halfway through shooting so some sort of footage is not out of the question. The only reason they wouldn't show it is if there is footage at the end of Guardians, like I expect.

Ant-Man

We know the Ant-Man cast will make an appearance thanks to Hank Pym himself, Michael Douglas. Besides who Douglas is playing, the only other confirmed role is Paul Rudd as Scott Lang. They haven't started production yet so footage is out of the question, but casting should be a major focus. The likes of Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena, Patrick Wilson, Kevin Weisman, Matt Gerald, and David Dastmalchian have been attached to some degree to this movie and finally learning who they will play will be a step in the right direction.

Other Bullet Points

Last week Marvel announced they have movies planned out to 2019 and just a few minutes ago announced another date in 2018. That means they have 8 dates with unconfirmed movies. July 8th, 2016 will in all likelihood be Doctor Strange and from there on is a mystery. Laying the groundwork for what we will see till 2019 would be nice. Titles that could be announced include Black Panther, Guardians 2, Thor 3, Avengers 3, Ms Marvel, and a Nova solo movie.

Speaking of Doctor Strange, it has a writer and a director. So what does it need now? Stephen Strange himself. Jared Leto, Tom Hardy, and Benedict Cumberbatch have all been in the mix reportedly. Cumberbatch seems like the favorite and will be at Comic-Con even though he is not (officially) involved with anything happening there. Getting an announcement of Cumberbatch taking the lead in a Doctor Strange film would be super exciting.

Marvel has already confirmed Captain America 3 will be hitting theaters on May 6th, 2016. I'm hopeful they reveal a subtitle that shows what kind of adventure we can expect when Steve Rogers and company take the big screen again.

In case you forgot, Marvel is also starting to release original Netlfix series starting next year. Daredevil is the first hero to get his own show and has already starting filming. Getting a look at the official Daredevil costume would be great as well as getting official word on just who Rosario Dawson could be playing.

Share your thoughts on what you want to see from Marvel this year at

Comic-Con in the comments below or tweet us @Marvel_CMU!

Agents of SHIELD Season 1 Finale Review

 It's over. Not forever thank goodness as Marvel and ABC announced that season 2 of Agents of SHIELD will kick off in the fall, but season 1 is now officially over. Through all of it's highs and lows, Agents of SHIELD has turned itself into a quality television show. Ratings were not where Marvel wanted which prompted them to push back the time slot next season to 9 pm. "End of the Beginning" finished the season strong and had many great moments

***** SPOILERS for season 1 of Agents of SHIELD to follow *****

"End of the Beginning" delivered on every front fans could want. It had a great story. It had great one liners. It had great action scenes. It had a lot of emotion. It had a big time cameo. It gave us fans a lot of things to think about.

One of the first things we see from the season finale is John Garrett sketching that at first looks like gibber jabber, but when we get a closer look, it is actually very familiar. Garrett is copying down what is believed to be some type of alien formula or equation. Now that Garrett has GH 325 flowing through him as well as the centipede formula and Cybertek gear, he feels one with the universe. The formula is not something small, and even though it is still a mystery as to what exactly it is, it looks like it could play a big part in season 2. 

Meanwhile, Fitz and Simmons try to rescue themselves from the bottom of the ocean and Fitz is willing to do it at all costs. In his plan to rescue them, he gives up his chance at surviving. Luckily, once Simmons pulls herself and him to the surface, a friendly face appears. Nick Fury. 

The rest of the team is busy stealing armored trucks, blowing holes in walls, and breaking into Cybertek for a showdown with Deathlok, Ward, and Garrett. Ward thinks Garrett is losing his mind and confides in Raina where she tells him to get the one thing he cares about, Skye. Raina says she is important to the evolution of the world and that Ward, a monster, and Skye, whose parents are "monsters", are not that different.

When Ward goes to get Skye, she delivers many one liners and sets up an amazing fight sequence between May and Ward, where May is the victor. Coulson is trying to take down Garrett when Fury show up. Garrett calls it the first tag-team fight between 4 dead guys, which prompts Coulson to say, "I only see one." Thanks to Skye's ability to deliver a message to Deathlok, he turns on his master and shoots a rocket right at Garrett, seemingly killing him. Ward gets taken into custody where Coulson says he will find new ways to make his life miserable.

Skye lets Deathlok walk away free but he knows SHIELD, or what's left of it, will monitor his actions. Coulson finally gets his yelling session with Fury where we still don't get many answers thanks to a wonderful surprise from Fury. He hands Coulson a little black box that holds the key to rebuilding SHIELD. Director Coulson, weird to say, is now the overseer of SHIELD and will rebuild it slowly and from the ground up. Fury, meanwhile, states nobody will see him for quite some time.

In one of the craziest scenes of the episode, the believed to be dead John Garrett, kills the people guarding him and drags his body to a machine that equips him with brand new Cybertek gear. With the audiences jaws dropped and Garrett poised to be back for season 2, Coulson destroys him using the 0-8-4 from episode 2. As the team takes off, they head to the first coordinates found in the black box, where they are met by a familiar face. Simmons shows up outside The Bus and is greeted with hugs from the rest of the team. With Fitz not by her side, the team asks questions leading to an uncertain future on how/if Fitz will recover. 

Another familiar face, or maybe not so much, appears after. Agent Koenig. But this time not Eric Koenig, Billy Koenig. Billy Koenig, played by Patton Oswalt, could have a mysterious origin. Is he a life model decoy? Is he a clone? Is he a twin? Only season 2 can answer those questions.

As far as what to expect for season 2 of Agents of SHIELD, the last few minutes plant a couple HUGE seeds. The first is Raina handing a picture of Skye to a person in a dark room with bloody hands. Raina tells this person that she has found their daughter. Raina has previously mentioned Skye's parents being monsters, so just what kind of monster will be a big question on fans minds till next fall. The second seed, and the final scene for season, involves Coulson. Coulson sees the alien formula/equation that Garrett sketched and walks to a near by wall with a knife. He then starts making the same markings as Garrett, leaving us with questions on his sanity. 

Share your thoughts on Season 1 in the comments below!

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Agents of SHIELD Season 1 EP 21 Review

It's hard to believe the first season of Agents of SHIELD is almost done. It has been a roller coaster of a ride and Marvel's previous promotion "It's All Connected" showed just how connected everything is in this episode. In an episode where half of the time was spent as flashbacks to Ward growing up as an undercover Hydra agent, the story and flow was not as good as past episodes. This episode however had to deal with setting up one heck of a season finale. One that will see Coulson and a much more powerful Garrett go head to head among many other confrontations

***** SPOILERS for "Ragtag" to follow. *****

"Ragtag" starts off with the first meeting between Ward and Garrett. The episodes there relationship evolve throughout a series of years. Garrett broke Ward out of prison, left him in the wild, and taught him how to shoot and survive. Garrett even gets Ward into SHIELD's program but makes him also become a double agent.

When we see Garrett in the present time, he talks to Raina about the project she's been working on. She had so far been unsuccessful in replicating a GH serum that would create the same results as the GH 325 that was injected in Coulson and Skye, but when she tells Garrett she thinks she made one, he says he's been chasing "this" for 25 years.

When Raina tells Ward about the serum, she also reveals something she discovered. She looked through the hard drive and found all of the files Skye was looking at, and when she looked into them, she found something. The stories of Skye's past match up with something Raina heard long ago. A story of a baby and how everything and everybody protecting her were killed by "monsters". Those "monsters", Raina explains, were the baby's parents. This brings into question Skye's past even more and hopefully we learn in the season finale what kind of "monsters" Skye's parents were/are.

Meanwhile, the team goes undercover at Cybertek to try and get some answers. Thanks to some old Howling Commando gear courtesy of Triplett, the team uncovers some old files on the Deathlok project. We found out earlier in the season that Garrett also has Cybertek technology in him. That is because Garrett had the Deathlok operation done to him long ago.

Unfortunately for Garrett, he is dying. He has the Centipede serum flowing through him but that has not been enough to make him fully recover. According to his doctors, he only has a month or so to live. That is why he needs Raina's new serum so that it will regenerate his cells. With the team watching Garrett, Ward captures Fitz and Simmons. Fitz tricks Ward into triggering an old EMP which electrocutes Garrett. This causes Garrett's technology to malfunction. When Raina injects Garrett with her new GH serum, it ends working and Garrett says he can "feel the universe." 

The final setup for the season finale features Ian Quinn talking to high up army officers. His pitch? Sell them an army of 1,000 with his combination of technology. The team meanwhile, found Garrett's old base, and when they find a computer to install their "Trojan Horse" virus, the base goes dark. Then the Asgardian staff, from "The Well", lights up the hands of what is most likely a Hydra agent along with multiple red lights. Looks like Coulson and the team are going to have their hands full next week.

Share your thoughts on this week's episode in the comments below!

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Agents of SHIELD Season 1 EP 19 Review

In recent weeks, Agents of SHIELD has really picked up. The story has begun to flow, the stories have been top notch, and have brought in some new faces. This week was more of the same for the series that has found a new life recently with the elements mentioned above and including a stronger emotional connection with the audience. This is a review for episode 19 of season 1 of Agents of SHIELD.

***** SPOILERS below for "The Only Light in the Darkness *****

This week's episode of Agents of SHIELD brought back two characters we met in last week's episode. Right from the start we get reacquainted with Marcus Daniels (aka Blackout). Daniels is terrorizing a town while the team focuses on the outbreak at the Fridge that allowed Daniels to escape. Once Coulson learns Daniels has escaped he insists the team goes after him, but Eric Koenig has an agenda they must complete before that happens. Koenig brings the team to a lie detector to make sure he can trust the team, and he has his doubts. During these tests Skye avoids giving away her previous identity, Triplett reveals to have Howling Commandos ties from his family, and Ward gets held at gun point when Koenig gets suspicious about him being Hydra.

The whole team ends up passing and gets their very own lanyard, which Koenig uses to track them. Coulson selects Triplett, Simmons, and Fitz to go out and rescue someone that has a storied past with Coulson and Marvel's universe. Name-dropped as "The Cellist" in Avengers, Amy Acker takes on the persona of Audrey Nathan. Audrey was Coulson's former love interest before he was killed. As far as Audrey knew and still knows, Coulson is still dead even though she feels as if he is watching over her. 

May decides to leave the team after repairing The Bus because of Coulson's lack of trust towards her. May sets off on her own mission to track down Maria Hill and get answers, with the help of her mother. May's absence leaves Koenig, Ward, and Skye alone at Providence. Ward decides to shrink that number when he kills Koenig, ending Patton Oswalt's time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once Skye finds Koenig's dead body, she puts together Ward's stories and concludes that he is Hydra. Unable to get away Skye and Ward fly to go meet the team as Ward says but reveals to Skye that they are in fact going to the location so she can unlock their backup storage device.

With Skye and Ward out on their own, Coulson and the rest of the team devise a plan to stop Blackout once and for all using some devices made by none other than the angry green monster himself Bruce Banner. The devices work and they put an end to Marcus Daniels. When the team returns to Providence and discovers Skye and Ward are gone they begin to worry. This will lead directly into next week's episode featuring Adrian Pasdar returning as Colonel Glenn Talbot and Cobie Smulders making an appearance as Maria Hill

Share your thoughts on this week's episode in the comments below!

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