"Agents of SHIELD"

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Not all heroes are a super, we are the SPFI guys. And this is agents of shield. Welcome to the SPFI guys. We recover spy facts, spy fiction, and everything in between I'm Christian Speaker 1 00:00:19 And I'm Zach. Speaker 0 00:00:21 And today we are covering the Marvel TV show agents of shield Speaker 1 00:00:26 From 2013. Yes, this is part of the rerun summer where we've been covering pilots and certain other episodes of various TV shows from our past and the world's past. But this is very much our past I'm sure Speaker 0 00:00:39 This will also be our last official, uh, episode of the rerun summer since summer is ending. Speaker 1 00:00:46 Well, this is gonna drop on, uh, September 29th. Speaker 0 00:00:49 Okay. So to let you a little past the end of summer, but you know, squeaking in it's still like that same anyways, this is our last official episode of the rerun summer, although who knows you might get something else extra. We'll see. Speaker 1 00:01:04 So obviously agents of shield is something that we're both familiar with being Marvel fans. And I remember very much the buildup to it in the first couple seasons. I did not watch the entire series. Speaker 0 00:01:18 Did you watch the first season? Speaker 1 00:01:21 Yes. Speaker 0 00:01:22 Okay. All right. Speaker 1 00:01:22 I think some of the second, maybe the third, like I gave it a good run, but I did not make it all the Speaker 0 00:01:28 Way through. That's fair. I, I watched it all the way through first run may or may not even been wearing a shield, uh, jacket right now. <laugh> Speaker 1 00:01:37 Yeah, I remember thinking at the time, why would I wanna watch a superhero show where none of the main characters are superheroes and now, cause remember this was before all the Marvel Netflix shows. I think it might have even been before arrow. It was one of the certain, certainly the first Marvel show and the first superhero show in a while, Speaker 0 00:01:56 Slightly after arrow, but like not by much. I think arrow was maybe in its second season or something like that. So it was not, not far off. So we're covering today, the pilot and episode 17 of the first season, turn, turn, turn. But why don't we get started with the pilot? Speaker 1 00:02:12 Okay. So here's the ID plot summary for pilot and it is only called pilot. It doesn't have a name. Shield puts together a special team led by agent Phil Colson to track down a mysterious band with special abilities and the young computer hacker. That's encouraging him to reveal himself to the world. Speaker 0 00:02:30 So we start with like scenes of the battle of new New York, which is what the big battle in the first Avengers movie is not referred to. Depends Speaker 1 00:02:39 With the old Marvel logo, which is just the fast comic book flip Speaker 0 00:02:44 Mm-hmm Speaker 1 00:02:44 <affirmative>. I was like, yeah, I remember that they've had the new one for a while. Some would say the more pretentious one <laugh> certainly the longer one. Speaker 0 00:02:52 It is longer least we start off with a narration from a character we'll we will know a sky, um, about how now the public knows that heroes exist. And we meet this kid whose name is ACE. Who's looking at Avenger toys in a window. Apparently his dad, whose name is Mike, doesn't have a job. And he's like saying, you know, next, you can get those for me next time, dad, since they can't afford it now. Speaker 1 00:03:19 Yeah. I thought this is this the only kid in the university who doesn't like superheroes. When his dad asked her for a toy, he actually asked him, who's your favorite? The kid was like me. This is a pretty Speaker 0 00:03:28 Smart dad. No, it's more that he knows that his dad can't actually afford any of these. So what's the point and saying what ones, but your favorite. Speaker 1 00:03:36 Yeah. He's thinking a couple steps ahead. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:03:39 Anyway. So as this family dramas happening, there's an explosion of a building that they're right next to, uh, Mike goes to help. He has super strength because he punches, uh, hand hold into the wall and climbs up the wall, saves a woman inside the building. Speaker 1 00:03:55 Yeah. So something I was wondering here, cuz I remember back in the day, back in 2013, I watched the first episode. I remember liking it, but I also remember that the absorbing man was the lead guy. No, the main character, but he's not the absorbing man. I guess the absorbing man is later. Speaker 0 00:04:13 He is season two. He saves a woman who's inside the building that it exploded, jumps out. The window does a nice superhero landing. And as this is happening, sky catches it all on her camera phone. We cut over to Paris where agent ward is on a mission. There's a mention of a group called the rising tide who was apparently leaked to information of the meat he's supposed to do onto the web. Speaker 1 00:04:37 I remember the name rising tide. I was like, oh yeah, that, that came back to me. Speaker 0 00:04:42 <laugh> so he gets off a motorcycle and then disguises himself as a waiter, takes a glass from a customer and uses this fancy tech to scan it for prints. And then also has a, uh, waiter's tray that is actually also an x-ray device to find where the secret vault is and uses the prints to get into the secret vaults. Speaker 1 00:05:01 Yeah. This is true spy stuff. Speaker 0 00:05:04 Hmm. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:05:04 This is couples right at. Speaker 0 00:05:05 And some men burst in. They have a fight. Fight was good. I, I liked uh, what's his name? The actor's name? Brett Dalton. He mm-hmm <affirmative> does a pretty good fight scene. Ward gets up to the roof, uh, jumps on a rope, on a helicopter that carries him out of Paris. Speaker 1 00:05:23 Yeah. Definitely blowing out the budget for this initial superhero action and then just regular action Speaker 0 00:05:30 That looked like it was actually Paris. Cuz I feel like I've been in that bistro I've you know, who knows? There's so many little corner bistros in Paris. It could have been any one of them and Speaker 1 00:05:40 Something in LA made up to look like it Speaker 0 00:05:42 Probably. Yeah. Well, no, but I mean they were actually there on the uh, O now I'm forgetting what the name of the river in Paris is. It's not the Tyr. It's not the Tims. Speaker 1 00:05:52 The C Speaker 0 00:05:53 The sin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like you right there on the sand. I, I, I noticed, uh, Notre Dame pre-fire in the background there. Speaker 1 00:06:02 Oh yeah. Speaker 0 00:06:03 We cut to him in a debrief with Maria Hill played by Kobe's motors. He hands over what he found, which is a Chiari neural link. And he wants to know how the rising tide found out about the Intel. He also wants to know why he was pulled out of Paris and hill says, ask Colson. And ward is like, I'm a level six, you know, shield agent. I know that agent Colson died shortly before the battle of New York. Speaker 1 00:06:30 Yeah. So a couple things here before the big reveal mm-hmm <affirmative> so I was like, so the, the Avengers never found out that Cole said came back to life. No, I guess Speaker 0 00:06:40 No, Speaker 1 00:06:40 That's kind of amazing. I guess someone like Thor who isn't that curious, I kind of is fine with it, but I'm amazed black widow never found out because Intel is what she does. She just didn't care. Speaker 0 00:06:53 So here's the thing. And the reason why is cuz there was a split between Marvel television and Marvel studios at the time. Speaker 1 00:06:59 Mm-hmm Speaker 0 00:07:00 <affirmative> the things in the TV show would affect would never have stuff affect stuff in the movies, but stuff in the movies would ne would Al could affect stuff in the TV show. So even though they said it was a whole big thing about hashtag it's all connected, it was only kind of connected. Speaker 1 00:07:15 Well, it's a little bit of a problem in comic books too. And I seem to remember that we're gonna declare agents of shield to be not cannon. Did that ever happen? Speaker 0 00:07:23 Uh, let's not. Let's <laugh> let's not go into that. Let's not, let's not piss off the agents of shield fan base here of which I one of, but I mean there is I, if you look at it, there is a certain place where we could just declare it like a branch off into the multiverse. Speaker 1 00:07:40 Okay. Yeah. I mean, I just remember ages their shield went through a lot of changes. It changed with the MCO mm-hmm <affirmative> it was, it did one. It was there like kind of right at the beginning, I've been reading a book about the making of star Trek and they also have a lot of growing pants. Speaker 0 00:07:55 The big reveal Colson is still alive. He steps outta the shadows as welcome to level seven, which Speaker 1 00:08:01 Was great. But then he undermines it with a joke now. Speaker 0 00:08:03 No, I thought it was a good, a good way to like, you know, cuz I mean it plays the troupe and then, you know, hangs the lamp shade on it. Speaker 1 00:08:09 Yeah. This was back in 2013 when that was still new. Now people have gotten kind of sick of it in the MCU movies Speaker 0 00:08:16 Mm-hmm anyways. So we get a shot of sky following Mike, uh, he's going to a cafe. Uh, we find out that apparently fury faked Colson's death. He stopped breathing for about 40 seconds, but the Avengers had no idea. Uh, he apparently went to Tahiti. It's a magical place. Speaker 1 00:08:35 Yeah. That didn't get old. I still found that funny <laugh> they said it just enough that it wasn't, that it didn't get on my nerves. Speaker 0 00:08:43 Yeah. So they watch also the footage from the rising tide. And we find out that Colson is starting a new mobile command unit and he wants war to be part of the team. He ward is resistant. He's a specialist. He goes in, goes out. Does you know, does the mission solo? He has very bad people skills apparently. Speaker 1 00:09:04 Yeah. I didn't think his people skills were that bad based on what we saw of him in these two episodes. It's just not his forte. Speaker 0 00:09:11 No. And in addition to ward hill is actually iffy on the whole team. He's not sure if Colson's really ready to go back, you know, he says maybe, or she, she says maybe should go back to Tahiti. It's a magical place. Speaker 1 00:09:26 I don't think they said it quite that much <laugh> but okay. Speaker 0 00:09:29 No, no, Speaker 1 00:09:31 But they drop a little bit of a story crumb here where mm-hmm <affirmative> I think Ron glass who was here and Maria Hill say mm-hmm <affirmative> he can never know about what really happened with his resurrection. Speaker 0 00:09:42 Dun dun very Speaker 1 00:09:43 Mysterious. Speaker 0 00:09:44 <laugh> we go back to Mike who is in that cafe. The news is referring to him as the hooded hero sky finds him, sits in his booth, the same booth as him tells him to act natural. Cuz you never know who's listening. She starts geeking out about his powers and the fact that he has powers, but also says that she's in or he is in danger from who? From shield. And at this one he doesn't know who shield is, which is interesting. Speaker 1 00:10:13 Yeah. I mean they're not supposed to be famous even still. So a couple things here first I like back and forth banter, the Joss Whedon banter where she's like, just make it look like we're talking and he says, we are talking. She's like, no, no, no, just sitting here and talking. He says, yeah, that's what we're doing. Just sitting here and talking that being said, I was a little bit, her characterization seemed a little bit inconsistent where she is so fan growing over him. But then she has a very sardonic attitude towards seemingly everything else in the world, especially shield Uhhuh. Speaker 0 00:10:44 <affirmative> Speaker 1 00:10:44 I I'm wondering why is she so suspicious of shield? Speaker 0 00:10:48 Well, we do find that out later in the series. Speaker 1 00:10:51 Oh, okay. There's a larger thing. I mean, one of the things about this episode that I actually liked mm-hmm <affirmative> was they got a little bit meta commentary. One might almost say political where she's like there's these men in the suits. They're very involved with the superheroes. Mm-hmm <affirmative> right. Like the whole Avengers just put together by shield, but it's all secret. Like the government just does it and the people don't know about it. They're definitely not consulted about it. And don't you have a problem with that is sky's point of view. I thought that was quite interesting. But unfortunately the episode didn't really follow through Speaker 0 00:11:24 On, I mean it sets up some stuff, but, and we we'll we'll see. Maybe we'll see more of that before we, or not before when we get to their second episode about larger conspiracies and stuff. Speaker 1 00:11:37 Yeah. It's a thing in superheroes and this is gonna be a very hot take and this is not a hot take. I necessarily agree with it. But I read once that superheroes are by their very nature to kind of totalitarian one almost would say like fascist because they used their great strength to enforce the status quo at gunpoint, basically. Speaker 0 00:12:01 Interesting. Speaker 1 00:12:02 And in the MCU, at least at first where you had shield, which was government teaming up with the superheroes, they never address it explicitly. And I liked how they addressed it in this episode. I wish there was more of it. Speaker 0 00:12:14 Yeah. Yeah. So she says she can help cuz she's good with computers. Apparently she lives in her van, which is parked right around the corner. Mike turns her down for any help, but she pockets his license and finds out what his full name is. Mike Peterson. Speaker 1 00:12:29 Yeah. He does a really good job in this scene. And then the last meta commentary, I know I won't keep harping on this. She says they had the ball in New York and they cleaned it up overnight. Speaker 0 00:12:40 <laugh> I Speaker 1 00:12:41 Wondered if that was like a meta thing where these huge events happen by the next movie. Everything's back to normal, Speaker 0 00:12:46 Maybe a little bit of hanging lampshade. So we next go to Melinda may played by Minga when who's just in an office filing reports and Colson comes to see her. She immediately, once Colson shows up, she says, no, I'm not going back into the field. And he is like, no, no, I don't need you operational. I just need someone to drive the bus, no combat. And we get to pick her own ops here. No red tape. So I was like, are you sure? It's just needs someone to drive the bus. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:13:14 Good thing. Colson has experience going around the world and recruiting people of interesting personalities. Speaker 0 00:13:20 Yeah. Speaker 1 00:13:21 This also reminds me of in the birds of pre comic by gal Simone and how lady Blackhawk would say I'm just the pilot over and over again and would do things other than pilot Speaker 0 00:13:32 <laugh> so see the bus, which is a big military plane with a giant shield logo on top of it. Speaker 1 00:13:40 Not exactly secret, but it looked great. Speaker 0 00:13:42 We also meet Fitz and Simmons, who are the, uh, tech people on the team. They're arguing over punch bunch of different pieces of tech, including something called the night, night gun. Uh, Fitz does engineering and Simmons does biochemistry. And Speaker 1 00:14:01 You can immediately tell that they're in love. How many seasons did it take for them to realize it? Speaker 0 00:14:06 Oh, like four or five Speaker 1 00:14:08 <laugh> sounds about right? Speaker 0 00:14:10 Yeah. Ward meets them. They give them, give him a couple of new pieces of tech. And then we see a red convertible drive in which is known as Lola. Apparently it's got old shield tech in it. We also find out that mobile command units, like the bus were popular in the nineties before shield had he carriers. And at this point, ward recognizes may and Colson says, no, no, she's just the pilot. Speaker 1 00:14:36 As they keep reiterating that Speaker 0 00:14:38 <laugh> sky is now again making another big monologue about how you can't stop the rising tide yet. She's uploading this to the net live streaming. So she was yeah. A YouTube personality before. That was a really a big thing. <laugh> Speaker 1 00:14:53 I think she would be very offended if you heard her call her YouTube personality. I'm sure she saw herself more as a keyboard revolutionary. Speaker 0 00:14:59 Ah-huh I know, I know. I just, but of course she's like, yeah, you can't stop us. And then Colson opens the van door and puts a bag over her head. Oh Speaker 1 00:15:06 My God. Nothing scary about that. But it's not supposed to be scary. It's supposed to be like funny, which it was, Speaker 0 00:15:12 It was yeah. She is brought into an interrogation room on the bus interrogated by ward and Colson. They wanna know more about the hooded hero. Apparently the phone she used to record the video had the same signature as some of the rising tide posts. Speaker 1 00:15:26 Yeah. That was like her big mistake. The love to catch her, by the way I missed this earlier, but I wanted to bring it up. Now when Maria Hill and Colson are talking about the hooded hero Speaker 0 00:15:36 Mm-hmm Speaker 1 00:15:37 <affirmative> she calls them gifted. Speaker 0 00:15:39 Yes. Speaker 1 00:15:40 You remember them. They seem to have stopped using that in the MCU. Speaker 0 00:15:43 So they really never had a good term for Speaker 1 00:15:48 A superpowered individual. Actually it doesn't use it as no. She uses it as an adjective. She says he's gifted or something Speaker 0 00:15:55 Like that. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I think they used enhanced individuals for a while. I don't remember what else. Other terms they used, but yeah, they didn't really have a good blanket term cuz they couldn't say mutants. They and well in humans will get to later. But yeah, they didn't. Yeah, really have a good term. Speaker 1 00:16:13 But in this case his powers are artificial. Cause he learned he got it through a product. Speaker 0 00:16:18 Yeah. And we will get to that. So they send may and fit Simmons to go investigate the building that exploded sky accused of blowing up the building to draw out Mike, she names drops New Mexico and project Pegasus, New Mexico being where the first Thor movie happened and project Pegasus wouldn't fall be followed up on until, until the Avenger. Oh I guess I wasn't in the Avengers, but also it's where, where the end of captain Marvel happens. So setting up that stuff early. Speaker 1 00:16:50 Yeah, I guess. So I also have a note here. That ward goes on some political rant. I don't remember what he says, but I, oh I think he is like sky. You just want to tear everything down and you don't care what happens when it's over. <laugh> again, interesting stuff that they mm-hmm <affirmative> that don't quite follow through on mm-hmm <affirmative> Speaker 0 00:17:09 Yeah. So she also names drops centipede and then as soon as they, she says that more mouth to cosin centipede what's that? And she realizes they don't know what that is. Speaker 1 00:17:20 And neither does the audience. Speaker 0 00:17:22 Yeah. So Mike is on the phone with a doctor, he's saying how he wants to go public. And we see he has a device on his arm that kind of resembles the centipede Fitz Simmons are, you know, still in that, uh, exploded building and they can tell it's a secret lab. They're wondering, was it sabotage Fitz releases a bunch of drones to scan the area back in the integration room sky says that Santa Pete appeared on the net and there was gone. Ward thinks that she was a superhero groupie, which apparently she, one time was outside of star tower Speaker 1 00:17:58 Mm-hmm Speaker 0 00:17:58 <affirmative> Coleson says, pulls him out of the interrogation room, says that she's an asset. We need to know what she knows and pulls out an injector. Speaker 1 00:18:07 Yeah. Coleson really trusts sky pretty fast. Mm-hmm <affirmative> he's willing to take a lot of chances. I guess that's consistent with him that he doesn't play by the rules. Speaker 0 00:18:16 Yeah, no, no. He doesn't. So Fitz finds something. The Dr. And uh, I like this little bit that the drones that he has are named after the seven dwarves, Speaker 1 00:18:26 Uh, I thought it was a little excessively adorable Fitz and Simmons kind of graded on me kind of quickly. Ooh. Not the first time around, but this time it Speaker 0 00:18:36 Did interesting. Now I thought, I mean, it was like a, a fun nod of all right. He's a geek. So it's like, all right, I'm gonna name, I have seven of something. I'm gonna name it. You know, in something in theme, Speaker 1 00:18:47 You should have named him after the dwarf floor and some Lord of the rings, but there are seven, right? <laugh> Speaker 0 00:18:52 Uh, hold Speaker 1 00:18:53 On. There's seven of Oneal. I mean, not to be like the gatekeeper for what is nerdy, but also it's owned by EBC, which is Disney. So there's a Disney connection. Maybe that's Speaker 0 00:19:02 Why. Yeah. That's probably, oh wow. You are right. Seven for the dwarf floors in their halls of stone. Huh? Anyways, if you don't know that and I don't know the name of those seven dwarf floors, the general audience would not. So I like, I think, yes, the seven dwarfs are a good call. There you go. But he, anyways, what he finds is a security camera and he also finds some alien tech. So Cosson shows sky the truth serum and surprise. He injects ward, not sky. Speaker 1 00:19:29 Yeah. I thought that was actually a pretty good twist. But then it's the last show of truth from wonder Roman where it just starts making a volunteer information, a hilarious manner. Speaker 0 00:19:39 It's the next it's it's supposed to supposedly, you know, next gen, um, sodium TEEM, you know <laugh> Speaker 1 00:19:46 Yes. That's what they say. Speaker 0 00:19:49 Corson leaves. The room says you can ask award whatever shoot you want. We're trying to build trust here. Speaker 1 00:19:55 Yeah. Nothing suspicious or questionable that, that he might give away something he's not supposed to give Speaker 0 00:20:01 Away. Right. Speaker 1 00:20:02 Wilson's very trusting. Apparently mm-hmm, <affirmative> very trusting. Speaker 0 00:20:05 Yep. So sky like tries to distract him, uh, asks his, he, if he's killed anyone and he is yes, but they're all bad people. So Mike is going back to his foreman to try to get his construction job back. Apparently there's no jobs anymore. Tries to show off his strength to say, you know, look what I can do. Backfires. He gets mad at the foreman and he's kind of losing it. And he's like, you're the bad guy. And I'm the hero. Speaker 1 00:20:30 This was great. This was a very interesting turn of phrase. But before I get into that, I wanted to mention really quickly that's that the foreman says, you guys come here bitching, which I was surprised to hear in a ABC prime time show. I know it's in a G movie tour to, to, but even so, but anyway, <laugh> so I thought it was interesting that Mike Peterson could have gone either way. Speaker 0 00:20:54 Yeah. Oh yeah. Speaker 1 00:20:55 You know, like right now he could be a hero or he could be a villain. It just depends on who gets to him first. It's a very interesting, uh, way to take the story. But unfortunately, Mike, in fact cannot fight the system, fight punching things. As it turns out Speaker 0 00:21:08 <laugh> ward is passed out in the interrogation room. Sky is out of the room with Colson shows her footage of Mike attacking the plant, which motivates her to give Colson the info about Mike. Speaker 1 00:21:21 Yeah. Apparently they didn't search her whether you arrested her cuz she has the ID and they didn't find it Speaker 0 00:21:28 <laugh> Speaker 1 00:21:29 But Speaker 0 00:21:29 Whatever. Yeah. I'm sure she also had probably more Intel Intel than just the ID. Speaker 1 00:21:34 Yeah. Well see, there's the whole thing about only she has access to her records and they can't get into it. Yada yada yada. Speaker 0 00:21:40 Yeah. So they go over the footage that, uh, fits recovered. It's apparently corrupted data, but yeah. So sky has actually the audio and it would help, but yeah, like you've said they couldn't decrypt her files, but apparently it's because they were GPS encoded. So they have to go back to the alley where her van is, Speaker 1 00:21:58 Which is a little bit silly cuz the whole point of having a mobile headquarters is that it can move around. So what would be the point of having it to only work one spot? Like what if she had to get outta town quickly? Speaker 0 00:22:08 Uh, I, I, I don't know that it's necessarily, she doesn't live there because it's mobile. I think she lives there because that's all she can afford. <laugh> Speaker 1 00:22:18 Oh, well there's wifi around the corner Speaker 0 00:22:20 Uhhuh. Yeah. Cuz she says there's free wifi around the corner. So she's I think in a, like a penny pinching. Speaker 1 00:22:25 Yeah. My fan theory is that she could have turned the GPS and coding off and just didn't Speaker 0 00:22:31 Probably yeah, yeah. Actually, no you're I think you're probably right. Cuz we'll get well, we'll get to it. So Mike goes to see the woman who saved and who's in the hospital, it's revealed that she's actually the doctor who did the procedure on him. That Speaker 1 00:22:43 Was the great twist. Speaker 0 00:22:44 Yeah. And by, you know, saving her, he exposed the program, the people who gave her the tech are very secretive and she's like, you're losing, you gotta just get into control. Speaker 1 00:22:55 Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Speaker 0 00:22:56 So sky is back in the alley in her van sends Fitz Simmons, the audio file. We find out that the alien tech wasn't actually what was the explosive there? And there's also hints of Gama radiation. They're actually able to create a hologram that shows what's happening. There's a guy who's losing it at a person in the lab coat with a Cente tech on his arm. We find out that it's got super soldier serum inside of it. So not only a gamma radiation, super super soldier serum, alien, Texas, like what three out of the, how many Avengers? That of power. I Speaker 1 00:23:33 Thought it was very silly. Speaker 0 00:23:34 <laugh> no, this is great. This is, I think this is good. This is like, all right. Real world. If all these things were around, someone would try to combine them into one thing to make it an ultimate weapon. Speaker 1 00:23:45 Yeah. I, I guess it's just silly, even though it's a cliche, I almost would've preferred that. They just say they're trying to recreate earth sky's serum, but it's unstable. Like just keep it simple. Speaker 0 00:23:56 Eh, whatever. So sky, while she's in her van puts an SD card in her bra. So yes, she probably could have removed the encryption, but she wanted to go back there to get the S whatever's on that SD card. Mm-hmm <affirmative> Mike arrives knocks out in may, who was with her. And also Mike has his son ACE with him and says, you know, you gotta get us out of here. Speaker 1 00:24:17 This was great. Cuz she did too good of a job convincing him that she we're bad guys. Yep. Like, but goes around, covers around Speaker 0 00:24:24 <laugh>. So Colson figures out that what was actually the explosive part was extremists. So Hey, there's your tie into iron man as well, which from iron man three. Speaker 1 00:24:34 Yeah, that was great Speaker 0 00:24:36 Caps powers. You've got extremist, which was an iron man thing. Gamma radiation, alien tech like Thor, cuz he's an alien guard. Mm-hmm <affirmative> the thing about extremist is it's extremely unstable. So he's going to explode and the options are either isolate him and let him explode or put a bullet in his brain and that'll stop the chain reaction. Speaker 1 00:24:58 Very interesting turn of phrase. This is almost like a star Trek episode. Mm-hmm <affirmative> where it's like, what do you do? Speaker 0 00:25:04 And Coleson says, all right, you need to find a third way as this is happening. Ward is like prepping a giant gun so that he can take out Mike mm-hmm <affirmative>. So sky is in her van, outside of union station in LA, she is deleting Mike's identity and Ace's identity from the internet and everywhere. Mike's like, wait, how do I know he can actually do this? She says, I did it before once. But as she's doing this, she's also sending a signal to shield. Speaker 1 00:25:31 Right? The implication, when she said I've already done this once, is that she did it for herself. Yep. I think that's pretty clear. Mm-hmm <affirmative> unfortunately, after this part, sky doesn't have a whole lot of agencies. She's like Fay Ray from king Kong, which just is getting dragged around everywhere and needs to be rescued. Speaker 0 00:25:45 Uh, no, she has a little bit so we'll, we'll get to it. So fit Simmons are trying to find that third way out. But as they're doing so they get a security breach, but it's sending longitude and latitude and it's they realize it's sky telling them where Mike is. So ward and Colson arrive on the scene. War thinks that they're risking aid, innocent lives for a nobody. And as this happens, Mike throws the van door and knocks a bunch of other agents out. Speaker 1 00:26:13 Yeah. There's a point where someone yells at it. We're not a threat. We're not a threat, which is very convincing, not Speaker 0 00:26:19 Sky. I mean, yeah, she is kidnapped, but she does have a little bit more agency. She starts a fight as a distraction and gets away. Speaker 1 00:26:25 That's true. Well, I forgot about that part. That was good. Speaker 0 00:26:28 And then as this is happening, Colson gets, uh, the sun aced to safety and ward tries to fight Mike. It does not go well. Speaker 1 00:26:38 Mm-hmm <affirmative> Speaker 0 00:26:39 But as this is going on, the doctor, the Cente doctor sends someone dressed as like a cop into the building. So we've got a third party now. Speaker 1 00:26:50 Yeah. There's a lot going on. Which I appreciate it. It wasn't too much. Speaker 0 00:26:54 Yeah, man. Fitz Simmons also arrive. They, and they say that there's a third party here. That's not us and not the cops and not Mike. So the evil cop or the fake cop rather goes after Mike and sky. And at this point, Mike gets thrown off of a really tall balcony, but may takes out the fake cop with a really cool fight scene. And like I love all of May's fights. She's really good. Speaker 1 00:27:21 Yeah. They looked good. Speaker 0 00:27:23 Yeah. So Mike is now on the ground, but he's gets up brushes himself off. He's okay. Colson is trying to talk him down. Ward contacts. Him says he has a clear shot. Speaker 1 00:27:34 Um, well in the context of talking him down, he has this whole big speech again about fighting the system, which was great. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I have plenty of favorite quotes. Can we, can we talk about one of them? Okay. Sure, sure. So there's one, one, he says these heroes are better than man there's gods. Then there's the rest of us. They're giants and we are what they step on mm-hmm <affirmative> okay. Which reminds me of the part in the Dai returns. When Superman says we must not remind them that giants walk the earth, come on. The Dai returns is great. I know you don't, Speaker 0 00:28:03 It's terrible. The dark night returns is terrible. Speaker 1 00:28:06 Terrible. Okay. We're not here to argue about that. Speaker 0 00:28:09 And I, I hate anytime it's brought up as this pinnacle of comic book do because okay. You know, it's fine. But in, in Watchman and responsible for all the eighties grim in greediness that followed it, which made everyone think that the way to make comics good is to have more killing and just make it dark and gritty and grim, even for characters that it doesn't fit. So I'm just tired of it. Speaker 1 00:28:34 It's especially true for DC. DC is especially as notorious for that. Speaker 0 00:28:38 Yes. Yes. I mean, you can blame the entire Snyder verse for the dark network turns and I'm done with it. So yeah. Speaker 1 00:28:45 But anyway, so getting back to this episode, Speaker 0 00:28:47 Sorry. Yeah. I just Speaker 1 00:28:48 Really good bet. Really Speaker 0 00:28:50 Interesting. I know it was good. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:28:52 But then they don't go do anything with it in the rest of the series. At least not as far as I watched. Speaker 0 00:28:58 No, they, I mean, so Mike Peterson does come back and we'll get, we get more of him. Um, not in the episodes we're watching though, but no, I Speaker 1 00:29:05 Know we get more Mike Peter said, I mean this idea <laugh> Speaker 0 00:29:09 Um, yes and no. I mean, in the first season there's a bit more of it, but I thought it was interesting watching this part from the 20, 22 lens after all, all, any of the like police and um, black people shootings that have happened or at police brutality and just looking at it through that lens of all right. You know, this is, yeah, this is a black guy who is being threat, you know, seemingly threatened by the system and yeah, he's, mm-hmm, <affirmative> saying, you know, you, you said it'd be good enough. You know? Like he's like, and when he says, you said that we just have to work hard and we can make it. So it's, it's like looking at it through that. It's like, wow, this it's actually more impactful now actually. Speaker 1 00:29:53 Yeah. It was good. This is more was good. Speaker 0 00:29:56 I'm agree with you. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:29:57 The one last thing that this also reminded me of, which was in Gotham central, do you have a chip on your soldier about Gotham central, the kind series? So there's a serial killer in it. Who goes around killing people, dressing them up as Robin they're dead bodies. Speaker 0 00:30:10 Oh yeah. I remember this Speaker 1 00:30:11 At the end when they ask, why did he is? Because he says it's because their world is the real world. Huh? Our world is not the real world. We don't matter. They matter. So I Speaker 0 00:30:22 Like that as he's having this big speech, Colson actually says, you know what? I agree with you. You're right. I've been on the end of, you know, God's and how they can affect <laugh> your entire life. Right. Cuz he got stabbed and seemingly died for 40 seconds and he says, you know, it matters who you are and is actually managing to talk him down. And at once it seems like Mike is called, we hear a shot ring out and his head goes back, Speaker 1 00:30:51 Ah, Speaker 0 00:30:51 Simmons rushes in, we see that ward has taken the shot. But when you look, we have that reveal of him. It's not the big, you know, actual gun he was using in actuality it's the night, night gun. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:31:04 And then they would, they use ICERs later. That's what I thought they were using at first. But Speaker 0 00:31:07 It's, I mean, it that's, it's what the ICERs evolved into or evolved from rather. Speaker 1 00:31:12 Yeah. Speaker 0 00:31:13 But yeah. So I mean, and in his important, like even though he was Colson was successful in talking him down, he was still going to explode if something hadn't been done. So that's why it was necessary to get like Elise shoot him and knock him out with the ICER. Maria get hell, gets a report that, uh, Mike is in stable condition and we go to, what is this like a shield foster home. I wasn't actually sure where this was supposed to be. It's like some farm in the middle of nowhere. Is this in Hawkeye's farm? Speaker 1 00:31:42 I know it could be. Yeah. It wasn't explained, I guess they just needed some space. They could do the flying car. Speaker 0 00:31:47 Yeah. So apparently ACE is living there now. And sky tells ACE that his father's gonna come home. They get into Lola, the, the red car Coleson gives sky and offer to join the team. She says, she's not a team player. And just as a BU, as this is happening, ward calls in says they've got an oh eight, four, they need to go in. And confirm guys told she has 10 minutes to make her decision. And he is like real 10. What? We're not gonna get back to the bus in 10 minutes. And then the wheels on the, on Lola turn sideways and reveal that this is a old fashioned shield flying car, like from the Nick fury comics of the sixties. Speaker 1 00:32:26 We're also like from back to the future, Speaker 0 00:32:27 Nick fury was first in the sixties. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:32:30 But I mean, this was very reminiscent of the back to the future one ending mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah. So I also like how the logo flips to this shield logo. Oh yeah. Classic super spy agency booth Speaker 0 00:32:40 Mm-hmm <affirmative>. But with that, our episode ends. Speaker 1 00:32:43 All right. So now it is time for our SP factor versus fiction. I don't actually have any this time. I thought about looking up black bagging, but I didn't want to get on a list. And then I also wanted to look up something else, but I forgot. Speaker 0 00:32:56 All right. Well I have a few things. Uh, so first just covering shield. So this is from Wikipedia. It is a fictional espionage special law enforcement and counter-terrorism agency, which appeared in Marvel comics. Its first appearance was in strange tales. Number 1 35 in August, 1965. The acronym originally stood for Supreme headquarters, international espionage and law enforcement division. It was changed in 1991 to strategic hazard intervention, espionage logistics ate. And then once it appeared in the Marvel cinematic universe, it became the strategic Homeland intervention enforcement and logistics division, which had changed two in the comics as well. So yeah, post nine 11, they added that Homeland cuz of Homeland security. Speaker 1 00:33:45 I remember one time in bar trivia, they asked us what it stood for. And I was like, it stood for four different things. Good luck keeping the all Speaker 0 00:33:53 Straight. They probably meant what it was in the Marvel uni, the Marvel cinematic universe. Um, so I also have something on the rising tide. So this is actually a little bit of a controversy when the first episode aired. Speaker 1 00:34:07 Oh yeah. Why is that? Speaker 0 00:34:08 Because uh, yeah, so this is from a wired article, which says, uh, which is titled agents of shield gives its activist the same name as an actual activist group. Speaker 1 00:34:19 Oh yeah. Maybe that's why I sounded familiar. Speaker 0 00:34:21 Yeah. So there was a little controversy because there is an actual real life organization called the rising tide, which is an international all volunteer grassroots network of groups and individuals who organize locally promote community based solutions to the climate crisis and take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change. But yeah, so they actually were a little annoyed about that. Marvel was using the same name as them as like, so I'm sort of hacktivist, um, anonymous and WikiLeaks kind of group and fun, fun fact actually applied for jobs at the rising tide when I moved to DC half because I was kind of amused that it was the same name. It was the group as agent shield. Speaker 1 00:35:04 <laugh> yeah. Funny how that seems to happen. Speaker 0 00:35:06 And lastly, so the bus is a converted Boeing C 17 globe master three, uh, it's a according to Wikipedia, it's a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the us air force from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonald Douglas, the C 17 carries for the name of two piston engineered military aircraft, the Douglas C 74 globe master and the Douglas C 1 24 globe master two. So this is the globe master three. Speaker 1 00:35:35 Nice. Speaker 0 00:35:36 Yep. Uh, that's what I got for five fact versus fiction. Speaker 1 00:35:39 All right. So now it's time for our favorite quotes. I can go first. I have a few. Speaker 0 00:35:44 All right. Speaker 1 00:35:45 In the beginning sky says something impossible just happened. What are you going to do was almost too good for this show. As long as in a movie, when someone says the bell, New York was the end of the world. Now we're living in the new one. Speaker 0 00:35:56 Mm-hmm <affirmative> is probably a sky. Speaker 1 00:35:59 Yeah. When sky says it was one time Speaker 0 00:36:02 <laugh> oh, about Speaker 1 00:36:03 Being a sweaty cosplay girl Speaker 0 00:36:05 Outside of stark tower <laugh> Speaker 1 00:36:06 Yeah. A couple fits ones where he says, uh, by luck, I mean unappreciated genius. And then later when they look at the hologram, he says, this one man is angry at the other man. That was actually quite funny. Speaker 0 00:36:19 <laugh> that was actually pretty good. <laugh> and Speaker 1 00:36:22 Then finally Mike Peterson says, no, it's an origin story. I like that. A little, a little meta. This is a way to get my favorite quote. Speaker 0 00:36:30 I've got one from war that's. Someone really wanted our initials to spell out shield. Speaker 1 00:36:35 Yeah. I believe that. Does this episode written by Jos Whedon, by the way, I feel like it was, Speaker 0 00:36:41 Uh, maybe, uh, I know he would directed it. I think his brother Jed and Jed's wife whose name Marissa. I forget what my last name is, are the main show runners and writers also from Colson when he steps out of the shadows, welcome to level seven Speaker 1 00:36:57 Before immediately undermining it Speaker 0 00:36:59 <laugh> and lastly from sky with great power comes a ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with. Speaker 1 00:37:08 Yeah. This is long before Spider-Man showed up. Speaker 0 00:37:11 Yeah. But they were, they were able to reference it somehow and just get away with it. <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:37:16 Hmm. Speaker 0 00:37:18 All right. So how would you rate this episode, Zach, Speaker 1 00:37:22 On a scale of point to 10 martinis, one being adventures 97, 10 being better than taken or no time to die or burn notice. So there's not a lot here to dislike. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I must say like I was thinking like, am I gonna give this an nine outta 10? Ooh, there's a lot of good stuff. But then when I kind of thought about it, I was like, Michael Peterson stuff is really good, but there's a lot going on and they didn't follow through with the, with the subtext. They just didn't and I would've loved that. So I don't think I could give it a nine outta 10. I will give it an eight out of 10. I thought it was pretty Speaker 0 00:37:57 Enjoyable. Wow. Okay. Speaker 1 00:37:58 And nothing really bothered me too much. Speaker 0 00:38:01 Interesting. I, wow. <laugh> Speaker 1 00:38:07 Maybe you got me in a good mood today. Speaker 0 00:38:09 Uh, am I gonna give it lower than you Speaker 1 00:38:12 That's been known to happen? It's not unusual. Speaker 0 00:38:14 Yeah. But for agents of shoot to show that I finish like the entire runoff that I loved that cuz I mean, it's, it's a good pilot, but there are so many like, I guess, because I'm because I saw all the rest of it. So I guess I'm maybe I'm judging it against other episodes rather than judging it on its own. Speaker 1 00:38:32 Mm-hmm <affirmative> I had basically forgotten the entire series by the time we went back around Speaker 0 00:38:37 To watch it. So you, you, you have, I'm also gonna give it an eight because I you're right. There is a lot to like, there's a lot of good setup and there's like solid action here. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and they actually do have a little bit of real world spying of him, like, you know, going and finding the thing in the vault. Um, I mean it leaned more superhero than spy at times, but it was still pretty solid and pretty good. Yeah. I really had liked it. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:39:03 I noticed that the IMD people rated at seven and a half. Speaker 0 00:39:08 Hmm. Speaker 1 00:39:08 Maybe that might have influenced me a little bit. I don't Speaker 0 00:39:11 Remember. I was leaning towards seven and a half at first. I was like, no, I can't let Zach rate this higher than me. <laugh> Speaker 1 00:39:17 As you choose, as you choose <laugh> Speaker 0 00:39:19 All right. Shall we move on to our next episode? Speaker 1 00:39:22 Okay. Yeah. So our next episode is episode 17 of season one called turn turn, turn. The IMDB description is shield has been compromised by an old enemy. The team doesn't know whom to trust. Speaker 0 00:39:35 Wow. That is brief. And doesn't give too much away. I like it. Speaker 1 00:39:39 Yeah, but it captures the feeling of the episode very well Speaker 0 00:39:43 <laugh> oh yeah, it does. So we get a bunch of stuff in this previously on, so, and I will sum summarize the and other stuff that we didn't necessarily see between, you know, episodes one and six 17, the big, bad of season one is known as the clairvoyant. He's the person behind centipede. Uh, and they think they find, find him before they get any real information out of him. Ward kills him. Agent may has a secure line on the bus that she's contacting someone with. It's also Colson figures out that Claire Voyant who their name is such because they think that he is the clairvoyant is actually psychic. Doesn't actually have powers, but they have a security clearance. Speaker 1 00:40:30 Ah, so he is basically the calculator. Speaker 0 00:40:32 Yeah. Yeah. Basically in the previous episode we meet agent Garrett and agent triplet agent Garrett was, uh, wards. So his superior officer, the person who trained him and uh, right now agent trip is, or triplet is underneath, uh, Garrett's wing. And as all, a lot of these secrets start coming to light. The bus is taken over by Victoria hand, who isn't an high ranking shield agent and her instructions to the people, to her team is kill everyone on board except Colson. So that's all a lot of the setup. So it's a lot of setup here, but I think this is a good episode. You Speaker 1 00:41:11 Also had may and Colson pointing guns at each other where the episode starts. Speaker 0 00:41:15 I, I forgot about that part. Yeah. So which Speaker 1 00:41:17 Is that what the show is like the characters always at each other's throats. Speaker 0 00:41:21 No, it's just this part here. Speaker 1 00:41:23 Okay. <laugh> Speaker 0 00:41:25 We see, uh, a shield plane, either dally or non detic. I'm not actually sure. We hear don't fear. The Reaper. Great song needs more cowbell. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:41:35 This part was really good. I like the planes flying around. I like the music is a great way to start the episode. Yeah. And then there's bill Paxton. What's not to life Speaker 0 00:41:43 Or who plays agent Garrett. He's at the, uh, the yolk of the, of the plane computer tells him that he U of is detected. He tries to contact shield. No one's answering him. They start firing missiles at him. He dives and he rolls and like get manages to get the missiles, to crash into each other, pulls up alongside the drones and finds out that their shield, drones, Speaker 1 00:42:07 Dun, dun, what is happening Speaker 0 00:42:11 On the bus? Colson and sky have agent may at gunpoint or ICER point, at least mm-hmm <affirmative> they're asking her, why did she reroute the bus? She's like, no, I didn't do this. HQ can take remote control. All right. So why did you have an encrypted hard line? And she says, apparently it was a dedicated channel to director fury and she's under orders, but she can't get in touch with fury. Speaker 1 00:42:34 They're so suspicious. Speaker 0 00:42:36 There's a lot of suspicion going on right here. Speaker 1 00:42:39 They're like you're full of shit. Agent bay, a direct line to fury, pull our other leg. And I'm kind of like, don't you guys like work in this field. You think that wouldn't be that far fetched of a claim that she reports directly to hell. Speaker 0 00:42:52 Yeah. But so supposedly does Colson. So that's why he's like feeling like he was out of the loop on it and wonder and demanding to know why there's, there's a lot of stuff that happened in between here and now. Colson got tortured in, in a machine, the machine that brought him back to life. Speaker 1 00:43:09 Yeah. They talk about that. Yeah. It's just, there's a lot of counter accusations. Speaker 0 00:43:13 There's a lot of stuff that happened that made Coleson more and more suspicious of what's going on and how he was actually brought back. So that's, that's part of why all the suspicions flying around may tries to deflect the, um, suspicion off of her onto fit because what was Fitz doing rummaging around in the sat cables. Speaker 1 00:43:33 Yeah. I just have to do it more accusations, more secrets, more yelling Speaker 0 00:43:38 <laugh> so Colson has sky. Get her laptop to find any shield communications and is like, who is she Simmons talking to? She might be putting herself in danger cuz we don't know who to trust. And as if to answer that question, we see Simmons in a lab at the hub and agent trip approaches. Apparently it's very noisy today in the hub. There's a lot going on. He's wondering, you know what she's working on, but she's being very secret about it. Speaker 1 00:44:03 So many secrets <laugh> yeah. It's almost like this is a SP show Speaker 0 00:44:07 <laugh> yeah. So he mentions on that mission. We did together, which was in another episode that we saw a serum that brought a girl back to life. But now I'm thinking about it. I didn't see anything about it in the report. And Simon explains that she's trying to keep the secret. She needs to contact her mentor. Dr. Weaver at she academy, he says that his level six clearance gets him access to the hollow box communication. So he he'll try to set something up. Speaker 1 00:44:36 This is kind of a lot. Speaker 0 00:44:38 Yeah. It's a lot Speaker 1 00:44:39 <laugh> yeah. Speaker 0 00:44:40 Back on the bus days or not Daisy sky <laugh> can't get any shield signals. Colson still has me at gunpoint and asks her why that they, why are all the signals down? She claims she doesn't know. But as soon as that happens, Garrett breaks through the noise. Those drones are still on him. So Coleson just shoots me with ANR. <laugh> Speaker 1 00:45:06 Yeah. It's gonna see just a lot of time there Coleson, if it's not deadly. Speaker 0 00:45:11 Yep. Colson has fits rewire the guns to manual control and basically like, you know the scene in star wars, he's taking out the drones. Speaker 1 00:45:22 Yeah. It was a good aerial battle. Speaker 0 00:45:24 Yeah. I liked it. He takes out one and then suggests to Garrett that he should play dead, which means Colson's gonna fire two missiles at him. And Garrett will fly right between the two missiles, which will take out the other drone. Speaker 1 00:45:39 It's like TV level, top gun Speaker 0 00:45:42 <laugh>. So Victoria hand and the hub gets reports on the drones. One of the other agents is like, are you sure we, we should be trying to keep, you know, kill these people who were once our friends. And she says that once that encoded transition went out, everything changed. And if you waiver you die Speaker 1 00:46:00 <laugh> so her plan, knowing that Hydra is going out, is this kill everybody <laugh> and let God sort them out. Presumably Speaker 0 00:46:08 Seemingly well kind, we'll see Garrett ducks. He reveals that they're being brought to the hub and Colson reveals to Gar that clairvoyant is a shield agent. He thinks it's Victoria hand as is going on. Sky is decoding a message that was sent out out of the shadows into the light. H Speaker 1 00:46:29 Yeah. I like how they put H at the end, just so dumb audience members can figure it out. Speaker 0 00:46:35 <laugh> so this, like, this happened simultaneously, like this was released the, either the same week or the week after captain America, the winter soldier came out. So that whole reveal, that was like the way they orchestrated that and had it happen here and there, it, I, it was brilliant. And so that, that, like seeing it actually happen here was really fun. Speaker 1 00:46:55 Yeah. I remember it blew people's minds at the time and it is pretty impressive and they haven't done it since to have a TV overlap with the movies. So, well, I think the movie came out that weekend and then agents were still dropped on Tuesdays. So it was a few days later. Speaker 0 00:47:10 Yeah. So long enough to get most of your die hard fans out to the theater, but still short enough that you have that overlap. Speaker 1 00:47:18 Yeah. It's pretty impressive. Cuz it feels like a live universe where Speaker 0 00:47:21 Mm-hmm <affirmative> it does. Yeah. It really did. Like this was the one of the times where yeah, it really felt like it was all connected. Mm-hmm <affirmative> Colson realizes this is an activation message to hydro members within shield. Fitz is like, wait, what? Wasn't hydro defeated in world war II and is, and he is and Colson replies. Yes. And shield was, you know, founded in the wake of that victory. So Garrett decides he wants to abandon ship, you know, just parachute out and regroup somewhere else. But Fitz reminds everyone that Simmons at the hub and they need to go and rescue her. Speaker 1 00:47:55 Yeah. Speaker 0 00:47:56 So back at the hub, Victoria hand is putting a bunch of shield agents into custody, Simmons and trip are still unaccounted for and by unaccounted for you, me, she means that they're just in the same lab that they've been in this whole time and haven't moved <laugh> Speaker 1 00:48:12 <laugh> yeah. Speaker 0 00:48:14 So Simmons gets through to Dr. Weaver, like on a, on a hologram. Speaker 1 00:48:18 Yeah. This was like the, the Inso Trek discovery. How they have the better holograms <laugh> than in the future also reminded me of the hologram message from serenity that they find it's just like, as you can see it, wasn't what we thought. Speaker 0 00:48:31 Uh, I dunno. I was getting Leia, um, you know, help us, help me be one Kenobi vibes. Speaker 1 00:48:37 Yeah. That's also true. Anything with a hologram slash binary side, Speaker 0 00:48:40 But yeah. <laugh> so she is under attack at academy hydro attack or attacking. She says don't trust anyone. Once that happens, trip locks the door. Speaker 1 00:48:52 Well, he acts pretty suspicious. Speaker 0 00:48:54 Exactly. Yeah. Well, Speaker 1 00:48:55 I, I don't really know how to describe how he acts. He seems like a bad guy. Speaker 0 00:49:00 Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:49:01 <laugh> Speaker 0 00:49:02 And she like is like, how can I trust you? And like he brings out a knife, uh, like a retractable knife and like seeming very threatening and then gives it to Simmons. I was like, oh, I was okay. That's how, because I gave you a weapon. Speaker 1 00:49:17 Yeah. I guess here she's okay. Speaker 0 00:49:18 Yeah. So in a holding cell may wakes up, uh she's in the interrogation room actually with ward who has been in there since he shot the clairvoyant or the fake clairvoyant, at least Speaker 1 00:49:31 <laugh>. Yeah. Well that award, he is always in trouble for something. Speaker 0 00:49:34 And he's like impressed that may was cunning them this whole time reporting on them. Behind their backs. Speaker 1 00:49:40 Yeah. So this is like the burn notice thing. It's like, you guys are spies. You're gonna have to get over the fact that people sometimes lie to you. I mean, are you serious? Yeah. Speaker 0 00:49:49 But you don't, you think it'll happen, you know, outside of your team, not from people on your own team. Speaker 1 00:49:56 I just wish someone said, I lied to you to protect you <laugh> that never gets along. Speaker 0 00:50:01 Does no one say that? Speaker 1 00:50:02 Not, not this time. I would've written it down. I never miss it. If it, if it happens all, Speaker 0 00:50:07 All put a pin in that she said, yeah they did. And you shot him, the Clara VA to protect sky. Oh yeah. Another thing that happened in these, between these episodes, because there's, you know, clearly some underlying sexual tension between ward and sky, but in the meantime, may and ward hooked up. Speaker 1 00:50:25 Yes. That I do remember. Remember once they mentioned that, I thought that was funny. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:50:30 Anyways, but may reveals that ward actually shot the wrong guy. And once that's revealed Colson, lets both of them out because they realize they need their help. Even though they don't necessarily trust them entirely. Speaker 1 00:50:44 Mm-hmm <affirmative> Speaker 0 00:50:45 So coastal lets out may to get fury on the line, ward is let out because they're gonna need a specialist. Garrett informs ward that they think Victoria hand is the clairvoyant. She's like, how about that? Chew on that may gets onto her secure line, says it's emergency protocol one and someone else picks up on the other line. Who's not fury. Apparently director fury is dead. Speaker 1 00:51:10 That was a really good reveal that just like someone else picks up and you're like, what, what? Speaker 0 00:51:16 And as soon as that happens, the bus gets shot up cuz they're on the ground now. Speaker 1 00:51:22 Right. Speaker 0 00:51:23 So may is over in a med bay. She reveals that fur sign may to watch Colson for signs of physical or mental deterioration as a result of bringing him back. Speaker 1 00:51:34 Yeah. So I guess the truth about Tahiti has been revealed by now to something, something strung it out longer. Speaker 0 00:51:40 It's it's, it's still ongoing. But the fact is that there's a drug that, that they use to revive him. And then also they use this giant computer to re to rewire his brain Speaker 1 00:51:50 Ah-huh <laugh> Speaker 0 00:51:51 Yeah. So apparently she made an assessment and told Furo was necessary for this team. What she wanted was a bio, someone in biomed to repair his body. If anything happened, an engineer who could reprogram his brain and a specialist who could help her take Colson down if it was necessary. And she says she did it all. She lied to him to protect him. Speaker 1 00:52:15 Oh, there you go. Speaker 0 00:52:16 <laugh> that's why I'm like, I know it's there actually. I do have it written down. Speaker 1 00:52:20 Good job Pascal. So it's all about Colson. It's all about him. But like why? Speaker 0 00:52:27 Because it was an experiment to see if they could bring someone back basically. Speaker 1 00:52:32 Oh, okay. Speaker 0 00:52:33 Which we don't find out here, but that's that's yeah. That's what it, that's what it is. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:52:37 Oh, okay. Yeah. I like the reveal that Megan was behind it all. That's very much like fury, like playing three dimensional chess, like manipulating the Avengers and then manipulating the shield agents. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so I like that. Speaker 0 00:52:49 So it's revealed that fits cut the hydraulics on the cargo bay doors for the bus. So it'll buy them some time. They need to wipe the system for all this fancy tech that they've encountered, you know, in their adventures, which they don't want to get into the hands of anyone else. Speaker 1 00:53:07 Right. Speaker 0 00:53:08 As they do. So sky is backing up all that information on a, on a drive, see trip and Simmons taken into custody and the goons blow the cargo bay doors, open board the plane. But finally there's no one on the, on the bus. Speaker 1 00:53:25 Hey, uh, can you guys come give us a hand with this Speaker 0 00:53:28 <laugh> Speaker 1 00:53:30 And then later they take out the tractor beam. Do you remember that Speaker 0 00:53:32 Part? Yep. Yep so they, but they escaped by actually cutting through the bottom of the plane with, I forget, oh, it's called a mouse hole. I think this gadget that, uh, fits it, created, which we actually saw in the winter soldier as well. Speaker 1 00:53:45 Yeah. But he introduces it this episode just when he needs it, just like James Bond would do Speaker 0 00:53:50 <laugh> split up sky and ward are going to disable the systems and get control of the bus. Speaker 1 00:53:56 You think that will be, I can take out the tractor even time. Speaker 0 00:53:59 <laugh> okay. That's enough. All Speaker 1 00:54:02 Right. Speaker 0 00:54:03 Uh, and so it's, I, they told ICERs only everyone else is gonna rescue Simmons and trip. Okay. You know, now that you say it, I can't, we'll get to why I can't unsee that now. Speaker 1 00:54:16 Good. That's why I'm here. Speaker 0 00:54:18 So Victoria hand is interrogating Simmons and trip. She reveals that Hydra has taken over director. Fur is dead and they have to either swear loyalty to Hydra or they'll die. Speaker 1 00:54:30 Yeah. It comes off like a villain monologue. Certainly. Speaker 0 00:54:33 Yeah. And as this they're told this trip knocks one of the guys guns out of the way, Simmons throws him the knife and he gets one of the man at knife point. And as this is happening, Victoria hands super nonplused about is like, that was the correct answer. <laugh> and apparently it was an all, all a test because they're not hydro, they're the ones who are loyal to shield. Speaker 1 00:54:56 Oh boy, this is making my head hurt. Speaker 0 00:54:58 <laugh> so they have all of everyone who's level five and under in holding cells. And they also have microphones in those holding cells to see who may or may not actually be hydro and who may not be, who is loyal to shield in there, which is not a bad idea. Speaker 1 00:55:14 I was confused by this. I thought hydrate just taken over everything. And she was to be, yeah, but like take over this one base. Speaker 0 00:55:22 Yeah. Oh no, no. They tried to, but Victoria hand got away with like got, got control. Well, she, she and her cell of like seven people are trying to get the upper hand. Speaker 1 00:55:34 Well then who fired on the bus? Speaker 0 00:55:37 Her. Speaker 1 00:55:38 Okay. Speaker 0 00:55:38 Cause she thinks hand is HDRA or not hand Colson is HDRA. Speaker 1 00:55:42 Yeah. She says that, but why? Speaker 0 00:55:45 Because he's been acting out of the ordinary and we have a, we'll have a whole list of why later on. Speaker 1 00:55:51 He explains that. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:55:52 So anyways, the thing that made me think of star wars is Gar and Fitzer pretending to be hydro agents taking in Maine Colson in handcuffs, very chewy in the disguise is Speaker 1 00:56:03 Where are you taking this thing? Speaker 0 00:56:05 Prisoner transfer from cell block 1 0 3 8. Speaker 1 00:56:08 Yeah. I mean, I also have star wars written down there. Speaker 0 00:56:10 Yeah. <laugh> yeah. So they get control of this. I think this is a surveillance station so they can see all the surveillance cameras. So yeah. So here's where Victoria hand is insisting that calls it this Hydra soon refuses to believe it. They list off all of his crimes, like disobeying orders. Speaker 1 00:56:26 I written down, she says, he's a liar. And he keeps secrets again. <laugh> they work for a spy agency. Speaker 0 00:56:34 Yeah. But you're not supposed to keep secrets from each other, Speaker 1 00:56:39 But they do. Right. Yeah. I mean, I feel like some of the movies we've covered in the past, they keep secrets from each Speaker 0 00:56:46 Other. True. But she is supposed to be a better agency. Speaker 1 00:56:49 <laugh> a fictional agency. Speaker 0 00:56:50 A, a fictional better agency. Yes. But I'm trying to think of thing. Oh yes. Like there's things that he like that he did that made him seem like he was actually HRA, like, or he was at least not under control of his own actions. Speaker 1 00:57:04 Yeah. He's a bad boy. He doesn't play by the rules. Speaker 0 00:57:07 Sky and ward are in a closet together. They're getting ready to try to go. After the control center. Speaker 1 00:57:14 Also around here, she gives him the big, hard drive, right. With all their secrets. Speaker 0 00:57:18 Oh yes. He says this, this is probably safer with you. Yep. Speaker 1 00:57:22 I was like, oh no. Cause I remember ward is HRA. I remembered that <laugh> Speaker 0 00:57:27 Yeah. So he's feeling guilty for apparently killing an innocent man. The fake clairvoyant, he says, he thought she was protect. He was protecting her and then says that, you know, maybe if we make out all of this, you know, can we grab a drink and talk like you offered to before, Speaker 1 00:57:45 Ugh. This conversation was so awkward. Speaker 0 00:57:47 She says, when we get outta this, yes we'll we'll have, get, grab a drink and talk. And then she kisses him Speaker 1 00:57:54 And then a great fights scene. Dual wielding. Speaker 0 00:57:56 Yeah. Amazing fights. Speaker 1 00:57:57 Lots of punching. Speaker 0 00:57:58 Yeah. Dual wheeling. The ICERs he fights off 12 guys and it starts, you know, starts off. It looks like he's doing pretty, pretty good. But then he is like overwhelmed and he is getting, looks like he's getting the crap beat out of him. And they're like stomping him. Yeah. And you see sky listening in on the fight. It sounds like ward has been beaten. Cuz all the sounds stop. And then a door opens and it's actually ward who somehow got the advantage. Yeah. So she reveals toward that. She's not gonna hack the system. She's gonna blow it up. Cuz she's got a ton of explosives. Speaker 1 00:58:32 Mm-hmm Speaker 0 00:58:33 <affirmative> may spots, hand on the surveillance cameras. Garrett says that he wants to take out hand. Colson wants to question her instead. Garrett reveals more than he should know specifically. He knows about Colson being tortured in the machine, which Colson says he never told anyone. Garrett claims he must have read in a report and is at this point that Colson figures out that Garrett is the real clairvoyance. Speaker 1 00:58:59 Yeah. This is a spy movie cliche, but I never get sick of it. Speaker 0 00:59:03 No, no it's good. Yeah. Like that whole, Speaker 1 00:59:06 I never told you that I wear blue underwear Speaker 0 00:59:12 <laugh> you never told me her name was America Chavez or something like that. Speaker 1 00:59:15 <laugh> something like that. Speaker 0 00:59:16 Yeah. Yeah. Uh it's it's classic and I do love, I like it. It, when I can spot it and identify it when I'm it makes me feel clever because I'm like, oh, oh wait. She never said that. Good. Speaker 1 00:59:30 You should feel clever. That's impressive. Speaker 0 00:59:32 Yeah. But yeah, just as it's revealed a bunch of men barge into the room, have them all at gunpoint. Garrett tells them, I know that, uh, agents Sitwell was in charge of filling out your, your ranks and told you what to do in a situation like this. And at that point, a bunch of the agents kill the other agents. And those are the, all the hydro loyalists, Speaker 1 00:59:56 Dun dun well, all the hydro loyalists or are they just happen to be hydro loyalists? Like presumably there are more elsewhere. Speaker 0 01:00:03 Oh yeah. One of, but they're the ones of that group who came in. Those are the hydro loyalists that who just killed the loyal shield agents. Speaker 1 01:00:10 Yes. Speaker 0 01:00:11 So they get fit Coston and may in handcuffs, Garretts monologing says he's not necessarily a true believer in hydro, but he felt the wind changing directions and swung as sail. Speaker 1 01:00:21 That was great. That was just my favorite part of the episode. Because as the chattering class on say, oh, HRA Nazis, they're white supremacists. They're totally evil. And maybe we shouldn't be making movies, but the minute, but then I'm like, well what made so many shield agents join them? Like what's their motive. Cause I don't think Garrett's like a white supremacist and he doesn't come off that way. But I liked that in this episode he was like, yeah, they're taken over and it's either get out of the way or get run over. So I'm gonna go with them cuz they're like the stronger horse or whatever. I like that. Speaker 0 01:00:59 They say that they'll put F fits into their tech division either by force or by choice and fits as defiance saying. Nope. Yeah, you can might as well just kill me. And they're all about to be executed when the power goes out. When the reveal that war and sky took out the power with their explosion. Speaker 1 01:01:18 Well, yeah, they do the, the good two explosion joke. Speaker 0 01:01:22 <laugh> was that it? Have you seen that before? Yeah. <laugh> yeah. Uh, I feel like, yes, but I don't know where anyways. So me and Colson used the distraction to take out Hydra. Goons may does this incredible like black widow esque move Speaker 1 01:01:36 <laugh> yeah. They got this tongue coordinator to double time with that. Speaker 0 01:01:39 Yeah. And like may is about to be taken out by another goon when actually fits uses a real gun, not just an ICER, but an actual gun to shoot one of the hydro goons as he's like hiding under a table. Speaker 1 01:01:52 Yeah. What a guy. Speaker 0 01:01:54 Yeah. Colson and Garrett are having a big fight and fits helps Colson out with the, some sort of like sun grenade, gadget hand, and her team burst in and get control of the situation. Speaker 1 01:02:05 Sohan says we heard everything. And I was like, are you what? This, this what? But then I remember Speaker 0 01:02:11 Microphones everywhere. Speaker 1 01:02:12 Yeah. They had surveillance cameras that I guess are still working even in the middle of a H takeover. So it's fine. Speaker 0 01:02:18 They take all of the hydro goons into custody, including Garrett. This is when trip finds out that Garrett is Hydra and he's pissed. Ward also finds out. And this is all in like in, uh, would just like music cut over it. So we don't actually hear what they're saying, Speaker 1 01:02:37 Uhhuh, Speaker 0 01:02:38 But ward finds out and he's looking really upset as well. And sky sees him and like wants to comfort him. Victoria hand reveals or basically recaps the end of captain America. The winner soldier Speaker 1 01:02:50 <laugh> yeah. Speaker 0 01:02:51 Says that captain America defeated the, he carriers at the Traian, but Hydra has taken over various facilities. It's gonna be a power grab. Speaker 1 01:03:00 Yeah. Hand in Colson are now in charge. Speaker 0 01:03:03 Yep. So a hand is gonna head to the fridge, which is their holding facility, uh, to bring all of the Hydra, Hydra, goons, particularly Garrett mm-hmm <affirmative> ward says that he wants to go with, to ensure Garrett is secure and also wants to see him suffer <laugh> and hand leaves Colson in charge of the hub. And they reveal that. Yeah, they may be the highest ranking shield agents left. So ward leaves with hand and the rest of the team goes to see the remains of the bus. Colson tells sky to reinstall the firmware to get it up and running. Speaker 1 01:03:39 He says may is not a friend. We are not friends. Today's you can't sit at my lunch table. Speaker 0 01:03:45 <laugh> Speaker 1 01:03:46 I don't understand why like her story checked out. Speaker 0 01:03:49 But she, he still doesn't it's because she lied to him. Speaker 1 01:03:54 <laugh> but she lied to in order to protect him. No, I guess after a day, like today he's like just suspicious in general HES a little bit of time. Speaker 0 01:04:02 Yeah. So yes, on the transport plane to the fridge, Victoria hand thinks that maybe sh they should kill Garrett before they get to the fridge might be better. That way she gives ward the opportunity. He loads his gun and instead of killing Garrett, he kills everyone else, including Victoria hand. Speaker 1 01:04:21 Yeah. That was sad. I liked Victoria hand. Speaker 0 01:04:23 Yeah. And then I like this. So usually at the end of every episode, before they have their like last scene, they have a, a shield logo this time it's a hydro logo. Speaker 1 01:04:33 Nice. I also thought that at the end we were gonna get one more hail hydro. Cause they're like looking at each other. I was like waiting for them to say it Uhhuh. Actually what I was wait for was Garrett to say it or no, I was looking for word to say, I was waiting for word to say it. Speaker 0 01:04:47 Yeah. Speaker 1 01:04:47 But he never does. And then we get a post credit scene of him just brooding in the airplane. Speaker 0 01:04:52 Yeah. So Garrett's like telling another one of his stories about this one time and something, something, something ward is looking down super propensive and then looks up and stares straight at the camera. Speaker 1 01:05:03 Yeah. Okay. So now it's time for our spy factor versus fiction. I have a little bit. Speaker 0 01:05:08 All right. What do you have? Speaker 1 01:05:09 So I was trying to think, do we have any stories of like a whole organization getting taken over? I was thinking about it and I was like, yeah, I read a news article. So here's a news article from the BBC Israel's Maad suspected of a high level Iran penetration. Speaker 0 01:05:24 Oh, interesting. All right. Speaker 1 01:05:25 So do you remember in November, 2020, which feels like a very long time ago when that nuclear scientist got killed with a remote control machine gun? Speaker 0 01:05:36 I do not remember. You'll Speaker 1 01:05:37 Remember that. Oh, it was, it was a big news story. So this guy named Moen FA Rosati Iran's most prominent nuclear scientist was assassinated with a machine gun that was controlled by artificial intelligence and a remote control. Speaker 0 01:05:50 Whoa. Speaker 1 01:05:51 While he was driving in his car. So not only do you require, you require a lot of stuff like that. According to the article and there were no civilian casualties, according to a rounds intelligence minister Mamu ALA, he said the person who planned the killing was a member of the armed forces. We couldn't carry out Intel operations on the armed forces. He implied the perpetrator was a member of the Islamic revolutionary guard core there most elite military unit. If so, they would've to be high enough to basically brush off the warrant and carry out the plan, uh, sources inside Tehran's Evan prison. Security ward says that there are scores of high ranking. I RTC commanders held there also Iranian ambassadors. Speaker 0 01:06:33 Whoa. Um, Speaker 1 01:06:35 Yeah. Today former Iranian officials are concerned that the Maad has reached officials high up in Iranian security and intelligence institutions. According to Ali Sini, a former Iranian intelligence minister, the quote, the Maad influence in many parts of the country is so vast that every member of the Iranian leadership should be worried for their lives and for their safety. So that's wild stuff. Speaker 0 01:07:00 Yeah. Speaker 1 01:07:01 That's all I have for SP factor versus fiction. Speaker 0 01:07:04 All right. I've got a little, so I've said all, we talked about shield. Why don't we talk about hydro Speaker 1 01:07:10 Uhhuh? Speaker 0 01:07:11 So according to Wikipedia and yeah, yeah. I'm just general comic reading knowledge from my end, hydro is a fictional terrorist organization appearing in Marvel comics. The name alludes to the mythical HRA, um, from Greek myth, uh, which was a multi-headed, uh, serpent as does its motto. If one head is cut off, two more shall take its place. Originally a Nazi organization led by the red skull during world war II, Hy is taken over and turned into a neo-Nazi international crime syndicate by a Barron Wolfgang V Strucker hydro agents often wear distinctive green garb featuring a serpent motif. And its first appearance was also in strange tales. Number 1 35 from August 90, 65, same issue as the first appearance of shield. And yeah, so it's appeared in various Marvel movies and TV shows and comic books. Um that's yeah. That's all I've got for spy effect versus spy fiction. Should we move on to our favorite quotes? Speaker 1 01:08:11 Yeah, that one was kind of a tough one. <laugh> Speaker 0 01:08:13 Yeah. Cuz I mean there's not a lot of like, I mean there's, there's things going on, but there's like a lot happening, but it's a lot is action based. Speaker 1 01:08:22 Uh, okay. Yeah. I can do a couple favorite quotes. I like the one with the wind shifted direction. All right. When he says, uh, Gary was like, you remember cutting the room, slicing the pie and he is moving has gone around. Speaker 0 01:08:33 Oh yeah. Speaker 1 01:08:34 But definitely my favorite one was also Garrett, when he says, is it cut off ahead? I thought it was a limb Speaker 0 01:08:41 <laugh> now Speaker 1 01:08:42 That's undermining the situation with the joke a little bit, but it was very subtle. It's just like the kind of thing I would say. Yeah. Speaker 0 01:08:49 All right. So I've got a few, I think both from agent Coon or one where he says, no, John, this is you being a psychopath Speaker 1 01:08:59 Mm-hmm <affirmative> Speaker 0 01:09:00 And then I, my favorite one will he goes, so we'll fly in there and face the music, even if it is the hydro theme song Speaker 1 01:09:06 <laugh> and we never got to hear that hydro theme song anyway. Speaker 0 01:09:09 No, no, we did not all. Speaker 1 01:09:13 All right. Now it's time for our ratings and on scale of one to 10, where team one being Avengers, 1997 and 10 being even better than burn notice, how do we rate turn, turn, turn season one episode 17 of agents of shield. Do you wanna go first this time? Speaker 0 01:09:28 Uh, you can go first. Speaker 1 01:09:29 Hmm. I feel like my rating will influence yours a lot Speaker 0 01:09:34 Interest. No, I've I've I've got up a pretty solid I've got in my mind. So let's hear it. Let's hear it. I'm curious. Speaker 1 01:09:39 Okay. So I didn't like this one as much as the first one. Okay. Guess it is mind blowing to have it sync up with the movie. But as an episode, there's a lot of double crosses. There's a lot of accusations and people yelling at each other and I just didn't find the story as engaging as I did the last one. So I'm gonna give it a seven out of 10. Speaker 0 01:09:59 No, I mean, I am solidly eight and a half on this one. I like it better than the pilot, I think. And it is to a degree because of that twist and being able to actually have it match up with the movie. But also even, just, even if you didn't know what was going on in the movie, if you had this twist, this and you reveal that not only is Hydra, is there a secret organization within the other organization that you're, you know, that you've been focusing on this whole time, but that one of the members of the team is actually a hydro agent. And you have no idea about until this point. I think it was such a good twist, such a good reveal. I didn't see it coming. I mean, I, I saw the hydro thing coming, cuz I actually got to see H uh, winter soldier, like about a month or a few weeks early, but I didn't see this word reveal coming. Speaker 0 01:10:51 I like, I mean, I love the sort of secret organizations and the stuff like that. And the, they just did the reveal so well like, and like, you may not have liked all the double crosses and turns, but I really enjoyed it. Like I like the, okay. The fact that you didn't know which side Victoria hand was actually on for a while. I liked it. That was good. Cuz I was like, wait, cuz in the comics, Victoria hand is not a Hy agent was like, wait, whether they're making error a hydrant. That's different. That's oh, I don't know how I feel about that. Oh, it's reveal. She's actually not, it all worked for me. So eight and a half out of 10 martinis. Speaker 1 01:11:28 Very nice. All right. Well, anything else you wanna say about agents of shield? Speaker 0 01:11:33 Um, uh, all the entire series is currently streaming on Disney plus. So if you wanna check it out, go there. I think even though some, it doesn't always directly connect to the movies, they do a good job of sort of syncing up to the feel of MCU is at that times, you know, when they have guardians of the galaxy show up in the Mo movies, it just feels just goes space. Doesn't directly cross over, but it has that sort of same feel, same thing with once they get to end game, they also coincidentally have a time travel plot. So <laugh>, I, it is a good sync of there's also actually I would highly recommend there's oh, I don't remember what season, season five or se season somewhere around there, which is the framework. Right? Um, there's a whole storyline about a framework, which is a virtual reality where that they get stuck in where Hydra actually won. Speaker 1 01:12:27 All right. Speaker 0 01:12:28 And it's, it's a really good sort of like they split that season season. You're a universe to half seasons. So the first half the season was I think ghost rider and the second half was the framework. So yeah, that framework part is top notch. I will say that. Speaker 1 01:12:44 Great. Thank you for listening that you for joining us, you could find us on social media at the Spotify guys on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram until next time I'm Zach Speaker 0 01:12:55 And I'm Christian Speaker 1 01:12:56 And we are the Spotify guys signing off. Speaker 0 01:13:03 Thank you for listening to the Spotify guys. If you enjoyed our podcast, please be sure to give us a five star rating on iTunes. The theme song from this podcast is mistake the getaway by Kevin MCLE from incompetent.com licensed under creative comments by attribution 3.0 films, books and television shows reviewed by our podcast are the intellectual property of their respective copyright holders. And no in refrigerant is intended. Speaker 3 01:13:29 This is a personal podcast. Any views, statements or opinions expressed in this podcast are personal and belong solely to the participants. They do not represent those. The people, institutions, or organizations that the participants may or may not be associated with in a professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group club or organization, company, or individual. You Speaker 0 01:13:54 Can find our podcast on social media at the guys on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.