Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Eye Spy”

Season One, Episode Four

Grade: B-

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So with the Gravitonium behind us, we get a glance at Sweden where the opening scene instantly grabs you. Dozens of men wearing identical suits, masks, and suitcases that are handcuffed to them, walk into a subway train. What’s the deal? By the way, if I witnessed this while I was traveling, there is no way I would stick around to see what happens. The lights go out, the men in the suits get beat up and only one man gets his hand cut off. The suitcase is gone. There was $30 million worth of diamonds in that suitcase, and only that suitcase.

Pretty cool, huh? So how did this expert woman know which suitcase had the diamonds? That’s the question Agent Coulson asks and for some reason, only Skye provides a decent answer. Maybe she’s super-human. Skye seems like the only person who is willing to admit this during their research. But we find out that the woman who’s behind the diamond theft is Akela Amador, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s former agents and one that Coulson trained personally.

While the muscle go out and try to handle Amador, the geeks stay back in the van to see if they can locate her using computers and stuff. They’re finally able to hack into what they believe to be a Swedish television program, until they find out they’re watching themselves being watched. Before they know it, they’re being tossed around inside the flipped van, courtesy of Amador. But their breakthrough alerts to team that Amador has a camera inside of her eye that is giving her commands. Once May finds out her location, we have a fight!

Thanks to Agent Coulson, they’re able to take Amador back to the plane where they hacked the feed of her eye-camera to a pair of glasses that Fitz and Simmonds constructed. This is where the show speeds up and at the same time slows down. While Agent Ward and Skye go all 007 on a bunch of armed guards, Coulson and Amador get in touch with their feelings. It made for some very uneven television on a usually balanced series.

In the end, S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t able to find out who the handler is that threatened Amador’s life through her eye-camera, but they’re able to take a photo of what was apparently worth $30 million: some kind of alien formula. Ming-Na Wen was as emotionless as ever, and even Clark Gregg seemed slightly bored throughout. Once again, Skye had the emotional story-line when compared to Coulson giving Amador a second chance. Skye’s thankful for Coulson trusting her when no one has in a long time. And just when I thought the Skye/Ward romance was put to rest, she goes and puts on those damn glasses and smiles. Hey, it made me laugh so I’m still buying Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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Last but not least:

• More social networking sites come in and save the day! Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr.
• Coulson tells Skye that Amador is everything she’s not, “Smart, talented, and fearless.” Along with not playing well with others, but still the first part made for a good chuckle.
• Like Ward mentioning Skye’s poor gun handling and seeing a gun in a cooler didn’t give us enough hints that Skye was set up to fail.
• Agent Ward has man hands while Amador doens’t. He also doesn’t have hands of an African American.
• Possibly the best part about this episode was Amador asking May about what happened to Coulson. He changed enough for Amador to notice, and it seems like she’s blaming S.H.I.E.L.D. for changing him. Hmm…