TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 Episode 14

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

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EPISODE 14: "T.A.H.I.T.I."

SYNOPSIS:  Coulson goes on the attack to save Skye—enlisting the aid of Ward's former S.O. John Garrett (Bill Paxton)—and uncovers shocking truths about his own life and S.H.I.E.L.D.

BREAKDOWN: (The following column contains MAJOR SPOILERS, so I don't recommend reading this if you haven't watched this episode).

After the last episode of AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel and ABC seem to have been in rescue mode to try and reestablish the tone of the series. Commercials airing during the Oscars subtitled the next story arc as "Uprising" with Captain America's shield coming into play. We have heard for a while that CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER would be a major event in the plotting of the television series and now we will begin to see how that will occur.

Picking up with Skye in Intensive Care, the team ponders their actions while Coulson tries to get Nick Fury on the line to save her.  The doctor says Skye cannot be saved which sends May in to kick Ian Quinn's ass.  But, here is where things begin to connect.  Coulson decides that the only course of action is to bring Skye to the doctors that saved him to do the same for her.  We learned over the last couple of episodes that Coulson's resurrection and the special nature of who Skye was as a child would come into play.  Maybe the big reveal that disappointed everyone was not the end of the story.

After disobeying an order to hand over Quinn, S.H.I.E.L.D. takes over the Bus and Coulson's command.  Boarding the plane is John Garrett (Bill Paxton) who has a history with both Coulson and Ward.  They decide to team to save Skye as she is evidence against Quinn.  Meanwhile, Fitz and Simmons review Coulson's file to see if they can find a way to save Skye.  What they find instead is that all of the data in the file seems to not exist and the doctors who treated Coulson are suddenly missing.  Quinn reveals that he shot Skye on orders from the Clairvoyant who is desperate to learn what happened to Coulson.

What is becoming more apparent now is that the disparate subplots and stories from the first 13 episodes of the season are somewhat interconnected.  Whether this is intentional from the outset or the result of the writers trying to appease dissatisfied fans, AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. is beginning to focus which is what it was missing for the last several months.

Fitz and Simmons discover a secret location known as The Guest House that may be where Fury had Coulson taken to be saved after THE AVENGERS.  Unable to confirm the entry passcode, the team storms the base.  Discovering the failsafe will self destruct the installation in 10 minutes, Coulson frantically looks for the medicine that helped save him.  He then finds the operating bay he remembered from his torturous surgery which in turn leads them to the GH-425 serum and a while marked T.A.H.I.T.I.

With Skye seizing and on the verge of death, Ward takes the serum to the Bus while Garrett finds Coulson dazed and wandering the base shouting not to give Skye the serum.  Barely making it off of the location as it explodes, Coulson reaches the team after they inject Skye, stabilizing her.  No one seems to know what Coulson saw or why he was afraid to give the serum to Skye.  Garrett takes Quinn into custody, leaving Coulson and the team to patch themselves back together.

May confronts Coulson about what he saw on the base.  Flashing back to that scene, we see Coulson in a room full of tubes linked to vials of the serum.  Within a large containment unit, Coulson discovers some sort of blue alien body missing it's lower half, seemingly the source of the serum.  

The closing scene shows a mysterious woman named Lorelai mentioning Midgard and taking a man under her spell.

MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE REFERENCES:

Coulson calls Nick Fury in the opening scene and the entirety of the episode deals with Coulson's death and return.  The closing scene features villain Lorelai who has direct connections to THOR and Loki.

BEST LINE:

"Catchy, right?  Sounds like some sort of wrestler from the 80s." – Agent Garrett in reference to Deathlok

COOLEST SCENE:

Fitz and Simmons using the holo-computer to deduce how to save Skye was pretty cool, but the reveal of the blue alien dude was pretty damn trippy.

DO WE (REALLY) KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO COULSON YET?  OR WHAT SKYE'S POWER IS?  OR WHO THE CLAIRVOYANT IS?

More layers of mystery!  Now we have this blue creature that somehow links to Coulson's resurrection as well as Skye's.  Plus more references to the Clairvoyant wanting to know Coulson's secret.  But, nothing concrete.

EPISODE CLEARANCE LEVEL: 9/10

Another really good episode.  This is the tone and style that would have made the first 13 episodes of the series a hell of a lot more consistent.  A few mild moments of humor, but overall a serious, action-packed and fun hour of television.  The mystery elements set up from the pilot continue to be invoked while references to the Marvel Universe are built into the plot rather than dropped in just for name value.  This is what the show needs to be and hopefully the second half of this season will be as good as this episode.

NEXT ON MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.:

Episode 15 – "Yes Men" airs March 11th.

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