‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Recap: ‘Code Yellow’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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Season five of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. really was quite the storytelling marvel when all is said and done. After all, it was moving, it was intense, and it worked incredibly hard to tie together as many plot threads as possible, in the event that ABC decided to pull the plug on the series. But while it did a fine job of providing so many characters with growth, and complete story arcs, the only real oversight in season five’s amazing work was Deke’s journey. After all, this poor man was in essence left to his own devices in a world he didn’t understand, and had the series ended, I suppose he would have just walked off into the sunset to enjoy as many ice cold Zimas as possible. But with the series coming back for season six, his fate hasn’t been a focus of the new storyline in the slightest, that is until the most recent episode.

For ‘Code Yellow’ finally brought Zeke back into the spotlight, and well, in doing so, this episode went in several directions that I simply was not expecting in the slightest. For this particular tale was not only lighthearted and silly and fun, but it also dropped some serious revelations in our laps. But, let’s not get too far ahead here, because first thing is first, in that, this story answers what happened to Deke after the end of season five and as it turns out, he’s been quite the busy little bee. Because everything he saw and encountered during his travels with S.H.I.E.L.D. inspired him to bring those experiences to life and strike it rich in the process, by way of a hyper hot tech company, wherein much of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s technology was being slowly recreated, as was the Framework and well, while that’s chilling in its own right, what made this segment of the story so fluffy, is how Deke adapted to modern life.

Because he was all about social media and buzz words and Boba tea and keeping his energy at a high level like the other tech titans of Silicon Valley and my goodness, everything present here, with the mugging for the camera, the quips and the Insta stories, well that just made for a delightful segment, one that quickly turned serious when Sarge showed up at Deke’s new company. For his arrival, and an ugly incident at a bus station, finally revealed why he has come to this world, and it would seem that Team Sarge is on quite the hunt for something supremely nefarious and while we know Deke doesn’t really qualify as that, his strange biometric signature was enough to get Sarge’s attention and well, his arrival led to quite the showdown with S.H.I.E.L.D., one that ended in bittersweet fashion. For while Deke was saved, May is now in Sarge’s hands and well, that should prove to be one heck of a wild ride in forthcoming episodes.

But, while all of that was pretty incredible in its own right, we do need to take a moment to discuss exactly what Sarge was looking for when he went to visit Deke. Because the incident at the bus station ended with someone losing their life in the wildest way imaginable, since a dagger to the chest turned a man into a crystal/human hybrid, and when the victim’s body was examined back at HQ, Benson made quite the shocking discovery in that, the body was host to some kind of bat-like parasite and unfortunately, the little bugger came back to life the instant the dagger was removed. But to complicate matters further, the creature found its way into Keller’s body, allowing for Benson and Yo-Yo to discover that when threatened, this nasty little parasite can cause some explosive trouble and sadly, while Yo-Yo and the doc made every effort to save Keller’s life, in the end it was either kill the creature or see HQ be reduced to rubble and Yo-Yo went with the former option, and plunged that dagger into the Keller/Parasite hybrid, ending her newfound love’s, life, but saving so many others in the process.

In the end however, wow, what an incredible episode this turned out to be. Because I was not expecting to learn about Sarge’s plans this early into the season, nor did I expect his machinations to be even remotely noble in nature since he really is trying to fight quite the powerful and dangerous threat, and the revelations present here, bring about some fascinating questions. For now we have to wonder, exactly how far this threat has spread across our world and whether or not the Sarge and his cheeky band of mercenaries will join up with S.H.I.E.L.D to fight it and well, this pivotal episode definitely has me excited to see what comes next in this incredible fight. Because this creature is a survivor, and while there is a way to detect it, you know darn well it will do whatever it takes to mask its appearance in order to stay alive, and that means our intrepid agents are in for quite the fight. Until next time. 

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