"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Recap: "Many Heads, One Tale"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

At least once a year, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. puts on a penultimate episode that manages to not only blow away the fans, but at the same time change the dynamic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and last night...that episode arrived on our television screens and holy cow, did they unleash the storytelling fury upon all of us. 

Not only did we get all kinds of answers about the ATCU and their purpose, the potential future for Ftiz and Simmons' wacky relationship (they kiss and quite frankly it was overshadowed by everything else so let's leave it at that), we also got a peek into the true origin of Hydra and in the process the show did what it does best, tie everything together in impressive fashion. So where do we begin this week, well that's easy, let's start with the simplest of the surprises to digest last night, the fact that Rosalind Price is a good guy after all. 

It turns out that Price was basically hired to do a job, run the ATCU and nothing more, and this discovery only came about because of the fact that Coulson decided it was finally time to research this mysterious organization and infiltrate it with his people to find out what they were truly up to. The team quickly discovers that not only are the Inhumans not being stored in the primary facility as they were led to believe, but that a vast supply of fish oil tablets are being handed out in the hopes of creating more Inhumans, but the exact reason as to why is unknown to the team...all that Price and the team are able to ascertain is that it is somehow related to Gideon Malick and Hydra friend and that's when the real surprises came into play as the show dropped several on us.

The first one, is the fact that Powers Boothe is not playing a new Hydra character, he is in fact reprising his role as a World Council Member from The Avengers and after toying with Grand Ward in a roundabout murdery sort of way he lures Grant to the Von Strucker vault to reveal Hydra's true origins, our second surprise of the night. As the story goes, ages ago an Inhuman was born on earth. Worshipped by some, feared by others this creature was banished to another world and those who believed that this being was meant to rule it all...brought forth the birth of Hydra and they have been sending a blood sacrifice to this planet for ages, the last one being Jemma's beloved Will and Mister Malick, is building an army of Inhumans to help this creature rule us all because he is fully aware of the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. brought someone back. 

So...wow. I actually like this crazy twist that the show put together for Hydra simply because, it gives them a new depth and direction. It does explain why the Red Skull was so obsessed with the Tesseract since he and Hydra believe true power comes from beyond and it's an interesting path for the organization as a whole when you think about it. Clearly somewhere along the way they decided taking over the world on their own mattered more and guys like Malick just sat back and enjoyed the ride. Either way, I know not everyone will be cool with it, some folks that I've talked with found this revelation to be underwhelming so really...it's up to the show to make it worth our while, but alas...we are on a brief hiatus until December 1st...guess we find out how this all comes together in a couple of weeks. Until then. 

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