"Love in the Time of HYDRA" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Coulson and his team are still reeling from a shocking revelation that leaves the team fractured as they must decide what to do with one of their own. Meanwhile, Bobbi and Mack reveal their true allegiance to Hunter, while elsewhere, Ward and Agent 33 embark on a personal mission.
Plot[]
Grant Ward and Agent 33, who have been on the lam since the events in Puerto Rico, hold up a diner. Rather than taking any money, the two of them kidnap one of the diner's patrons - a doctor. They take him back to the hotel room they've been staying in and have him do work on the nanomask covering Agent 33's face. He manages to repair it, giving her the ability to copy anyone's face over her own. However, she doesn't want to take the mask off due to the scarring she received in her fight with Agent May, and she cannot make the mask project her face without a picture of her from before she was scarred. Agent 33 cycles through a few different faces before settling on Skye's, which she uses to try and "thank" Ward for all he's done for her. Ward rejects her advances, and says that he's over Skye ever since she shot him in Puerto Rico. Instead, Ward plans for the two of them to get their hands on Sunil Bakshi.
At the Playground, Coulson considers what to do with Skye. Dr. Garner suggested that she be removed from active S.H.I.E.L.D. duty, and May agrees. Coulson is hesitant to do anything with her since he puts so much faith into her, but he eventually decides to move Skye into an isolated cabin Fury used to house Superpowered individuals. Before he leaves, Coulson gives Skye a pair of gloves Simmons built that will minimize the effect of her powers. Meanwhile, Lance Hunter is being introduced to the "real" S.H.I.E.L.D. Mack and Bobbi work for. They are a group of former agents who emerged from the rubble of Fury's organization, such as Bobbi, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy Anne Weaver, and their apparent leader, Robert Gonzales. They believe Coulson is unfit to lead the organization, that he needlessly endangers his agents such as Triplett and Isabelle Hartley in search of alien technology he discovered through visions in his head. Gonzales wants Hunter held at their location until they can take Coulson out, removing him from the situation until he chooses to join them. Hunter, however, managed to escape the facility during a fight, and, discovering the "real" S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base is out at sea, takes a helicopter back to the mainland. Because of this, Gonzales makes Bobbi reaffirm her allegiance to their cause, since she easily could have prevented Hunter's escape if she wanted.
Meanwhile, Ward and Agent 33 break into the Air Force base where Bakshi is being held prisoner. Agent 33 uses her mask to impersonate Brigadier General Talbot's wife Carla, but their ruse is discovered when the real Carla Talbot calls her husband to tell him she's stuck in traffic. Talbot has his assistant round up the female officers on base so he can expose the mole, but really Agent 33 has since taken the disguise of one of the male soldiers stationed at the base. Ward knocks out one of the security guards and takes his keys, and the two of them go to Bakshi's cell. Bakshi at first believes Hydra sent Agent 33 to rescue him, but once he sees Ward he realizes something is wrong. Agent 33 knocks him out, and they take him back to their hotel room, where Bakshi is subjected to the same method of psychological torture Dr. Whitehall used to brainwash Agent 33. With her confidence in herself restored, Agent 33 takes off the mask to reveal her scarred face beneath.
Cast[]
- Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
- Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May
- Brett Dalton as Grant Ward
- Chloe Bennet as Skye
- Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
- Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
- Nick Blood as Lance Hunter
- Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse
- Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie
- Adrian Pasdar as Brigadier General Glenn Talbot
- Edward James Olmos as Robert Gonzales
- Christine Adams as Anne Weaver
- Kirk Acevedo as Tomas Calderon
- Mark Allan Stewart as Agent Oliver
- Simon Kassianides as Sunil Bakshi
- Raquel Gardner as Carla Talbot
- Maya Stojan as Kara/Agent 33
- Ming-Na Wen as Agent 33 impersonating Melinda May
- Chloe Bennet as Agent 33 impersonating Skye
- Raquel Gardner as Agent 33 impersonating Carla Talbot
- Murielle Telio as Agent 33 impersonating Young Starlet
- Raquel Pomplun as Agent 33 impersonating International Model
- Anna Campbell as Agent 33 impersonating Meredith Tredwyk
- Shannon McClung as Agent 33 impersonating Brookton
- Landall Goolsby as Selwyn
- Gigi Bermingham as Rhonda
- Scott Speiser as Station Guard
- Parisa Fakhri as Lieutenant Decker
- Anna Campbell as Meredith Tredwyck
- Shannon McClung as Staff Sgt. Brookton
- Meredith Bishop as Captain Anderson
- Kieren Van Den Blink as Lt. R. Swey
Continuity and References to the Marvel Cinematic Universe[]
- Grant Ward appears.
- Glenn Talbot appears.
- Carla Talbot appears.
- Robert Gonzales is introduced.
- Calderon is introduced.
- Oliver is introduced.
- Anne Weaver returns.
- Kara Palamas/Agent 33 returns.
- Sunil Bakshi returns.
- Daniel Whitehall is mentioned.
- The Avengers are mentioned.
- Steve Rogers is mentioned.
- Bruce Banner/Hulk is mentioned.
- The creator of the Photostatic Veil is introduced.
- Andrew Garner is mentioned.
- Nick Fury is mentioned.
- Isabelle Hartley is mentioned.
- HYDRA is mentioned.
- Antoine Triplett is mentioned.
- Raina is mentioned.
- Lola is mentioned.
- A Quinjet appears.
- Calvin Zabo is mentioned.
- The Diviner is mentioned.
- The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier appears.
- The Retreat is introduced.
Trivia[]
- The title of this episode is an allusion to the romance novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.
- Parisa Fakhri portrayed Senator's Aide in a deleted scene in the episode A Fractured House.
- Skye wear protective casts as a nod to her wearing gauntlets in the comics.
- In the "real S.H.I.E.L.D." conference room there is a picture of what appears to be the Blackbird, the jet used by the X-Men.
Gallery[]
To be added