Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #16 Recap | Not So Psychic After All

<p><em style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;5em&semi;">Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of S&period;H&period;I&period;E&period;L&period;D&period;<&sol;em><span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;5em&semi;"> returns this week with episode 16&colon; &&num;8220&semi;End of the Beginning&&num;8221&semi; and the title is certainly appropriate&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;60401" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-60401" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;05115514&sol;Agents-of-SHIELD-16-2&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-60401 " alt&equals;"Spot the Evil Agent&excl;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;05115514&sol;Agents-of-SHIELD-16-2&period;jpg" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"639" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-60401" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Spot the Evil Agent&excl;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s no secret that <em>Agents of S&period;H&period;I&period;E&period;L&period;D&period;<&sol;em> has had pacing issues from the get-go&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;m not talking about the constant breaks in its airing schedule&period; That said&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s certainly been picking up the pace as of late&period; In recent episodes we finally discovered the secrets behind Coulson&&num;8217&semi;s miraculous recovery from his apparent death in <em>The Avengers<&sol;em> &lpar;and it blew my clone theory out of the water&rpar; and this week we finally learn the identity of the &&num;8220&semi;Clairvoyant&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8230&semi;and it turns out the Agents were on a wild-goose chase all along&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;60402" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-60402" style&equals;"width&colon; 199px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignright"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;05115507&sol;Agents-of-SHIELD-16-3&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-60402 " alt&equals;"I find it hard to take Deathlok's costume seriously&period;&period;&period;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;05115507&sol;Agents-of-SHIELD-16-3&period;jpg" width&equals;"199" height&equals;"300" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-60402" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">I find it hard to take Deathlok&&num;8217&semi;s costume seriously&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It seems obvious in retrospect&comma; but the Clairvoyant was really just another Agent with high enough clearance to know exactly what Coulson&&num;8217&semi;s team is up to at all times&period; Agent Victoria Hand is the one pulling the strings&comma; almost literally in Mike Peterson&&num;8217&semi;s&sol;Deathlok&&num;8217&semi;s case who has no choice but to follow her commands&period; She&&num;8217&semi;s had The Bus turn around and is preparing to execute Coulson&&num;8217&semi;s team on arrival&comma; and plans on taking Coulson out herself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Of course that&&num;8217&semi;s not all that happened this week&period; Coulson made Skye an official S&period;H&period;I&period;E&period;L&period;D&period; Agent&comma; because apparently hacking your way in and getting shot a few times is good enough to let you skip the years of study and training at the academy&period; FitzSimmons are understandably &lpar;buy annoyingly&rpar; still trying to convince everyone around them that they need to send Skye&&num;8217&semi;s blood off for further study to uncover the secrets of the wonder-drug that saved her&period; <span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;5em&semi;">Agent Ward shot and killed a fake bad guy &lpar;oops&excl;&rpar; and <&sol;span><span style&equals;"line-height&colon; 1&period;5em&semi;">Fitz busted Agent May so the team knows she&&num;8217&semi;s been making super secret calls to&&num;8230&semi; someone&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Originally my theory was that Agent May had been keeping tabs on Coulson for Nick Fury&period; After she overhead Coulson and Skye discussing the alien origin of the wonder drug she simply reported &&num;8220&semi;he knows&period;&&num;8221&semi; If this show is good at anything it&&num;8217&semi;s misleading its audience&comma; so maybe it&&num;8217&semi;s much more complicated than that&period; Looks like we might just find out next week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Closing Thoughts<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>I swear Deathlok looks more and more like the love child of a <em><&sol;em><em>Mortal Kombat<&sol;em> character and a Terminator with each passing episode&&num;8230&semi; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;DhWs3DVk-FU"><em>DUN DUN DUN DUN-DUN&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;a><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Speaking of Deathlok&comma; shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t the team perhaps think about calling one of the Avengers in by now&quest;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Ward&comma; stop being so overprotective&period; Skye&&num;8217&semi;s a big girl now&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>We probably should have clocked onto Agent Hand earlier&comma; those evil red highlights in her hair were a dead giveaway&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>So here&&num;8217&semi;s the question&semi; is The Bus being controlled remotely&comma; or did someone in cahoots with Agent Hand sneak on board and take control&quest;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>What did you think of the episode&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;