Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Episode “Face My Enemy” Broadcast October 15, 2014
Written by Drew Z. Greenberg
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen
Miami, Florida. Three priests get out of a car in a low income neighborhood and are greeted by a priest with a dirty face who takes them across the street to Santa Maria de las Flores, a church that’s been devastated by a fire. The only thing to survive the blaze is a painting of the Madonna and child, from the early 1500s in Spain. On the back on the painting is a design similar to the one Agent Coulson was carving on the wall in last week’s episode. Cue title card.
South Beach, Florida. Hunter is pickpocketing a lover’s purse for an object he passes off to Skye who goes past on a scooter. It contains a password for a ticket to an event that Agents Coulson and May are crashing. It’s a fundraising event for the rebuilding of Santa Maria. They are there to steal the painting. After turning off their coms, the two dance to get a look around. After some small talk, May brings up Coulson’s shaky hand and that it’s getting worse. He knows it and wants to discuss a plan if he happens to turn like Hydra agent Garrett from last season. She doesn’t want to discuss this because she notices someone else at the party: General Talbot. “There goes our cover,” says Coulson. Cue first commercial break.
This was a lot of fun because Ming-Na Wen gets to do a lot, such as play against herself and smile. Clark Gregg also gets to do much, as he’s trying to get May to come to grips that she might have to kill him, and he gets most of the funny lines. Fitz gets to do a bit, but I’m over him talking to the fake Simmons. Adrian Pasdar gets some fun scenes as Talbot, with the ending of the episode being nice. The unaged Hydra agent is named, Daniel Whitehall and he gets some face time with a character from last season. I’m really happy to see him appearing more and getting into the action.
The good: Very cool phone tech used by Coulson. Talbot’s phone call to a certain individual a screamer when it’s played. Outstanding tech from Captain America: The Winter Soldier appears as a major plot device. Huge thumbs up to the stunts in this episode. There is a huge hand to hand fight and whoever choreographed it and acted it deserves major kudos.
The bad: If Coulson and May are in a “sub-basement” at the party, why is there a gigantic exhaust fan that has direct sunlight pouring in? Night fell incredibly quickly after the pair leave the basement. Didn’t Fitz get over his imaginary companion last week?
Fun lines: “That’s very alarming,” “Yo,” “Little bit?”, “I’ll improvise,” “I can’t believe I’m the only one seeing this right now,” and “Movin’ on.”
The final line: The alien writing storyline is progressing nicely, Whitehall is getting directly involved, and all the new S.H.I.E.L.D. characters are bonding nicely with the old team. This is the show it should have started out as. Overall grade: B+
Patrick Hayes was a contributor to the Comic Buyer’s Guide for several years with “It’s Bound to Happen!”, he reviewed comics for TrekWeb, and he currently reviews Trek comics at TrekCore. He’s taught 8th graders English for 20 years and has taught high school English for two years and counting. He reads everything as often as he can, when not grading papers or looking up Star Trek, Star Wars, or Indiana Jones items online.
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