[CaptainCrunch]

Spoiler!

Just when you think you have Shield figured out they flip gears on you. Last week, I talked about the episode having a really wobbly pacing to it as they tried to squeeze a lot of emotional moments into it, however that was almost by design when I think about it as the previous few episodes had a break neck pace.

However this episode harkens back to year one or year two in more ways then one when they almost made this a simple episode where the team is going on a stand along mission, this time to find gravitonium to seal the rift to the fear dimension.

There were a lot of things that went back to season one, the discovery that shield had enacted their own version of operation paperclip to recuit Hydra soldiers, in doing so they grabbed scientists that worked on Ian Quinn's gravitonium projects. We also got re-introduced to Wolfgang Von Strucker who we last saw in the first season when Shield basically tortured him then used Lincoln's power to zap him out of a coma. Its unfortunately given Wolfgang who calls himself Alex now the power of a perfect memory.

He's also the latest recruit to General Hales new team of gifted people joining Ruby and the Absorbing man.

Hale showed a ruthless streak as she wants Alex's memories so she sends her daughter to basically recruit seduce him, but she basically lays out a plot where they are going to take over this team, Ruby is plotting against Hale.


Meanwhile we see the interaction between Deke and Fitz and poor Deke is like that puppy in a new world to the point where he drives Fitz crazy. But just as Deke discovers the pure joy of Twinkies he see's a vision of his mother who reminds him of a saying that he used to use. Towards the end of the episode he hears Simmons using that same staying and he puts the pieces together and realize that Fitz and Simmons are his grandparents.

The Yo Yo story continues and its had to watch because Cordova-Buckley has done such a great job of playing this character. She's come to the realization that they won't be able to change the future, and faced with her current injuries and that realization she has a real and true breakdown. Like I said it was tough to watch. Later when she see's Mack when he returns from the mission she seems better, even throwing out a truly cringworthy pun about her lack of arms. Somehow it made me laugh though because it was such a human thing to do.

Ok, this was really a Mack episode, as they find that the agent that used to recruit the Hydra scientists is Mack's old room mate, and he spills that Mack used to be obsessed with MC Hammer and he was nicknamed Mack Hammer. By the way that agent was played gleefully by Gary Busy.

This revelation lead to a great line by Coulson when they were collecting Gravitonium from a ship 25000 feet in the air. Just as Mack was about to collect it in a box, Coulson let him have a great zinger

"Hey MC Hammer, you can't touch this"

The team it turns out is also after Deathlok technology to give Yo-Yo new arms. But that seems to be a dead end, instead Mack took one of those creepy robots back with him so that Yo Yo can have robot arms.

The other nice moment is that the team was banking on finding a way to save Colson, but he's refusing any help, he doesn't want another life extension, I believe this is going to lead to a really depressing series/season finale.

Stray observations

Busey watches the team fight the robots on the ship through the teams cameras, so his comment on leaving "I got to see a ship 25,000 feet in the air and a robot fight, best day ever" kind of reflects this episode. Because it was better paced, and had lots of light moments it felt like the episode ever.

Zeke's puppy dog approach to everything new is kind of cool to watch, especially when he has that field of dreams moment when he finds a baseball glove and ball and wants to play catch with Fitz. When he eats a twinkie and his exclamation of "Oh my god". And after seeing his fake mother killed wants a Zima is a lot of fun to watch.

Ruby is completely evil, you can just see the betrayals coming and Wolfgang wanting to be like his father.

Great great episode, you get a feeling that this team is slowly rebuilding itself after a lot of strife and tragedy.