Agents of _____? Retrospective: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - “Turn, Turn, Turn”

Season 1, Episode 17

Air Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2014, 8/7c on ABC.

Rating: ★★★★★

[warning]This review contains major spoilers from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.[/warning]

“Was this an order? To shoot me in the bloody head?” – Fitz

Fitz does not enjoy being shot at.

In “End of the Beginning,” Agent Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernandez) was ordered to report to the Lemurian Star. Die-hard fans knew this would set up a crossover between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America: The Winter Soldier but many could never have imagined the fallout that takes place because of it. It fundamentally changes the course of the series forever.

In order to discuss “Turn, Turn, Turn,” I must first talk about Captain America: The Winter Soldier as it plays a major role in the episode. In the movie, Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) begins investigating some suspicious behavior within S.H.I.E.L.D. and is assassinated by the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) because of it. Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), enlists the help of the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), to hunt down Fury’s killer. In doing so, they learn the presumed extinct Nazi science division known as HYDRA has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. all the way to the top.

Once exposed, HYDRA is forced to speed up its agenda for total control over S.H.I.E.L.D, leading to an epic battle within S.H.I.E.L.D. Realizing S.H.I.E.L.D. is too far gone, Rogers realizes he must take down not only HYDRA but S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. By the end of the movie, both organizations are in chaos, with groups from both spread out all over the world. One of these groups happens to be Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’s Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team.

Who to trust?

“Turn, Turn, Turn” picks up right where “End of the Beginning” leaves off, with Coulson and Skye (Chloe Bennet) pointing guns at May (Ming-Na-Wen) as Coulson tries to figure out what is going on. Adding to the tension, the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane, nicknamed the Bus, has been taken over remotely and is being flown back to the S.H.I.E.L.D base, aka the Hub. What Coulson and his team doesn’t know is who will be there waiting for them when they arrive. Without sufficient answers, Coulson locks May in the interrogation room along with Ward (Brett Dalton). As Coulson tries to figure things out, the events of Captain America start to trickle in, including the fact that HYDRA has taken over and Fury has been killed.

Once at the Hub, Coulson’s team secretly splits up to find Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows), who Coulson now believes is the Clairvoyant, and save Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), who is at the Hub running tests. Several battles take place because no one knows whether the other person is working for S.H.I.E.L.D. or HYDRA. By the time the dust settles, the real Clairvoyant is revealed and taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and alliances are declared, or so we think. With members of S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA spread out all over the world, it now becomes a race to establish power over the other.

If you’ve ever watched a major news story unfold live, there’s always that moment of chaos where nobody knows what is going on, rumors swirl, and people grasp for anything to help them understand what is happening. After the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, “Turn, Turn, Turn” represents that chaos. In many ways, “Turn, Turn, Turn” lacks as an episode because without the movie as a reference, it is a disorganized mess of characters accusing one another of working for HYDRA. It’s obvious the writers had fun creating the twists that make everyone look innocent and guilty at the same time. My only complaint about “Turn, Turn, Turn” is that at the very end, one of Coulson’s agents turns out to be a HYDRA agent after all. Out of all the twists and turns throughout the episode, that is the one twist you could see a mile away.

The big question going forward is how do you have a show about a government agency that has fundamentally been taken down? Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. struggled to find itself early in the season but the writing and story lines have greatly improved over the last several episodes. Just as things are getting good, fans get this major shakeup that all but reboots the show. The Marvel universe has tons of material to draw from and some fear with HYDRA becoming the main adversary on the show, it puts the rest of the universe on the back burner.

As much as I enjoyed the one-two punch of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, “Turn, Turn, Turn” leaves the future of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. somewhat in question. The writers have already beaten the “How did Coulson really die” storyline to death, and I fear they will do the same with “Are there still traitors among us” theme. The good news is that both Cobie Smulders and Samuel Jackson will be returning to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the near future, reprising their rolls as Agent Maria Hill and Nick Fury, respectively. With them joining the cast, it should help provide some direction as to the future of the show and S.H.I.E.L.D itself.

Tweet me @staffaroadtrip or leave a comment below to let me know what you think about “Turn, Turn, Turn.”

For more on the show, go to http://www.agentsofshield.com/.

Follow Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D on Twitter, as well as some of the cast: <Ward> Brett Dalton, <Coulson> Clark Gregg, <Simmons> Elizabeth Henstridge, and <May> Ming-Na Wen.

Like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D on Facebook.

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Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.