SHIELD Recap: An Avengers Guest Star & First Real Mission in “0-8-4”

By Felicia Kudronowicz

SHIELD’s second outing, “0-8-4” aired last night, offering new fans a fast paced action ride, and a team building exercise for our newly assembled SHIELD team.

The episode opens with 10 seconds of a plane crash and then – in true Whedon fashion- we flash back to 19 hours earlier. The team is on the move to Peru to report on an “O-8-4” (an object of unknown origin) that was reportedly found at an archeologist site. During the flight Skye is added as a member of the team, but not everyone agrees that she should be there.

When our gang get to the site they discover that the object is 1500 years old and fuelled by tesseract – an extremely powerful and deadly weapon. Suddenly the Peruvian government is on their case for intruding, forcing May and Ward bust out some moves. Luckily, Coulson knows their commander and all is well… for about 5 seconds. Peru’s government is facing a rebellion so naturally the rebels join in the fight too. They make it out just in time (with the O-8-4).

Back on the plane, things seem to be going well. the team is headed back to base and making sure the unknown object stays stable. The commander of the Peruvian soldiers, Camilla Reyes, has a private conversation about old times with agent Coulson, but predictably both she and her team turns on SHIELD.

With the team held hostage, they come up with a plan to alter the pressure inside the plane and force all the doors to unlock – simply achieved by blowing a hole in the side of the aircraft. Cue action sequence. Things are pretty intense, May is kicking butt and everyone is just trying not to get sucked out of the plane while fighting Reye’s crew. In the end, Skye inflates a safety raft, which plugs up the hole and they are safe once more plus they now have the upper hand.

Once they are all safe (including the 0-8-4) they head to Slingshot (an undisclosed SHIELD location) to launch the dangerous object into space. The team share some drinks and declare the mission a success. Skye is seen texting the Rising Tide, so even though it seems like the perfect endings, there is still a question of her loyalty.

(ABC/Richard Foreman)
BRETT DALTON

The major theme for this episode is definitely SHIELD forming a team. Skye comments that, “One person doesn’t have the solution, but one hundred people with one percent do.” This point is reiterated when the team has to get out of the hostage situation. Everyone plays his or her own part in the mission. This episode was vital in making these individuals form a team. It couldn’t have been a better team building exercise if Coulson planned it himself.

Once again there were a few Avengers references including Thor’s hammer being the last 0-8-4 they found and a special cameo by Samuel L. Jackson aka Nick Fury at the very end of the episode. Lola also makes an appearance and Coulson’s near death experience and recovery in Tahiti is mentioned again. This episode didn’t have as many laughs, but it definitely brought the action that audiences were expecting. This show is doing a great job introducing its premise and characters before getting too invested in a story arc. It’s a smart move. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D airs Tuesday 8/7c on ABC and the pilot episode is now also available on Hulu.