Trust the System? Marvels Agents of SHIELD “The Hub” Review

By Felicia Kudronowicz

On this week’s episode of Marvel Agents of SHIELD, we got a closer look at the inner workings of this intricate organization at “The Hub.” and tested the wisdom of blindly trusting the system.

The episode kicked off with the bold rescue of a data capsule from another agent’s nasal passage. They take this information to “The Hub” which is where upper level agents are watching their back and creating missions. Victoria Hand, Coulson’s direct superior, handpicks Fitz and Ward to jump a border and defuse a secret bomb. All in a day’s work for the SHIELD team. Or is it?

Fitz and Ward are such obviously unlikely partners but the laughs from from the fact they end up getting through the mission with flying colors, with Fitz in particular proving that he is every inch the SHIELD agent that Ward is. (Just with a subtly different skillset – and a sandwich.) They pair manage to care of each other and are able to use their respective skills to balance each other, and the mission is relatively by the numbers.

However, while their secret mission is taking place, Skye and Simmons become restless, and the audience is given another opportunity to see two unlikely characters sharing some screen time. Simmons proves to be a a hilarious and terrible liar (“You have a lovely head”) and tasering an upper level agent who stumbled across her attempts to hack a wall panel in an isolated corridor.

Simmons and Skye discover that there isn’t any plan to extract Fitz and Ward after their mission is complete. Skye (overlooking the fact that she’s justbeen busted yeta gain for hacking a system she shouldn’t)  freaks out at Coulson, forcing him in return to pretend to have known all about the mission despite being in the dark too. Sometimes it’s just not that easy to trust the system.

Apparently the organization, based on a hierarchy and keeping things confidential, isn’t a fan of sharing information with anyone. Coulson is naturally upset and decides to send in his own extraction team to save Fitz and Ward. It works out perfectly and in the end the team is back together. Sadly the sandwich is lost.

Despite some nice touches of humor derived from two odd-couple partnerships, “The Hub” proved to be pretty bland. It’s a little frustrating that none of the episodes share a connection, running more to procedural elements each week instead. We continue to see the same hints dropped every episode (take a shot the next time you hear the phrase ‘Tahiti is a magical place’) and coupled with the same teases on Coulson’s mysterious near death experience and Skye’s attempts to find her parents, there is a sense of a lack of progress all round.

Should we, as an audience, continue to trust the system in the hope answers will be forthcoming?