This week’s episode of “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” takes place almost immediately after the end of the recently release “Thor: The Dark World.” I, personally, haven’t had a chance to see the film yet, but after watching the episode, I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to see the film before watching this installment of “SHIELD.” Of course, once I watch the movie I may change my mind.
In the aftermath of whatever took place in the last “Thor” film, our crew is tasked with cleaning up Thor’s mess to make sure there are no alien artifacts left behind.
Agent Coulson is annoyed at the assignment and wishes that, for once, Thor would send down a cleaning crew and a “magic broom.” He comments that anything alien in human hands never ends well, to which Skye says she would love to get her hands on Thor because “He’s so dreamy.”
As with any guy who hears some other guy is better looking than they are, Coulson replies, “Sure, he’s handsome…” May cuts him off, “No. He’s dreamy.” Yes, he is. That is a Universal truth, people. Thor is dreamy.
Over in a Norwegian forest, some hikers are looking to commune with nature, but not in the way most people would think. Oddly, all Norwegians seem to speak in English with an unidentified European accent.
The hikers find one specific tree and cut it down. They cut into it and find a partial Asgardian staff. The female hiker takes hold of the staff with her bare hands and the staff powers up, feeding off the latent rage inside her. When the forest rangers come by to investigate, she turns her rage on one of them.
Fitz makes a partial 3D model of the staff from the images Gemma has taken, but since none of them can decipher the Asgardian symbols, they turn to Professor Elliot Randolph (guest star Peter MacNicol), an expert on Norse mythology. The professor determines the staff is a beserker staff from an Asgard warrior. With the staff, a single beserker would have the strength of 20 warriors, and put the warrior in an uncontrollable rage.
He tells them of the myth of an Asgard warrior who came to earth many millenia ago and decided to stay because he loved earth. As for his beserker staff, he separated it into three pieces and hid them so no one could wield the staff again.
The professor gives them clues as to where the other two pieces of the staff would be based on the ancient texts he has read. He tells them to start at Baffin Island but that turns out to be a wild goose chase. Skye is able to use his clues and locates a possible site in Seville, Spain where the crew is currently located.
Grant and Skye (or Skyward as they have been anointed by shippers) go down into some catacombs but they aren’t finding anything. Fitz sees on his tablet that he is getting an alien signature near Ward, and it’s starting to move. Ward chases it and finds the Professor with another piece of the staff, but as he grabs it, he writhes in pain and finds himself going back to his tumultuous childhood and particularly traumatic time when his younger brother was in a well and his older brother refuses to let Grant help him out. The younger brother is on the verge of drowning and Grant is helpless.
As Skye tries to reach Ward, the Professor is able to get away, but as he tries to make his getaway, he bumps into the two Nordic hikers who sense the beserker staff on him. The professor seems to own a really old car since he doesn’t have a keyless entry system, and as he jiggles the keys, the hikers are able to reach him and snatch the staff from him.
Skye finds Ward collapsed on the ground and when he comes to, he seems frightened and on guard, but quickly tries to regain his composure. Back on the jet, Ward is undergoing a physical (SHIRTLESS ALERT!) to make sure everything is all right, but he is getting angry and impatient.
May offers to help him with his rage, but Ward refuses.
Coulson needs help from Ward as the Professor has revealed nothing. Ward goes bad cop on the Professor and tries to stab him with a knife, which the Professor quickly deflects, bending the knife like it was rubber.
Coulson’s instincts were right. The professor is Asgardian and the subject of the warrior myth he was telling them about. It was his staff, and he separated the pieces way back when.
The Professor confesses, and they go to a church in Scotland to retrieve the last piece of the staff, but it turns out the Nordic hikers beat them to it.
Nystrom, the male hiker, stabs the professor with the staff. Ward grabs the staff out of the professor’s chest and turns his newfound rage onto the Nystrom as they go sailing over the railing down to the pews below. Surprisingly, no one breaks a bone on the stone floor of the church.
More Nordic hiker gang members show up, and Ward grabs the second part of the staff that Nystrom has dropped. Memories of his past flood his senses, and he goes beserk on the gang members like River did on the Reavers in “Serenity.”
He collapses in exhaustion when the female hiker shows up. She has the third piece of the staff. He’s about to grab the beserker staff to take her on when May steps in. “This time… Let me help.” May grabs the two pieces Ward dropped and fights off the redshirt with the hiker.
Like a beserker version of Mulan (she was the voice for Disney’s Mulan), she knocks the hiker down which dislodges the third piece from her hands. It’s drawn to the other two and connects with one piece as May connects the final piece and sends the female hiker across the room with one blow. She stands like a warrior queen with her staff, but quickly sets it down, knowing the power it wields. Still shaking with rage, she is barely able to contain herself but manages to do so as Ward and Skye look on.
When Ward later asks how she was even able to hold three pieces without imploding on herself, she simply says, “Because I see it every day.”
The team gets a rare night off from sleeping on the plane to enjoy a night in a fancy hotel in Seville. Ward is enjoying a drink at the bar when Skye comes by to offer a shoulder to cry on. Still wary and untrusting of her since she betrayed them recently, he claims exhaustion and heads up to his room.
Once up at his room, he notices May about to enter her room. They share a look and she enters her room with a bottle of whiskey, but leaves the door open. Ward hesitates for a second but then goes over to May’s room, closing the door behind him. Does this mean there are going to be MayWard shippers fighting with SkyWard shippers now?!
Closing scene shows Coulson getting a massage in a cabana on the beach in Tahiti, but when the masseuse says, “It’s a magical place,” we find Coulson waking up in a cold sweat. Sourdough theory is sounding pretty good right now, eh?
Anyone notice Gregg runs a little girly? He just doesn’t seem manly when he’s running and his hands are flailing around. Just an observation.
I wonder if Disney plans on building a resort in Tahiti like they did in Hawaii, because you know they would totally jump on that slogan: “Tahiti. It’s a magical place.” Clark Gregg would be the spokesperson and they would just use clips from the show to promote it!
What did you think of this week’s episode of “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD”? Are you a MayWard shipper or a SkyWard Shipper? Personally, I’m a MayCo shipper (or should it be MayPhilinda)?
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