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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #204 - Face My Enemy

4

Coulson and May go undercover. Be prepared for a whole lot of May kicking butt.

Note: There will be spoilers in our summary.

Recap

The episodes starts in Miami. A high priest visits and is shown a painting dating back to the 1500s. It's the only thing that survived a fire. What makes it stand out is what's on the back. Carved into the back of the painting is more of the strange symbols Coulson carves when under one of his spells. Could this mean the symbols date back that far?

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On the beach, Hunter is cozying up to a woman. He pick-pockets her to give some information to Skye. This allows Coulson and May to go undercover at a ritzy party. The two are the only ones allowed to go in, which bothers Skye. She's still sensing that Coulson is keeping something from her. To make it worse, Coulson turns off the coms so they can't hear what's going on. As Coulson and May dance, they take about past missions. May changes the subject to Coulson's conditions. She noticed his hand shaking a little. Coulson wants to talk about a contingency plan for his condition but May doesn't want to hear it. They're interrupted when they notice General Talbot is there as well.

Coulson talks to Talbot that the mission he's on will benefit them both. It seems he might have had too much to drink. He seems fairly okay with their new arrangement. Talbot says he won't interfere unless he has to.

With Talbot there, Coulson calls the team to tell them they have to go for the painting now. May flirts with a guy and asks Coulson to take their picture. He zoomed in on the guy's eyes so they could bypass the retinal scans downstairs in a locked elevator. They notice Talbot point them out to a big bruiser. With their cover blown, they try to find the painting. But they find it's not there. Skye finds a report that just popped up showing the painting has been claimed by the U.S. Government. Talbot has it! Talbot then makes a call to his superior and it's quite a shock! It looks like there might be way more to Talbot than we thought. His superior has another plan for Coulson and May.

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Coulson and May try to leave and come across Talbot. He agrees to let them have access to the painting but they can only look at it at a secure location. Coulson says he needs to check in with his team and Talbot gives them the address to a hotel. May wants to go ahead alone to check it out. Back at the Bus, the Agents wait and talk. Hunter keeps trying to talk about his ex. The others soon talk about their exes. “Simmons” tries convincing Fitz to join them as their bonding. He walks away.

May checks out the location and soon discovers HYDRA is somehow involved. The newly brainwashed and converted Agent 33 is there. May starts fighting with her but is distracted and taken out from behind. HYDRA has tech that allows them to impersonate others. Agent 33 replaces May and calls Coulson to pick him up.

At the Bus, Fitz is hanging out alone. “Simmons” mentions they're just talking. He points out that's something he's having trouble with. He also mentions there's the “obvious elephant in the room” which could be alluded to the fact that he's talking to someone that isn't there. He also says he doesn't have anything in common with them. Agent 33, as May, arrives and rudely gets Coulson alone. She convinces him to go to a meeting with her. As they leave the Bus, she plants a device that appears to be infiltrating their systems.

May is tied up and Sunil is trying to get answers from her. He is ready to do whatever it takes to get answers from her. He's ready to torture her and says she will soon meet his boss who will make her comply. Coulson and “May” are driving to the meeting and he pushes about the contingency plan. He wants her to take him out if it comes to it and take over leadership. At the Bus, the alarm sounds off and they're all locked inside. Fitz does his best to try to explain what must be going on. The plane is going to explode.

Coulson figures out that “May” is an impostor. He starts fighting her out in the hall as the real May manages to escape being tied up. Now there's two Mays and the fight is on. Agent 33 says she knows all May's moves since she was S.H.I.E.L.D. May says she doesn't know all of them. Coulson chases after Sunil who tries running off with the painting. On the Bus, Fitz needs Hunter to try to fix the sabotage. He explains what needs to be done as the clock is ticking.

May finally defeats Agent 33 before the HYDRA extraction team arrives.

Hunter returns with some beer and wants to celebrate. Fitz is ready to leave but Hunter insists he wants to buy him a beer. Fitz agrees with “Simmons” approval. As they start talking, Fitz jumps in and says he doesn't have an ex but there was a girl he liked who left after he told her how he felt.

Skye continues trying to dig for information. Coulson calls Talbot to tell him what really happened. He tells Talbot that the painting was destroyed and about their masking technology. Now Coulson and May know that HYDRA is looking into the alien symbols. It turns out the painting is old but the carving wasn't. That means someone else is carving the symbols too. Coulson pushes again about the plan. May finally tells him she already made a plan. She says she's not going to kill him. If things go bad, she's getting him out and will take care of him. Coulson says that's a sweet and caring plan but he orders her to forget that. If things go bad, he doesn't want to end up like Garrett. He needs her to take him out if it comes to it.

Rena is cornered in her car as she makes plans to try to locate the painting. Whitehall confronts her about taking the Obliesk. He places a device on her that paralyzes her and puts her in pain. He says she has 48 hours to bring it back to him.

Thoughts

When the preview for this episode aired last week, I have to admit I rolled my eyes. The scene with Coulson and May having to go undercover and dance just felt too trite and forced. It turns out there was much more to this episode than it appeared. Yes there was more moments of comedy here but we do see more developing.

With May and Coulson on their own, this forced the others to sit and wait. This allowed them to bond a little more. We're learning more about Hunter. He's still kind of a slimy jerk but he also showed a different side when it came to including Fitz in their 'bonding.' Fitz is also growing some by trying to get over Simmons leaving and accepting that he might be able to make things better for himself.

Having Skye suspicious while the others are oblivious to what's going on with Coulson also gives her an edge. Seeing her trying to dig for more information goes back to her original roots. The only reason she was brought into the show was for her abilities. We're seeing her take the initiative to try to uncover what's going on and being able to recognize the fact that there is something there.

We may not have had a flashy villain of the week on the same level as Absorbing Man but there were enough twists here and plenty of action with May fighting her doppleganger. The show continues to entertain.