Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ‘Pilot’ Recap – Episode 01.01

Depending on how big of a Marvel nerd you are, this series could have had many fans waiting for a minimum of three years to see. (Since Iron Man 2) For others, who are new to the Marvel cinematic universe, it could have just been a matter of months. Either way, the day we’ve all been waiting for is here. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot has premiered and here is the full recap. (warning this recap may be lengthy given the attention that this show has seen in recent weeks)

The show starts out with and young boy and a father at a store. The father is explaining he’s been laid off and a building catches on fire. The father leaves his son with a hot dog vendor and then punches a hole in the wall and scale it. He jumps out a window at the top of the building with a woman in tow and someone is recording him on a cell phone. The man puts on his hood from his sweatshirt and runs away. He then takes off his jacket and picks up his son, hiding in plain sight as the rest of the onlookers look at the building in amazement.

In Paris, Agent Ward is on a motorcycle and is prepared for a mission that S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to pull him from because the Rising Tide has posted the coordinates of his mission. He runs into a restaurant posing as a waiter, approaches the “package” (which is a man in a red tie), takes a drinking glass and scans finger prints from it in the worlds “coolest plate” not yet available. Agent Ward rushes upstairs; enters an apartment and scans the room with the “worlds coolest plate,” finds a panel, punches in a code, and the fireplace opens (in cool movie fashion). A woman appears and Ward remarks “the fireplace is broken” and men come to engage him in combat.  While fighting, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent warns him “men are approaching”, Ward fends them off and leaves via helicopter.

Back at a classified site, we see Agent Maria Hill speaking with Agent Ward about in the incidents in New York. They discuss how everything has changed and there are ordinary superheroes and the common person had access to things they shouldn’t. Agent Ward shows Agent Hill the Chitauri link that he pulled from the mission. Agent Hill speaks of Agent Coulson and Ward remarks that Coulson is dead and that he read the field report. Then Coulson appears with the line we’ve been waiting for “Welcome to level 7” and apparently Nick Fury needs to get someone to change the light bulb at S.H.I.E.L.D. as the hallway is too dark. As for Agent Coulson; is it explained that he was eight seconds from death after getting stabbed by Loki. Coulson tells us that he remember waking up in ICU and then he was sent to Tahiti to recoup.

Agent Ward is recruited to do a mission to bring in the Rising Tide in order to get to the man who ran into the building from earlier. We learn from Agent Hill and a S.H.I.E.L.D. doctor, that Agent Coulson may never know the truth. We now assume that the rumors might be right and that Coulson is a LMD (Life Model Decoy).

Sky from The Rising Tide approaches Micheal Peterson (the man who jumped into the building from the first scene) and tries to convince him that S.H.I.E.L.D is on to him. He doesn’t fall for it (partly because she lives in a van) and she lifts his ID. Agent Coulson is trying to recruit for his new team and wants Agent May to come abroad. Melinda May for some reason does not want to get into a role where there will be combat.

In an airplane hangar in the middle of nowhere we see the biggest plane ever, where we see what looks like a teenage duo. Agent Fits and Agent Simmons are bickering about a new toy called the night-night gun when Agent Ward comes up and asks if his fancy new model comm receiver is one they have worked with. Fitz then takes a hammer to it and Fitz and Simmons dismantle it for parts. Coulson pulls up to the plane in his collectible car where he mutters “Don’t touch Lola” to one of the airplane foremen. Ward questions Coulson about Agent May and Ward also destroys Coulson’s  joke about a guy being scared to fly while being on S.H.I.E.L.D.’S helicarrier. The scene closes with Sky of the Rising Tide giving a speech or preparing a podcast bragging that NO ONE will find them and – voila – Agent Coulson and Ward open her van door and appear to kidnap her.

Ward and Coulson interrogate Sky and are getting nowhere. Agent May, Fitz and Simmons are on the scene of the building that was on fire at the beginning of the show to investigate it. While in interrogation Sky talking about project centipede and Agent Ward and Coulson has no idea what it is.

Michael is in his apartment looking at an eviction notice on the phone with a doctor asking about the possibility of coming out about his powers because times are hard. The doctor, who is apparently the one who gave Michael his powers through a centipede shaped thing on his arm, is dead set against it.

Agent May, Fitz and Simmons are at the building that was on fire and Simmons digs right in and finds out this place may be a secret lab. Fitz on the other hand uses a series of nanobot looking things to search the room. The nanobots all have names and are possibly named after the seven dwarfs. Bashful finds a camera that Fitz thinks he can hack to get more info on the case.

Coulson feels Wards doesn’t want to be on this mission and is trying to sabotage the investigation, but Coulson feels Sky is useful because S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t know who she is. Coulson then pulls out a new truth serum in front of Ward and Sky. Coulson injects Ward with it and leaves Sky alone with Ward so she can ask any question she wants. The serum works and Sky asks things like “how many people have you killed” and Ward spills the beans.

Michael goes back to his old job begging for work. His old boss is not buying that Michael is feeling better when Michael proceeds to show his boss he’s stronger. Michael then goes into all out rage after finding out his boss isn’t hiring and smacks his former boss on the head with a pretty big propane tank looking object. While proclaiming he is the good guy and people like his boss are the bad guys. (As we plainly see a man who is going from being mild-mannered and meek with his powers to an evil one who is showing them off at every turn that does what he must to survive, it reminds me of The Killing Joke)

Sky is apparently working with Coulson and helping him decrypt the tape however she needs to be in her van to decrypt that tape as it is on the same network as the lab that blew up.

Now we find Micheal back at the hospital to see the woman he saved. We find out that she is one of the doctors that transformed him to what he is and that the first test subject became unstable. She says the people who gave her the technology want it to be a secret and that Michael Peterson need to go away, Michael jumps out of the window exclaiming that he isn’t Micheal Peterson and that this is an Origins story.

Fitz along with Sky break the encryption from the video tape. We find out that whoever blew up the building was apart of a project to build super soldiers. Just like Dr. Erskine experimented to build super soldiers from the 40’s (Captain America). We see the person that blew up the building has the same centipede metal on his arm that Michael has. Agent Coulson points out that this is the Extremis project (from Iron Man 3) and this technology is new. Michael is outside of Sky’s van with his son Ace, he throws Agent May to the wall getting in and tells Sky that she must save him and his son.

Michael, his son and Sky are in her van outside of union station. Sky is trying to erase Michael’s past from every known point of origin, while doing so she trips S.H.I.E.L.D.’s security system on purpose in order for S.H.I.E.L.D. to find out where they are located. Fitz, Simmons and Coulson are working on a way to save Michael. Simmons feels there only options are to put a bullet in his head or let him blow up and kill thousands of people. Coulson doesn’t want to hear those two options and wants them to come up with a third. The doctor and a hired thug are waiting outside of the train station as well. When S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives Coulson tries to draw Michael out of the van and tells Agent Ward not to shoot unless it’s his only option. Michael grabs his son and Sky and proceeds inside the station. Sky kicks a latin guy that is in a large group (I’m hesitant to say gang, because you know) forcing the rest of the “group” to “try” to beat Micheal up.

After the fight Michael finds and grabs Sky again and the two head up to a different floor of the train station, S.H.I.E.L.D. takes Michael’s son Ace, and the doctors’ hired thug shoots Michael with a shotgun. Michael falls to the ground of the first floor of the train station almost unharmed beside of the pesky bullet in the arm. He pleads with Coulson about little people getting stepped on by giants or something. As Michael is giving this speech, Coulson is coming closer to him seeming to calm Micheal down and Agent Ward shoots Michael in the head. Simmons sees Michael glowing blue and that he is ok and we realize that Ward shot Michael with the night-night gun.

The last scene we find Coulson and Sky talking about Michael being okay and that he will be returning home to his family soon. Coulson then asks Sky about the offer to join the team as she takes a jab at “old” Lola. Coulson  get a call about a level 0-84, he wants to know is it confirmed and Ward tells him that they want their team to investigate it. Coulson needs Sky to make up her mind about joining the team and that she has 10 minutes to make up her mind because the will be at the airport soon. Sky doesn’t believe Coulson can get Lola to drive to the airport in 10 minutes, when we see Lola’s tires convert inward to hover mode and they take off to the air.