There are secrets and plots all over the place in “One of Us,” which is appropriate enough for a show about super-spies. The Agents of SHIELD have more enemies than they know about, and are kept pretty damn busy chasing around this week. And they even work in a jaw-dropping surprise about Agent May’s background. 

Skye’s insane father, Cal, is running around causing problems. Since his bridges with Hydra are burned, he’s putting together a new team to attack SHIELD with, and using their “gifted index” to do it. The index is a list of people with powers they want to keep an eye on. Personally, I wonder how many characters we comic fans would recognize are on that list.

Cal, who comic fans are just waiting to become his comic book persona of Mr. Hyde, assembles a really odd group. One of the strangest characters (and weakest concept in my opinion) is the first one we see– Karla Gideon. To get back at her abusive boyfriend, she used her lab job to somehow “permanently” graft razors to her fingers. She ends up looking like a Wolverine-wannabe, but no one gets to make that joke on the show since SHIELD is Marvel Studios and Fox still has the X-Men rights. Karla has been a minor character in the Daredevil comics. That’s interesting timing, with Daredevil getting a series on Netflix in April.

In addition to Miss Manicure there, Cal has collected an immoral tech genius, a mob enforcer hopped up on super steroids, and isn’t done yet. His next stop is a mental institution that has a secret section that has 2 SHIELD prisoners. This raises some questions for me. SHIELD fell apart in Winter Soldier. They were fugitives, on the run, with no support or budget. Who the hell was running this little prison?

As all this is going on, the team is still dealing with the aftershocks of Skye’s transformation. Simmons is still virulently anti-supers, suggesting various uncool ideas for dealing with them. She’s also pissed off at Fitz for keeping secrets from her, but that one makes a little more sense. Bobbi Morse thinks Simmons is being too hard on Fitz, no doubt because Morse and Mac have their own little conspiracy going.

Because of all the concern about Skye and her powers, Coulson wants her evaluated. Me, I was hoping for Doc Samson, long-time Hulk supporting cast member and usually the go-to guy in Marvel comics for supers with psych needs. Instead, we get Andrew Garner, who was certainly a fun character. He also has a link with May that I sure as hell didn’t see coming and surprised her team, too.

Fitz and Simmons end up having a scene gossiping about May and Garner. I kept expecting Simmons to remember she was mad at Fitz, and it never happened. It was almost like the scene was written by someone different than the earlier one. Meanwhile, Coulson and Morse go off to check on the Brynmore facility. Bruno the assassin is still there. For a deadly killer, Morse drops him easily enough. Gone is David Angar, Angar the Screamer in the comics. In the books, he has various sonic powers, usually that trigger hallucinations. On the show, his voice renders people catatonic.

Interesting note: with Ward and Trip gone, the only two decent combat operatives are Morse and May. Not only both females, but on opposite sides of the cabal going on. I wonder if we have a May/Morse throwdown coming up. They’re certainly building up Morse to be a real bad-ass. Now, I know Coulson is supposed to be all kinds of impressive, and I do really like him. But since he made (or was sentenced to) Director, he’s done less and less direct action. Most of the fighting this episode: Morse and May.

Cal brings his band of bad guys to Coulson’s hometown in Wisconsin, and takes a lot of hostages. There’s a big showdown which kind of works, and kind of doesn’t. May vs Franco the bruiser was a good fight. Morse vs Karla wasn’t, or not to me. Here’s the thing, Karla was a lab rat. Morse is a highly skilled agent. Karla getting razor claws shouldn’t give her fighting skills. Morse should have been able to drop her with minimal effort.

The fight doesn’t get a satisfying conclusion. When it gets close to a Coulson/Cal showdown, the teleporter from earlier in the season shows up, grabs Cal, and ‘ports out. Cal gets told he’s not one of them, he’s just a science experiment. That line fits in with the formula that gives him super-strength in the comics. He then gets led off, presumably to meet whoever is in charge of the teleporter’s faction.

Speaking of factions, Hunter gets dragged to the folks that Mac and Morse work for. I had a few theories about who that would be. I was wrong, points to them there. This is going to be an interesting development. I can’t say I’m looking forward to this plot, but it does have a lot of potential.

There was a lot of talk about what to do with Skye, and she ended up being crucial to the plan that, at the least, captured some of the bad guys and saved the hostages. In my opinion, she’s proved herself. Of course, Simmons seems to want to drug her into oblivion, but I’m starting to wonder if Simmons’ time undercover at Hydra had had some long term effects. There also ends up being a big drawback to Skye’s “control” of her powers.

What I liked: Morse is a great fighter, and they’re giving her a lot of screen time. Skye is not taking being side-lined lying down. The Garner/May scenes were good. The reveal of who Mac and Morse work for was a surprise.

What I didn’t: The big fight was interrupted. I still don’t buy Coulson doesn’t realize at least two of his people are working for someone else. Hopefully I’ll be wrong about that. Simmons needs therapy more than Skye does. Karla the razor finger lady was just silly. I really like Bobbi “Mockingbird” Morse in the comics, and I’m starting to not like this version of her for working against Coulson.

This is slowly becoming one of the shows I like better in concept than execution. It’s not Arrow-bad yet, but it’s slipping in my opinion. I’ll give this one a low 3 out of 5.