The Caption there says it all…

If nothing else, you have to give Agents of SHIELD credit for putting thought into their titles. They usually work on several levels, and sometimes are just plain entertaining on their own. “Love In the Time of Hydra” qualifies on all counts, and was a good episode. 

I’ve been wondering what happened to Ward since the mid-season finale, and we finally get to find out here. He and Agent 33, the one with the mask stuck on her face looking like Agent May, have been hiding together. She nursed him back to health after Skye shot him, and now they are kidnapping people to give 33 a sense of closure. That sounds really weird, granted, but that’s what seems to be happening. After finding the right tech expert to fix the mask, they go on a much more complicated operation: getting Bakshi away from General Talbot. Bakshi is the one that turned 33 from a SHIELD agent to a Hydra convert and set in motion the events that ended up with the mask stuck to her face.

The other big topic is what to do about Skye. Her powers are not only hard to control and dangerous, but are hurting her, too. Coulson’s solution is leave her at a rustic cabin in the middle of nowhere to let her get a handle on her powers. Of course, the cabin is surrounded by a laser fence, so she can’t exactly wander off if she changes her mind.

Simmons is continuing to be utterly irrational about Skye’s powers, and people with powers in general. She and Fitz continue to snipe at each other. I think he got it right when he says she is not dealing well with change. First Fitz’ brain injuries then Skye’s powers have both changed people that Simmons cares about, and she’s not handling it at all well. Her comparing Skye to the Hulk was kind of a low blow that Skye overheard.

We also see a lot more this week about the other SHIELD. Edward James Olmos is Gonzales, who seems to be the leader of this other group. They are concerned that Coulson is making the same mistakes Fury did about keeping too many secrets (weird thought for a spy agency). They’re particularly concerned about Coulson’s interest in alien artefacts, which led to Trip’s death, and both Raina and Skye’s transformations. Gonzales, at least, doesn’t seem to blaming Coulson per se. He says Coulson was a good agent until Fury gave him the “Tahiti” injection.

They are trying to recruit Hunter, which both makes sense and gives us insight into their motives. I still don’t like this plot, and I’m finding it unlikely that, as we see the scope of their operation, Coulson is just unaware of it. I do like that Hunter is not switching sides. I really don’t like that Mac and Morse are spying on Coulson. Morse, especially, is a character I really like from the comics, and I don’t like that she’s working against our heroes.

Hydra, or whatever’s left of it, seems to have been utterly forgotten in the shuffle. We don’t even see any more on the various Inhumans, like the teleporter. This is pretty much all bizarre factions of SHIELD and ex-SHIELD this week. In a world with outfits like Hydra, AIM, Centipede, and whatever else out there, it seems a shame that SHIELD is split and fighting themselves. Come to that, whatever happened to the Rising Tide that Skye was part of at the beginning? Aren’t they still running around out there?

What I liked: While I don’t like Coulson what is doing with Skye, he does at least seem compassionate about it, which is more than I can say for Simmons, or even May at times. Hunter, while very much a mercenary at the start, is staying loyal to Coulson.

What I didn’t: The SHIELD civil war just isn’t interesting me. It wasn’t Fury’s fault that Hydra infiltrated SHIELD, and it’s not Coulson’s fault that Fury appointed him director. Also, the shared world is strained a bit here with all this going on and no apparent reactions from Cap, the Black Widow etc. With all she knows and all her sources, I don’t believe the Widow doesn’t know what’s going on (or that she doesn’t know Coulson’s still alive).

I’m giving this episode a low 3 out of 5. With all the things they have going on or could be looking into, intra-SHIELD conflict just isn’t doing a lot for me.