With Arrow and The Flash starting their seasons the same week that this episode airs in first-run, there are going to be a lot of comparisons.  Last season, it took a while for Agents of SHIELD to operate in the same league as Arrow, which has been the standard-bearer of televised comic-book worlds of late.  Thankfully, this is another strong episode for the rejuvenated series, and further explores the new status quo under Director Coulson’s leadership.

 

Focusing on Simmons was a good move; not only does it make sense for someone to infiltrate Hydra, but Coulson was right to make certain it would be someone who was less than obvious.  It’s also a great way to show how the events late in the first season changed even Simmons, who was notoriously inept on several occasions early in the series.  She’s not a perfect mole, of course, so it was really good to see the conversion process that Agent 33 was undergoing.

 

One of the more interesting aspects of the whole operation is how Coulson is letting May into his confidence, but keeping the rest of the team more or less in the dark.  It’s a game that Fury taught him well, it seems, but it gets to the heart of what is so intriguing about this season.  Coulson was always the chipper loyal agent, even when the truth about his resurrection was foremost in mind.  That’s not who he is anymore, and if Coulson can be changed so radically, just how much has the rest of the team been altered?

 

Two other characters come to mind when answering that question in this episode.  Fitz isn’t just mentally challenged now, his entire mindset is off the rails.  The old Fitz would have never confronted Ward in that manner, and knowing that gave Fitz’s threat a lot more weight.  I’m not sure even Coulson was prepared for Fitz to step so close to the line.  There’s going to come a time when Coulson is going to have to do something to help Fitz get restored, something radical, or remove him from the team.

 

Skye continues to take leaps and bounds as the reality of being a part of the new SHIELD progresses.  There’s an edge to the character that was completely missing in the first season.  I love that she’s essentially turning to May as a mentor, if only in terms of her weapons proficiency.  This feels like a natural progression of the character, but also like laying the groundwork for her activities once her father’s plans come into play.

 

In terms of the struggle to take charge of Donny Gill, and was a nice callback to one of the metahumans introduced in the first season as well as a way to keep the scope of the MCU within the scope of the SHIELD vs. Hydra war.  It also served to show how SHIELD and Hydra aren’t so dissimilar as Coulson would like to believe.  Both were willing to treat Gill as a prize to be won, not a human being with the right to determine his own fate.  But that seems to be the point of this season: in defeating Hydra, will SHIELD be able to avoid becoming them again?