With the critical and ratings success of the pilot episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Coulson and his team return in the latest episode; titled “0-8-4”, which aired in America last night. So let us take a look at some of the references and easter eggs and share with you some of my own thoughts and opinions. Warning for those of you that haven’t caught the episode yet there will be some spoilers ahead.
Quick Review
A much improved second entry into the MCU. While some of the setup and team building aspects of the episode were a bit strong armed in, the plot and its execution made for some fun TV. The HYDRA weapon was more in line with what I expected for a plot device within the show to be, rather than last week’s mishmash centipede. The show also made great use of its CGI budget without having anything looking too bad, and had the chance to pull back on the easter eggs and humour to have more fulfilling action scenes and, surprisingly, more death and blood than I expected.
Also, the guest appearance was really fantastic.
The references to the comics and the MCU were, thankfully, a lot more restrained this episode while still having something for both movie and comic fans to pick up.
References to Tony Stark’s consultant status and Thor were much more subtle, while the inclusion of the tesseract powered HYDRA technology was a nice call back and set up the idea that HYDRA may still be active in some form. However, The Avengers references of the aliens and Loki still felt a tad bit shoe-horned in.
The call sign of “The Bus”, the teams flying command centre, is "S.H.I.E.L.D. 616" a references to Marvel’s main continuity. I would also like to look a little more into Coulson’s collectables to see if there is anything related to comics world.
And then at the end came the holy sh!t moment, it had been rumoured but I am not sure if anyone actually expected it; Nick Fury, Samuel L Jackson himself, makes a hilarious guest appearance.
Past and future
While there were many moments setting up future plot points, most interestingly Skye and the Rising Tide, there were lots of references to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s (and Coulson’s) other exploits; Anti-matter asteroid!
They continue to focus a lot on Tahiti being “a magical place”, whether this is reference to Coulson’s revival or just an android’s programmed response we will have to wait and see.
Did you guy notice anything else I missed? Let me know in the comments below.
Read the analysis of the
pilot episode here