Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - S3E13 - Parting Shot
Previously on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ‘The Inside Man’
Bobbi and Hunter land in Siberia with only a tracking beacon and her batons. The plan to surveil Malick goes way wrong when Bobbi and Hunter are nearly captured by Russian soldiers. But wait, there’s more; an Inhuman is being held prisoner on the base, so it becomes a rescue mission, too. With time on their hands as they wait for backup and equipment, Hunter gripes about never having a vacation or even a honeymoon. From the sound of his argument, Bobbi gets the feeling he’s talking about more than taking a drive up to Big Sur for the weekend; he may want to quit SHIELD.
Backup in the form of Daisy, Mack, and May arrives just as the team realizes Malick is planning to assassinate the Russian Prime Minister so he can continue building his Inhuman army without opposition.
Hunter and Bobbi are arrested for the murder of several Russian cabinet members and the Prime Minister’s personal attache. Interpol is called in to interrogate them, to find out if they’re working on their own or with SHIELD.
Inhuman nature: Former KGB hitman, General Androvich’s power: his “shadow”, or rather sentient dark force, can fight, kill, etc, without the use of his body, and it can shift density at will. He uses his “shadow” to kill the Prime Minister’s personal attache and is released by Petrov and Malick to assassinate the Prime Minister, because he won’t sign on with Petrov’s Inhuman sanctuary. To stop the “shadow”, the general must be killed.
Coulson being Fury: Instead of okaying Hunter and Bobbi getting rid of Malick once and for all, Coulson orders them to keep tabs on him.
Squad up: The trip to Russia being last minute, Hunter and Bobbi have neither surveillance equipment or weapons. When backup arrives, the team splits up with Bobbi, Daisy, and Mack going inside the facility to find out what Petrov and Malick are up to; while best friends Hunter and May recon the grounds.
Best line: “I don’t know if I admire you, feel sad for you, or both.” Hunter to May
It’s going down: The general calls upon Shadow to show Bobbi, Daisy, and Mack what’s up and takes off to find his traitorous brethren. Shadow throws Mack’s big ass into a wall, as if he weighs about a buck-oh-five. He recovers pretty quickly and tries to hit Shadow but can’t connect—neither can Bobbi’s batons or Daisy’s quake. For some reason, Mack just stands there watching—much like Jay standing right next to that damn portal— so Shadow yokes his ass again. Bobbi and Daisy post up and fight Shadow as best as one can fight something that can disappear into the floor when it’s knocked on its ass. For the most part, they keep up with it, until it took Daisy to the 12th and dropped her off on the 1st real hard.
What had happened was: Trying to get away from the general and his cohorts, Hunter and the Prime Minister head for safety, but run into crazy-ass Petrov, with a gun, screaming about mother Russia. Hunter popped him for his trouble. Shadow finds them, but Bobbi finds the general and puts three in his chest and immediately surrenders.
Take one for the team: Coulson uses his hand to disrupt the camera feed to the jail cell and takes that time to tell Bobbi and Hunter about the escape plan he hatched. They turn down the plan and instead choose to be disavowed.
FitzSimmons All the damn feels: At a bar, Bobbi and Hunter discuss what to do next, where to go. They have more enemies than choices and spy a tail at the bar. The waitress brings them a shot from a secret admirer and they realize it’s from Jemma. More shots arrive from Fitz, Daisy, May, Mack, and Coulson. It’s the Spy’s Goodbye. Each member of the team toasts them and down their shots, then leaves the bar.
The last to drink and leave is Mack.
HYDRA can’t stop, won’t stop: Back at home, Malick is skeet shooting with his daughter when she asks how things went in Russia. She correctly guesses that SHIELD thwarted his plans—yet again, and asks if they know about Ward…and when she can meet him. Malick looks uncomfortable about the prospect; he tells her Ward isn’t ready and he doesn’t know what his plans are. Don’t worry, she does; Ward is going to change the world.
Agents of SHIELD S3E13
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Plot - 10/10
10/10
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Dialogue - 10/10
10/10
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Action - 10/10
10/10
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Performances - 10/10
10/10
Summary
The voiceover lead in for the show was “Who will say farewell to SHIELD… forever?” I promise you, my heart dropped. I also should have known by the episode title that someone was going to leave… or die. Hell, I’ve been expecting someone to die since Maveth. But I was so excited to watch that it didn’t register. It says a lot that this broke me as much as a beloved character dying would. I’m not ashamed to admit I cried my ass off.
I knew Hunter and Bobbi were eventually going to leave because of Marvel’s Most Wanted, but I didn’t expect it now and I didn’t expect it to hurt this much. Had there not been a “Spy’s Goodbye”, I probably would have gotten a little misty and kept it movin’. But no, we had to see everyone salute them and say goodbye. Nice Paul Zbyszewski; thanks! Seriously, this episode was so well written and the directing by Michael Zinberg was superb. Just stop making me cry. Here’s to hoping we see Bobbi and Hunter team up with Coulson and Co. again. I’m gonna miss them.
