Wow I watched this episode twice before and had no idea what Franklin Hall’s whole deal was. See this is why I needed this undistracted rewatch. It’s already paying off.
This episode has everything: a cute pink dress, wiggly bits, monkey talk, and Professor Quirrell. Lets set an electric charge to these pieces and see what erupts!
Truck driver. His name is Mack. He is carrying secure cargo. A vehicle in his convoy FLIES into the air out of nowhere. All of a sudden, good-ol-boy Mack reveals himself to be an Agent. He is Agent Mack…. (Good name. Hope we get to hear it some more). His whole rig eventually also gets dragged into the air by some invisible force and dropped back on the ground. A team of mystery people bust into the trailer using an excavator. The cargo is a man. It’s professor quirrell.
Ward is making good on his offer to be Skye’s Supervising Officer. They’re punching a punching bag. Skye hates it. Ward says “there will come a moment when you have to commit to this or bail. Every field agent has a defining moment.” Skye threatens to bring out the truth serum from episode 1 to get him to open up, but Ward is like ‘dummy, there is no such thing as truth serum – that was a big pretend to get you to trust us.’ Thank goodness, cuz I was not looking forward to that coming back into play.
May calls them upstairs and Fitzsimmons both do this cute, excited run to get up there. They get debriefed on the abduction of professor quirrell. His actual name is Franklin Hall and he is a brilliant physicist. Fitzsimmons knows him from their SHIELD Hogwarts. He is one of a few select scientists SHIELD has been protecting… they keep them hidden and on the move.
Agent Mack is alive! But he’s pretty beat up from being thrown around in his Freightliner. He thinks the attackers had to be connected to SHIELD because they were waiting for them on the route. At the scene of the attack, Simmons wears some dorky fun green glowy goggles. It helps her find a teeny tiny thing that makes nearby objects swirl around it. We will soon learn that it is affecting gravity.
Coulson and Ward hunt down the cowboy who sold the baddies his big excavator what broke into the tractor trailer. Whoever paid him, paid him in gold bars which Simmons discovers were not very pure so the cowboy was getting cheated…. Fitzsimmons is able to work out that the gold came from a mine owned by rich douche Ian Quinn.
Ian Quinn is in Malta on some fancy rich person property, making a rich person phone call. He greets Franklin Hall who was tied up in Quinn’s underground lab. They are old friends from Cambridge. Hall notes that Quinn has stationed himself in Malta because international laws forbid SHIELD from interfering there.
The reason Franklin Hall has been brought here is because he designed the little thing Simmons found in the middle of the road and has big science knowledge about the substance that was powering the device from the inside.
Back on the bus, we learn the stuff inside the device is GRAVITONIUM. It is an element so rare that many don’t even believe it exists. Gravitonium has ‘wiggly bits’ that distort gravity fields within it. It can affect gravity around it when an electric current is applied. Fitzsimmons explains this to Skye (and us) and it gives Fitz plenty of opportunities to show off the merits of the Scottish accent. Grravitooonium.
In his lab, Quinn reveals a big ol version of the gravitonium generator. He needs Hall to show him how to make it hold and control a big bloob of gravitonium. Hall seems interested. Some super villain music plays in the background.
Coulson and the team are brainstorming how to rescue Franklin Hall from Malta without getting full murdered from law-breaking. Fitz is unfortunately shot down when he suggests a monkey with adorable little hands to disable the laser fencing. Ward has a dumb plan to spend weeks establishing an under-cover identity. Skye then volunteers herself to be the Inside Man. She uses a backchannel to get an *e-vite* to one of Quinn’s events. She will go undercover, and it won’t be illegal because she is not an actual SHIELD agent.
Ward complains about Skye’s plan to Coulson, adding that Skye is not committing to the training he is giving her. Coulson suggests that Ward talk to Skye like a human person for once.
So, a training session with the two hotties again takes place. Skye is quipping about Ward like usual until he drops hard backstory on her. He had an abusive older brother. Having to protect himself and his younger brother was his life-defining moment. Ah a human moment from Ward does seem to get Skye to take this a smidge more seriously.
THE PLAN
is for Skye to go in and trigger a reboot of Quinn’s security system from the inside. This will allow three seconds for a two-man extraction team – Ward and Coulson – to cross onto Quinn’s property. Fitzsimmons has created an adorable piece of spy gear for Skye. It is a makeup compact – Desert Rose to match her complexion – which will light up green dots on the mirror when it is close enough to a computer to allow wireless access.
Skye arrives to Quinn’s estate in a very pretty pink dress. I want that dress it’s simple and bright and cute. May is talking in her ear to give her info about the party guests. Real spy stuff. Skye is pretty good at this, and she is really into it. She should probably stop putting her finger to her ear and talking to herself, but I feel that. She approaches Quinn who offers her a job! Uh oh… does it look like Skye is legitimately considering this?
Quinn makes a little speech denouncing agencies like SHIELD which halt scientific progress by hoarding it all for themselves.
Skye goes searching for a drop spot for her desert rose but is busted by Quinn. She acts like she was just looking for a pen which gives us my favorite line of the episode, “you probably have like ten pens for all your … ideas.” Of course, this play doesn’t work so she tries a cooler angle. She tells him that SHIELD is listening to their conversation and dumps the earpiece in champagne in front of him!
Meanwhile, Coulson and Ward have snuck up the beach into place waiting at the big dangerous laser-grid shield into the compound. They are having to fight off guards that come by periodically.
Quinn tells Skye that SHIELD is only using her because she is a dangerous person with no family. He wants her to come work for him – but only after telling him SHIELD’s agenda. So… she brings out the compact…. Is she going to show him?? Naw. She’s still on our side phew. Green light up. Beach shield down. Coulson and Ward are in.
Coulson goes to free Hall, BUT… he wants to stay. HALL was the one who leaked his own location to Quinn! He wanted to be kidnapped so that he could access the gravitonium and generator. But, he doesn’t want to use it. He wants to force it to the bottom of the ocean along with Quinn… and everyone in the area. He pours himself a drink while he and Coulson have an awesome gravity-altered walk around the walls of the lab.
Quinn has a gun pointed at Skye! She takes it from him using Ward’s lessons. Badass. Quinn doesn’t believe she has what it takes to pull the trigger, and hey, she agrees. She literally “nope”s off the balcony and into a pool. Quinn feels gravity shifting and realizes frustratingly that Hall has turned on him and they must evacuate. Skye almost gets captured, but Ward rushes in and takes out four guys with is strong man spy fists to save her
Hall has a gun pointed at Coulson! He’s rambling on about how SHIELD is no better than Quinn. He wants to get rid of gravitonium for good so that no one can use it, even though that would mean killing many innocent people. Coulson makes his own hard call. He needs a catalyst to stop the generator, so he shoots the glass Hall is standing on! Franklin Hall falls into the gravitonium and is absorbed! The day is saved….
On the Bus, May requests to be included in any upcoming combat ops. She didn’t like Coulson being out in the field after what he has been through (dying in the Avengers movie) so she wants to play her part.
Skye is more invested in training now that she has had a gun pointed at her. She opens up to Ward about her bad experiences with foster families. She likes being a part of this team and she wants to be good at it. Aw bonding.
Stinger! The gravitonium is being locked away in the ‘deepest level of The Fridge.’ But whats that? When no one is looking, a hand reaches out from the gravitonium! Ah! This certainly must mean that we are going to see this return. Soon. Right? Right…? Eh lets not think about it.