Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., “The Dirty Half Dozen,” was written by the team of Brent Fletcher and Drew Z Greenberg and was directed by Kevin Tancharoen. The episode has a couple of shout outs to the Avengers: Age of Ultron, but, if you are one of the few people on earth who haven’t seen the movie, it really shouldn’t impact your enjoyment and understanding of what’s going on in the episode. For me, this episode had a couple of really great moments, but the thing I’ll remember the longest is that amazing fight sequence with Skye (Chloe Bennet) taking out a bunch of Hydra agents single-handedly in one single take. Amazing!
The episode begins with Raina (Ruth Negga) having a dream while Jiaying (Dichen Lachman) watches. Cal (Kyle MacLachlan) arrives back with Gordon (Jamie Harris) and Skye and has a meltdown, during which he exposes who he and Skye are to everyone. Gordon comes back with cut from Raina’s vision and tells them Hydra took Lincoln (Luke Mitchell).
Naturally, Skye wants to go and rescue Lincoln immediately, and she’s shocked when Jiaying puts the safety of everyone else at Afterlife first. Jiaying knows exactly what Hydra is capable of and won’t risk everyone else by rescuing Lincoln. Skye turns to Gordon for help and tells him that regardless of its other shortcomings, S.H.I.E.L.D. never leaves a man behind. Skye finds out about Raina’s gift, and has its authenticity proven by seeing that dream play out in real time at the Hydra base. Gordon is reluctant to go anywhere near Hydra, but Raina tells Gordon he doesn’t take Skye to Hydra, and he brings her to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Skye does seem to convince Jiaying that she shouldn’t turn Cal out in the world until they are sure it’s “the safe and user-friendly Cal” that they are releasing. Jiaying takes Cal out for a walk. He apologizes for his outburst, and then she says they shouldn’t have sent him away. He’s still convinced they can be a family, which is a little sad. Jiaying says there are always threats and then looks at Raina talking to the others. She asks what Cal can tell her about Raina. He tells her she’s manipulative, dangerous, and deceitful, and that she needs to watch her.
The episode ends with Jiaying talking to Raina, laying down the law. Any decisions based on Raina’s visions will now be made by Jiaying. Raina has a vision of Loki’s scepter and so much destruction which is clearly a shout out to
Age of Ultron?
Meanwhile, Coulson (Clark Gregg) has to maneuver around Gonzales (Edward James Olmos). Coulson tells Gonzales about the Hydra base in Alaska where List (Henry Goodman) is experimenting on powered people. When Gonzales balks at trusting Coulson, Coulson tells him, “Trust the mission.” Coulson also reveals that he knows Gonzales’ secret – it’s in the toolbox. I was sure that the secret was that Loki’s scepter was in the boat, but it’s clear that that isn’t it as the scepter is revealed to be in Slokovia, leaving us to wonder what the secret is!!!
There are some fun bonding moments between Mike (J August Richards) and Lincoln. They’ve disabled Mike’s arm, but Lincoln points out that sarcasm is still working just fine. Lincoln is resigned that they aren’t coming for him. List and Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) share a truly creepy scene in which they discuss the differences between Mike – who was made by man – and Lincoln who was made by nature. Bakshi quotes Whitehall: “Discovery requires experimentation” and they both comment on how much they miss Whitehall. List mentions the twins in Slokovia with Stooker and this is another shout out to
Age of Ultron.
Gonzales wants a full on assault, but Coulson wants a small force, and he’s picked out his own people – the dirty half dozen - to ensure the prisoners get out alive. The plan is to rescue the enhanced prisoners and then disable the security so S.H.I.E.L.D. can bomb the base. When May is left with the deciding vote, Coulson looks shocked. I was really hoping that May was still working with Coulson and acting about being kept in the dark and being angry about it, but it’s clear in this episode that that isn’t the case.
May is mad about all the secrets Coulson has been keeping. She wants to know what Theta Protocol is and he says no. He tells her she’s not the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and she flings back, “Neither are you!” Coulson reminds her about the secret line she had to Fury. May says it’s personal because Coulson went to Andrew (Blair Underwood) behind her back. He tells her he went to Andrew for counselling – for himself. She still says he should have told her, and he agrees to apologize. I’m really not keen on this development as it’s clear by the end of the episode that Coulson is sharing more information with Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) than May.
Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) isn’t happy when Gonzales won’t let her go on the mission. He tells her “we’re fighting a war against an enemy with no honor and sometimes we make sacrifices for the greater good.” That sounded an awful lot like he wasn’t really too concerned about the team getting out.
Former Agent 33 (Maya Stojan) is nervous about going to S.H.I.E.L.D., but Ward (Brett Dalton) wants to let her get back what she lost – being a S.H.I.L.E.D. agent. Bobbi reaches out to her while she’s undergoing tests. Bobbi talks to 33 and tells her she’s there for her and that what Whitehall did to her was unthinkable. 33 says the one good thing to come out of it was meeting Ward. She assures Bobbi she hasn’t seen the Ward she sees.
33 isn’t included in the mission either, and it becomes clear by the end that this was really Ward’s end game. His final call to Coulson is really pretty touching. He tells Coulson that he knew the team wouldn’t forgive him, and some people don’t deserve forgiveness. But 33 does – she was a good agent. Ward says he’s tried to fix her, but he’s not the right man because there’s not enough good left in him. Yet his actions would appear to contradict that statement.
Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) feels sorry for 33. Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) tells Simmons that 33 and Ward are in love. Simmons replies that’s not love. And then Fitz immediately thanks Simmons for the sandwich, which we all know IS love! Fitz is adorable as he tells Simmons about attacking Ward on the plane, and she’s all impressed. The scene turns more chilling as Simmons suggests putting a splinter bomb on Ward!
Simmons wants to go on the away team. Coulson tells her that everyone has a specific role – it’s just a small team. She tells him, “this is something I have to do,” and convinces him that he’ll need someone with medical training to help Mike, who they know has already had his eye removed. I loved when Simmons finally comes upon him and Mike tells her that it’s not as bad as it looks. Simmons doesn’t believe him – “Really?” And Mike concedes – “yeah it’s pretty bad.”
As the team assemble for the mission, there’s a noise and everyone thinks Ward is up to something, but it’s just Skye arriving. Simmons and Coulson seem particularly happy to see her. Ward declares “This is great! We’ve finally got the team back together.” And I’m pretty sure most of the audience was thinking the same thing.
Simmons and Fitz pepper Skye with questions. Simmons comments that “you’re being so secretive” and Fitz excuses her by saying we need to focus on the mission. Skye assures that she’s not trying to keep things from them but “it’s just that Ward is here and I don’t want him to know any of this.” She doesn’t feel she has to protect Afterlife from the team, but she does feel she needs to protect them from Ward.
Coulson asks Ward to brief the team on Bakshi’s intel. This is an excellent scene. Everyone is giving him the stink-eye. Ward tries to “address the elephant on the plane” and even pulls out the abuse card. May isn’t falling for it: “we all had our traumas, and didn’t turn any of us into psychopaths.” Fitz tells him, “we were a team and a family and you betrayed us.” Ward concedes his one biggest regret: “It’s this. My actions destroyed this. And I’ll regret this forever.” Skye breaks the moment by saying, “I’m still glad I shot you.” Coulson pulls them back on mission, and tells Ward, “No more talking. To people.”
Hunter (Nick Blood)goes to talk to Mack (Henry Simmons). He’s setting up so others can watch the mission in real time. Hunter sits down and starts to help him. Mack apologizes for everything. He tells Hunter he never meant for him to get hurt, but he did what he thought was right. Hunter accepts his apology.
The entire mission was a terrific sequence with terrific effects and that brilliant fight sequence with Chloe Bennet. However, they BLEW UP THE BUS!!! Couslon’s bus!! It was a great special effect, but I was very sad to see the bus go.
Bakshi meets them and briefs them and chooses to join Ward’s team. There’s another nice moment as Fitz tells Jemma to be careful – but it’s more to himself than her.
List gets away, and Ward and Skye are pinned down. Ward tells her “It’s just like old times,” but Skye says, “Not quite.” And then she uses her powers to blast the Hydra agents. The entire team has moved on in ways that Ward doesn’t know about. Skye is well past needing Ward to protect her.
Simmons tells Ward to get something to carry Mike out on. Mike says he’s surprised that Simmons would agree to be on a team with Ward, and Simmons tells him, “I saw an opportunity to do the right thing, and I took it.” This resonates with what Simmons said to Coulson to get on the team in the first place, Henstridge is excellent in this scene as you can clearly see that she is meaning a lot more than she’s saying. She tries to get Ward with the splinter bomb and gets Bakshi instead. While I’m glad that Brett Dalton is still on the show, I was very sad to lose Simon Kassianides. Another shout out to the effects team for more spectacular work here. Simmons tells Ward that she was just trying to make good on her promise to kill him. Ward tells her she really has changed and he’s disappointed in her! This really is a culmination in a really nicely executed character arc for Simmons.
Skye finds Lincoln and zaps him back to life by using their powers. She realizes that Raina’s vision was right. Meanwhile we see that Coulson had a different plan – getting intel not just shutting down the defenses, and May is pissed at him again. I’m not liking this rift between May and Coulson.
Gonzales tells Bobbi that Skye is still dangerous. He wanted the enhanced people that Coulson would rescue. Gonzales is planning to hold Skye and Bobbi is not impressed. Gonzales insists that Coulson honor their deal and open the toolbox. Coulson says fine, go nuts – at least until Fury comes to take it back – SPOILER ALERT!! Will Fury make another guest appearance before the end of the season? Coulson does a pretty good job of putting Gonzales in his place even without Fury and then Coulson takes the call from Maria Hill – and Gonzales is NOT happy. I loved Hill and Coulson scoffing at Gonzales putting everything to a vote. Coulson says Theta Protocol is ready and it’s time to bring in the Avengers. Which is the biggest lead in to the movie.
What did you think of the episode? It seems clear that Gonzales is going to be a problem. Do you think Coulson can win over the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. without Fury? Do you think Fury will step in? Were you shocked by Simmons’ attempt to kill Ward? Were you shocked by Ward’s leaving 33 with S.H.I.E.L.D? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Try not to leave spoilers for the movie!!!
About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Forever, Defiance, Bitten, Glee, and a few others! Highlights of this past year include covering San Diego Comic Con as press and a set visit to Bitten. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
