Agents Of SHIELD Season 7, Episode 2 “Know Your Onions” Recap And Review

The Agents of SHIELD are now in the past. 1931 might have been a simpler time, but with the alien Chronicoms determined to change history in order to destroy SHIELD, they’re finding themselves in a tough situation. To succeed in stopping their plans means allowing thousands of deaths to occur. What is a SHIELD agent to do?

Also, what happens when an injured agent wakes up from a fatal wound to discover they’re now in the past? You can read what happened last week here.

Warning: There will definitely be spoilers for Season 7, Episode 2 of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD below.

(All images courtesy of ABC Studios).

Tending To The Mystery Lady

Coulson and Daisy try tending to Freddy’s contact, who was shot by the Chronicoms, in the speakeasy. Simmons and Yo-Yo arrive and Koenig is freaking out, not knowing what’s going on. Simmons manages to remove a bullet, but then the Chronicoms start pounding on the door. With no other exit, they manage to hide in a secret room in Koenig’s office. They are almost discovered when the lady wakes up and knocks over a bottle that smashes on the ground. Yo-Yo simply watched it fall rather than try catching it. The Chronicoms inside are told the getaway car with Freddy has been found so they quickly leave before investigating the noise.

Simmons Finds Some Answers

The lady is confused. Daisy says they’ll get her to the hospital, but first they need answers. Simmons notices some of the green liquid from the vials she gave Freddy on the lady’s shoe. She creates a makeshift lab at the bar to analyze the substance.

Simmons soon figures out the liquid is part of a compound that first appeared in Germany during WWII. (Koenig scoffs at the mention of this). It was synthesized by a German scientist named Abraham Erskine and was first used by a man named Johann Schmidt–the Red Skull. Freddy is about to deliver the key ingredient to the Super Soldier Serum to his mysterious contact. 

Changes In May And Yo-Yo?

When the lady knocked over the bottle while they were hiding, Yo-Yo should’ve been able to zoom over and catch it before it hit the ground. Daisy later asked why she didn’t. Yo-Yo claimed she didn’t see it, but Daisy calls her on it and says she saw her staring right at it. Yo-Yo finally tells her she couldn’t move. Maybe it was the alien shrike that was inside her that’s preventing her from using her abilities.

As for May, Enoch calls Simmons and tells her May has gotten out of her stasis tube. Simmons says it’s too early. When he finds her, she wants to know where the others are because she’s supposed to protect them. She then gets dressed, in her modern uniform, and wants to go out. Refusing to let her out, she starts fighting Enoch, who switches himself to hunter-Chronicom mode.

May finally gets the upper hand, pins his leg, and bashes him over and over on the head with a fire extinguisher. A car pulls into the Zephyr, and Coulson yells at her to stand down. She asks, “You’re not Sarge, are you? You’re not Coulson either.” Coulson replies “Yes and no.” He tells her he was dead, and she says he still is. May walks away and allows herself to be put back in stasis. Daisy thinks it’s weird she wasn’t even phased when she saw Coulson. 

Freddy And Deke Vs Freddy Vs Chronicoms

Mack, Deke, and Freddy drive away in a car and are being chased. Freddy says he’s just delivering booze. When they look away, he drops a vial with the green liquid in the bottle. The vial has a Hydra logo on cap. When Mack asks who the buyer is, Freddy says he doesn’t know. Freddy tries parting ways, but Mack insists they have to protect him, and they all hop on a freight train.

Mack and Freddy look through the crates of booze while Freddy sleeps on the train. He is awoken by Deke’s walkie talkie and is upset they’re snooping around. Freddy pulls a gun on them and tells them to back off. He knows they’re not bootleggers, and Mack reiterates their job is to protect him. Freddy says the lady knew his father and offered him a chance to be something his father never could be. Once he makes the drop, he’ll be set for life.

They arrive at the drop location, and Daisy is able to get through to Deke on the radio. When she finds out he has Freddy’s gun, she orders him to “take the shot.” She doesn’t care about the butterfly effect because killing Freddy could save thousands of lives. At the same time, Mack finds a vial of the green liquid in a bottle. Deke comes up holding the gun on Freddy and tells Mack his full name is Wilfred Malick. Mack tells Deke to stand down because he’s the one to give orders, not Daisy. They’re interrupted as the Chronicoms arrive, shooting.

The Window Is Closing

On the Zephyr, an alarm goes off, and Simmons explains the time window is closing. In seventeen minutes, the Zephyr will leave this time period with or without them. There’s no way to predict when the next window would open. They all dash out to help and retrieve Mack and Deke.

Freddy manages to slip away during the shootout, but Koenig, who was brought on board the Zephyr, finds him under a bridge. Koenig tries convincing him to be better than his father and puts down his gun. Freddy shoots him in the shoulder and gets into a car with the contact.

The Chronicoms notice the window is closing and figure they can take out SHIELD during another time period. Enoch finds Koenig and finds out the future has been secured. He has two minutes to get to the Zephyr. On board, they try waiting for him but have to close the hangar door otherwise the ship will be torn apart. Enoch arrives just as it disappears into the timestream.

Later, Enoch is working at Koenig’s speakeasy as the bartender after making Koenig his specialty drink. Apparently Enoch “knows his onions.” Koenig says he has the job, but he wants to know more about SHIELD because he feels he can help. He also wants to know everything about “robots.”

Thoughts

This was a great and intense episode. Last week showed us this could be a fun ride with the Agents in 1931. This week, the action really amped up. What seemed like just another fun time travel adventure story suddenly turned serious when Daisy struggled with having the chance to change the future. We may have seen these types of stories before, but for some reason, it felt a little more serious here.

Obviously we couldn’t have Hydra destroyed before it ever started as that would affect all the blockbuster Marvel Studios films, but this show has been known to throw curve balls at us. There’s never any telling what they might do next.

We have some interesting developments with Yo-Yo and May. Yo-Yo may just need some time to adjust to the healing before her powers kick back in. Perhaps there are some psychological aspects at having an alien being invade your system and threaten your existence. It’s not like the Agents ever really talk to anyone about what they go through. Isn’t anyone concerned with their mental health?

May’s full changes still need to be seen. At first she said she didn’t feel anything. When she and Enoch were fighting, you could see she felt one of his punches and noticed that she felt it. Her reaction to seeing Coulson was pretty emotionless despite the fact she was relentless in trying to get out of the Zephyr to protect the others.

It was also surprising to see the team have to deal with the time window closing. It seemed they would be spending the entire season, or most of it, in 1931. We know they still have to meet up with Daniel Sousa (from Agent Carter) and General Rick Stoner (Patrick Warburton) at some point so we know they’re not returning to the present right away. The questions remains as to what time period will they arrive next and who will they have to “save” from the Chronicoms? Also, will they meet up with Enoch in a later time period?