Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
In case you missed our alert last week, the best season of ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has landed on Netflix. This is not a drill! Ghost Rider! LMDs! Quake kicking ass! It’s all streaming, alongside with the three previous action-packed seasons.
If you’re a Marvel Cinematic Universe completist, odds are you’ve already caught up on the exploits of Agent Coulson and his crew of super spies. If you aren’t caught up, binging up to 88 episodes may feel like an intense mission. If that’s the case, Decider has a debriefing tailor-made for you.
We went straight to the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. executive producers–Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Jeffrey Bell–and got the lowdown on their all-time top five S.H.I.E.L.D. missions. If you’re a Marvel movie buff but a Marvel TV newbie and want to marathon the most intense and transformative installments in this MCU mainstay, this list is your mission plan. If you’re a diehard agent in the S.H.I.E.L.D. fan club, then rewatching this greatest hits list will give you thrills (and also make you cry… a lot).
This is your mission, straight from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. Fire up Netflix, and get to work!
1.17: 'Turn, Turn, Turn'
WRITER: Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen
DIRECTOR: Vincent Misiano
AIRDATE: 4/8/14
SYNOPSIS: Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team find themselves without anyone they can trust, only to discover that they’re trapped with a traitor in their midst.
JEFFREY BELL SAYS: “The episode that changed the game. For sixteen episodes we had known that not only was Hydra behind everything, but they were in our midst. It wasn’t until after Hydra was revealed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, that we were permitted to utter the ‘H’ word and let the world in on the secret. Agent Ward killing Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows) remains one of our most shocking moments. The silent look between Brett Dalton’s Agent Ward and Bill Paxton’s John Garrett was chillingly spectacular.”
2.10: 'What They Become'
WRITER: Jeffrey Bell
DIRECTOR: Michael Zinberg
AIRDATE: 12/9/14
SYNOPSIS: Once inside, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents race to destroy the alien city before Hydra can lay claim to it. Skye (Chloe Bennet) uncovers a shocking secret about her past.
MAURISSA TANCHAROEN & JED WHEDON SAY: “This episode was a long time in the making, the origin of our first Inhuman and the first female superhero in the MCU. The final moments are a culmination of hours of hard work by every department bringing their A game making Jeff Bell’s script come to life. Still gives us chills.”
3.05: '4,722 Hours'
WRITER: Craig Titley
DIRECTOR: Jesse Bochco
AIRDATE: 10/27/15
SYNOPSIS: Jemma (Elizabeth Henstridge) recounts the story of her time on Maveth, the inhospitable alien world where she was a castaway, and the mysterious stranger who saved her life.
JED WHEDON & MAURISSA TANCHAROEN SAY: “Titley, Bochco, and the incomparable Henstridge. And then [Iain] De Caestecker as the cherry on top.”
3.13: 'Parting Shot'
WRITER: Paul Zbyszewski
DIRECTOR: Michael Zinberg
AIRDATE: 3/22/16
SYNOPSIS: On the trail of Gideon Malick (Powers Boothe), Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) and Lance (Nick Blood) travel to Russia and become embroiled in an assassination and coup plot, threatening their lives.
JEFFREY BELL SAYS: “The episode where we said farewell to Bobbi and Hunter. The bar scene at the end was one of the first parts of the story that Paul Zbyszewski pitched to us. He called it a spy’s goodbye. We got choked up just hearing him describe it. We became progressively more emotional at each stage: script, table read, and then finally when we shot it, there wasn’t a dry eye on set. The stoicism of Henry Simmons’s character, Mack, the fact that he’s unwilling to drink his shot, that he doesn’t want to say goodbye, makes me cry every time I see it. It’s a beautiful sendoff to a pair of actors and characters whom we love.”
4.15: 'Self Control'
WRITER: Jed Whedon
DIRECTOR: Jed Whedon
AIRDATE: 2/21/17
SYNOPSIS: Suspicion turns to paranoia when the team doesn’t know who can be trusted as more LMDs infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D.
JED WHEDON SAYS: “Maurissa picked it, not me. Stop looking at me like that. She’s my wife, what do you expect!”
