Heavy Is the Head (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

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"Heavy Is the Head"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode
Episode no.Season 2
Episode 2
Directed byJesse Bochco
Written byPaul Zbyszewski
Produced by
Cinematography byFeliks Parnell
Editing byDavid Crabtree
Original air dateSeptember 30, 2014 (2014-09-30)
Running time43 minutes
Guest appearances
  • The Doctor
    "
  • Antoine Triplett
  • Raina
  • Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie
  • Glenn Talbot
  • Sunil Bakshi
  • Carl "Crusher" Creel
Episode chronology
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"Shadows" 		Next →
"Making Friends and Influencing People"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2
List of episodes

"Heavy Is the Head" is the second episode of the

Hydra and the U.S. military for a powerful artifact. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. The episode was written by Paul Zbyszewski, and directed by Jesse Bochco
.

Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by principal cast members Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Nick Blood.

"Heavy Is the Head" originally aired on

Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 5.05 million viewers. The episode received a mostly positive critical response, with much of the praise going to the development of both old and new characters, and to the brief appearance of guest star Kyle MacLachlan
.

Plot

Following the events of "

Raina
, who tries to bargain for the Obelisk. When this is unsuccessful, she contacts Coulson, and gives him the location of a meeting between Creel and his Hydra superior.

Hunter returns to the team and reveals his deal with Talbot, but explains that he wishes to work with them to take down Creel, who killed Hartley. Realizing that Coulson would rather take Creel prisoner than kill him, Hunter turns on Agents May,

The Doctor
". She discovers that she is able to hold it without dying, and "The Doctor" promises to reveal its secrets once Raina brings Skye to him.

At the Playground, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, Coulson has another "episode", carving symbols also found on the Obelisk into the wall, with May documenting the process. After Hartley's funeral, Hunter agrees to join S.H.I.E.L.D. permanently, though Coulson asks him to follow through with Talbot's deal.

In an end tag, Coulson and Talbot meet, but Talbot refuses to negotiate. Despite this, Coulson remains open to working with the U.S. government and military, and reveals that S.H.I.E.L.D. now has both a quinjet and carrier plane with operational cloaking technology among their arsenal.

Production

Development

In September 2014, Marvel announced that the second episode of the season would be titled "Heavy is the Head", to be written by Paul Zbyszewski, with Jesse Bochco directing.[1]

Casting

Further information: List of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters

In September 2014, Marvel revealed that main cast members

Sunil Bakshi, respectively.[1][2][3] Main cast member Brett Dalton, who portrays Grant Ward in the series,[1] does not appear and is not credited in this episode.[4]

Release

Broadcast

"Heavy Is the Head" was first aired in the United States on ABC on September 30, 2014.[5] It was aired alongside the US broadcast in Canada on CTV.[6]

Home media

The episode began streaming on Netflix on June 11, 2015,[7] and was released along with the rest of the second season on September 18, 2015, on Blu-ray and DVD.[8]

Reception

Ratings

In the United States the episode received a 1.8/5 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 1.8 percent of all households, and 5 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 5.05 million viewers.[5] The Canadian broadcast gained 2.33 million viewers, the third highest for that day, and the ninth highest for the week.[6]

Critical response

Kyle MacLachlan's appearance in the episode was greatly anticipated and, though brief, was received positively by critics.

James Hunt of Den of Geek thought that "the problem with this week's episode was that it was broadly the second part of last week's, rather than its own thing. As well as picking up seconds after that one finished, it also continued (and resolved) many of the plot threads it introduced, establishing the show's operating status quo in the final minutes. If it wasn't intended to be the back half of a feature-length episode, it does a very good impression of it." He called MacLachlan's appearance "The biggest moment of this episode", and felt that "it's tempting to say that his appearance was anticlimactic, but there's got to be more going on than we're shown, so I'm willing to reserve judgement."[9] Eric Goldman of IGN scored the episode an 8.5 out of 10 and praised the development of the Hunter and Mack characters, feeling that "Hunter especially was given some good material, as we learned of his military-turned-mercenary background [and] we got to understand more about Mac being a mechanic ... asked to do a job he's not quite qualified for and who's confident enough to admit that." Goldman felt that the episode "continued to show off an improved series, boasting better pacing and a stronger overall tone", and praised the single-scene appearance of MacLachlan.[10] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix stated that "The show hasn't reached peak capacity yet, but right now we're in the introductory phase in terms of story arcs and characters, and "Heavy Is the Head" did a fine job at that, particularly on the character end, while also offering up more cool Absorbing Man action." He praised the character development, especially the changes to those from the first season, but criticized the focus on non-character related story arcs, saying "The one lesson I had hoped the creative team had learned from last year is that character arcs are a lot more interesting when they're about who the characters are rather than what they are."[4]

Oliver Sava of

Raina its death touch, nor necessarily to have Coulson scratch out another board's worth of equations, it's nice to see the writers keeping the alien aspects in play as often as possible."[12] Joseph McCabe, writing for Nerdist, felt that "So far this season, the show has kept what worked best in its first year, that Whedon-patented propensity for pairing end-of-the-world melodrama with the most mundane of concerns ... The line that lingers, however, is one uttered in last week's season premiere. Coulson again instructs his people to "Go dark." Just how dark is the question this season of S.H.I.E.L.D. poses. I'm happy to give the show as much time as it needs to answer it."[13]

References

  1. ^
    Marvel.com. Archived from the original
    on September 11, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  2. Marvel.com. September 8, 2014. Archived from the original
    on September 8, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  3. Marvel.com. October 7, 2013. Archived from the original
    on August 20, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  4. ^ a b Sepinwall, Alan (September 30, 2014). "Review: 'Marvel's Agents of SHIELD' – 'Heavy Is the Head': Hunter's fortune". HitFix. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Bibel, Sara (October 1, 2014). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'Selfie', 'Manhattan Love Story', 'The Voice', 'Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.', 'New Girl' & 'Forever' Adjusted Up; 'Chicago Fire' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on October 2, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  6. ^ a b "Top 30 Programs (September 29-October 5, 2014)" (PDF). Numeris. October 15, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 30, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  7. ^ Jones, Nate (May 21, 2015). "What's New on Netflix: June 2015". Vulture. New York. Archived from the original on May 23, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
  8. ^ Damore, Meagan (July 10, 2015). "SDCC: Jeph Loeb Unveils The Future Of "Agents Of SHIELD," "Agent Carter" & More". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  9. ^ Hunt, James (October 31, 2014). "Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2 episode 2 review: Heavy Is The Head". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on January 8, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  10. ^ Goldman, Eric (September 30, 2014). "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: "Heavy Is the Head" Review". IGN. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  11. ^ Sava, Oliver (September 30, 2014). "Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "Heavy Is The Head"". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on December 3, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  12. ScreenCrush. Archived
    from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  13. ^ McCabe, Joseph (October 1, 2014). "MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Review: "Heavy is the Head"". Nerdist. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.

External links

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