Making Friends and Influencing People

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

"Making Friends and Influencing People"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode
Episode no.Season 2
Episode 3
Directed byBobby Roth
Written byMonica Owusu-Breen
Produced by
Featured music"God Help the Girl"
by God Help the Girl
Cinematography byFeliks Parnell
Editing byJoshua Charson
Original air dateOctober 7, 2014 (2014-10-07)
Running time43 minutes
Guest appearances
  • Antoine Triplett
  • Daniel Whitehall
  • Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie
  • Sunil Bakshi
  • Agent 33
  • Donnie Gill
  • Adam Kulbersh as
    Kenneth Turgeon
Episode chronology
โ† Previous
"Heavy Is the Head" 		Next โ†’
"Face My Enemy"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2
List of episodes

"Making Friends and Influencing People" is the third episode of the

Hydra for control of a superhuman. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. The episode was written by Monica Owusu-Breen, and directed by Bobby Roth
.

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. The idea of brainwashing plays a significant part in the episode, and is brought over from the films.

"Making Friends and Influencing People" originally aired on

Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 4.47 million viewers in its original airing. The episode received a positive critical response, with the performance of De Caestecker praised, and the rom-com
sequence featuring the character of Simmons also highlighted.

Plot

Sunil Bakshi taking Simmons with them to test her loyalties, and to take advantage of her previous short-lived association with Gill.[a]

With many of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents gone, Agent Leo Fitz investigates where Skye gets her Hydra information from, finding Ward, who severely injured Fitz's brain previously, leaving Fitz with communication and memory issues. Though Ward tries to explain himself, Fitz wishes for Ward to experience the same feeling, so he drains the oxygen from Ward's cell. However, Fitz relents when Ward explains that Gill had already been brainwashed by Hydra once, and that they would be looking to simply re-trigger it. Simmons finds Gill, and unknowingly begins to re-trigger his brainwashing, though she is interrupted by the arrival of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. Simmons leads Gill to Bakshi, who completes the re-triggering, and orders Gill to freeze all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Skye, having learned from Fitz that Gill was under Hydra control, shoots Gill from a sniper position, apparently killing him and sending his freezing body into the ocean. Hydra leaves, with Bakshi now much more trusting of Simmons, while S.H.I.E.L.D. claims the Hydra cargo left behind. Whitehall, having successfully brainwashed Agent 33, muses to Bakshi that S.H.I.E.L.D. is becoming a problem for Hydra.

In an end tag, Ward tells Skye that her father is alive and that Ward will take her to him one day. Skye is troubled by this statement, causing her heart rate to spike.

Production

Development

In September 2014, Marvel announced that the third episode of the season would be titled "Making Friends and Influencing People", to be written by Monica Owusu-Breen, with Bobby Roth 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

Antoine Triplett.[2][3] Simmons, Diamond, Minette, Kassianides, and Britt all reprise their roles from earlier in the series.[3][4]

Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-ins

Hydra's ability to brainwash people, referred to in this episode as the Faustus Method, was first introduced to the MCU in the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier,[5][6] and foreshadowed the character's appearance, as Johann Fennhoff, in the first season of Agent Carter, played by Ralph Brown.[7]

Release

Broadcast

"Making Friends and Influencing People" was first aired in the United States on ABC on October 7, 2014.[8] It was aired alongside the US broadcast in Canada on CTV.[9]

Home media

The episode began streaming on Netflix on June 11, 2015,[10] and was released along with the rest of the second season on September 18, 2015, on Blu-ray and DVD.[11]

Reception

Ratings

In the United States the episode received a 1.6/5 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 1.6 percent of all households, and 5 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 4.47 million viewers.[8] The Canadian broadcast gained 2.68 million viewers, the second highest for that day, and the fourth highest for the week.[9]

Critical response

Iain De Casetecker's performance in the episode was praised by critics.

Eric Goldman of IGN scored the episode an 8.5 out of 10, indicating a "Great" episode, and praised continued improvements over the first season, including the quality of visual effects, and the changes in the main characters, particularly Fitz, with Goldman saying "Fitz was the character I had the toughest time with in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s initial episodes โ€“ the joke of him and Simmons being so similar wore thin very quickly and I had trouble seeing the point of the character. But this newly damaged Fitz is a truly tragic character its easy to sympathize with, and Iain De Caestecker was excellent and heartbreaking as Fitz showed how much Ward had hurt him". Goldman did criticize the character of Whitehall though, feeling that his casually evil manner didn't resonate as it was intended.[5] Oliver Sava, writing for The A.V. Club, graded the episode a "B+", and positively compared the "breezy montage of Simmons' morning routine" to Alias, calling it "a bold stylistic choice [that] could help Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. break out of its generic aesthetic." He praised the separation and subsequent development of the characters of Fitz and Simmons, and highlighted De Caestecker's performance as the former.[12] Joseph McCabe at Nerdist responded positively to the focus on characters and their relationships with/ similarities to others, especially Fitz and Simmons, and he highlighted De Caestecker's performance in the episode as "heartbreaking as he expresses the severity of the struggle in Fitz's mind and heart."[13]

Alan Sepinwall of

ScreenCrush, positively called the episode "the third act of a three-episode premiere for the series, organically picking up any lingering threads of the first two episodes, yet still managing to course-correct from a few weaker aspects last season." He was positive of the roles that the characters Simmons, Fitz, Ward, and Gill played in the episode, found the use of the other characters "refreshing" as they were kept "in play with C-stories that succeeded without pulling focus", and praised the performances of De Caestecker and Dalton in particular.[15] Rob Leane of Den of Geek summarized the episode by saying "a good fun super-powered romp was played, plot points were moved forward, and characters were developed." Feeling it brought the series "back on track", and calling De Caestecker's performance "Particularly impressive". Other aspects of the episode he praised include the humor, visual effects, and the handling of overarching storylines, while he called the Simmons "rom-com" sequence "one of the episode's manifold neat visual moments."[16]

Notes

  1. ^ As seen in "Seeds".

References

  1. ^
    Marvel.com. Archived from the original
    on September 20, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  2. ^ Palmer, Poppy-Jay (November 7, 2014). "Agents of SHIELD S02E03 'Making Friends and Influencing People' Review". SciFiNow. Archived from the original on January 5, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  3. ^
    Marvel.com. September 8, 2014. Archived from the original
    on September 8, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  4. Marvel.com. December 19, 2013. Archived from the original
    on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Goldman, Eric (October 7, 2014). "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: "Making Friends and Influencing People" Review". IGN. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  6. ^ KevinGarcia.com (October 8, 2014). "Comply: Secrets of SHIELD "Making Friends and Influencing People"". io9. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  7. Marvel.com. January 16, 2015. Archived
    from the original on January 19, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Bibel, Sara (October 16, 2014). "Revised Tuesday, October 7 Final Ratings: 'Selfie', 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' & 'Forever' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  9. ^ a b "Top 30 Programs (October 6-12, 2014)" (PDF). Numeris. October 21, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 22, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Sava, Oliver (October 8, 2014). "Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "Making Friends And Influencing People"". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  13. ^ McCabe, Joseph (October 8, 2014). "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review: "Making Friends and Influencing People"". Nerdist. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  14. ^ Sepinwall, Alan (October 7, 2014). "Review: 'Marvel's Agents of SHIELD' - 'Making Friends and Influencing People': Here's looking at you, Blizzard". HitFix. Archived from the original on January 18, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  15. ScreenCrush. Archived
    from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  16. ^ Leane, Rob (October 9, 2014). "Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2 episode 3 review: Making Friends And Influencing People". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Making_Friends_and_Influencing_People&oldid=1216543630"