The Hub (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

"The Hub"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode
Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows), introduced in this episode, represents "Big S.H.I.E.L.D.", as opposed to the series' primary cast of a close-knit, familial team.
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 7
Directed by	Bobby Roth
Written by	Rafe Judkins Lauren LeFranc
Produced by	Jed Whedon Maurissa Tancharoen Jeffrey Bell
Cinematography by	Feliks Parnell
Editing by	Paul Trejo
Original air date	November 12, 2013 (2013-11-12)
Running time	44 minutes
Guest actors
Saffron Burrows as Victoria Hand Maximiliano Hernández as Jasper Sitwell Ilia Volok as Vladimi Alison White as Marta

"The Hub" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American television series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or simply Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), a fictional peacekeeping and spy agency in a world populated with superheroes and numerous supernatural phenomena. It is the first television episode to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. The episode was written by Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc, and directed by Bobby Roth.

The episode revolves around the character of Phil Coulson, with Clark Gregg reprising his role from the film series, and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, played by regular cast members Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge, as they work with "Big S.H.I.E.L.D." to take out a dangerous new weapon.

"The Hub" originally aired on ABC on November 12, 2013, and according to Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 6.67 million viewers in its original airing. The episode received a mostly positive critical response, with the character development and the moral ambiguity of the larger S.H.I.E.L.D. organization ("Big S.H.I.E.L.D.") praised.

Plot

Agents Phil Coulson, Melinda May, and Grant Ward infiltrate a Siberian prison and break out an undercover agent carrying intel classified S.H.I.E.L.D. Level 8. Trainee Skye is frustrated when Coulson refuses to tell the team what the information is, based on their clearance, but the others explain that if every agent had all the information, the entire organization would be vulnerable. At The Hub, a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility run by Agent Victoria Hand, it is revealed to the Level 8 Coulson and Level 7 May and Ward that a South Ossetian separatist group has built a weapon called the Overkill device, which uses sonic vibrations to trigger other weapons from great distances. Ward, a field specialist, and Agent Leo Fitz, a weapons technology specialist, are tasked with finding and disabling the device within 24 hours, before the separatists use it to declare independence from Russia and Georgia.

In the Caucasus Mountains, Ward discovers his contact from a previous mission is dead, but Fitz uses his technology and engineering knowledge to win the support of locals, who smuggle them across a disputed border. At The Hub, Skye is determined to find out how Fitz and Ward are going on their mission, despite her restricted access. She works with Agent Jemma Simmons to gain access to a restricted panel, though high-ranking agent Jasper Sitwell is knocked unconscious in the process. Skye discovers that there is no extraction plan for Fitz and Ward, but when she confronts Coulson, he tells her to trust the system. Coulson then confronts Hand, as he himself had not been aware of the lack of an extraction plan, though she tells him to trust the system.

Fitz and Ward infiltrate a separatist base and find the device, and though Ward realizes that there is no extraction team, they carry on with their mission. Fitz successfully disables the device, and then re-engineers it for hand-held use, using it to help Ward fight off assailants. As they attempt to escape, the rest of the team arrives to rescue them, Coulson having disobeyed orders to save them. At The Hub, Hand tells a recovered Sitwell that she had known Coulson would do this all along. Afterwards, Coulson reveals to Skye that he had found a document that she had been searching for regarding her history, and tells her that it contains information on a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that dropped her at an orphanage when she was a baby. Later, May agrees to help Coulson find more information on the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in question, and it is revealed that she had been murdered.

In an end tag, Coulson is denied access to his own death and recovery file.

Production

Casting

In October 2013, Marvel revealed that main cast members Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge would star as Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Grant Ward, Skye, Leo Fitz, and Jemma Simmons, respectively.^[1] It was also revealed that Maximiliano Hernández would reprise his role of Jasper Sitwell from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Thor and Marvel's The Avengers,^[2] and the Marvel One-Shots The Consultant and Item 47,^[3] in the episode, and that the episode's guest cast would also include Charles Halford as Agent Shaw, Alison White as Marta, and Ilia Volok as Vladimi.^[1] However, Halford did not receive guest star credit in the episode. In November, Victoria Hand was also announced to be a guest character, with Saffron Burrows cast in the role.^[4]

Music

The Skye theme, first introduced in the episode "The Asset",^[5] is used twice significantly in "The Hub": the scene where Skye discovers Ward and Fitz' intended fate, and the scene where Coulson tells Skye about her history. "Not trusting the system is a major theme of the episode, first introduced by Skye as she hacks into the database ... This pivotal scene was a tricky one to score. Skye is facing a huge decision here, but the scene is visually restrained. It’s just her sitting in the dark looking at a computer screen. To make the challenge even more complex, the important story information is not even what’s on her screen… it’s what is not on her screen (she can’t download the images, etc.). So, the scene required heavy lifting from the score to make sure that the audience understands what’s at stake. To achieve this, I underscored the emotion of her internal conflict instead of the external threat that she might get caught. (This sort of approach always yields better results anyway.) As Steve Bartek’s electric guitar sneaks in beneath pulsing synth basses and swirling strings, the first violins pick up a mysterious statement of the Skye Theme. As Skye finally makes the decision to help her friends, a driving action riff picks up, punctuated by a soaring horn line. If you listened to this cue on its own, you might mistake it for an epic action cue. But, its just for Skye sitting in front of a computer." The episode "ends with a lovely emotional moment between Coulson and Skye, when he tells her what he learned about her parents. Here, I orchestrated a warm variation of the Skye Theme, filled with emotion. The score helps highlight the parental relationship forming between these two. Of course, the sentiment is short-lived. In the next scene, Coulson reveals to May that he actually withheld crucial information from Skye and the orchestration turns darker."^[6]

Release

Broadcast

"The Hub", originally titled "The Sandwich Incident", was aired as episode seven, though it was the eighth episode produced,^[7] in the United States on ABC on November 12, 2013.^[8] It was aired alongside the US broadcast in Canada on CTV,^[9] while it was first aired in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 on November 15, 2013.^[10] It premiered on the Seven Network in Australia on November 13, 2013.^[11]

Home media

The episode, along with the rest of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‍ '​s first season, was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 9, 2014. Bonus features include behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a blooper reel.^[12] It was released in Region 2 on October 20,^[13] and in Region 4 on November 11, 2014.^[14] On November 20, 2014, the episode became available for streaming on Netflix.^[15]

Reception

Ratings

In the United States the episode received a 2.2/6 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 2.2 percent of all households, and 6 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 6.67 million viewers.^[8] The Canadian broadcast gained 1.47 million viewers, the fourth highest for that day and the twentieth highest for the week.^[9] The United Kingdom premiere had 2.19 million viewers^[10] and in Australia, the premiere had 1.4 million viewers, including 0.6 million timeshifted viewers.^[11]

Critical response

Oliver Sava and David Sims of The A.V. Club graded the episode a 'B-'. Sava called the episode "a mixed bag. The positives include mixing up the character combinations to complicate the interpersonal dynamics, building up the duplicitous nature of S.H.I.E.L.D., and instilling a sense of brevity in increasingly dire circumstances, but the negatives continue to prevent the series from becoming more than middle-of-the-road action adventure television. The long-term plots aren't as captivating as the writers think they are, the central mission is formulaic, even with a solid mid-episode twist, and Skye is becoming an increasingly problematic character." Sims felt "There’s potential ... I don’t know if humor, a change in stakes, or some dramatic shake-up, like having the team detach from the infrastructure of S.H.I.E.L.D. in some way, will prove to be the answer. But as it is, I don’t know how I could ever recommend this show to anyone but a Marvel completest."^[16] Eric Goldman of IGN scored the episode 7.7 out of 10, praising the world building and character development of Fitz, but criticizing the "slapstick" humor of the character early on, and questioning some of the character's actions ("It just seemed like too much for Hand, Sitwell and S.H.I.E.L.D. in general to let go [of the team] without consequences").^[17] Marc Buxton at Den of Geek scored the episode 3 stars out 5, praising the character development and introduction of comic book characters Hand and Sitwell, but criticizing the lack of a real villain, for both the episode and the series in general.^[18]

Dave Bradley of SFX also scored the episode 3 stars out of 5, feeling "The mission itself is fairly forgettable, a fetch quest that enables Ward and Fitz to have some alone time – but everybody emerges a little more credible." He was pleased with the developments of the overarching subplots, and praised the scale of the episode, noting that it felt big, with "huge indoor and outdoor locations."^[19] Bob Chipman, writing for Escapist Magazine found it "disappointing that the whole point of this episode was to establish what the relationships between Ward/Fitz and Skye/Simmons are" but that "the pairings don't really pan out to be that interesting."^[20] He did find that the episode made "a canny, dramatic shift in theme: After 7 episodes of The Agents methodically winning Skye over to the side of "espionage and secret-keeping are for your protection," now even quintessential company-man Coulson is feeling like maybe the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't to be trusted ... it suddenly makes a lot more sense why our focus has been on a rogue sub-team rather than the bigger Agency."^[21] Chipmin surmised that the series was improving in a way that could retroactively improve the earlier episodes.^[22] Kaitlin Thomas at TV.com felt that" "The Hub" was a good—but not necessarily great— episode that acted mainly as a humorous standalone installment intended to switch up some character pairs." She specifically praised Fitz' character development, but criticized the lack of tension, negatively comparing the stakes of the episode to those of "FZZT".^[23] Jim Steranko, known for his work on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., criticized the lack of focus of the series, feeling at this point it was moving in "a multitude of directions that lack conceptual unity". He felt that the episodes were failing to integrate their dramatic agendas (or making "Converging Plotlines"), and that "The result is choppy and unsatisfying at best, downright irritating at worst."^[24]

References

External links

• "The Hub" at ABC
• "The Hub" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Hub" at TV.com