| "One Door Closes" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode | |||
 "The Art of Evolution" poster for the episode. | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 2 Episode 15 | ||
| Directed by | David Solomon | ||
| Written by | |||
| Cinematography by | Allan Westbrook | ||
| Editing by | Eric Litman | ||
| Original air date | March 31, 2015 (2015-03-31) | ||
| Running time | 43 minutes | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
| |||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.season 2 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"One Door Closes" is the fifteenth episode of thesecond season of the American television seriesAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on theMarvel Comics organizationS.H.I.E.L.D., it followsPhil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they face a rival faction of S.H.I.E.L.D. It is set in theMarvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledgesthe franchise's films. The episode was written byLauren LeFranc andRafe Judkins, and directed byDavid Solomon.
Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by series regularsMing-Na Wen,Brett Dalton,Chloe Bennet,Iain De Caestecker,Elizabeth Henstridge,Nick Blood, andAdrianne Palicki.Lucy Lawless, whose character both debuted and was killed in the season premiere, returns in flashbacks during the episode.
"One Door Closes" originally aired onABC on March 31, 2015, and according toNielsen Media Research, was watched by 4.26 million viewers.
On the dayS.H.I.E.L.D. fell,[a] S.H.I.E.L.D. engineerAlphonso "Mack" Mackenzie is saved fromHydra double agents by agentsBobbi Morse andIsabelle Hartley, who have infiltrated the devastated S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft carrierIliad on former directorNick Fury's orders to save the commanding officer,Robert Gonzales, and to sink the ship and its sensitive cargo and give S.H.I.E.L.D. at large a chance to survive against Hydra. They find Gonzales with a severely wounded leg, and struggle to assist him. Morse plans for Hartley to clear the way for Mack to get Gonzales to safety, while she sinks the ship, but when Hartley finds other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents fighting back against Hydra, she and Mack convince Morse and Gonzales to help them rather than kill them by sinking the ship, going against Fury's orders. This was the beginning of their own faction of S.H.I.E.L.D., one that is against Fury and his secrets.
In the present day, Morse steals the "toolbox" that Fury gave new directorPhil Coulson, but is confronted byMelinda May, while Coulson confronts Mack about his allegiances. Morse and May fight, but when reinforcements arrive to help May, Morse overrides the bases systems, creating an opportunity for herself and Mack to escape capture. At "The Retreat", a safe house for people with abilities thatBruce Banner created for himself, AgentSkye tries on the gloves that AgentJemma Simmons created for her, intended to inhibit her new-found earthquake abilities. Though they assist with dampening the vibrations, they cause light headedness in Skye. She is visited byGordon, a teleporting man with no eyes who explains how her gift can be used for good, tapping into the vibrations of all things. He offers to take her to a safe place where people like them can help her master these powers, and leaves her to make her own decision.
Simmons manages to detain Morse when the latter underestimates her, but when May finds a gas mask in Morse's possession, they realize that Morse and Mack never intended to escape.Dendrotoxin gas fills the base, knocking all those inside, bar May, unconscious. The agents of "the real S.H.I.E.L.D." that Morse and Mack work for enter the base and take control. AgentTomas Calderon learns of Skye's whereabouts and asks to lead a team to detain her. Morse decides to go with him. At the cabin, Skye removes the gloves and successfully manipulates the movements of water, realizing that Gordon was right. Soon after, May calls her to warn of the incoming danger.
Gonzales explains to Coulson that they want his help in opening the toolbox, to ensure that none of Fury's secrets can harm S.H.I.E.L.D. or the rest of the world again. Coulson refuses to help, and May arrives, knocking Gonzales out and helping Coulson escape, before surrendering to AgentAnne Weaver. Skye runs from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents hunting her, who Morse has ordered to use knock out bullets rather than real ones, as Skye is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent just like them. Calderon, who has had bad experiences with gifted individuals before, tries to shoot Skye with a real gun, and as she attempts to defend herself, her abilities bring down a large section of the surrounding forest. A branch hits Calderon in the chest and Skye, horrified at what she can do, calls to Gordon for help. He promptly appears, and takes her away.
In an end tag, Coulson meets up withLance Hunter, who agrees to become a permanent S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and the two begin planning their next move.
In March 2015, Marvel announced that the fifteenth episode of the season would be titled "One Door Closes", to be written byLauren LeFranc andRafe Judkins, withDavid Solomon directing.[1]
In March 2015, Marvel revealed that main cast membersClark Gregg,Ming-Na Wen,Chloe Bennet,Iain De Caestecker,Elizabeth Henstridge,Nick Blood, andAdrianne Palicki would star asPhil Coulson,Melinda May,Skye,Leo Fitz,Jemma Simmons,Lance Hunter, andBobbi Morse, respectively.[1] It was also revealed that the guest cast for the episode would includeHenry Simmons asAlphonso "Mack" Mackenzie,Lucy Lawless asIsabelle Hartley,Edward James Olmos asRobert Gonzales,Jamie Harris asGordon,Christine Adams as AgentAnne Weaver,Kirk Acevedo as AgentTomas Calderon,Cornelius Smith Jr. as Case, Sai Rao as Susanna,Mackenzie Astin as Tim Maguire and Rick Otto as lead Hydra agent.[1] Smith and Rao did not receive guest star credit in the episode. Simmons, Lawless, Olmos, Harris, Adams, and Acevedo reprise their roles from earlier in the series.[2][3][4] Main cast memberBrett Dalton, who portraysGrant Ward in the series,[1] does not appear in the episode.[5]
This episode reveals that the safe house Skye is staying in, called "The Retreat", is also known as "the House that Banner Built", referring toBruce Banner / Hulk, portrayed byMark Ruffalo in theAvengers films.[6][7]
"One Door Closes" was first aired in the United States onABC on March 31, 2015.[8]
For the final twelve episodes of the season Marvel once again ran the "Art of..." initiative, in which an image was released the Thursday before the episode aired, depicting a first look at a key event from the upcoming episode, with the season's title being "The Art of Evolution". The different artists were once again chosen to create the teaser posters, based on their previous work and how it connected to the themes and emotion of the intended episode.[9] "One Door Closes", an episode focused onBobbi Morse's history, received a poster of her with the "real S.H.I.E.L.D." logo, that "embraced the basics" of four-color printing, utilizing magenta, cyan, black and yellow, while still having layers and complications, much like the character of Morse. The poster was designed byDelicious Design League, who executive producerJeffrey Bell explained were chosen because "We try to come up with what would be a good fit based on the artist. And what I like about this image, and what I like about them in general, is if you look at their work ... from a distance, it's a simple, clean graphic. It's visually striking. And you get close, and there's just a ton of stuff going on. There's just lots of detail, lots of little things, lots of movement, and I do love that ... in printing, these are process colors: magenta, cyan, black and yellow. Those are the basics of all four-color printing. And the fact they sort of embraced the basics like that, kept the basics there and then threw overlaying and complications and made it so much more than that, I think also speaks to the character".[10]
The episode began streaming onNetflix on June 11, 2015,[11] and was released along with the rest of the second season on September 18, 2015, onBlu-ray andDVD.[12] The episode, along with the rest of the series, was removed from Netflix on February 28, 2022,[13] and later became available onDisney+ on March 16, 2022.[14]
In the United States the episode received a 1.4/4 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 1.4 percent of all households, and 4 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 4.26 million viewers.[8]
In June 2016,IGN ranked the episode as the sixth best in the series so far.[15]
