“The Things We Bury” begin to show up in episode 8 — but is it something worth unearthing? For my spoiler-filled comments on the episode (if you haven’t seen the episode yet), click on.

One of the advantages to having a large cast like Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is that you can assign some characters to perform the action of that episode while others bring on the exposition that drives the bigger narrative forward. That’s exactly what we have here in this episode… sort of.

Like all previous episodes this season, the catalyst to action is an approaching face off with Hydra — but one this time that agent-in-charge Phil Coulson wants to be better prepared for. He finally wants to be Fury prepared, having now finally understood that what made Fury so unique wasn’t his fighting skill but his espionage skill, knowing his enemy far better than the enemy expected. Given how much of an impact Fury was on Coulson’s days as an agent before the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., this is an important evolution for Coulson so that he can actually act as the leader Fury expected when he specifically chose Coulson to take over.

But, in order for Coulson to do that, he needs to go into the field. Not taking Melinda May means that Coulson can explain his new change of tactics for the audience as well as his team leader, allowing for the viewer to understand that this episode is supposed to act as a pinnacle moment in the series.

And so it is.

Coulson takes Antoine Triplett, Skye and Leo Fitz with him to Australia to use a global mapping system to get to the city first. The choice of Tripp, Fitz and Skye is telling: none of them are really fighters like Bobbi Morse or Melinda May, which means Coulson isn’t expecting the type of trouble requiring heavy combat skills. When the mission does turn sour, as it needs to in order to make the show more interesting, their lack of combat ability means they have to think their way out. Fitz is able to hack the system effectively — meaning he’s ready to be an active part of the team in field despite his injury — while Coulson covers for him against “The Doctor.”

No, not that Doctor. The character presently called “the doctor” because he hasn’t revealed his true identity quite yet.

The Doctor, we already know, is Skye’s father. The situation surrounding Skye’s birth is one of those mysteries dangling from last season that plays out a bit more when she is not affected by the infusion to save her life in the manner that Garret or Coulson were. Up until this point, we are supposed to assume that Skye’s unique past makes her immune to the effects of the Decider but it’s not until now that the flashbacks and exposition come together to explain.

Whitehall wants the Decider because he believes it to be a weapon but it’s more than that. According to the Doctor, the device only responds to the chosen few that, according to legend, will be able to unleash destruction that will eliminate the human race. Marvel fans will also recognize that legend connects to the Kree, blue people who descend from the heavens and interfere with the human race. As it turns out, the one human who touched the device in 1945 and wasn’t killed like the others we’ve seen is the woman the doctor was married to in 1989 when Skye was born — though the episode doesn’t state it explicitly, doing the best to imply it just in case they need the revelation to come forward again later.

Thus, Skye’s mother has the unique genetic pattern the blue aliens were looking for and must have passed them on to Skye. It’s a tie in to two dangling storylines but the episode wonderfully refuses to allow those past plot points to overwhelm the present action; everything we learn about the aliens, the device and the connection Skye and her mother have to it is related to the present battle between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra.

That’s because Sunil Bakshi makes an important slip of the tongue before slamming his head hard enough into the table to active the cyanide pill in his cheek to release and kill him. The slip? Whitehall knew the Red Skull.

Obviously, someone under thirty could not have been close to a Nazi who died at least forty years before — unless there was some other factors at play. Thankfully, they are in an old pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. base where the files are stored, and it becomes quickly discovered that Whitehall is the same Werner Reinhardt captured by Peggy Carter back in the season opener.

(The cameo does more than place it into context: Peggy Carter’s S.H.I.E.L.D. will be replacing Coulson’s for eight weeks in just over a month, so the producers are making you more aware of her in preparation.)

With that piece of information, the rest of the flashbacks flush out the ties to the central plot. Reinhardt was imprisoned until “budget cuts” forced his release (a subtle reminder of the political influence Hydra had until recently). An old man, he returned to the Chinese village where Skye’s mother was taken from. Skye’s mother has not aged like the others, so Reinhardt was able to revitalize himself with her organs after he removes them.

Put against each other, there is perfect integration. No scene is really extraneous, even the one in which Bobbi and Lance Hunter get turned on by their success: that scene fits in totally with the action of the central tale.

And especially not the scenes between Grant Ward and his brother Christian. Grant captures Christian and pushes him until the senator reveals the cruelty Grant has always seen. Grant then uses this confession as evidence of suicide after he kills Christian and his parents. The storyline seems to parallel the others with revelations of the past until the very end.

That’s when Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. pulls a twist and reveals not only did Grant use that to make himself attractive to Hydra once more, but that the Doctor is there to seek revenge against Reinhardt for the death of his wife — and so all the anti-Coulson/anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. rhetoric that he used with Whitehall is exactly the cover that his conversation with Coulson suggests even though Phil reminds him that the body count the doctor has started already put Skye against him.

Oh, and Skye isn’t her name. They just thought to throw that out there to make you wonder for the future.

FINAL VERDICT:

November sweeps is usually the time dramatic series make their biggest moves and Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is now no exception: with one single episode, they have pulled all the key elements introduced in the earlier episodes forward and tied them together into something that does make the series more exciting — and, more impressively, does so in a way that even the person who hasn’t seen those past episodes can follow.

This is not an episode you want to miss. It’s that good.