Well, Scarlet Witch is in the next Avengers movie, and she's, well, a witch. Well, a mutant witch. And Quicksilver too. And they're the children of Magneto. Who is a mutant. They're both mutants. Except maybe not in the MCU where there are no X-Men, I guess.

Hmmm, well it's a little frustrating that they just dismissed the possibility of ESP so out of hand, then. I may be mischaracterizing (and I already deleted the show from my DVR because I have way too much TV and this seems like a show I won't be going back to watch) but it seemed like when Skye suggested that maybe there was some ESP/telepathy going on the response was "Silly, rabbit. ESP is for kids." I guess I'd just expect them to be a little more open to the possibility. I don't know. The fact that everyone was so emphatic about how it could not be no way, no how, just no struck me given the amount of randomly weird shit they come up against on a daily basis. I could've understood something along the lines of "We've never seen that. I doubt it. Probably not." But what it sounded to me was like "We know that doesn't happen" with a side of "silly fool". But maybe that was just me projecting. Or maybe they just wanted to really, clearly establish for the audience who is not paying attention (like me!) that in this universe, they don't get down like that.

kat,

I agree, I thought it was weird. Does Marvel not have anyone like that who can do ESP? X-Men has one or more people who could control people through minds, but did anyone show up doing that in this universe?

I don't see why they can't find some sciencey way that the evil corporation in the background can't give someone ESP in a future episode.

I absolutely agree that the whole "Puh, ESP" was weird because, like Skye said, a year ago she would have been all "Puh, aliens." And I could see them introducing some science-y ESP.

Loki was able to mind-control people and zap van-sized objects around with his tesseract-powered scepter, so there's an alien tech/magic equivalent to at least some psychic powers. Likewise, Odin appeared to be aware of Thor's redemption even in his comatose state, which implies some sort of clairvoyance or other mystical awareness.

Someone can always claim Clarke's Law (I think) that any insufficiently explained science looks like magic/mutant powers.

Or aliens. Dude! What can't they do? They could totally handwave some telepathy/ESP like powers developed from super advanced alien technology. Maybe that's what was written on the wall?

OK. That's totally what's going on in the SHIELD in my mind.

This episode finally hooked me in, I think. I'm not 100% in love, but I keep reminding myself that Buffy's first season was shaky in parts. I still find it jarring how young Skye acts. How old is she supposed to be?

I'm also trying to be patient because, well.. this may be ME but it's not the ME from back when. How involved *is* Joss? I haven't been paying attention to the writing credits (got out of the habit) but I was assuming it's an all new writing staff since many of Joss' alums are showrunners themselves, now.

There are definitely touches of cleverness and wit. That and Coulson and May and Fitz-Simmons are enough for now. I'm willing to watch it unfold. Skye and Ward are growing on me by centimeters per episode.

eta imdb says Jeff Bell wrote this one and the second ep. >[link]