Two of America's most wanted fugitives walk into an Apple Store, plug a stolen flash drive into a display MacBook, and run a SHIELD trace program from the showroom floor while a microdosed Genius Bar employee named Aaron — played by Derrick Comedy's DC Pierson, the latest Russo-era Community cameo — gently asks if they're going to ski school. We have some questions about Apple's threat model.
What follows is five tightly engineered minutes of espionage, unresolved sexual tension, and the universe's most reliable counter-surveillance technique: pretending to be a couple openly making out on a public escalator, which Brock Rumlow's strike team apparently was not trained for. Then it's into a politely borrowed pickup truck, a quietly devastating "Who do you want me to be?" / "A friend" exchange at sixty miles per hour, and a defunct New Jersey training camp where the SHIELD logo turns out to be etched into a basement wall like a 1945 cry for help. Plus: a vigorous debate about who Natasha Romanoff should actually be dating in the MCU. Matthew is Team Bruce. Kyle is — scandalously — Team Bucky. Pete, having now seen Linda Cardellini in Dead to Me, is back on Team Hawkeye. There is no resolution. There never will be. This is the deal we made.
Links & References
- DC Pierson's website — short stories, "unsolicited opinions," and book ordering
- DC Pierson on IMDb — credits including his Apple Store cameo as Aaron Wilson and his three Community appearances as Mark Millot, member of the Greendale Gooffaws (the canonical in-show name; "Greendale Gaffas" was the on-air phrasing — flag for verification)
- The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To — Pierson's 2010 debut novel, winner of the 2011 Alex Award (flag — verify this exact PRH URL still resolves)
- Crap Kingdom — Pierson's 2013 YA fantasy follow-up, Junior Library Guild selection (flag — verify URL)
- Mystery Team (2009) on IMDb — the Derrick Comedy feature with Donald Glover and Dominic Dierkes; Sundance premiere
- Tower City Center (Wikipedia) — the Cleveland mall doubling as the post–Apple Store walking sequence
- Westfield Topanga (Wikipedia) — the Los Angeles mall housing the Apple Store interior (referred to on-air as "Topanga Plaza" — flag for verification)
- MCU Location Scout: Camp Lehigh, New Jersey — fan-maintained breakdown of the actual filming locations, including the Camp Ravenna stand-in in Ohio and the basement scene reportedly shot inside a Sears
- DTF: St. Louis on HBO Max — Linda Cardellini's series, required viewing for understanding Pete's revised Hawkeye position
- Camp Lehigh on the MCU Wiki — full lore breakdown of Steve's WWII training base and SHIELD's first base of operations
- Archive of Our Own (AO3) — for independent verification of relative shipping volumes
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier on JustWatch — currently streaming on Disney+; available for rent/purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Video, and Fandango at Home
- MarvelMovieMinute.com — Support the show, browse the archives, be a sport.
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