Welcome back, true believers! We join our heroes,
after having been shown that Simmons is in fact
deep undercover in the depths of Hydra, as
Coulson and Agent May must go undercover
themselves by cutting the dance floor. This
episode promises to uncover some of the secrets
that “Coulson has been looking for”. Will Coulson
find the answers that he’s looking for? Will
Hydra put a stop to his search? Will Civil War
really take place in the Marvel cinematic
universe? Two of these questions will be
answered as you hit the jump for our Marvel’s
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Recap.
Our episode begins with another macguffin placed
in the path of our heroes as a painting has
emerged from the bowels of a burnt down
church. The painting itself is of little
consequence, rather it’s the alien text inscribed
on the back that has the agents in a mad dash
against Hydra to find it. This episode is probably
the lightest of the season so far, allowing for
some good bonding scenes between Coulson and
May and even gives the rest of the team some
time to kick back and get to know some of their
newer members a little better. I am growing a
tad tired of the macguffin dictating what actions
the characters in the show take, as it seems the
painting has just replaced the season’s bigger
prize, the Obelisk. Ultimately, I wish that either
the protagonists or the antagonists would be a
tad more direct with larger goals than tracking
down objects A and B, but I digress.
The episode revolving around Coulson and May
was a nice change. Clark Gregg and Ming-Na
Wen are able to play off one another quite nicely,
not only as themselves but also in the roles they
take infiltrating the party where the painting may
be being held. Snappy one liners and jokes were
the soup de jour and the episode was better for
it. In between the banter, Coulson kept trying to
address the idea to May that he may very well be
going off the deep end, and it may be up to her
to finish Coulson off should he go the way of Bill
Paxton. The pair is discovered by General Talbot,
and attempt to find the painting in a comical
scene of the two coming across some laser
grids…why does it always have to be laser grids?
Meanwhile, back with the rest of the team, we
get to know some of our new recruits a little
better. Hearing newer characters Hunter and
Mack regale the team with their stories of past
exes was a nice way to display their characters in
a light hearted way. I do feel that with the
inclusion of these two characters though, Agent
Tripp doesn’t exactly seem to have much to do
here. He seems to be pretty much a tool to ask
Skye how she’s feeling or what she’s up to,
because nobody else really seems to want to. I
know Skye is supposed to be the character that
the audience is supposed to most bond with as
the most down to earth, having an origin outside
of the S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks but there has to be a
better way to do it.
Speaking of the group, let’s swing back to one of
the strongest parts of the season so far, Fitz.
Iain De Caestecker has been hitting it out of the
park this year, exploring how Fitz’s brain damage
has affected his role on the team and his inability
to not only assist, but apparently do many
rudimentary tasks. That’s why I found this
episode to be a bit disheartening in that it
seemed as if Fitz’s brain damage was pushed to
the side in order to have him bond closer with the
team in the end. In previous episodes, Fitz
couldn’t put two words together and they were
extremely nervous about having him around in
general in fear of him really flipping out. The
tables seem to have turned however in more
ways than one with Fitz remembering all his
science know how with little to no difficulty and
complaining about how he can’t put two
sentences together in a long monologue where he
strings dozens of sentences together!
The rest of the episode sees May being kidnapped
by two Hydra agents, one of which was formerly
a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent now brainwashed by the
terrorist organization. The action scenes between
May and “Fake May” were one of the main
highlights of the episode and I dug the use of the
cloaking technology and disguises that allowed
the baddies to infiltrate the team. Ming-Na got
to put her talents front and center here and
hopefully we can see more of the spotlight put on
her and Coulson as a pair in future episodes.
While I appreciated the lightheartedness of the
episode, I thought there were a number of flaws it
had running throughout. Too many moving
pieces and players don’t give us enough time to
really stay rooted with some of the characters. I
feel like the stakes need to be made higher in this
season and we may be back to a time when
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. needs another shot in the
arm like Winter Soldier to be great again.
Grade: C
Agents of M.I.S.C.E.L.L.A.N.E.A.
Seriously, where did Patton Oswalt go? He’s
been away for the past three episodes and the
show is missing something with his absence in
these episodes.
Talbot is…ok. Honestly, I think at this point he
could be cut out entirely to focus on Hydra and
Skye’s father and Raina for the most part. They
need to do something drastic with Talbot rather
than just having him be a stuffed shirt pestering
the team.
Again with Hydra putting their logo on everything!
S.H.I.E.L.D. suffered from this a lot last season,
but this time, with Hydra, it makes even less
sense. The real strength of Hydra is to be able
to work in shadow and be secretive, as Arnim
Zola said in Cap 2, to be a “glorious parasite”. It
makes them less threatening when they slap the
big Octo-Skull on everything. Hydra file folders?
Really?
“Notice the car? I worked on it myself.”
“I noticed, still not letting you work on Lola.”
“In time sir, in time.”
“This is fun right? Look! Cufflinks!’
“She whispered it in my ear…if you know what I
mean.”
“Yes Hunter, everyone on the planet knows what
you mean.”
“If I wanted someone to take jabs at me, I”d still
be married.”
“She just said more words than I’ve heard her say
in a year.”
“Maybe Talbot’s still pissed cause we kidnapped
him that one time?”
“You liked it.”
“I didn’t.”
“Little bit!”
“….little bit.”
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