‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 2.9 “Ye Who Enter Here” (8 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

In case the ominous title doesn’t give it away, SHIELD takes some abuse during this episode. We also get an official name drop regarding that mysterious blue dead guy that supplied Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Skye (Chloe Bennet) with the goo that saved their lives—which might have caused me to squee just a little bit (SPOILER: the name rhymes with “squee.”)

Other, less stupidly-revealed spoilers ahead.

Skye’s Weird Dream

As much as I wanted to gloss over the episode’s opening scene, it’s hard not to pick apart a dream sequence to try and figure out how it relates to the story so far. Perhaps the most heavy-handed image in this scene is that of Coulson and May (Ming-Na Wen) talking cryptically about making sacrifices while carrying a baby. It’s clear that she’s accepted Coulson and May as surrogate parents, given the fact that her mother was tortured to death and her father may or may not be a full-fledged supervillain. This whole moment hearkened back to the rebellious teen version of Skye that we had in season one—which was my least favorite version of her.

I’m still wondering about the music box. The fact that it turned Skye to stone made me think that it was some kind of place holder for the Diviner, so perhaps Skye is having memories of the Diviner as some kind of childhood toy? Or maybe this is some foreshadowing regarding her inevitable confrontation with her father. I guess it could just be a messed up music box, too. I don’t know Skye’s life.

Coulson and the City

It’s easy to get lulled into a sense of security with Coulson briefing his team about their upcoming objectives. While he splits the team in half—one half to go with him to find the entrance to the mystery city that everyone’s talking about, the other to track down Raina and bring her in—he calls the shots with the dry confidence that we’ve come to expect from SHIELD’s director.

This section of the show started off slowly, but prettily—Adrianne Palicki strolling through the streets of Puerto Rico is remarkably easy to watch—only to devolve into something both nightmarish and tragic. The local legends surrounding the entrance to the city built a good amount of apprehension and uncertainty, which offered a satisfyingly freaky scene in which Mac (Henry Simmons) becomes host to some ancient beast and starts throwing his teammates into things. The interaction between Mac and Fitz (Iain DeCaestecker) was especially hard to watch as Fitz had to muster up the guts to shoot the person who has become his closest friend (he doesn’t though. Morse electrocutes Mac in the nick of time).

All in all, the Coulson stuff was decent. I liked seeing this well-laid plan completely blow up in SHEILD’s face. That kind of thing doesn’t happen too often, and it served to establish the “Empire Strikes Back” tone of the episode.

Raina Plus Koenig Times Two

Raina (Ruth Negga) has become an interesting character this season. Her time spent on the run from SHIELD and HYDRA has established her as a bit of a wild card, and it’s a role that suits her character. Tonight, May’s detachment was assigned to bring Raina in for safekeeping, which is going fine until Skye lets slip that Whitehall is looking for someone who can touch the Diviner without getting disintegrated (Raina can do that). Sure, you can blame Ward (Brett Dalton) for figuring out how to hack the SHIELD tracker that was implanted inside Raina, but I blame Skye for the sudden HYDRA intervention on their quinjet.

The most entertaining moments of this storyarc come from the agents Koenig (Patton Oswalt), who may or may not be clones from a classified SHIELD experiment. Either way, it’s fun to see Oswalt play off of himself, and he does a good job of switching between geek and badass. Raina’s scenes with Skye are also intense. Even though Raina might be manipulating Skye, she’s gotten some kind of ball rolling within Skye’s mind with all her talk about “special” humans and being “worthy” to enter this underground city. She also reveals that the dead blue alien on ice with SHIELD is part of the Kree, an alien race that features heavily in the Marvel universe.

This excited me very much. So far, the Marvel cinematic universe hasn’t really gotten in touch with the Kree, and I would be totally down with their inclusion on SHIELD.

The final scenes of the episode end badly for our special agents. Ward takes Raina and Skye with him during an aerial assault on SHIELD’s quinjet, and there’s nothing anyone can really do about it—but, when we see Whitehall (Reed Diamond) at the end of the episode, he curses Ward for not destroying the quinjet entirely. My theory is that Ward is in fact acting as a double double agent so he can reunite Skye with her father and let the two of them take revenge on Whitehall.

Verdict

As weird as this feels to say, it’s nice to see SHIELD get knocked around a bit. The show was making Coulson’s team feel a bit too invincible—they were almost literally everywhere they needed to be at exactly the right time this season. The supporting cast remains stellar as always, with the standouts being Oswalt and Nick Blood, upon whom I’ve been nursing a steady man-crush. I’m not a fan of the stuff between Jemma (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Fitz, though. It is very awkward to tell someone you love them right before you get jettisoned out of an airplane and nearly drown together, but it might be time to give it a rest between those two.

Only one more episode before the winter hiatus! Things are happening!

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 2.7 “The Writing on the Wall” (9 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

For those of you with more developed social lives than my own, I want to take a moment to explain the term “jumping the shark.” It’s a phrase that television enthusiasts have applied to an initially successful series that plummets in quality so dramatically that it never really recovers. After watching tonight’s episode of “Agents of SHIELD,” I move that we now apply the term “punching the shark in the mouth” to a series that was initially kinda bad, but makes a huge leap forward in terms of quality.

I can’t remember when the show has handled two separate storylines with such solidarity, and the episode had enough cryptic twists and turns to leave me scratching my head until this very moment.

Spoilers ahoy!

Ward at Large

As Ward (Brett Dalton) has escaped from the clutches of his brother who may or may not be evil, SHIELD has been keeping close tabs on him. May (Ming-Na Wen), Tripp (B.J. Britt), Morse (Adrianne Palicki), and Hunter (Nick Blood) are tasked with following the former agent at a discreet distance. Not only have these four become an excellent group to watch on these away team missions—Morse and Blood are still bringing that pissed-off ex-spouse chemistry to the table—but the cat-and-mouse espionage scenes are sufficiently tight. Seeing May orchestrate the appropriate moves and counter-moves to Ward’s actions was fun to watch, and dammit, I’m actually interested in Ward as a character. As much as I resisted, I think that I no longer hate Ward. He tells a HYDRA big-wig—who he later turns in to Coulson (Clark Gregg)—that being an agent of SHIELD was as much of a prison as the one on Coulson’s plane. Up to this point, Ward has always been somebody’s lapdog. Now that he’s no longer on anyone’s leash, it’s going to be interesting to see what path he’ll choose.

Coulson Gets it Together

For what has felt like a really long time, Coulson has been obsessed with a series of lines and circles that have been surfacing in his brain as a result of the alien gunk that brought him back to life. Side note, has anyone else noticed that Skye hasn’t been as compelled to scratch this map into every available surface? Anywho, it’s gotten to the point where I was ready to be done with this little side effect, but tonight’s episode made the wait worthwhile. In a complicated series of events, we learn that Coulson wasn’t the only SHIELD agent brought back from the dead by the GH serum, but that he actually oversaw the early stages of the TAHITI project. 

The speed at which all of this information was revealed came on like a monsoon, which was both good and bad. Despite the fact that a lot of information was stuffed into about fifteen minutes of screentime, I loved the idea that SHIELD has this secret that is so dark and mentally damaging that they’ve had to erase the subjects’ memories. I also loved the idea that one of these TAHITI agents was murdering the others in order to decode the alien writing—it created a creepy yet sympathetic villain in Sebastian Derek (Van Holt), and it also revealed that all of this alien writing was actually blueprints for a city.

This is what my brain is currently trying to unravel. What in the hoary hosts of Hoggoth could this city be? My initial guess went to the world of the Inhumans, but since that film’s slated for 2018, it wouldn’t make sense to go there. I’m not sure about this city’s significance, but it’s going to be bugging me for quite some time.

Verdict

This is “Agents of SHIELD” at the top of their game. The action was well-paced, and we got a veritable buffet of new character development that could potentially lead in some interesting directions.

Here’s to punching the shark in the mouth.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 2.5 “A Hen in the Wolfhouse” (7 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

Poor Raina.  Walking around in those flowery dresses, thinking she’s got it all figured out, only to fall victim to the old double agent trick. 

Spoilers ahead, friends!

Skye’s Father is Terrifying

There’s a whole lot of mystery built up around Skye’s Father (Kyle MacLachlan), and though seeing him in this episode didn’t feel totally climactic, MacLachlan played him with dose of megalomania that was fun to watch. As the episode progresses, we learn that Raina is somehow involved with him, and was soliciting his help to get her out of hot water with Whitehall. When Skye’s name is mentioned, her father seems to have some genuine affection towards her, and he’s none too happy with Coulson. It’s here that I must make a prediction—what if SHIELD kidnapped Skye from her cosmically-powered father, and upon reuniting them, Skye has to make a life-altering decision? It’s totally something old school SHIELD would do, and it could create some uncomfortable conversations between Skye and Coulson.

The show concludes with Skye’s Father taking the Obelisk to Whitehall in an effort to forge a supervillain alliance. I can understand that both evil dudes have beef with Coulson, but I’ve never quite understood the villain trope of destroying the world. What good is power with no one to rule over?

Agent Morse

Jemma is still undercover with HYDRA, and she’s been able to discover that Whitehall is interested in the Obelisk because of its extra-terrestrial origins. While she’s updating Coulson with this info, Raina spots her and hatches a last-ditch effort to gain some protection against Whitehall. It’s a tense scene when Raina threatens to send an email of Jemma betraying HYDRA throughout their offices—especially since the badass head of security Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) has promised to crack down on their mole problem. Not only is the countdown to Jemma’s doom ticking away, but Raina has dropped some info about Skye’s Father, which Skye could hear. May practically has to put Skye in a sleeper hold to keep her from blowing their cover, and Coulson just lets the timer run out—a pretty sweet moment as Raina’s venomous smirk is obliterated by Coulson’s complete lack of expression. 

Aficionados will recognize the name Bobbi Morse as the alter-ego of a Marvel character named Mockingbird, which is fitting since she’s totally infiltrated HYDRA and positioned herself to rescue Jemma when Raina’s email goes live. In perhaps the best scene of the evening, Morse beats the hell out of some HYDRA agents, only to grab Jemma and leap off of their office building onto the wings of a cloaked quinjet. If there was a scene that could beat this one out for supremacy, it would have to be the one in which Hunter and Morse confront each other in SHIELD HQ—they used to be married and they totally hate each other. When Coulson announces that Morse is now part of the team, the promise of witty, sexually-charged banter between these two made me happy.

Verdict

Tonight’s episode felt like it was built for functionality over flashiness. We had a few new characters introduced, and Jemma’s removal from HYDRA means that we’re no longer privy to their secret schemes—a pity, since they’re likely to become much more interesting with the arrival of Skye’s Father. I like the idea of Raina becoming a kind of dark horse—she has no real loyalties to anyone, and that could make her very dangerous. Part of me wants to see her help SHIELD take down Whitehall. Since we’re also venturing into the possibility of alien technology, does that also mean we’re venturing closer to a “Guardians of the Galaxy” tie in? Probably not.  But it’d be cool if we were.   

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 2.4 “I Will Face My Enemy” (8 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

There were a few moments during the first season of “Agents of SHIELD” in which some surprisingly punchy bits of humor came out of nowhere, and I really liked when that happened. Tonight’s episode was full of that kind of writing—the type of dialogue that feels like the world of SHIELD is still a part of the Whedonverse. Beware of incoming spoilers.

Coulson and May Undercover

When SHIELD gets wind of a painting that has been scrawled with that bizarre Morse code that both Coulson and Garrett had on the brain, they decide to infiltrate a high-class benefit in an effort to secure and study the artifact. As Coulson and May have experience doing undercover work, they take on the mission—and it’s lovely. For the most part, Coulson and May don’t have much chemistry together. So many of their scenes consist of little more than a scowl-off, but something clicks when they work together as undercover spies. It’s nice to see them shed their shell of authority and do some actual fieldwork together.

Not only did their infiltration of the benefit result in some great comedic moments, but it also set the tone for a bit of lightheartedness with the rest of the crew. Back on the Bus, the team takes some time to discuss the battle scars that their exes have left them. It’s newcomers Hunter (Nick Blood) and Mac (Henry Simmons) who steal the show during these moments—whoever decided on throwing some roguishly good-looking mercs-for-hire deserves a promotion. Ever since their introduction, they’ve injected some Han Solo-esque attitude into SHIELD’s typically prim and proper atmosphere, and it’s working very well so far. 

While the team banters about their fractured love lives, Fitz hovers on the outskirts like an insecure black raincloud. Fake Jemma pops in every now and then to encourage him to be more social, but Fitz’s lack of confidence is turning him into the odd man out. It’s fortunate that the narrative evolved to feature Fitz saving everybody’s asses, thus providing an opening for him to insert himself into their group—lonely, self-hating Fitz was starting to get on my nerves.

May vs. May

At first, when we see General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) communicating with HYDRA, it’s a bit of a well-played shock—but the reality of the situation is that HYDRA is packing the same facial reconstruction technology as the folks from “Mission: Impossible.” The plot thickens when a female HYDRA agent impersonates Agent May and infiltrates the Bus. Coulson figures this out pretty quickly, punching her in the face when she accepts his invitation to grab coffee sometime, since May hates coffee. These fisticuffs lead to a memorable brawl between the real Agent May and the impostor, which is one of the best fights that I’ve seen on TV. The fight had great choreography, and I liked that May utilized some of the same moves that were in Black Widow’s repertoire. Oh, and since fake Agent May had to take real Agent May’s party dress to pull off the disguise, real Agent May was fighting in a silky negligee—which did not suck to watch. 

Verdict

Tonally, tonight’s episode was exactly what “Agents of SHIELD” needs to shoot for. There was no shortage of action and spy intrigue, but the writing needs to leave room for some witty dialogue. That’s what makes the Marvel movies work, and it’s not hurting anything here. The overarching story with the alien writing and Coulson’s possible insanity seem a bit too far off on the horizon to be drawing much attention, though with the reintroduction of Raina and the Obelisk, perhaps the story will start to veer in that direction. 

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 1.22 “Beginning of the End” (9 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

It’s been a crazy season, “Agents of SHIELD.” At first, I didn’t much care for you; what with your scene-chewing and your limp storylines. But then along came “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” It set you up—and you took it to the hole.

Tonight’s finale wrapped the show’s first season up with just the right amount of closure along with plenty of room for future speculation. Garrett got some sweet comeuppance, Coulson had some truly great moments, and May nailed Ward’s foot to the floor. With a nail gun. In addition to that spoiler, beware of more spoilers ahead.

The Incentive Program

In an opening scene that reminded me of “Cabin in the Woods,” we are introduced to the inner workings of Cybertek, what I’m assuming will become the new face of evil when season two rolls around. In this scene, the two employees mention a cryptic “incentive program” which is later revealed to be a cruel practice of holding the loved ones of Cybertek’s employees hostage.  It’s this seemingly banal office complex that is the scene of Garrett’s last stand, and it’s through exploitation of Cybertek’s incentive program that our heroes gain a solid foothold in the battle against HYDRA.

During these last few episodes, the remaining SHIELD agents have fought tooth and nail for every bit of ground that they’ve gained, and they’ve always seemed at a huge disadvantage. Tonight, their plan to infiltrate Cybertek and take down Garrett went off without a hitch. Though this would traditionally bug the crap out of me, tonight it really worked. After seeing the team deal with Ward’s betrayal and the complete breakdown of everything that they believed in, it was nice to see them pull together and kick some ass during the season finale.

Though each member of the team had some admirable moments this evening, May’s fisticuffs with Ward might have been the highlight of the episode. After seeing Ward go back and forth about whether or not he’s a good person, it was nice to see May administer professional-grade beatdown to the traitor. As the sympathy level that the show has tried to create for Ward in the past few episodes has become a bit of a sore spot, tonight was the night they finally just let Ward be an evil henchman. It also didn’t suck that he and May fought with high-powered circular saws.

The Arrival of Nick Fury                                               

It wouldn’t be an “Agents of SHIELD” finale if Samuel L. Jackson didn’t show up to reprise his role as Nick Fury—and he shows up in the nick of time. You may remember that Ward trapped Fitz and Simmons inside a hermetically sealed prison chamber and jettisoned them into the ocean during last week’s episode. Seeing no other alternative, Simmons breaks through the cell’s glass and swims to the surface of the ocean with a barely conscious Fitz in tow. The moment that she reaches the surface, Fury’s hand descends to save the two agents. Fury’s arrival in this capacity represents more than just a rescue mission. Like SHIELD, Fury was technically killed in action. His arrival at this critical point in the show’s story gives hope that the organization can be rebuilt. When Fury arrives to help Coulson deal with Garrett, all doubt of their mission’s success is erased—they know they’re going to get their job done.

Ah, Garrett. His mind has been hyperextended to the point where he’s consistently saying things like, “I can see the universe,” or “Let me show you the future.” I think it’s supposed to come off as slightly campy, but Bill Paxton takes it just a tad over the top. It’s a relief when Skye releases Deathlok’s son so the cyborg can shoot Garrett in the chest with twin rockets and then face-stomp him to death.

Speculation

There are a few interesting tidbits that show up towards the end of the episode, and they’re worth dissecting a bit. First of all, we get to see a little bit more of what might be in store for Skye during season two. Raina visits a man who looks like most of his body is badly burned and claims that she’s found his daughter while presenting him with a picture of Skye. This casts Raina in an interesting light. Over the course of the season, she’s been pigeonholed as a mere evil scientist who sells her abilities to the highest bidder. With the revelation that she has contact with Skye’s father, we might be seeing her take a more prominent role in season two. We also see Coulson wake up in the middle of the night and start cutting an alien-looking schematic into the wall—which was the same behavior that Garrett exhibited after his Centipede cocktail. The question here is whether or not the extra-terrestrial blue gunk that is keeping Coulson alive is now trying to communicate with him.

Verdict

The team was on point tonight. Each member did something that was remarkable but believable. Skye putting on her tough-girl act for the Cybertek office drones and it up to distract Ward from May’s surprise attack was great, and Garrett meets his final demise in a scene that reminded me of something that would have happened on Mal Reynolds’s watch. Nick Fury’s assignment for Coulson to rebuild the SHIELD organization ended the season on a positive note, but the fact that Ward is being held in their custody makes me think that he’ll still be around to cause some trouble.

ABC has ordered a second season of “Agents of SHIELD,” so we’ll look forward to the continuing adventures of Coulson and Company next fall.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 1.21 “Ragtag” (8 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

With Coulson and friends operating out of a cheap motel instead of the high tech flying fortress that they’re used to, there’s no mistake that they’re in some uncharted territory. This “fish out of water” dynamic is one of the best things to happen to the show. It has given the team the opportunity to see how effectively they can work together without all of the fancy SHIELD infrastructure that they’ve come to rely on.  Spoilers will be happening, so consider yourself warned.

Cybertek and the Deathlok Project

After Garrett was revealed to be the Clairvoyant, I was under the impression that we had seen all of the skeletons that were hanging in the rogue agent’s closet. However, after May and Coulson don nerdy disguises to infiltrate Cybertek, they learn that Garrett was actually the “subject zero” of the Deathlok project, the audience learns that Garrett is not operating with all of his original parts.

Garrett’s little secret effectively ties the events of the first season together.  Centipede, Cybertek, the Clairvoyant—Garrett has been using each of these entities in an effort to figure out how Coulson was resurrected in order to prolong his own life. It’s not the most original of supervillain motivations, but it happens to work pretty well in the context of the series. Notwithstanding the storytelling elements that Garrett’s cybernetic implants adds to the show, it’s a nice nod to Garrett’s character in the comic books (he was given cybernetic enhancements after Elektra kicked his ass—though he used them for good instead of evil).

Despite Garrett’s supervillainy tying the various storylines of season one together, there were a few details on the evil side that didn’t quite add up for me. The most notable of these details was the fact that Reyna was able to whip up a synthetic version of the compound that kept Coulson and Skye alive after a few blood tests and some pleasant conversation. Though we’re not sure if it works or not—I’m holding out on a hunch that she’s sabotaged the whole thing because her faith in the Clairvoyant was shattered when she found out the truth—the fact that she was able to replicate something that did not come from this planet in a few hours seemed a bit suspect. Now that I’m done bitching, did anyone else notice how Reyna’s serum made Garrett get all glowy like Aldritch Killian’s AIM goons from “Iron Man 3?” That was pretty sweet.

Ward Has Issues

In a stark departure from the show’s forward-moving narrative structure, tonight’s episode went all “Lost” on us as we were treated to some crucial scenes that set up Ward’s codependent relationship with Garrett. Overall, I thought these flashbacks helped solidify why Ward became a HYDRA mole, but my hackles were rankled once again to see the show take another step in creating sympathy for Ward. Yes, Garrett is evil for emotionally manipulating young Ward into becoming his lackey, but it doesn’t change the fact that Ward chose to do many bad things on his own. Do we feel sympathy for Sullivan in “The Departed” because he was manipulated by Costello at a young age? Hell to the no. It’s no different with Ward. I’m hoping that Ward’s decision to jettison Jemma and Fitz—who, inexplicably, has decided to remain optimistic about Ward—into the ocean was the final indicator that there’s no coming back for the guy. 

Verdict

Though the drama on the villain’s side of things was a little flawed, the good guys had some fine moments tonight. Seeing Coulson geek out when Trip breaks open a suitcase containing some of his Howlin’ Commando grandfather’s WWII Stark tech was classic. Not only did revisiting this side of Coulson hearken back to the character that was established in the other Marvel films, but it created this great dichotomy that found our ronin SHIELD agents fighting against the technologically superior but morally bankrupt HYDRA with humble weapons that were created when SHIELD was still pure. 

One more episode to go this season, friends! What are your predictions for the season finale? Let us know in the comments section, and we’ll see you next week–I hear Director Fury himself is supposed to make an appearance.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 1.20 “Nothing Personal” (7 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

As one might guess from the title of tonight’s episode, there are a lot of people shrugging off the bad things they do with the justification that they’re just following orders. It presents an interesting shift in SHIELD’s (Coulson’s) dynamic. For so many years, SHIELD was built upon the ability of its agents to follow orders and get the job done. Now that it’s been revealed as a front for HYDRA, Coulson has been thrust into a world where he no longer has orders to follow or protocols to implement. HYDRA (Garrett) is now the organization that is bound by its twisted hierarchy. In other words, Coulson’s primary conflict is not going to be with taking down Garrett and his lackey Ward, it’s going to be getting used to a world in which he has to forge his own path—and maybe break a few rules along the way.

Ward is HYDRA

The episode took its time in letting Coulson and his team in on the fact that Ward is actually a HYDRA sleeper agent. After some time spent looking for the dearly departed Agent Koening, Fitz discovers a note scrawled into a painting, and despite the obvious implication of Ward as a bad guy, Fitz doesn’t take the news too well, deciding to take his angst out on Trip before submitting to an full-blown freakout. The scene was designed with the intention of showing how all of this deception can derail even the most optimistic of SHIELD’s agents, but it was unclear why Fitz was so unraveled by Ward’s betrayal—Skye took it much better, and she’s practically in love with the traitor. 

Skye’s interaction with Ward during this episode was interesting, though. After finding out that Ward is a HYDRA mole moments before he asks her to hop in the plane with him, she’s faced with the difficult task of planning her next move while still convincing Ward that she’s unaware of his treachery. As she’s the only one who can decrypt an important SHIELD hard drive that has fallen into Garrett’s hands, she realizes that she’s in control of the situation. Her best laid plans are interrupted after her attempt to get them both arrested is foiled by Deathlok, which also means that her cover with Ward is no longer intact. 

Once the three of them are on Ward’s stolen SHIELD plane, Skye’s interrogation begins. Based on the way Ward talks to Skye, it looks like the show is still trying to paint him as this conflicted villain; a survivor who is merely doing what he needs to in order to survive. He mentions that his feelings for Skye are genuine, and that he has no intentions on letting her get hurt, but come on, people. Basically, he’s either exploiting an emotional vulnerability within Skye’s character or he’s being serious. Both options demonstrate a staggering disrespect of Skye, because Ward either thinks she’s dumb enough to let his good looks and swagger cloud over the fact that he’s a stone cold killer, or, even worse, he’s serious about his feelings for Skye and assumes that she’ll just forgive him if he makes some more bedroom eyes at her. Since Ward’s betrayal a few episodes ago, it’s not possible to bring him back to a point where the audience is going to care if he lives or dies. He’s become a soulless drone for HYDRA, and it’s about time for the show to just let him be pure evil. For example, there’s a moment when Deathlok attempts to persuade Skye to decrypt the hard drive by holding Ward hostage—if she doesn’t cooperate, Ward will die. Apparently Skye didn’t see the faulty logic here, because she falls for it—even though letting Ward die would mean neutralizing one of SHIELD’s biggest threats. Plus, Deathlok would have felt like a total dumbass if his plan backfired and he managed to kill the only one who could land the plane.

The episode concludes with a very comic book rescue mission in which Coulson sneaks aboard Ward’s stolen plane to save Skye—he uses Stark’s hover-Corvette to bust Skye out, which was a pretty cool scene considering the TV show budget. The whole team, including May, is reunited and after getting a pep talk from Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), they regroup to prepare for the impending season finale. It’s the moment when Coulson snaps into agent mode, barking at Hill to get backup and tactical supplies for their “mission.” This is when Hill takes a minute to smack Coulson with the harsh reality that SHIELD no longer exists, and that they need to take care of this personal vendetta and move on with their lives. Again, Coulson’s success is going to hinge upon his ability to break the rules that he’s lived by for so long, which shouldn’t be too difficult now that I think about it. After all, even when SHIELD was up and running they kind of did classified experiments on him to bring him back to life and then covered the whole thing up. It’s time for Coulson to forge his own path, and it will be interesting to see how the show approaches this inner conflict.

Verdict

First and foremost, it’s good to have May and Coulson back to trusting each other. I never quite bought the beef that Coulson had with May, and it’s good to see their melodramatic “angry scenes” come to an end. It’s also a relief to see Ward exposed as a HYDRA lackey to his colleagues, mainly because I’d like to see them each take turns whacking him in the face with a baseball bat. Cobie Smulders’s cameo presented more than just an opportunity for fans to point and say, “Look guys! It’s Maria Hill!” Hill’s character was instrumental in a lot of the episode’s action, plus she made some funny cracks about working for Stark Industries, which make the storylines of the films and the TV show feel more interconnected.

Next week we will be graced with the season finale, which looks like it’s going to explore Ward’s relationship with Garrett via a few flashbacks. Once again, it feels like a suspicious ploy to get the audience to sympathize with Ward, which is a waste of time. It’s tough to get over the fact that he shot a disabled man and betrayed all of his friends. I’m still holding out hope for the baseball bat scenario.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 1.19 “The Only Light in the Darkness” (8 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

Last week, I called “Agents of SHIELD” out on the inclusion of Patton Oswalt as Fury’s failsafe SHIELD agent. Basically, I was concerned that Oswalt would just be a throw away character. When I mentioned my concerns on Twitter, I was surprised to see this little piece of awesome in my notification feed:

There, from Agent Koening’s own Twitter feed, came confirmation that “Agents of SHIELD” was planning something awesome—in time. After (SPOILER) happens on tonight’s episode, I’m currently convinced that Oswalt’s message is some type of coded communique, and it’s currently being decrypted by one of my many robot underlings. Regarding tonight’s review—there be spoilers ahead.

Blackout

Having Garrett bust open a prison filled with SHIELD enemies gives the show a now inexhaustible rogues gallery, which looks to be filled with some classic D-list Marvel bad guys. Some people may have a problem with this.  I, on the other hand, think it’s awesome. First of all, we can’t have our A-game supervillains running amok on “Agents of SHIELD” when so much of the Marvel movie universe is yet to be explored. Second, I happen to like D-list characters—they’re the underdogs of the Marvel universe, and I’m glad they’re getting some screen time. Though this does open “Agents of SHIELD” up to milk the “freak of the week” formula, which would be bad, the way they handled tonight’s villain was actually pretty clever.

The villain in question is Blackout, who can manipulate a substance called ‘dark force,’ that allows him to absorb light and create tangible fields of darkness. On a nerd tangent, it’s great that the show is referencing dark force, as it’s also a power source that is tied to a few other Marvel characters—maybe we’ll see Cloak and Dagger?

Anywho, Blackout has an unhealthy fixation on a concert cellist named Audrey Nathan (Amy Acker), and since he’s broken out of the Fridge, he’s likely to go creeping after her. If the words ‘concert cellist’ don’t ring any bells, we soon find out that Audrey was once the love of Coulson’s life before his untimely death. Since the team is protecting her anyway, Fitz insists that Coulson reveal himself—but he refuses because he thinks it might be too painful for her. It’s logic that I don’t really understand, but I’m just going to chock it up to the fact that their reunion needs to be delayed for a more dramatic moment. 

The subplot with Audrey was a good way to include Blackout without having him seem like a run of the mill bad guy that SHIELD had to round up. His history with Audrey put Coulson in the awkward situation of protecting her without letting her know he was actually alive, which added a bit of pathos to what could have been an otherwise clichéd battle between good and evil.

Ward, the Filthy Liar

With the bulk of Coulson’s team out hunting Blackout and May taking off because she and Coulson are on the outs, the treacherous Agent Ward is left alone with Skye and Koening. There’s a moment when Koening submits each agent to a lie detector test akin to the Voight-Kampff, and each of them check out okay—except Ward, of course. As Koening sees Ward’s reading spike, he finishes the rest of the test holding a gun to Ward’s head. It’s a very cool moment, and does solidify the fact that Koening’s just might be a badass beneath that cuddly exterior. Ward is an experienced liar, however, and he’s able to barely squeak through the test unscathed.

Ward seems to be fine with biding his time, but when Skye suggests that they hack the NSA’s satellite feed to see who exactly broke out of the Fridge, Ward gets a little squirmy. At this point, his duplicitous nature kicks in as he gets makey-outey with Skye moments before strangling Koening and ditching his body in a supply closet. When Skye finds Koening’s body, let’s just say she feels conflicted about the whole Ward situation. After a decent attempt to use her feminine wiles to lure Ward into lingering at the compound until the rest of the team returns, Ward manages to convince her to leave with him, presumably back to Garrett and the encrypted hard drive. 

This is an interesting situation for Skye. She knows Ward’s a traitor, so how is she going to handle it? It would be immensely satisfying if Skye was the executor of Ward’s justice, since Ward’s betrayal likely hit her the hardest.

Verdict

Coulson’s beef with May was my biggest pet peeve this episode. I don’t know whether it’s the acting or writing, but their angry scenes just aren’t very believable. Though it led to a moment at the end of the episode in which May’s mom picks her up and agrees to take her to see Maria Hill, it’s difficult for me to buy the fact that Coulson would get that mad at May. In one of the evening’s more cheesy scenes, Coulson reasons that it’s about time to start trusting May again, but she’s already gone.

It was great to see Amy Acker take the role as Coulson’s former love interest. She’s a Joss Whedon regular, so I hope she sticks around—at least until she sees that Coulson isn’t really dead. Despite having Skye find out that Ward is evil, the subplot with Blackout was my favorite chunk of tonight’s episode. It was a clever way to introduce Coulson’s old girlfriend while adding a new dimension to his resurrection.

Only a few more episodes left! After being lukewarm towards “Agents of SHIELD” at the beginning of the season, I’m starting to see the potential in its future.

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 1.18 “Providence” (7 out of 10) Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen; Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

All bets are off for our special agents. After SHIELD’s collapse, the U.S. government has designated all operating agents as possible security threats—which means it’s time for our heroes to go off the grid. As I mentioned in my last review, there are some similarities between Coulson’s situation and that of “Battlestar Galactica’s” Captain Adama—both men are leading a skeleton crew into the vast unknown in order to escape an enemy that has them seriously outgunned. Though tonight’s episode skirted the desperation was evoked by the crew of the Galactica, I couldn’t help but feel like things would inevitably work out for Coulson and his team. As usual, there will be a few spoilers ahead.

The Bad Guys

Ward and Garrett appear to be operating as a HYDRA splinter cell, but there’s a moment in which Garrett mocks a minion for offering a “Hail HYDRA” salute that makes me suspicious of his true motivation. Yes, it’s safe to assume he’s in bed with HYDRA, but something tells me that he’s merely an opportunist who is using a moment of chaos to seize as much of the leftover pie as he can. Based on the fact that Garrett was revealed to be the Clairvoyant—the mystery villain that has been plaguing the team since the beginning—means that the dude isn’t answering to anybody but himself. 

Now that the Clairvoyant’s secret is out, one wonders how some of the season’s sub-villains feel about being duped by a rogue SHIELD agent. Raina, otherwise known as the Girl in the Flower Dress, seems to be the most crestfallen with this news. She appears to have been doing all of her nasty experiments for the Clairvoyant out of a sense of belief in his mystical abilities, so seeing a person that she has idealized as some kind of prophet turn out to be a loud-mouthed asshole like Garrett has to be hard to swallow. Her crisis of faith along with her interaction with Agent Ward—she thinks that betraying a man like Coulson is pretty messed up—makes me think of her as the most likely flaw in Garrett’s master plan. Raina is a believer, and now that her belief system has been exposed as a series of well-orchestrated lies and betrayals, I could see her becoming one of the good guys as the series develops.

Tonight’s episode also toyed with the relationship between Skye and Ward, in both good and bad ways. The good way? Garrett has a SHIELD hard drive that only Skye can access, and guess who he’s sending to get her help? Knowing that Ward is a scheming prick while Skye still makes googly eyes whenever she hears his voice makes me look forward to the moment when Skye has to put a bullet in Ward’s traitorous skull. The bad way? Ward acts like his “feelings” for Skye are genuine when he calls Garrett out on having her shot in the stomach. Let’s be consistent, folks. Even if Ward turns out to be some kind of double-double agent, he killed lots of innocent people—including a harmless man with a crippling disability. The character has become completely unsympathetic, so giving him some “second thoughts” when it comes to Skye is useless at this point.

Garrett’s main priority is to infiltrate and pillage the SHIELD installation known as the Fridge, which is where all of the agencies confiscated goodies end up. It also doubles as a prison for the pantheon of sociopathic meta-humans that SHIELD has apprehended—not sure I see the logic behind storing experimental weapons in the same building as potential super villains, but what do you do? In addition to loading up on some new ordinance, Garrett also liberates a surly Ian Quinn, who’s a bit tetchy since Garrett almost ripped out his tongue and all. But, when Garrett offers Quinn the hunk of gravitonium that was confiscated earlier this season, he seems to be satisfied. It looks as if “Agents of SHIELD” might be toying with the idea of incorporating another lesser-known Marvel Comics character into the mix.  If so, let’s hope he’s a bit cooler than his comic book predecessor, who looks like he could be Dr. Strange’s angsty little brother.

The Good Guys

Coulson and May are still pissy with each other, which is confusing to me. Yes, May had been communicating with Fury behind everybody’s back, but isn’t that what Coulson is doing right now? Given the circumstances, is it really that hard to believe that Fury would have an agent that he trusts watching another agent that he trusts? Not only are their little tiffs superfluous, but they undercut Coulson’s believability as someone who is so badass that Nick Fury himself recruited him for SHIELD. All of May’s talk about how Coulson could be working for HYDRA without even knowing about it because of his miraculous surgery makes Coulson appear weak and unstable, which are not great qualities to highlight in a guy that’s supposed to be keeping the team together.

After ducking the air force and deleting their identities, Coulson takes the remaining team to some coordinates that were transmitted to his badge, presumably by Fury. It turns out that Fury has a super-secret safehouse in the middle of the Canadian wilderness which looks to become Coulson’s new headquarters. The team is greeted by Agent Koening (Patton Oswalt) who has been keeping the safehouse fires warm since the events of “The Avengers.” Once Koening gets Coulson away from the rest of the team, he informs him that Fury is actually alive, but the rest of the team can’t know because they haven’t been properly vetted. 

I spent the majority of the episode awaiting Patton Oswalt’s appearance because I love that goofy bastard, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed at the character that the showrunners created for him. Perhaps there’s more to Agent Koening than meets the eye—Nick Fury obviously trusts the hell out of him—but it felt like he was given a throw-away character so the show could gain a bit more geek credibility. Prove me wrong, “Agents of SHIELD.” Prove me wrong.

Verdict

The show followed a logical trajectory after the events of last week’s episode, and I like the whole “Empire Strikes Back” feel that the series has adopted. Currently, the bad guys are winning, which means the stakes are that much higher for the good guys. I’m pretty done with the mystery/lack of trust revolving around the procedure that brought Coulson back to life, though. Every time he tries to rally his team together, someone has to shake their head and bring up the “strange circumstances” that brought him back to life. At this point, it’s hurting Coulson’s character instead of helping it, and that’s a big ol’ problem seeing as how he’s the one who ties the whole Marvel movie universe together.    

‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 1.17 “Turn, Turn, Turn” (9 out of 10) Starring Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton; Tuesdays on ABC.

Before we get started, two things need to happen. First, an apology: Sorry “Agents of SHIELD.” I’m still going to take issue with your occasional moments of bad writing/acting, and Skye will always kind of bug me, but tonight you owned it. You owned it hard.

Second, I need to drop a SPOILER ALERT x 10, because not only will reading this review spoil the crap out of tonight’s episode, but it will also spoil the crap out of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”

Paranoia Ensues

Last week, Coulson and Fitz discovered that May was communicating with someone in secret while Agent Hand hijacked their plane. Considering the events of the new Captain America movie, it makes sense that nobody trusts anybody else. It’s a motif that tonight’s episode uses to a surprisingly strong effect. There were double crosses, triple crosses, cross-eyed stares, star-crossed lovers—I lost count of the amount of crosses that happened tonight. The best thing about these plot twists? I honestly didn’t see any of them coming. Each one smacked me upside the head like a bully who wants my lunch money. 

We begin the episode thinking that Agent Hand is the Clairvoyant, but as the plot bounced back and forth between SHIELD HQ revealing its shady HYDRA connections that were revealed in “Cap 2” and Coulson trying to maintain order on his own ship, pretty much everyone except Skye and Ward are accused of being sleeper agents—speaking of those two, they share a surprisingly intimate kissy moment right before Ward jumps out of a broom closet and beats the shit out of fifteen some odd SHIELD security enforcers. I’m not sure if I liked this step in their relationship—it was kind of like seeing Luke and Leia kiss after learning that they were actually siblings. 

The Twist(s)

The moment that Garrett starts ranting about how imperative it is to kill Agent Hand is the moment that Coulson, along with the rest of us, figure out a terrible truth. It’s been Garrett all along—he’s been sending SHIELD all over the place in an effort to gain access to whatever it was that brough Coulson back to life—which he totally did. Hand manages to step in right when Garrett has the drop on our friends, and the good good guys manage to apprehend the bad good guys. Despite neutralizing Garrett, the remaining agents who haven’t sold out to HYDRA are now scattered across the world, and it’s a good bet that their lives aren’t going to get any easier.

Right up to the closing credits, the showrunners continued to throw out some insane curve balls, the last of which will completely change the show’s dynamic from here on out. As Hand and Ward are transporting Garrett to a prison facility, Hand offers Ward the chance to shoot Garrett for all of the nasty things he’s done. Once Ward has the gun however, he shoots everyone BUT Garrett—yes, Ward has officially been compromised. It’s a great moment as we see a cunning smile creep across Garrett’s face, and this will definitely create some drama as the season progresses. Totally unexpected, and totally ballzy. It’s this kind of plot twist that makes me think someone knows what they’re doing behind the scenes.

Verdict

After seeing “Winter Soldier,” I was very curious about how SHIELD’s downfall would affect the show. At the conclusion of tonight’s episode, when our characters were thrust into the same situation as the rogue Jedi after the execution of Order 66 and the crew of the Galactica after Cylons destroy the Twelve Colonies, my enthusiasm for the show grew three sizes. It was a long haul, and I haven’t completely shelved my inner skeptic, but tonight’s episode was the movie/TV crossover that I had been hoping for since I heard about the show’s creation. Tonight, “Agents of SHIELD” had the same vibe as a crossover comic book event, which I need to see more of. If Marvel Studios can take the comic book template and move it into motion pictures and television, the world will truly be a better place.