‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Episode 2.10 “What They Become” (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.
Though I enjoyed that opening scene that threw us right into the action with a quinjet in mid-nosedive, the image inevitably came to represent the episode’s trajectory. It might have to do with being a mid-season finale of sorts—it’s understandable for the showrunners to withhold their big guns for the second half of the season—but tonight’s episode felt strangely lopsided.
Spoilers ahead!
Awkward Family Stuff
After a long build up, Skye (Chloe Bennet) comes face to face with her father Cal (Kyle MacLachlan). As Ward (Brett Dalton) was instrumental in this reunion, it’s important to consider his relationship with Skye—anywho, it’s all kind of weird. I liked seeing Cal’s plan take shape—he’s still got some serious issues, but the idea that he was the monster that Whitehall (Reed Diamond) created was pretty cool. The problem with this whole scenario is that, at the end of the day, Cal’s still a psycho. Based on the way the reunion scene was written, it was hard to tell whether the writers wanted the audience to sympathize with Cal or not. He’s got a terribly tragic story, and you get the sense that he cares about Skye—but he’s done some terrible things for the sake of revenge, and that’s tough to get over. And what’s up with Kyle MacLachlan? I typically like him as an actor—huge fan of “Twin Peaks” and his other projects with David Lynch—but man is he swinging for the fences with his interpretation of Cal’s character. As a result, his performace comes across as cartoonishly evil, which is a bit jarring because if his realistically evil deeds. Swing and a miss, K-Mac.
Though it’s not too difficult to pass for a good actor in these reunion scenes considering MacLachlan’s oddly comical performance, Chloe Bennet does a solid job in these scenes. She’s fully embraced Skye’s newfound confidence as a SHIELD agent, which is something that her character desperately needed in the first season.
The Nosedive
The second half of the episode suffered from a case of unrequited epicness. We have Coulson (Clark Gregg) leading a team into Whitehall’s allegedly well-fortified mansion only to be confronted with a moronic security detail that, when you consider HYDRA’s resources, should have been packing more than a few pistols. I hate to be that guy who’s all, “Pfah. Like that would really happen,” but I just couldn’t help it tonight. SHIELD pretty much walked right in, leaving Whitehall wide open to a shot in the back from Coulson. It’s tough to buy considering the fact that Whitehall had the means to cheat death and everything.
With all of this family drama and mansion-invading taking place, the episode left little time to shed light on the mystery city that has been on my mind for weeks—save a few confusing tidbits. There are a lot of questions that go unanswered, but rather than nitpicking through that mess, let’s focus on those final few moments, because what the hell was that?
Skye, despite figuring out that her father wanted her to take the Diviner into the city for some nefarious purpose, openly refuses to play along. This is odd because the moment she sees that Raina (Ruth Negga) has skipped off with the Diviner, Skye follows. Raina activates the Diviner, which turns her, Skye, and Tripp (B.J. Britt) into beef jerky. At first, it appears that it’s just killed them all, but then Skye explodes out of the shell, evidently gaining the powers of slow-motion. It’s a confusing scene—largely due to its editing. I think Raina may have sprouted skin spikes and had her eyes turn yellow, but she is mysteriously absent during Skye’s realization that Tripp is actually dead. This scene, coupled with an equally confusing epilogue in which we see a guy without eyes messing around with his own Diviner, left me a bit unsatisfied.
Verdict
While this episode wasn’t horrible as a whole, there were some detours that threw its mid-season finale mojo off a bit. Given the show’s format, I think it’s better served with smaller storyarcs. These grandiose stories about mysterious alien cities and immortal Nazi scientists start to feel long-winded after eight or so episodes.
The show is back in March, but in the meantime you can catch the many adventures of Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell) during SHIELD’s timeslot.