The pilot of Agents of SHIELD was a blast, despite falling to some of the natural trappings you’ll find in a pilot episode. Much of the plot centered around introducing us to all the new characters and getting to know them and their personalities. With all of that said and done, tonight’s episode finally took off and helped set the tone for what is to follow in the rest of the season.
As always, there be spoilers here!
The new episode picked up right where the last one left off with Coulson and his team flying to Peru to investigate the discovery of a strange object classified as “0-8-4”. When pressed about what that means, Coulson admits they don’t really know WHAT it means, but the last one they found was a hammer (wink, wink).
Upon landing in Peru, the team enters an ancient temple and discovers the artifiact, which appears to be a highly technical device that has rather advanced technology in it — technology reminiscent of Hydra. Before they get to spend too much time figuring things out, the site is ambushed by the Peruvian army who are there to ensure that no local rebels get their hands on the device since it could possibly be used as a weapon. The army is led by Commandante Reyes who has a history with Coulson, but their time to reminisce is brought to a halt as they are attacked by the very rebels the army was there to drive back. The SHIELD agents grab the device in the temple and beat all hell back to the plane in order to escape.
Once aboard, they determine that item 0-8-4 is indeed a weapon that is somehow powered by Tesseract energy, and they argue about what to do with it and with each other over their individual actions in the rebel ambush. Coulson steps in and reminds them they are a team and need to act like one before everyone retires for some relaxation on the way back to a secret SHIELD base.
As everyone enjoys a few drinks, along with Reyes and some of her team who escaped with them, Grant notices that the army members are behaving strangely, and is proven right when they attack and hijack the plane and the Hydra weapon which they plan to use to put down the rebel uprising in Peru once and for all.
With Coulson out of commisson and being tortured, the rest of his team puts together a plan that plays to all of their strengths and requires them to actually work together to retake the plane and win back their freedom.
With everyone finally getting along, they spend more bonding time together as 0-8-4 is launched into the sun via rocket, but all is not well as Skye gets a last minute message from Rising Sky and responds that “she’s in”.
Before I go any further here, I want to state that I did enjoy this episode, and I’m still all-in for the season, I just didn’t have as much fun as the pilot episode. There was nothing here that was patently bad or horrible, but a lot of it was just ok.
I understand that the point of this show is bringing people together from entirely different backgrounds and forcing them to rely on each other and work together, but some of the heavy handedness, especially from Grant, is growing thin. Yes, we get it that you’re a lone wolf and that you don’t want to have to worry about anyone but yourself, but having to constantly repeat it for the first 30 minutes until you have your ‘moment of clarity’ with Skye just got annoying. It almost seemed pandering when, 10 minutes later, when the group is finally trying to work together that he would parrot back her words just to get in her good graces. We get it, you’re learning, but there are better ways to do it, and for that, I blame the writers. A lot of the clever wit that was present from the pilot is also missing. This isn’t a dumb show by any means, but you feel the lack of input that Joss Whedon provided on the script, so it’s not quite as enjoyable as what came before.
That bitching aside, the rest of the episode was truly enjoyable, especially almost every scene that Coulson is in. Clark Gregg has helped create a dynamic and intriguing character who really is the heart of the show and rallies everyone to him. He is as confident and smart as Nick Fury, just without the deviousness and scheming that accompanies the leader of SHIELD. I still think he’s a life model decoy, but the fact that evey time someone brings up Tahiti and he immediately responds that it is a magical place has me wondering exactly what took place that brought him back. What is so special about Tahiti?
The final scene with the Nick Fury cameo took me and the rest of the audience by surprise (you did stay for that, right?). It was funny, clever and definitely the high point of the night, which I guess is the biggest reason I was disappointed with the episode. A 30 second, essentially throw away moment shouldn’t overshadow what took place before unless it was some huge reveal or shocker, and it was neither of those. Let’s hope next week brings it back around and gets that spark back.
I had a chance to talk with Arse-Bot after tonight’s viewing as well, and he enjoyed it a lot more than I did, and wanted to include his thoughts as well:
Now that we are past the introduction of all the characters, this second episode allowed for an actual adventure. While not without some flaws, this episode provided a really fun adventure for our new team, gave Coulson some great moments, and had some nice tie-ins to the Marvel Cinematic Universe without being too heavy handed. At this point, I’m in for the duration of at least this season.
And there you have it! What did you think of 0-8-4? Was it better or worse than the pilot, and will you be sticking around to see what happens next? Let us know in the comments!