Last night’s episode of Agents of SHIELD may have just been the best episode of Agents of SHIELD we’ve ever had.
Now that I’ve got the review bias out of the way, lets break things down a bit more. As a note, we will have to veer into some spoiler-y territory. Hopefully, though, you watched last night’s episode because it may have just been the best episode of Agents of SHIELD we’ve ever had.
1. Hello! Have You Accepted Bobbi Morse as your Lord and Savior?
Hands up if Adrianne Palicki’s door-busting role on last night’s SHIELD was an absolute revelation. Ok, good, I see that all hands are up.
Look: I get that some people are (unnecessarily) cynical about Bobbi’s introduction into the series. Was it a bit telegraphed? Sure. We all sort of knew who she was right away, and even if you didn’t you could see where the story was going when mean ol’ Adrianne Palicki showed up as a Hydra dominatrix in an episode that put Jemma’s life at risk. But that aside, this was one of the most gripping, tense and entertaining episodes we’ve ever had: the show kept a few hidden cards close to their vest and when Mockingbird shows up as the character from the comics we know it’s beyond triumphant. The only thing that would’ve made it more triumphant was probably some slow motion and dubstep to really accentuate the amount of bones she was breaking.
And, really, I can’t stop raving or glowing about the whole Simmons storyline from last night. For all the weird things this show does, this was easily the most compelling half hour we’ve ever had. So much was at risk that it gave Palicki and Bobbi Morse both a chance to shine as new additions to the team, with continuously surprising wrinkles thrown in as the episode went on both in terms of Mockingbird’s role (Bobbi’s past, comments about her hair, her weapons of choice) and Simmons’ (her moment with Fitz at the end was heartbreaking).
Long story short: when we spent all last season bitching that the show didn’t feel like a Marvel show, this episode justified its place in the MCU tenfold. I’m still excited. This season has upped the action tenfold, and it is so fun to watch.
2. The Agent Coulson We Don’t Deserve, But The One We Need Right Now
One thing I didn’t like and oft repeated about last season was Coulson. I found his character forced and unlikable as compared to the movies, and I didn’t like how the show beat us over the head with all his tragedy. This season has utilized Coulson better as a leader and an integral member of the team, and I’ve enjoyed that quite a bit.
Last night added an interesting little addendum to all this: Coulson has gone dark. His scenes with Raina at dinner are borderline uncomfortable, as Coulson is previously described as the “heart” of the cinematic universe and now he’s just kind of a dick. Part of it seems like he’s doing his best Nick Fury impression as he puts everyone’s life at risk but still spins enough hidden plates that while things crash down you can tell he still has a plan. However, there was an interesting line thrown in when discussing what happened to Garrett last season: when talking about Garrett’s interaction with the alien serum, it’s remarked that something else took over his mind and body, and “whatever took his place, I don’t think it was meant to survive.” Coulson is becoming the conduit for something, even going so far as to saying something else is in control of him, and it’s pushing him on a dangerous path.
Coulson is playing with everyone else’s life in this season, but I can’t help but wonder if its his we should be most concerned about at the end of the day. We’ve had multiple foreshadowing references to Coulson’s death before the end of the season; anyone want to take that bet?
3. “Wherever She Goes, Death Follows”
This season has focused a lot on Skye, and a lot on the idea that everything we know about her is wrong. I don’t see any inherent problem with that, and all the little teases we’ve been given have been intriguing. Last night’s bigger bombshell, though, was that not only is Skye apparently not her name but she’s also potentially an alien.
Continued belowOf course, readers of this column will know that last season I wrote quite a bit about how it felt like Marvel was planning some forced integration between their shows/films and comics, specifically in regards to the whole ‘Inhumanity’ story in which thousands of previously unknown Inhumans are awoken thanks to a terigenesis bomb that goes off in “Infinity.” I mean, if that body in TAHITI wasn’t a Kree then I don’t know what else it could be. But the Inhumans offer Marvel a chance to essentially get their mutants back, since the X-Men property is owned by Fox and Marvel seems to be unable to use the word mutant as a term in their own films. The Inhumans offer a cheatcode, essentially.
So Skye being an alien? That I think is unlikely. But Skye being an Inhuman? I buy it. It seems the most obvious: references to hidden tribes, languages and more coupled with the fact that Inhumans walk hidden among us sounds like some good synergy to me. #ItsAllConnected
4. The Diviner and the Map
Last night we got to have some pretty nice leaps forward in terms of content clarification, as we now that the obelisk is actually called “The Diviner” in its native tongue, and that the carvings are not a schematic but a map. Or, well, we think its a map. A map of what, I don’t know.
The season is moving along at a pretty brisk pace, and I find that a bit surprising actually. Maybe it was because last season was so obsessed with the villain of the week formula, but that we already know more about what these things are five episodes in is a bit surprising. There’s still a lot to learn, and there’s a lot that we can assume from the titles of these objects (I personally immediately went to divining rods as my way to connect the two items), but I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see some pretty quick and resolute answers to some of our bigger mysteries. After all, the Big Bad has his Big Bad Weapon now. We’re all boned.
5. Hydra 3.0
So, Hydra disassembles — again — and prepares another resurgence elsewhere. Daniel Whitehall is quickly proving himself as a man to be afraid of.
But speaking of people to be afraid of, Kyle Maclachlan’s mysterious Doctor is much more frightening, a monster by his own words (we basically got a Buster Bluth impression in this episode). The Doctor joining up with Hydra is an interesting addition to the show, though, as a) Whitehall clearly knows who he his and does not care for him and b) the Doctor clearly does not care for Hydra and is only interested in Skye loving him again. I made mention that the season was moving along at a brisk pace, but this really clinched it for me; we had near confrontations between SHIELD and Hydra and SHIELD and the Doctor, and rather than allow either story to reach any sort of head, we now have both bad guys working together despite hating each other just because they hate SHIELD that much. Wonderful.
But the last lines of this episode kill me. As the Doctor remarks about why he wants to join Hydra as he hands over the Diviner, he makes it clear that Hydra is his method through which he can kill Coulson — at which point he says, quote, “We can kill him. [Pause] Along with, y’know, everyone else.” All I need is a screencap or gif of this moment and I can finally kick off my JustBaddieThings tumblr in style.
