Welcome back, friends of all kinds, as our returned look at Agents of SHIELD continues! Up today: the first episode before the march to the finale begins with the I-can’t-believe-they-actually-titled-the-episode-this episode, “Frenemy of my Enemy.”
1. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Age of Ultron
Okay, first things first: yes, I know spoilers for Age of Ultron are online; yes, I know countries that aren’t the United States will be seeing the film first; yes, I know many of you will be aware of the spoilers before I can see it on May 1st. Just do me a favor and please leave spoilers for Age of Ultron at the door, okay? I had Avengers spoiled for me, and I’d love to go into this film blind and uninfluenced.
That said, Agents of SHIELD certainly set up all the dominos for their film tie-ins: the resurgence of Hydra, the frequent mentions of Strucker and his Eastern Europe hiding hole, and Hydra’s interest in powers; all of this sets up a few teased elements of the film as seen in the stinger for Winter Soldier. However, with so many plates spinning on this show right now, I am very curious as to what the tie-in episodes will be like. Last time SHIELD crossed over with the films it basically saved the show, yet right now there’s so much going on it seems like it’d impede the show.
It’ll be interesting to see how this is balanced, because the plates that are spinning here are getting a bit out of control.
2. Spinning Plate #1: Daddy/Daughter Day
The first big spinning plate of the show right now is Skye/Daisy and her relationship with her father. A big part of last night’s episode, Cal was forced out of the Inhuman paradise due to not being an Inhuman himself, but Skye rightfully assumed this could bring out his darker side — and indeed it did. It was quite sad, actually, as I think last night’s episode was the first episode in that really made Cal sympathetic. And, sure, maybe it’s just because I’m a Twin Peaks fan and I’m glad to see Kyle Maclachlan made it out of the Lodge, but seeing him take his character and portray him as actively vulnerable made Skye’s betrayal of him actually quite distressing.
I would also assume we’ll be seeing Hyde make an appearance by the end of the season. We know that Cal has a monstrous side, but this episode actually started teasing his other personality with comments about a “more sinister” moniker he assumed while on the road as well as a brief glimpse of some mysterious vials in a locked cabinet in his office. We know Cal can be a bit of a bad guy, but I’d guess we’re going to see what he can really become soon.
3. Spinning Plate #2: SHIELD vs. SHIELD
The biggest thing hanging over the show right now is that there are two SHIELDs, and it is… exhausting, to say the least? I get that there is some entertainment value in watching heroes clash with heroes, but I have to admit that I think this aspect of the show is beginning to get stretched thin. The story is becoming so decompressed and the drama of it is so oddly paced that at this point I’m glad Coulson turned himself over so this storyline can be wrapped (hopefully next week).
Because, lets be honest: it was a clever twist, but not a great payout. I was willing to go along with it, but as we near the end of the season and all the disparate threads come together, this one is obviously the weakest link. Here’s to hoping that SHIELD and SHIELD can collectively get over themselves next week, just in time for us to see how this all gets fit into the films what with Ultron being the first post-Winter Soldier film to have to address the fall of SHIELD, and a lot of fans of the films not being interested in the show enough to follow along with all the smoke and mirrors.
4. Spinning Plate #3: Who Can You Trust?
One thing I really like about the show right now is that it has basically put every character into this murky place where even your favorite characters are potentially the bad guy. Maybe not the bad guy in the sense that Hydra is the bad guy, mind you; rather, I’m a big fan of Bobbi Morse and yet I can’t help but not necessarily trust her character right now. Heck, you can barely trust Coulson, right? That’s the whole point of “frenemy of my enemy” — everyone is forced to work with the wrong side in order to reach their endgame, and the endgames are becoming increasingly more obtuse.
Continued belowSo while there are some weak parts to the whole “no one is the hero” mantra the show has right now, it does make watching the show an interesting experience. It’s hard to really align yourself with anyone, and as such it makes it a bit more difficult to tell where the show is going — and I think that’s the strongest asset to SHIELD this week. With Cal fighting Gordon, Coulson fighting Hydra, SHIELD fighting Coulson fighting Hydra and Ward… I think we’re going to need some Hickman-esque diagrams just to keep track of who is on what side doing what soon.
5. Spinning Plate #4: The Elephant in the Room
So, lets get blunt: the whole Inhumans thing is a huge problem for SHIELD right now, right? I get that there’s an aspect of synergy (#itsallconnected) to this, but in the end it’s beginning to feel like the least connected — or at the very worst, something a bit shoehorned in. I actually like Gordon and Lincoln as characters and I think that doing backdoor introductions of the Inhumans into the Marvel Universe (for fans that both watch the show and see the films) is a reasonably smart idea, but when the show keeps coming down to SHIELD v. Hydra, then I find it slightly strange that, oh, all of a sudden everyone does actually know about “powered people.”
The Marvel Universe is a fun and fascinating place, and certainly a lot of the Universe is full of extraordinary people and things. We’ve had aliens, gods, science experiments and more running around the globe doing all kinds of fantastical things. That said, the aspect of the “powered people” as something that apparently no one knows about and everyone knows about doesn’t fit that well into the evolving mythos, if only because it’s so strange that SHIELD and Hydra could be the same organization and yet keep these elements so separate from the general knowledge base of… well, everyone. And I realize that that’s a knit-picky remark when we’re all about to go see a movie about evil robots taking over the world, but even so; this whole Inhuman thing could’ve been handled a bit better, I think.
