Ask and you shall receive! In my review of last week’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ I said that I was a little uninterested because the spotlight wasn’t on the secrets behind Skye’s father, the Obelisk, Morse and Hunter, and Fitz’s struggle. Well, someone must have heard me because that’s exactly what we all got this week and then some!
In the newest installment of our weekly look into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Director Coulson and his team go on an action packed globetrotting mission to find a match for the city that all the GH-325 patients had been carving. Back at the base, Agent May is left in charge and is heading up the intel-gathering efforts to learn more about their HYDRA adversary Daniel Whitehall. Finally, after escaping from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, Grant Ward tracks down his politician brother Christian to reexamine the skeletons in their family closet.
Speaking of Ward, I love what his character has become. As of late, we weren’t really too sure whether or not he was trying to regain Skye’s trust in order to legitimately rejoin the team. We also couldn’t tell which Ward was really telling the truth about what happened back at the well. In the latest episode, we got to see that the actual answer is that they’re both bonkers and it was pretty intense to see their confrontation unfold onscreen. Now it’s pretty safe to assume that the remaining Ward falls squarely into the villain category and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Rather than seeing him attempt to embark on a road to redemption, I’d much rather see what sort of threat he could be to his former teammates. Of course, I could see this whole thing being a total swerve, but until the truth is revealed, let me enjoy Ward being a bad guy.
Speaking of villains this week, how could I skip over Skye’s father? With some of his motivations revealed this week, Kyle MacLachlan’s character just got even more interesting. Nothing beats a good revenge story, but who could really blame him for wanting revenge after what happened to his love at the hands of Whitehall and HYDRA? Business is certainly about to pick up on the bad guy front on this show and I can’t wait to see this unfold.
Though MacLachlan and Brett Dalton were the clear standouts of the villainous happenings of this show, Whitehall served an important purpose as well. Not only did we see how truly twisted he is by watching him dissect a woman to gain her powers, but I feel like my Kree theory has been strengthened even more because of his storyline. After revealing that the Obelisk came from an alien race that has been here almost as long as humans, I thought that the Kree were obviously behind this artifact. Then, when the doctor shared that there’s something inside the item that made it a Tesseract-level threat (even though that scene was more of a joke than anything), I concluded that there must be an Infinity Gem inside, specifically the Time Gem since there has been so much talk of the past and Whitehall “turning back the clock.” After all, the Kree could have taken it with them from Hala to Earth when they traveled there to experiment on the early humans to create the Inhumans. And because the Inhumans are (probably) involved, then the city that Coulson is looking for is Attilan. Of course this is all just speculation, but how awesome would it be if we’re seeing the seeds planted for ‘Captain Marvel.’ ‘Inhumans,’ and ‘The Avengers: Infinity War’ this far out? I would love the hell out this show and Marvel Studios all together even more if that were actually what’s happening here.
The villains most definitely weren’t the only good parts about this week’s episode. The good guys had some shining moments as well. We got back to Fitz’s recovery as we saw him reenter the field with Coulson once again. It’s great to see that his recovery is still taking time, but he’s getting better and more like his old self little by little. Even though his condition is improving, I hope that we get to see more of Mack helping him out in future episodes, especially when Simmons tries to get involved again.
Morse and Hunter were highlights of this episode on the good guy side as well. (There’s a really corny joke about Morse Code in here somewhere, but I’ll spare you.) The Mr. & Mrs. Smith dynamic hasn’t worn out its welcome just yet, but judging by how much I like these two characters, I’m not sure that it will. Now that FitzSimmons is on the rocks, the former couple makes for an excellent comedic duo at times when they’re not being totally badass spies, like when Bobbi is interrogating Whitehall’s right hand man.
In general, ‘The Things We Bury’ did a great job at expanding the world of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..’ We got a ton of really interesting backstory on some of the new characters, the evolution of many of the established characters on the show, and potential hints at where the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole could be going down the line. It’s really too bad that we have to wait two weeks for the next episode since there are so many answers that I’m craving, but as past episodes have indicated, patience is rewarded on this show. Plus, the bright side is that we don’t have to wait 3 or 4 weeks between episodes like last season, so let’s at least be thankful for that.
Final Score:
‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ starring Brett Dalton, Ming-Na Wen, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Chloe Bennet, and Clark Gregg airs on Tuesdays at 9:00pm on ABC.
