We have waited literally a month for another installment of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘, but this week’s episode was definitely worth the wait. After Skye was left incapacitated and on the verge of death by Ian Quinn in ‘T.R.A.C.K.S.’, Agent Coulson and his team rushed to get her the medical attention she needed to stay alive. When ‘T.A.H.I.T.I.’ begins, the kids on the Bus disobey a direct order to drop Quinn off to the Fridge, so S.H.I.E.L.D. send a familiar face to retrieve the prisoner. This face is Agent John Garrett, Agent Ward’s SO played by Bill Paxton who is accompanied by B.J. Britt’s Agent Triplett. Now with some new allies aboard committed to seeing Quinn face justice and Skye reach a full recovery, the group sets their sights on the facility where Agent Coulson was treated after the Battle of New York in ‘The Avengers’. But naturally, they’re met with a little resistance when they come knocking at this top-secret non-S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.
As you have seen in my previous reviews, I might be one of the only writers on the internet that talks positively about this show and gives it positive ratings. Ever other site posts reviews filled with eye rolls, but I firmly believe that this show has gotten so much better since taking a bit of a dip after the pilot. However, there was something about this episode that did bother me a bit. Throughout the story, we heard different cast members ask themselves about what Skye would do in this situation. And then they’d do it, mostly without hesitation. I feel like these moments were trying to add more suspense to the situation, which definitely isn’t a bad thing to do, but the pacing of these moments didn’t really do what they intended. One time when this happened that comes to mind is when Fitz is going through the Admin Cube looking for some information that he and Simmons need. After asking himself what Skye would do, he immediately waves his hands and finds what he’s looking for. After getting to know Fitz, I felt like he was going to freak out a little bit or at least get frustrated due to all the emotions racing in his head, but none of that happened. There were a couple of moments like that where the team got what they wanted too easily. Considering the quality for this show has been since their mid-season break, little things like this are just sloppy storytelling.
With that being said, those little sloppy moments didn’t bog things down for me too much because there was just too many awesome things going on that warranted my attention over imperfections. Earlier this week, I speculated that we’d be getting some huge secrets regarding Coulson’s resurrection, which was detailed in ‘The Magical Place’. I predicted that they’d attempt to use one of the many procedures that were used on Coulson to save Skye, and it turns out that I was right. However, I couldn’t even begin to come close to imagining the secrets that were unveiled in this episode. Like, mind blown. I’m pretty sure that no one could guess that half of a muscular Doctor Manhattan looking dude in a tube was the key to bringing someone back to life. Now, we have a ton of new questions that have to be answered and even more theories about what is going on with the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Could this blue guy be connected to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’? Maybe he’s a Kree or some other alien that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been holding for a long time. All these thoughts could take me all day to sort out, but I’m really excited that this episode brought about these thoughts because things like this could be game changers for all the Marvel Studios projects from here on out.
On top of the interesting developments regarding GH-325, it’s great to see Paxton and Britt joining the cast as recurring characters. They are definitely welcome additions to the gang and I look forward to seeing what new dimensions they bring to the show, especially if we get more lines from Garrett like “Deathlok? Sounds catchy like a wrestler from the 80s.” Given his connection to Quinn, Ward, and Coulson, he could add an interesting dynamic and point of view to whatever lies ahead. As for Trip, I don’t hate his little crush on Simmons and I look forward to seeing what happens when Fitz realizes that it’s a thing.
Despite a couple problems here and there, this episode of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ was still very exciting and brought a lot of great things to the table. I will say that it was probably the least successful episode since making it’s return, but not by much because it still strengthened the emotional connection to all the characters, added some unique and unexpected layers to the world of Marvel’s films, and left the audience guessing about what the future holds. Plus, next week we’re finally going to see Lady Sif join forces with the Son of Coul to battle Lorelei in Midgard, so how could anyone not be excited to see what happens next? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ is getting better and people need to give it another chance, even if there are a still a few noticeable hiccups sometimes.
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‘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 8:00pm on ABC.
