Airing the same day as the big Phase 3 Marvel Studios announcements, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aimed to impress. With the promise that they would be featuring an extended look at Avengers: Age of Ultron, did the show accomplish what it set out to do? I think so.
After last week’s episode, Adrianne Palicki’s Bobbi Morse has joined the team. Hydra is on the offensive. Which Ward do we trust? This week’s episode dealt with more of the spy and paranoia side of the coin. HYDRA impersonates S.H.I.E.L.D. and attacks the UN. We finally meet Grant Ward’s Senator brother, Christian, and honestly we are presented with a situation on who the real bad guy is. Ward tries to convince Coulson that his brother is bad and vice-versa. Surprisingly, it’s not an easy choice! I mean how do you trust someone that betrayed your entire team, screwed up Fitz, and more?! I am guessing that they are going to play the who “I don’t lie to Skye” card and Grant will end up being the “good guy” in the end. I sure hope not. Things aren’t looking so good for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!
The Good
-Bobbi is a great addition to the team. It would be nice to see more of this, where bigger name characters show up for an arc and then leave. It would keep the show fresh and exciting, while satisfying the need of the nerds to see “famous” faces on the show. Though I want her to stick around for good. Palicki looks pretty good in costume and with that blonde hair.
-FitzSimmons have their fallout. Fitz is WAY worse when she is around, and we learn that IT IS one of the main reasons why she left in the first place.
-Christian Ward is an actual-factual villain from the comics. He has appeared in Spider-Man. I really like that they built a new character, Grant, off of this which makes this situation all the more intriguing. Who does Christian Ward answer to? HYDRA? Himself? Something more sinister? Whatever is going on, Coulson releases Grant into his custody in exchange for a little breathing room after the UN incident. Yeah let’s just make it easier for this psycho to escape. Oh wait, he did? Told you so!
-Lance Hunter continues to entertain. Bring is ex-wife aboard only makes it funnier.
-Coulson delivers one of the best lines ever. When he tells Christian Ward that “I have your brother in my basement”. Creepy! Haha!
-Seemingly Talbot and May are on the up and up. Their handshake shows the respect he has for fallen comrades. After HYDRA attacks the UN pretending to be SHIELD agents, things can only get worse for our heroes. It’s about time HYDRA did something like this. You know instead of having an office building right out in the middle of everything, throwing parties, and so on. It was just weird that they had such a presence for a group that is supposedly being hunted by the world. This week was more of a covert attach which fits their profile better. Will Talbot be more of an ally as time progresses?
The Bad
-FitzSimmons was one of the best elements from Season 1. Now that Fitz is rather.. you know… different. Will we ever get back to this dynamic? The triangle between them and Mack is ok, but at the same time this season is relatively darker than the previous. It’s rather upsetting every week to see this play out, and this week was probably the closest to a tearjerker.
-Some major characters are on the backburner. How does Mack play a bigger part than Tripp? Where is Koenig?
-This felt more like a filler-episode this week.Especially after showing off Skye’s dad for the last couple episodes. This is expected when it comes to a 20+ episode season.
-Hunter has become Clint Barton. We will never see Jeremy Renner on TV, so we are “stuck” with Morse and Hunter playing out the dynamic that the her and Clint would have in the funny books. We are gifted with a shout out from Morse when she mentions Barton’s name. But that’s the best we are going to get.
-The show seems to have more of a focus this season, but it is still plagued with having WAY TOO MANY episodes to contend with. Like Agent Carter, this show may do better if they were able to put it into a 12 episode season.
The After Credits Scene
We meet another person who has the need to write the Alien markings. This guy actually tattoos the characters on him, the scene is a little disturbing as we watch him help guide the tattoo artist’s hand to make the maps, or whatever they are. Who is this new player? With the recent announcement that the Inhumans will be getting their own film, will this some how play into that? Will Marvel start building the foundation of things to come? We can only hope so.
We also got an to see an exclusive scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron last night that was attached to the beginning of the trailer. It is a humorous scene where the Avengers are all sitting around and they all, on by one, attempt to pick up Mjolnir. Cap moves it a little! Good stuff, fun and light, well that’s until Ultron walks in! Check it out for yourself!
