Danny Hale reviews the thirteenth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 3…
This week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gave us a fine send off for two of my favourite characters on the show. I had been waiting to see how Bobbi and Hunter may be written out of the series, unsure if it would come during the finale or beforehand. With Marvel’s Most Wanted now confirmed it was only a matter of time and ultimately I was not disappointed.
Parting Shot jumps right into the thick of it; Coulson and the team are already providing support to Hunter and Bobbi as they land in Siberia having seen them stow away on Malick and Pedrov’s plane last week. We know from the beginning that Bobbi and Hunter are prisoners of Interpol within Russia and the rest of the episode begins to shed light on what happened on their mission and how they got caught. One of the best things this episode did was to explore Bobbi and Hunter alone together; with everything that’s been going down in this show lately it’s been a while since we’ve gotten to see Bobbi and Hunter interact with no one else around. There’s a strong history between these two and as the episode plays out we get a good glimpse of that; from their playful flirting to their shared strength under questioning. Adrianne Palicki gave a great performance this week; the conflict between protecting S.H.I.E.L.D. and protecting Hunter was clearly etched on Bobbi’s face throughout her interrogation and we see just how far she would go to protect him. Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood are both strong enough actors with interesting enough characters to carry their own show.
One of the previously mentioned “obstacles” to Pedrov’s sanctuary state it appears is the Prime Minister. Pedrov reveals to Malick that one of their own generals is in fact an Inhuman and has murdered the Prime Minister’s personal aide due to his attitudes towards Inhumans. Absorbing this information Malick then plays Pedrov in an attempt to eradicate the current Prime Minister using this Inhuman general. The general is restrained on the premises and the team soon learns that the Prime Minister is inbound and that the hit is about to go down. The episode built very nicely ending up with the whole team on site ready to spring into action. The reveal of the general’s powers was as creepy as it was awesome; the general manifests a being of dark energy that can move independently from his body. It quickly dispatches Mack and after a gorgeous sweeping shot of Daisy and Bobbi both trying to fight it, it lands a heavy blow on Daisy. Hunter soon finds himself in front of the dark being and in order to save him Bobbi puts three bullets in the general’s chest with no hesitation causing the being to dissipate but also for Hunter and Bobbi to be taken into custody.
Back in present time we see Hunter and Bobbi finally reunited in captivity and they make a tough call to take the fall for what went down. Their actions would be a mark of war if it came to light that they were working under a US agency. This was a strong way to write out the characters and an exit that will leave an impact. I hope it’s not for ever and that someday the pair will return to the team but for now I’ll just have to rely on May and Daisy to provide the ass-kicking I love seeing on this show. Unfortunately the Prime Minister that our team worked so hard to save turns out to be less than grateful and demands someone pay for what happened. It deserves a mention as to how heart-warming Coulson’s escape plan was for Bobbi and Hunter; I knew they wouldn’t take it but it was great to see Coulson will still never give up on his own.
Our resolution was bittersweet; I was happy that Bobbi and Hunter were allowed to walk away but to not have them return with Coulson to join the rest of the team was tough, especially for Mack. Thus followed a perfect goodbye for our characters; a “spies’ goodbye”. From Jemma’s initial reveal to the slow realisation that the entire team has shown up to send off their comrades was incredibly heart-warming but damn, Mack; I knew Mack would take it harder than the rest but to seem him linger with his drink and to see the devastation on his face was genuinely heart-breaking. I look forward to seeing how losing his two closest friends will affect Mack going forward. Again I hope this doesn’t encourage him to go to space . . . I haven’t forgotten how this series returned to our screens.
This week’s episode had one clear goal and it delivered along with some strong smaller moments littered throughout. Our post-credits scene introduced Malick’s daughter which I am assuming is the fresh, new face of the villains. I am guessing she is an adept fighter and will end up coming to blows with May and/or Daisy before the season is out. There was no Hive this week or Lincoln who is training at the Cocoon according to Daisy. He should turn up ready for action next week. This episode was all about saying goodbye to Bobbi and Hunter and as this was possibly the pair’s last episode it was great that Hunter and May were given some time to sort through their baggage. It is unlikely the two will ever be very close but I think getting an apology from Hunter was a good start at mending the rift between them. I felt we got to see the comedic side of Daisy too this week; originally in the very beginning Daisy’s character had a lot of charm and wit and as her own character’s back story got more and more serious we started to lose that side of her. With the cast two heads down maybe we’ll start to see a bit more of everyone else as things won’t be as crowded or maybe as I previously speculated Joey and/or Elena could make the main cast. Either way I’m excited and will definitely be checking out Marvel’s Most Wanted whenever it graces our screens.
Danny Hale
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