Danny Hale reviews the sixth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3…
After last week’s powerful detour Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back with our full team and picks up directly where we left a possible Andrew dead a few weeks ago. I was surprised to see Dr. Garner alive and even more surprised he was so unscathed. Having said that, his version of events made sense although I wasn’t sure if it was a result of some dodgy writing or if Andrew was hiding something. Cue May back in action. Ming Na Wen was great here; she just emanated rage and it’s not often we get to see May show so much emotion. I cannot wait for her to get her hands on Ward. So what could be better than May going on a mission to hunt down her old teammate? Recruiting Bobbi. I figured (hoped) that Melinda’s melodramatic tantrum at Bobbi was an attempt to bait her into a fight but it was still sweet to see the both of them exchange moves. Now I have conflicting feelings about wanting to see them go all out whilst stressing about what could ever turn them against each other like that. Thus followed a May and Morse bank heist. I really enjoyed this short sequence and particularly loved Mockingbird and May’s play with language. With Fitz’s aid the agents break into a Cayman Island bank and gain access to a safety deposit box belonging to Strucker in the hope of ascertaining some hint as to his location. Of course the heist doesn’t go to plan but May and Bobbi fight their way out, with some reluctance from Bobbi. May immediately calls her out on being gun shy.
Meanwhile with Ward he receives a call from none other than World Security Council member Gideon Malick! Malick appeared in Avengers Assemble as part of the council who were in contact with Nick Fury throughout the movie. Powers Boothe brought some serious gravitas to the episode. I’m already intrigued about what he could bring to the table. He instantly intimidated me more than Ward and I feel he could be real player to contend with. My initial thought was that he was going to become an enemy of Ward to protect little Werner Von Strucker who went in search of help from Malick as he feared Ward’s retaliation for botching the killing of Andrew. But Malick once again showed how ruthless HYDRA really are as he ‘sacrifice(s) a player to save the game’.
Using the information found in Strucker’s safety deposit box, May and Morse (I’m using this always now) head to Lisbon to locate Werner. Unfortunately for our agents HYDRA are already present and torturing Strucker. Here Bobbi finally gets her first piece of real combat and nails it; she takes on Kebo himself and despite being nearly drowned in a swimming pool she manages to overpower him and eliminate him in awesome fashion. It’s so good to have Adrienne Palicki back on the action scenes. Meanwhile inside May unties Strucker and as he’s bleeding out May tries to gain a location for Ward from him but rather than disclose Ward’s whereabouts he drops the bomb that Andrew is in fact Lash. We see the inside of the shop from Strucker’s point of view and witness Andrew transform into the large creature. This changes everything; is Andrew infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to gain access to Inhumans? Or does he have no control over when he turns and what he does? I’m sure we’ll get many answers next week. Regardless I think it was a solid twist. I know people will have guessed already but when you have a character like this with a secret identity the longer you leave it the easier it is to narrow down so although Lash’s identity was revealed quite quickly I still believe we have a lot of material to cover.
This week we got to see where Rosalind eats and sleeps courtesy of Coulson’s insistence on accompanying her to her lavish apartment after she receives news of a break-in. When Coulson started laying down his suspicions about Rosalind in the following scene, about how she was playing him from the beginning the writers presented an excellent dilemma for the viewers. I was torn between believing Coulson and hating Rosalind while on the other hand really worrying about how Coulson’s words might affect her if Rosalind was being genuine. She dumped their food in the bin and offered to take Coulson to her facility at once. She seemed hurt. All in all I’m glad by the end of the episode we have a clearer picture of who Rosalind is and what her motives are. Now I feel I can fully invest in her and Coulson’s relationship without being constantly worried she’ll double-cross him (and me!) Of course there’s no guarantee that Rosalind was telling the truth tonight but I’m going with it for now.
Elsewhere Mack, Daisy and Hunter follow a lead on Banks (the very villainy looking guy who hangs with Rosalind that I mentioned two weeks ago.) It felt a bit too easy to have Banks turn out to be Lash but the scenes were so enjoyable it totally didn’t matter; this trio’s chemistry on-screen worked amazingly. I did start to panic when Hunter left the van, bandana over his mouth but to be fair, he had a solid plan. And it worked. Although Banks was not Lash at least it narrowed their search and via Banks’ phone they gleaned a message leading them to Endotex Labs, the ATCU facility that Coulson happened to be visiting at the moment with Rosalind. Here Daisy reveals a gadget that she took from the lab that Fitz had deemed not ready for the field but Daisy couldn’t resist. She uses the small Dwarf to fly into the facility where she witnesses an Inhuman in some sort of stasis being transported in a container. Admittedly it looks bad and what looks worse is Coulson and Rosalind both standing, watching. Of course we as an audience get to dive into the dialogue and see that Rosalind does have some genuine reasons and motivations for her actions. She talks about how she lost her husband some years ago to cancer and how she wishes she could have put him in a medical induced coma while she found a cure for him. That is how she views her actions against the Inhumans; she sees them as people suffering an illness. My main issue with this is that no one is asking the Inhumans. Some probably are eager to be ‘cured’, to get back to their normal lives but it’s not all as simple as that and some just want to be left alone (Lincoln for example). It’s a start and I feel our first honest look at the ATCU’s inner-workings. My only concern is the wedge this is putting between Coulson and Daisy. I just hope they sit down and talk before anyone does anything rash! Although I can now see where Rosalind is coming from I can’t see Daisy being as responsive.
This week went back to the usual formula and I really feel this show has greatly improved on juggling its multiple storylines. This week I was genuinely touched by some scenes and I had a few audible laughs too. The show is usually charming but this week there was some solid humour, mainly from Mack, Daisy and Hunter. I loved Daisy and Mack as a duo but I really didn’t expect Hunter to add such a spark to the group. Andrew’s reveal as Lash poses some major questions and great possibilities for the show along with sparking some great character work for May I’m sure. Let’s hope the show keeps this balance between action, comedy and nuance and we could be in for something truly great.
Danny Hale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=W04aXcyQ0NQ
