Last week’s lull leads to this week’s blowout! Much like the B-Lister’s fight a few episodes ago this one provides the mini-Marvel movie experience. The plot is a bit jumbled, again, it’s hard to find the various and elusive A and B plot’s and instead we get several equally important plot lines. Let’s jump right into them. The plot that sort of winds itself throughout is the flashback to the fall of SHIELD that sees the return of Lucy Lawless. Not only do we get to see more of Lucy’s character, whom I liked quite a bit in her brief cameo early on, but we get to see her being much more badass than I remember in her one or two episode stint. I’m pretty sure she was just in the premiere and while she did have her guns a-blazing moment she manages to really settle into the role of badass here knifing gun wielding Hydra scum. The basis of this flashback is to show the creation of ‘Real SHIELD’. It’s kind of hard for me to get into this whole ‘Real SHIELD’ thing mostly because they seem to be a bunch of ignorant hypocrites.
SHIELD is too shady so they solve that by hiding in the shadows. SHIELD is too deceptive so they solve that by using spies and lying. SHIELD is too aggressive so they gas their own people and invade their own installation. The hardest selling point though is the near racist belief that anyone different than us is ‘dangerous’ and that Coulson is an unworthy leader because he has ‘alien blood’. I don’t like this group of people and it sours me on Mockingbird and Mack a little. I just hope they come around by the end of the season and continue into next season because I like both characters. I kind of just want them to resolve this whole ‘Real SHIELD’ thing as fast as possible and focus on some other stuff. But the flashback provides a lot of good action that highlights Lucy Lawless and Mockingbird’s abilities as agents. I would also like to point out that unlike Arrow, which has over used its flashback device, this flashback felt more effective and enhanced the story. There was also a minimum of stupid wigs. I liked the flashback while still not being a fan of the ‘Real SHIELD’ angle which, in my opinion, makes this a very effective flashback.
One of the present day plots is Coulson confronting Mack about the scanner he put in mini-Lola. It’s a pretty intense scene of verbal jousting as Coulson drops hints before finally coming out and voicing his suspicion. When the plot becomes clear we get a really great fight between May and Mockingbird. I’ve got to say I really look forward to the May fights. She gets a couple of really great fights a season and when they put her against a worthy opponent like Mockingbird you get a pretty good show. I just wait for that moment of May kicking ass and you wouldn’t normally see two "faces" like May and Mockingbird square off so I marked out at it. If I may drop some more wrestling terms I felt they were able to have these two "faces" work each other, but still have each retain their heat. Which means they had the fight but there was no clear winner so they can both continue to be badasses without losing anything.
The final plot was Skye hanging out in the Retreat, or, as they call it as some point, The House That Banner Built. They kind of hint at this when Skye removes some fake wood paneling to reveal a Hulk sized fist print in the metal SHIELD retaining wall. I think they are supposed to be some kind of Vibranium but I thought that metal was supposed to be precious so maybe it’s some kind of fake Vibranium. Anyways it was at this point I realized, "Hey, that looks an awful lot like the cabin at the end of Incredible Hulk.” And then I high fived myself. I’m a sucker for stuff like that.
Skye’s plot is the least action packed but probably has the most character development. Gordon, the no-eyes teleporter, shows up and talks to Skye about her powers and the Inhumans. After some discussion she decides to not go with him, but when ‘Real SHIELD’ shows up and they try to fucking shoot her(!) after being told to use ICE’ers she has a power freakout that’s quite visually impressive. She then calls Gordon to come get her and they hug it out as they escape. I still really hope they drop a bomb and reveal Black Bolt, even if it was clearly shot somewhere else and they just cut to him alone with no interaction. Or Medusa. If they do I will freak out. If they don’t then I hope we get some interaction with Age of Ultron. If they do both I’ll be the happiest Marvel fan ever.
Sorry for the in depth plot reveal but I’m hyped about this show and I want to talk about it like a 5th grader who’s just seen an action movie. This show just does it for me and I totally miss any flaws that it might have. The action had me at the edge of my seat, the character moments had me looking forward to more character development and most importantly it left me wanting to see the next episode. I don’t always feel that way with the other shows. Like Flash lately, I’m not left wanting to see the next episode. Same with Arrow, a show that, in its first season, excelled at dropping a compelling cliffhanger at the end of every single episode. This show though, this show I can’t wait until the next week. I greedily and hungrily consume every episode the moment it comes out and then I anxiously await the next one. If you can incite that kind of reaction in me then I can forgive a lot of sins. That’s a pass in the ‘Pass/Fail’ category, then it’s just a matter of how much it succeeds and, to me, this really succeeds.
Score: 4/5
Marvel’s Agents of Shield 2.15