Anghus Houvouras reviews the fourteenth episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D…
They should have called this episode ‘Course Correction’. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has suffered something of an identity crisis. Since the shows big premiere, fans have become disenfranchised with the show citing its lack of big thrills and a bland, grating cast as reasons they’ve started jumping ship. The latest episode ‘Family Matters’ is another attempt to realign the flight path of the struggling series.
I’ve been one of the most staunch defenders of the show, though even I’m not daft enough to deny some of the more valid criticisms. Marvel has taken the mid-season break to try and inject the show with some new life. The reveal of Deathlok in the last episode was a big robotic step for the series, finally showing fans that there are some comic book thrills in store for the show. It’s been slow, but the show is starting to become more connected to the larger Marvel Universe. Family Matters is another step towards the more bombastic, anything can happen Marvel world fans are clamoring for.
To bring you up to speed: Skye’s been shot and is dying slowly. The evil billionaire Ian Quinn is in custody. Agent Coulson will do anything to save Skye as he feels directly responsible for her fate. The prognosis is bad, and the only way to save her may be returning to the facility where Coulson was miraculously resurrected. The team decides to break a few rules and disobey some orders to make this happen. When they go off the grid they’re confronted by another veteran S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Garret (Bill Paxton) who boards the plane and decides to help Coulson save Skye.
Their journey takes them to a secret World War II era bunker turned base referred to as ‘The Guest House’ where a miracle drug may exist. When they arrive Coulson realizes it is indeed the place where his reconstruction happened. They recover the drug, and Coulson learns a terrible secret about the nature of his miracle cure: It’s a compound derived from what looks to be a certain blue-skinned alien being (I’m guessing a Kree). Once he realizes the mad science at play, he tries to stop Simmons from injecting Skye, but its too late. The serum works and ‘near death Skye’ becomes ‘stable condition Skye’.
Family Matters is a solid episode with a fantastic final 10 minutes. The entire episode was enhanced greatly by two things: Bill Paxton and a catatonic Skye. I don’t think I realized how much of a detriment she is to the show until I got to watch an episode where she was sidelined. Paxton is fantastic. The kind of gritty, no nonsense guy you’d expect to see in S.H.I.E.L.D. His Agent Garrett was a breath of fresh air and a nice foil to the buttoned up neurosis of Phil Coulson. The good news is that he’s slated to come back for another three episodes.
If the rest of the season can live up to the last two episodes, it’s going to be a fun final sprint to the finish line. Jaimie Alexander pops up as Lady Sif in next week’s episode, plus the return of Deathlok and the reveal of the identity of the Clairvoyant is enough to keep me interested through the conclusion of season one.
The only thing that left me scratching my head at the end of the episode was the fact that there were two guards at this base who basically didn’t make it out alive. We don’t know who the base belongs to or whether or not these guys are affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D. or anyone else, and Coulson goes in with guns blazing and basically murders two guys to help save Skye. That struck me as odd.
Another good episode with moments of greatness. Let’s hope this upward trend continues next week.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon.
Originally published March 5, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
