Danny Hale reviews Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 Episode 4 – Devils You Know…
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ups the ante again and delivers another thrilling hour of television. This week we saw a familiar face in Alisha one of the Inhumans from last season. Her most notable scene being her fight with Daisy in last year’s finale where her multiplying powers were displayed in all their glory. We are introduced briefly to two of her fellow Inhumans and we promptly witness all three enhanced beings being murdered by Lash, our previously seen big beastie. As Alisha had apparently sent in a copy of herself to her friend’s apartment (while working for Coulson it seems!) it appears the real Alisha is still alive and well albeit visibly affected by the whole ordeal. Having her duplicate’s deaths have such an alarming impact on Alisha herself adds some much needed weight to a previously minor character.
Mack and Daisy in hot pursuit of Lash shortly thereafter find themselves face to face with the ATCU . . . and Coulson. They’re here to help apparently. Maybe if Rosalind would get rid of the extremely gruff and all round ‘bad-guy’ looking soldier that seems to hang by her at all times I would trust the ATCU a bit more but as it stands I’ve just warmed to Rosalind slightly while really having no clue about the ATCU or their true motives. As we get more scenes with Coulson and Rosalind however it appears their partnership is difficult at best; while verbally battling it out they both eventually secure a lead but it is far from a harmonious pairing. With Daisy’s help they trace an email containing a virus sent out to Inhumans back to what appears to be a generic IT guy named Dwight Frye. The virus was then being used by Lash to locate Inhumans to eradicate. I was so happy to see Daisy use her hacking skills again; Daisy’s hacking could have faded away with the name Skye but it was nice to see that side of her is not forgotten. Daisy’s results also raised some concerns for her; namely given that Frye was a government employee then surely the ATCU should have found him first? She proposes the ATCU could be the one giving the orders and also addresses Coulson and Rosalind’s flirtations.
Deciding to work together, Daisy, Mack, Coulson and the ATCU head to Frye’s apartment where they discover his fun-tastic power of intense migraines and rashes whenever he comes close to another Inhuman. Daisy is promptly sent outside and with a little help from his new hand Coulson manages to squeeze a confession out of Frye. He has been working with Lash as every Inhuman the beast murders lessens Frye’s pain. This was a great moment because it completely changed how I viewed Lash; I had him as a mindless assassin but Frye goes on to describe him as just a ‘guy trying to do the right thing.’ Now I have all mixed feelings about him, which is a great, great thing.
Afterwards Mack and Daisy accompany the ATCU in the back of an armoured van as they escort Frye to a holding facility unfortunately Lash totals the truck and kills Frye. Next he looks at Daisy and moves on. It’s not too clear if he knows Daisy is an Inhuman or not. Did he spare her? Next we see something really interesting; Daisy can still spy Lash’s shadow on an adjacent wall as he walks away only to morph into human form. This creates massive possibilities; as Daisy puts it, ‘he could be anybody’.
Meanwhile with Hunter and May things have gotten heated; Hunter’s personal interest in killing Ward is taking over and clouding his judgments. He’s dismissing the possible loss of innocent lives and almost rushing the task lest Bobbi get back in the field. May thus returns to HQ and it was great to see her and Coulson on screen together again; I always feel we get our most honest look at these two when they are alone together. We also got a brief exchange between Andrew and May which shed some more vague light on their split. Despite what we knew it seems Andrew is still interested in making things work. Things then kicked off with Hunter far quicker than I thought; within minutes he was face to face with Ward! It was a great moment despite happening far earlier than I expected and Ward’s face when he realised May was there too was everything to me. But then Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did it again; Ward’s contingency plan to have Hunter and May back off or he’ll have Andrew killed was horrendous to watch.
This show has spent a lot of time building May’s character so I really didn’t know what she was going to do here. She can be so cold and has shown time and again that she is willing to make the hard decision but in her own words, ‘it’s Andrew’. Sadly not even May tearing up could stop Hunter this late in the game so he charged forwards, managing to get a bullet in Ward’s back at least. The following shot of a body lying in blood, Andrew’s phone ringing out as May tries to contact him and Werner Von Strucker torching the building before diving behind a car was tough to watch. I felt a massive surge of hatred towards the smug little creep here so kudos to Spencer Treat Clark who plays him I guess. We only saw the legs of the body so I can hope Andrew still lives! Right? Either way this has created a fascinating dynamic between Hunter and May and I think we can be guaranteed that May will get to pound the life out of Werner and Ward further down the line.
The episode closed with Fitz and Simmons, Elizabeth Henstridge once again slaying the material here. Simmons, what happened to you?! As it turns out it seems Simmons is ready to reveal all . . . next week. Those of you that haven’t watched the promo for the next episode, check it out, it looks great. I can’t wait; this was another very strong week for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Keep ‘em coming.
Danny Hale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=m8ExzVWul3I
Originally published October 23, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
