Anghus Houvouras reviews the fifth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2…
Skye is special, damn it.
This is what I’ve been told since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. first premiered last year. Every since Chloe Bennet’s Skye was first introduced on the show, we’ve been made to believe that she is something special. The snappy talking, staple of every Whedon show who was meant to be our guide into the world of S.H.I.E.L.D. But since the show’s meager beginnings, she was an awkwardly shaped piece to the puzzle constantly being shoved into spaces where she just didn’t fit.
Agent Ward had to fall in love with her. Coulson was her father figure. When her hacker skill set got kind of boring, she then became a possible alien with ties to the blue skinned corpse that resuscitated Coulson and turned John Garrett (Bill Paxton) into a scene stealing, mustache twirling villain whose plans for world dominance made little sense.
While I’ve defended Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. since the beginning, advocating to give the show time to find its rhythm, I’m beginning to find myself joining the rousing chorus of detractors who feel Skye is an albatross around the neck of the show.
The fifth episode, “A Hen in the Wolf House”, is another fine example of a good episode weighed down by Skye, which I will now refer to as ‘Skye-nnanigans’. This week, the Skye-nnanians involve her Father’s attempts to reunite his estranged family using the undercover Agent Simmons as bait, which is where the more interesting bits of the show are taking place.
Simmons’ inflitration of Hydra takes an unexpected wrong turn when a mole hunt turns her up as the prime suspect. Their head of security, Bobby Morse (Adrianne Palicki) sees Simmons as high risk asset and easily sees through her charade. This leads to a very tense game of cat and mouse as Simmons’ inexperience in the field becomes a major liability.
There’s so much good in this episode. Coulson is effectively terse. We get a few more scenes with the desperate (and far more interesting) Agent Ward doing his ‘Silence of the Lambs’ routine. Though, technically speaking, he’s still stupidly under Skye’s spell. Nick Blood has, in a manner of three episodes, become the most interesting Agent on the squad. Adriene Palicki is a great addition to the show. S.H.I.E.L.D. needs a bigger cast of characters and a more diverse cast of personalities. Blood and Palicki are a good start to peppering up a cast which is becoming bland.
Most television shows use a typical A,B,&C story structure. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., more often than not, can generate two really compelling stories, but there’s always a clunker. The show never manages to hit all three. There’s always that one awkward piece to the puzzle that never quite fits. The whole ‘Skye’s Father’ angle feels a lot like last year’s John Garrett/Raina alien cure chase. There’s still too much wandering around in the dark.
I understand the theory of episodic television, however, I think S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to wrap up the loose ends of Skye’s father before the season crosses the halfway point. If this is the main storyline for the entire season, my patience may be tested beyond redemption.
Anghus Houvouras is a North Carolina based writer and filmmaker. His latest work, the novel My Career Suicide Note, is available from Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published October 22, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
