Matthew Spencer-Skeen reviews the fifteenth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2…
I think one word properly surmises all my feelings about this week’s S.H.I.E.L.D. episode. Finally. Finally, the showrunners are getting the show back onto a way more interesting track. For those who read my review last week they’ll know I was getting a little antsy about the number of storylines the show was trying to juggle. This week put the show back on the straight and narrow.
The episode gets into gear quickly, giving us flashbacks to Bobbi, Mack and Agent Gonzalez on the day that S.H.I.E.L.D. fell to Hydra and shows us throughout the episode how the other S.H.I.E.L.D. was formed and what exactly their beef with Coulson is (being Nick Fury’s appointed successor you’d think all would fall in line but apparently not).
Coulson and crew are already onto Mack and Bobbi with the episode quickly escalating into a S.H.I.E.L.D. on S.H.I.E.L.D. (non-lethal) firefight. I’m starting to like where this arc has taken the different characters, although people betraying each other and others working on secret missions does get a bit tiring.
The most interesting part of this episode was Skye, a sentence that would not have been uttered in any of Season 1, as we start to see her gain some semblance of control of her shaking powers after a visit from our favourite no eyed Inhuman Gordon. We finally got a real good look at this character who has been teased so much since the mid-season finale. It’s looking like a real strong character to go along with his awesome teleporting abilities.
When the other S.H.I.E.L.D. with Bobbi and Agent Calderon (who I seem to think only ever plays over reactionary douches) try to hunt down Skye at the safe house and Calderon takes a pop at her we get to see Skye really unleash some power, showing some more budget spending on special effects than we saw all of season 1, before she disappears off to join her Inhuman buddies at some sort of powerful people training camp.
What really grabbed me about this episode is I really have no idea how this is going to play out. With the betrayals and people having such different views its difficult for me to imagine that the 2 S.H.I.E.L.D.’s come together, even though that’s clearly what should happen. Of course with the Inhuman threat out there now and becoming more known things are starting to gain steam for this half of the series. I hope that the show runners are able to return the show to the heights of the first half of the season and will keep me guessing throughout.
Matthew Spencer-Skeen – Follow me on Twitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ONsp_bmDYXc&list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published April 1, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
