Matthew Spencer-Skeen reviews the tenth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2…
As Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D reached its midseason finale point, I found myself comparing this season with the last at their respective midway points. I think, in spite of its now far lower viewer ratings, this season has taken the show forward leaps and bounds. It feels as if there is so much more purpose to this season than anything that happened before The Winter Soldier tie in. I think this episode did the best of any this season to simultaneously answer a few lingering questions, whilst also posing even more so that I want to see where they go next.
The episode picks up where, 9 left us with our Agents posed to go into the underground city and trying to reach it before Hydra can release the weapon within. With Skye and Raina in Hydra’s custody this has obviously added some urgency. Skye gets her reunion with her deranged father, who has been played spectacularly by Kyle MacLachlan. His performance has been one of the few things keeping me interested in Skye’s story line other than her Kree/Inhuman potential. Whilst trying to stop Whitehall/Reinhardt, Agents Tripp and Fitz/Simmons plan to blow the city up to stop the consequences of getting The Diviner to the city’s temple.
Without a doubt this has been the best episode to date, bringing together several of the smaller storylines along with the big boom. The ending as I said poses many new questions, without fully answering those we had. It appears S.H.I.E.L.D will have more than just Hydra and it’s many heads to deal with in the latter half of the season.
I’m hoping this episode also gave Ward the jolt back to being truly on the dark side of things, he’s infinitely more fun as evil rather than conflicted. The new mercenary characters of Hunter and Mockingbird get little to do here, which is a shame as they are both more interesting than the Koenig’s or Agent Tripp who has been getting more screen time, but were far less interesting.
All in all this season felt like it was building up to this point, which is more than the first half of the first season could say. Marvel have given us something satisfying to chew on whilst they take a hiatus with Agent Carter. I’m looking forward to what tasty new morsels they can offer us next year.
Matthew Spencer-Skeen – Follow me on Twitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E&feature=player_embedded&v=zzYUW1bfw34
Originally published December 10, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
