Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returned last night with “Shadows.” The episode was written by showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen and directed by Vincent Misiano – a familiar name to those who watched the first season. Given that Whedon and Tancharoen penned this episode, I think we can expect that most of the big threads for the season will have their start here. As with the first season, we have some new characters to get to know – both good and bad. But there have also been some real changes to our core team too – and many of those changes are distressing – in a good, angsty, Whedon-universe kind of way, of course!
The episode opens with a flashback to the very beginnings of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Agent Carter (Haley Atwell) and her men, Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough) and Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi) defeat HYDRA and take possession of the first 0-8-4. Dr Whitehall (Reed Diamond) lets us know that the obelisk was thought to be able to defeat death – I think that’s going to be pretty important. He also placed the timing of Agent Carter nicely by informing his underling that the Red Skull was dead – we’ll be sliding in nicely after Captain America: The First Avenger. We see Whitehall show up – strangely young – at the end of the episode, so I wonder if we’ll be seeing him as an important character when Agent Carter premieres. We also get a nod to Stark industries playing with the new tech and being a problem, so no doubt, we’ll be seeing quite a bit of Tony’s father – and maybe a very young Tony himself!
We then flash forward to the present where S.H.I.E.L.D. is once again at the mercy of HYDRA. Unfortunately, this time, they are also enemies of the US government. The premiere features some good fight scenes, snappy dialogue, and the special effects we’ve come to expect. A quick shout out for the great work done with Carl Creel (Brian Patrick Wade). A picture was tweeted from set showing a muscular guy with one blue arm – speculation was that this might have been a Kree – but it seems certain that it was Wade being made up for the big fight scene when his arm is concrete.
I liked the uncertainty of the first scene – it’s impossible to tell who the good guys are and who the bad guys are – it’s a terrific way to demonstrate the world our agents now find themselves in. We quickly learn that Coulson (Clark Gregg) trusts Isabelle “Izzy” Hartley (Lucy Lawless) who is a former agent. Idaho (Wilmer Calderon) and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) are a different story, however, and as mercenaries are really only accepted as part of her team. By the end of the episode, Hunter has a new motivation for helping S.H.I.E.L.D. and finally seeing the big picture – revenge.
Trip (BJ Britt) is always a breath of fresh air. I love his obsession with trying to figure out
exactly what Koenig (Patton Oswalt). He introduces us to Alphonso “Mac” Mackenzie (Henry Simmons), the team’s new mechanic. However, his first question is whether they found any tech, so I have to wonder if he’s the team’s new Fitz (Iain De Caestecker). Given how… fit he is, I hope they don’t keep him locked up in the Playground though!
Speaking of Fitz, Iain De Caestecker delivers a brilliant performance in this episode, and I think breaks all of our hearts as we finally see the effects of Ward’s (Brett Dalton) treachery. This is the first of the episode’s huge surprises. In a move worthy of The Sixth Sense, we don’t learn until the end of the episode that Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) was never actually at Fitz’s side. Where she is and whether she’s abandoned her BFF (or more?) is yet to be learned, though Coulson says at the end of the episode that she left for Fitz’s own good. The interactions are actually beautifully shot. In the very first scene with Fitz and Simmons, Simmons is not in focus and is behind Fitz. She only slowly comes into focus. It seems like she talks to May (Ming-Na Wen) when May comes to the lab, but in fact, Fitz echoes what Simmons says and May really responds only to Fitz. When we see Fitz and Simmons outside the control room, it drives home how on the fringe Fitz really is. There’s a dark moment of humor when Fitz calls Simmons on making a head trauma reference.
It was easy to buy into the deception because the largest part of me wanted to believe Simmons when she told Fitz he was getting better and was almost there – but it’s clear from the devastation on Coulson’s face that Fitz is, in fact, getting worse as he withdraws from everyone except the Simmons that he’s conjured up. Fitz himself is clear headed enough to know what he’s lost which makes it all the more poignant and painful to watch.
Skye (Chloe Bennet) is all grown up and under May’s wing. She clearly misses having access to Coulson, but is now content to be ruled by chain of command. I have to wonder if there is more than too much to do that is making Coulson keep Skye at arm’s length though. We see that he has her on trying to break the alien language – and happily there don’t seem to be any overt problems with either of them over the alien blood coursing through their veins – certainly not that we see in this episode. We do, however, get a glimpse of just how broken Ward is.
Brett Dalton continues to impress as the now un-masked Ward. He’s pretty darn convincing playing a crazy person! I don’t believe that Skye was ever really in love with Ward – and certainly never in the obsessive way he is in love with her. I think that his suicide attempts may eventually garner some sympathy for him – but never the love he craves. Given that Fitz is a constant reminder of what his treachery cost their team, I doubt that anyone on the team will ever really forgive him. Or the fans either. I’m personally still stuck on the fact that Garrett damaged the younger Ward as much as lack of oxygen damaged Fitz, and for that reason, Ward is redeemable. Ward vows to tell Skye only the truth for the rest of his life.
Creel is set up as an on-going problem – much like Deathlok in season one. I thought it was hysterical that as Ward explains to Skye that Creel can absorb any substance and transform the molecules of his body into that substance – and that he enjoys the process – we see turn into… *ahem* … wood! The other big on-going problem is Brigadier General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar). Props to Pasdar for sporting that haircut!
I loved Coulson interrogating Talbot – he does offer to work with Talbot. I’m looking forward to Talbot finally realizing that HYDRA is still a really big problem and that he needs Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. I also loved that they used the interrogation to carry out their ultimate plan. They haven’t evaded Talbot for so long by underestimating him – both his capabilities and his stupidity! I did love Talbot calling the interrogation room their Honeycomb Kill Room though!
We definitely need to see lots of Oswalt and Gregg in scenes together – loved Koenig coaching Coulson’s impersonation of Talbot! The raid itself was as much a mission to get the team’s hands on the cloaking technology they needed as to get the 0-8-4 back. My one big quibble with the episode is that while it’s nice to have the slow-motion hero win, there’s just no way that that soldier could have missed cutting May in half with his machine gun as she rode away on that motorcycle.
May does continue to be her badass self, however. I’m relieved and happy to see that she and Coulson have clearly settled their differences and she’s settled into her role as his right hand. That doesn’t mean she isn’t still watching out for him though – keeping him out of the field and making sure he stays in touch with her – though clearly he’s not that good at it.
And that brings us to the other shocking moment of the episode. Why would Izzy pick up an 0-8-4 with her bare hands? In fact, why open the box at all? I did think that was a bit of a misstep. Regardless, it leads us to the shocking necessity to amputate her arm and then her death! Hunter is going to have to take at least some responsibility for her death as he’s the one who ditches the mission to take Lizzy for help. I’m really going to be disappointed if this is it for Lucy Lawless. She does tell Hunter that she doesn’t want to die – and given what we do know about this 0-8-4 – that it may be able to defeat death – maybe we haven’t seen the last of her.
The episode ends with Coulson dedicating their work to validating the sacrifices of those agents who have laid down their lives for the cause. For all that I’m a pretty positive tv viewer/reviewer, it’s not often that I’m completely willing to trust showrunners to take me where we need to go, but that’s the case with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I was quick – check out my first ever review of the show – to say it was all going to make sense down the road. There’s less mystery in some ways this season, but no less excitement for me to follow where Whedon and Tancharoen are leading us. What did you think of the episode?
