"That's Not Her Name."
The Hype
Agent's of Shield seems to be laying all it's cards on the table with season 2. We are definitely getting the groundwork for some big things in the series. Last weeks episode was a little stale but season 2 is still kicking ass overall. I haven't seen any of the news and promos for this episode, the hype for me is its Agents of Shield, and it's finally good.
This episode really cements that thought for me. We start with a very well done and gruesome opening scene. The series is really flourishing with it's new cast and tone. The tension is high from the start with Coulson and Skye's relationship seemingly coming to a boiling point. I'm still wondering where the hell Koenig is, but at the same time the series definitely doesn't need him right now. He was a very refreshing edition last season and i'm sure that's why they brought him back by the finale, maybe they underestimated how much he'd be needed this time around. Fitz makes some real progress and it seems like he may be ready to return to some degree of normalcy, the scene reuniting him with Simmons was handled perfectly, and it left much to be desired (on purpose).
We get our first real screen time with Skye's father, and at first it seemed anti-climatic, but it quickly escalated and with the reveal that he's positively not a normal human it's beyond exiting and a worthy pay off for all this build up. Normally that's all the excitement we can expect from an AOS episode, but this week the surprises keep on coming. Whitehall compares himself to the Red Skull and his pursuit of the Tesseract, hopefully this is meant to confirm that the obelisk is indeed an Infinity Stone. This will add a give Shield a whole new level of relevance and meaning to the MCU.
I use to criticize Shield a lot for not having "balls" as a series and this episode does everything it can to put that opinion to rest. It's extremely refreshing to see an episode that doesn't beat around the bush, but actually tells us what we want to hear and give us some real progress on long unanswered questions. We finally get to see Adrianne Palicki make her debut as Mockingbird, a prominent member of The Avengers. She is absolutely perfect, her performance is top grade and commanding, I could tell immediately she would be a massive asset to the series and she had an instant chemistry with our familiar cast. We get a tense scene between her and Simmons, but best of all her fight scenes could rival the Black Widow herself.
This is Agents of Shield, Hell this is TV at it's finest, there are so many points I didn't touch on, but I could rave about this all night. A fantastic and gripping episode, delivering everything we love about Marvel in a convenient 40 min package. It's dark and thrilling but still has it's funny and charming moments, and I truly don't have a bad thing to say. Plus we're left with a huge cliffhanger, not in the way that it creates a lot of mystery but it signifies a big change in the dynamics of the series.
The Verdict
Agent's of Shield's best episode...EVER
9.2/10