Summary: A solid, enjoyable premiere that sets the table for the upcoming season in entertaining style. More ambition and innovation would have elevated this episode even further, but it’s certainly an encouraging beginning to the season that shows a lot of confidence on the part of the writers.
Recap
It’s been three months since SHIELD defeated Jiaying’s rogue faction of Inhumans, and the Terrigen that was seen seeping into fish stocks at the end of the season finale is beginning to have some slightly noticeable effects on some unfortunate Inhuman citizens. One of those newly minted Inhumans is Joey, an ordinary guy who’s gained the power to liquefy metal. On an accidental rampage with his uncontrollable new powers, Joey is confronted by a hostile unit of black ops soldiers led by a mysterious woman, but he’s saved by a group of SHIELD agents led by Daisy ‘not Skye’ Johnson, who’s now mastered her powers.
Meanwhile, in Morocco, Fitz is participating in his own personal James Bond movie as he tracks down a parchment containing key information on the Monolith to a group of extremists. After a tense standoff, Fitz distracts the extremists and escapes the hail of gunfire by car. Back at base, the group splits off – Mack and Daisy head to a hospital where Inhuman Lincoln has been working for some useful advice on how to handle the change, and Coulson and Hunter track the mysterious black ops leader to a subway train for questioning.
Unfortunately, the train was a trap, and the woman, calling herself Rosalind, reveals her escort of black ops agents, pinning down Coulson and Hunter. Rosalind reveals she has knowledge of Coulson’s TAHITI experiences, but it’s the revelation that the black ops soldiers weren’t killing Inhumans that really alarms Coulson.
The real killer reveals himself to Lincoln, Mack and Daisy at the hospital as Lash, an Inhuman with energy powers. The trio attempt to apprehend Lash, but he resists Lincoln and Daisy’s attacks and escapes underground. Lincoln, who’s not as keen on his Inhuman powers as he was before, goes his own way as Mack and Daisy flee the incoming black ops soldiers.
In the episode’s end tag, it’s revealed that Simmons is still very much alive and kicking in a strange new locale where she’s seen running from an unknown hostile force. It’s immediately clear from the sky that wherever Simmons is, it’s definitely not Earth…
Review
After the remarkable upswing in quality in the late parts of season one, Agents of SHIELD has pretty much levelled out. For almost all of season two, SHIELD was a stalwart, cranking out enjoyable episodes on a near-constant basis. This consistency came at the expense of SHIELD rarely scaling the heights that The Flash often reached, but also meant that SHIELD didn’t have nearly as many missteps as most of its comic book brethren – it simply motored along at roughly the same standard from the opener to the finale with only a couple of peaks and troughs along the way.
It’s not surprising, then, that the third season premiere is a rock-solid premiere that efficiently lays the groundwork for the 21 forthcoming episodes but never feels truly inspired. That’s not damning, as this premiere really did bear the hallmarks of a show that’s learned from its mistakes and improved upon them – it’s just that there’s too many niggles here to consider this premiere a truly top-drawer slice of superhero fiction.
One thing that did work extremely well here was the introduction of Inhuman Joey, a deeply confused ordinary guy who woke up with powers he can’t control. Juan Pablo Raba nails this everyman role, creating a relatable and likeable figure that serves as an effective gateway into this season’s exploration of the new Inhumans that are already popping up. Joey’s story does unfortunately taper off once the Lash and ACTU plots start to heat up, but there’s some real potential displayed here for a thoughtful exploration of how gaining superpowers without warning could upend someone’s life completely through. If it’s anything like the brisk, effective work done with Joey in the premiere, then SHIELD is on the right track here.
As for the main roster of SHIELD agents, the changes that have occurred in between seasons have… mixed success. For Daisy, her transformation into a fully-fledged superhero in control of her powers is virtually complete here, and it’s a testament to last year’s strong character development that this new role merely feels like the obvious next step in the character’s progression. Chloe Bennet seems to have settled well into this new role, showing how far she’s come since the slightly patchy performances of early season one. Daisy’s double-act with Mack is a fun one to watch partially because of how unlikely it is – the guy who hates Inhumans paired off with the team’s resident Inhuman – giving their relationship an enjoyable odd-couple vibe that’s aided by the genuinely funny scripting here (the dialogue was fairly poor on the whole, but Daisy and Mack’s scenes managed to deftly avoid the shameless ‘as you know’ dialogue that was frequently seen elsewhere). As for Mack himself: the showrunners seem to be sticking to the snarky, uneasy side of Mack that proved so entertaining in the season two finale, and only lightly dealing with the vaguely unpleasant prejudices that dragged Mack’s character down in parts of season two, which can only be a good thing.
The introduction of Constance Zimmer’s character, Rosalind, is another example of how ‘Laws of Nature’ efficiently introduced ideas without adding anything truly inspiring to them. Part of Coulson’s appeal back in the times where he actually appeared in the MCU movies was his sarcastic, quippy attitude, and SHIELD seems to be doubling down on that with a proper sparring partner for Coulson. The scene on the metro train, which is about 90% sarcastic quips, is enjoyable because Clark Gregg now has an equal to spar with, but SHIELD unfortunately gets too bogged down in congratulating itself for dialogue that’s merely amusing rather than hilarious, creating a sense there was a better, and funnier scene in there somewhere and unfortunately rendering the metro scene a little inadequate. Nonetheless, Rosalind works because she’s not quite as simple as a mere ‘evil mirror’ of Coulson – there’s a more nuanced, subtle lining up of two people with identical goals using entirely different means to achieve the goals, and that juxtaposition is ripe for some intriguing exploration later on down the line. For now, it’s a good start to the ATCU plotline, with the twist that they weren’t actually killing Inhumans hopefully averting the pile-up of villains that occurred midway through season two – SHIELD is at its best when there’s just one or two threats for the team to face, and the dual threats of Lash and Ward’s HYDRA seem perfectly adequate for the time being.
Speaking of Lash, the Inhuman’s introduction is pretty brief here, amounting to a glorified drop-in and a chance for Lash to show off his powers. The battle between Daisy, Lincoln and Lash is enjoyably silly comic book fun, taking three superpowered characters and allowing them to let loose, but it’s let down a little by a conventional set-up and a small scale that gives the distinct impression that SHIELD is holding back on the Lash action for now (which it almost certainly is, but it’d be best if that wasn’t so blatant). It’s simply the typical comic book TV action scene, in which characters do battle in a way that doesn’t need extensive special effects, followed by the villain seemingly escaping into oblivion. In short, it’s a fun introduction to a villain who’s extremely different to the Big Bads we’ve had thus far (every single Big Bad to date has had numerous henchmen as back-up, while Lash seems to be a cut-and-dry lone wolf), but it smacks of reticence to the point where this viewer was left a little dissatisfied. Introducing the Big Bad of such a long season right from the off always has its risks, and it appears that SHIELD might have overplayed its hand here with introducing Lash so early in a relatively underwhelming fashion.
One of the episode’s highlights, undoubtedly, was Fitz’s subplot. Leaving aside the admittedly frustrating inconsistency of turning previously brain-damaged Fitz into an action hero, Fitz’s subplot gives Iain de Caerstacker the chance to really flex his acting muscles in a multitude of ways. Caerstacker has always been one of the most talented actors on the show, and his performance here encompasses a great range of emotions seamlessly – from the steely determination displayed in his confrontations with the extremists to the dumbfounded shock at seeing ‘death’ on the parchment, Caerstacker absolutely nails everything the script throws at him. It’s the final scene, however, when he truly shines – Fitz’s despair at the Obelisk is truly palpable here, with the potential melodrama of such a scene overpowered by the hugely convincing way in which Caerstacker displays Fitz’s heartbreak. It’s performances like these that just about justify inconsistent storytelling like the choice to discard Fitz’s brain damage, making the rushed storytelling to do with seasons appear to be meaningful development that shows just how far the character has come in just one season.
There’s a real sense, however, that SHIELD saved the best til last. The end credits tags are almost always a highlight of the episode, but this week’s tag just about blows every previous attempt out of the water. The revelation that Simmons is alive would have been enough (okay, there was no chance that they’d kill off a series regular who appeared in the publicity, but the point still stands), but the kicker is that she’s clearly been transported to somewhere very unfamiliar indeed. It’s a really exciting scene on its own, and it opens up innumerable story avenues for SHIELD to go down now that alien planets are in play. Is this really the same show that kicked off two years ago as a relatively conventional spy series? Based on this series premiere, it looks like the (alien) sky’s the limit for SHIELD this season.
Odds & Ends
- Bobbi and Hunter are getting re-married, apparently, with Hunter gearing up to go after Ward in revenge for Ward almost getting Bobbi killed last season. While the Bobbi/Hunter subplot feels like a cheap way to replicate the success of the ‘off-screen character break-up’ move that last year’s season premiere did with Fitz and Simmons, Hunter going rogue against Ward should be pretty exciting to see, especially if Bobbi joins in.
- After Coulson’s hand got chopped off last season, it looks like he’s gone for the robotic replacement. Not that they’re reliable, with Coulson having gone through three robotic hands in between seasons. He ought to take tips from Luke Skywalker and get a proper prosthetic one at some point.
- A whole cavalcade of MCU references this week: Sokovia once again pops up, laying the groundwork for that battle’s major role in Captain America: Civil War. The final battles from Thor: The Dark World, The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier are also name-checked by the President in his speech. It’s Coulson’s reference to the Pym Tech incident that’s the most exciting here though, marking the first reference to Ant-Man outside that movie.
- May is out of commission still, having not returned from the vacation she took in the season two finale. She’ll be back next week, but it’s actually surprising how little the show misses her in this episode, with her absence barely remarked upon at all.
- Another ongoing plot this season seems to be the continuous spread of Terrigen, which has infected more sea-life, and is apparently set to infect 100% of all dormant Inhumans on Earth within a year and a half. That’s going to mean a hell of a lot of people running around with powers they can’t control – as this episode showed, one Inhuman was bad enough…
- So, Simmons is being chased by something on that planet, and has probably been on the run for most of her three-month stay. Presumably it’s the natives of whatever planet she’s ended up on, but what natives exactly are they? Kree? Based on the alien race’s strong connection to the Inhumans, it wouldn’t be a surprise.
1 Comment
I thought it was interesting.