Written by: Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen
Directed by: Vincent Misiano
Plot: Coulson and his team find themselves without anyone they can trust, only to discover that they are trapped with a traitor in their midst.
Review: HOLY CRAP!!!
Ok…ok…ok…so…I straight up did NOT foresee this episode going down the way it did.
First off…sorry about the last weeks April Fool’s Day prank review.
But no joke, this is one of the shows best episodes by far.
Thanks to what happened in the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, this weeks episode has got an amazing sense of urgency that it’s never had before.
This episode finally gels the elements that I think this series should have had from the start.
We got moments of fun comic book stuff (Coulson going all Star Wars on us by shooting down the Drones. I also loved his delivery of “Booya”), GREAT spy stuff (Who’s double crossing who? Who can we trust?), great action (Ward’s hallway fight and Coulson and May’s fight with Garrett and his Hydra troops were some of the best shot and choreographed in the entire series.) strong dialogue with that element of wit that we love so much in the Marvel movies, and great character beats. Seeing Fitz cry while realizing his whole world is turning upside down was incredibly powerful.
Also, finally, we can actually see how the movies affects the show and vice versa. It’s interesting to see that Captain America: The Winter Soldier can sorta be seen as PART 2 “The Fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and this episode as Part 3. Part of me wishes that we got more elements from the film sneak it’s way here (POSSIBLE WINTER SOLDIER SPOILERS: Like maybe hearing Caps speech from the movie. Though…it’s possible for that to be in next weeks episode.)
Also, something good about Hydra being S.H.I.E.L.D.’s main bad guys now. All is right in the world for this comic geek to know that it’s S.H.I.E.L.D. VS Hydra for the foreseeable future of this show.
Was anyone not shocked that Garrett was a Hydra agent? Personally, I’m disappointed to find out he’s the clairvoyant. I read Devin Faraci’s theory on his site and I love his answer much more. Lots of love goes out to Bill Paxton this week. I was bummed to realize that he’s Hydra, mostly because I wanted to have him stay on the show as one of the good guys. He’s such a great presence in his episodes and he was a joy to watch. That being said, he did get to say the shows first “HAIL HYDRA”, and his delivery was spot on.
Being the guy who analyses everything, I started seeing the warning flags when Skye and Ward’s romance finally started to go full steam. I mostly assumed Ward was going to die…until the scene in which Ward volunteers to go with Agent Hand to detain Garrett. I soon started to come up another theory…a theory that proved to be true.
I don’t know how fans are going to take Ward being a Hydra agent, and the fact that he killed Agent Hand so cold proves that side of him isn’t something that he has a hard time dealing with…but it’s his feelings for Coulson’s team, and his feelings on Skye, that will be the conflict. These next five episodes are going to be rough, and that gives plenty of time to see if Ward can even possibly redeem himself….if he even plans to redeem himself at all.
That’s another thing that I’m kinda excited about. We have five more episodes to go, which means the series can really play with this new status quo for a bit longer. Knowing that we won’t get another Earth based Marvel movie till next year (Remember, Guardians of the Galaxy is all space and stuff.) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be the only place to see how things are going to be like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The show has truly become the series I’ve been wanting it to be for the last 17 episodes; exciting, fun, and well made. I can’t wait for the next episode.
Oh…and seeing THIS at the end of the episode, gave me chills….
