Written by: Jeffrey Bell

Directed by: Roxann Dawson

Plot: Agent Coulson and the S.H.I.E.L.D. team try to track down a mysterious woman who has single-handedly committed numerous high-stakes heists. But when the woman’s identity is revealed, a troubling secret stands to ruin Coulson.

Review: Sorry for the lateness on this review folks, wasn’t able to see the episode till tonight.

This week’s episode continues the shows gradual and slow improvements.

This time out, the plot was really engaging with a few nice twists and turns that I honestly didn’t see coming. Skyes theories that it the mysterious rouge agent( Agent Akela Amador played by Pascale Armand)  might have some sort of superpowers might have been laying it on too thick, I still was pretty excited to know what the real answer was. I was digging the use of the team this week, as each member did something useful in the actual plot line.

I LOVED the cold open, what with the crazy red masked folks in Stockholm, and I really like the answer to WHY they were dressed that way.  It was also nice to see that it wasn’t a Skye centered episode this week, but mostly focuses on Agent Coulson (or A.C. as Skye annoyingly tries out in this ep.) I actually liked Ward a bit more in this episode, and his use in the undercover part of the story was a lot of fun. (Though he’s still a NONE Character with no charisma or personality)

I was digging some of the fun super spy like toys in this episode, like  the golf balls that disintegrated to reveal the diamonds.

This had plenty of great bits of humor in this episode; Simmons reactions to Akela sticking the needle in her eye, the trio of Fitz Simmons and Skye’s reaction to Ward’s answer to a  bathroom and, in my opinion, the best joke in the series so far….

Truthfully, I wish that we didn’t have yet ANOTHER character from Coulson’s past be a big deal in a storyline (like in Episode 2), but at least it wasn’t another episode in which Skye has to prove herself. I also wish that they stop referencing the Battle of New York as much as they do as it’s starting to feel like a crutch.

But, like I said earlier, every week this show is slowly getting it’s focus, and bit by bit, it’s getting better…but only by increments.

I’m well aware that many of you have already given up on the series, and I can’t blame you.

But every time I see a new episode and I get a glimmer of something really working, I start to gain a bit of hope that it will get better.

What can I say, I’m an optimist. I’m just going to wait right here and see how this goes, and if you still wanna stick around,  I’ll see ya next week.