Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 episodes 8-9 review: Many Heads, One Tale/Closure

We rejoin Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as things escalate even further

Many Heads, One Tail

And it all comes back to HYDRA, in the end

So, with only 2 episodes left of the season, we need to start interlinking these seemingly separate plot threads. Which means my prediction is right about the secret organisation having ties to HYDRA, turns out it’s a version of HYDRA that pre-dates its supposed founding during WWII. I’m honestly fine with that, between the ATCU, SHIELD and HYDRA we have more than enough secret organisations in the mix

Speaking of the ATCU, in this episode Coulson uses the fact he has Rosiland’s trust to infilitrate the ATCU using the least convincing IT guy ever. Hunter is not good at undercover plus he’s more or less known to Rosiland, might’ve been better to choose one of your dozens of extras you suddenly have. Most of them have no role in the operation at all.

So, flirting, flirting, a bit more flirting the and the realisation that whilst there might have been a spark between them the moment Rosiland mentioned TAHITI back in episode 1, he suspected she either had ties to SHIELD or HYDRA. As it turns out, she’s a pawn in the games of Gideon Malick, played by Powers Boothe, making his triumphant return from the Avengers movie and of course he’s an agent of HYDRA.

So Booby discovers that they’re giving their staff mandatory supplements in order to try and bring out as many inhumans as possible. The plan, create an inhuman army for the first prisoner to be sent through. I kinda like that Rosiland wasn’t in the know. You know I was kinda disappointed to find out about her HYDRA ties given they built up making me want to like her, so I was glad they rectified that

OK, you all know what’s coming. Fitz and Simmons finally kiss each other

Simmons finally lashes at Fitz, she was expecting him to get angry at her but instead he’s being as perfect as you could want of a guy, probably increasing her guilt at her relationship with Will. Fitz is not angry at villains, he’s angry that circumstances/plot always seems to drive them apart or as Fitz says ‘they’re cursed.’ The idea of Fitz not being good enough for her, which is how they claim he feels about it, it rings false to me because this arc already happened last season and f*ck if he isn’t one of the smartest men on the planet, even with the (less apparent this season) brain trauma. And, lest we forget, he dived through the portal to save her. So whilst they do kiss, all it not well in that camp

Speaking of plots we’ve already seen. May’s feeling guilty about Andrew and makes a formal apology to Lincoln, who did jack sh*t in this episode. The problem with HYDRA being a non-threat thus far is you have limited capabilities to put Daisy and Lincoln in the action, where they belong. But with the cliff-hanger this episode delivered, let’s see…

And yes, Ward… So he was after some ultimate weapon in a Strucker vault. To get it he performs violent torture, dooms a plane of 200-odd passengers heading for Russia (Too soon?) and somehow carves through a significant amount of concrete. His reward, he gets to go after Daisy, again. It all comes full circle in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Rating 8/10

Closure

OK, I guess my theory from the last episode was kinda wrong, maybe. It seems they can open the portal they just needed Fitz or Simmons to use their knowledge (Fitz’s is second hand) to determine where the portal opens

OK, let’s break down today’s episode, Rosiland’s death and I know this is a big spoiler but it happens within the first 5 minutes. I’m sorry, I know I was meant to feel bad for Coulson, but the timing was so on the nose it just made me laugh. It’s too cliché for its own good, even for a show that hasn’t taken itself entirely seriously.

So, the story goeth thusly: After Rosiland’s death, Coulson’s on the warpath but his recklessness gets out of hand when Fitz and Simmons are captured. Coulson is prepared to cross some major lines in order to stop him

Thomas Ward, the black sheep of the Ward in that he’s not a psychopath more a scared man-child. I honestly thought the whole Well incident was that he drowned as in dead, kaput, no longer breathing or functioning etc. So exactly what was Ward’s trauma. That he hurt someone? Seems kinda low for me.

Still it does highlight the biggest issue with Ward. Again and again and again and again and again and again and you get the idea, he refuses to take responsibility for his actions, always blaming someone else for them and this cannot go on forever. Eventually he’ll either have to face up for his actions or he’ll be dead. Those are the only options for him and I think those hoping he’d go on a redemption arc, it’s far too late now. It would be a disservice to his character now

Compared to the final 3 or so minutes the build-up was kinda slow, but I do understand the need to lay groundwork as the arcs of the current series all come into play. We see Ward have inhuman allies, finally. And that’s largely thanks to Malick.

Malick in many ways shows us that Ward is not the leader he thinks he is; he can’t be until he’s willing to accept responsibility for his actions. Even when Ward says he won’t be manipulated, he ends up being manipulated just to have a sense of purpose. I can’t help but feel he’s a dead man walking though. They’ve said that Ward is the main villain of the season and they haven’t established any others (Lash notwithstanding but there are reasons why he’s not the main villain of this run) and that really only leaves him to be the closure we get and if the mid-season finale of season 1 showed us anything, it’s that they will leave us with some closure.

OK, 2 more paragraphs. Fitz and Simmons’ devotion was made absolute today, as if it wasn’t already as Fitz showed another bout of self-sacrifice for Simmons. Whether or not Will will be rescued remains to be seen as part of this particular assault.

Oh my god that finale. We finally have the secret warriors, yay! But more importantly, Coulson jumped from a plane into the portal. Wow! Just wow!

Rating 9/10

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