Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 episodes 14-16 review

Watchdogs

I have no jokes to start this one off, so here’s a fluffy kitten instead

Structurally, there’s not much wrong with this episode. It introduce’s Mack’s brother, an organisation known as the Watchdogs, reintroduces us to that guy I can’t remember from season 1 (probably), develops Daisy’s aggressiveness and potential liability to the team she may become later on, has development for Lincoln as he tries to play out being an agent, has a nice sub-plot with May and Simmons planning against Lash and both confronting their own guilt about him.

That being said, the big problem with this episode is the framing for all this is not very interesting. Despite the first scene with them blowing up an ATCU building, the Watchdogs are not especially threatening. This is particularly shown when they go after Mack because of plot convenience and stupidity and they’re taken down by a guy with a gunshot wound to a shoulder and his completely ineffectual brother.

The fact that they’re lead by that Agent Blake guy is fine I just wish they’d done something to remind us who the frickin' heck he is. I get that he got injured sometime before the outing of HYDRA, I’ll be damned if I can remember the episode in question. Maybe I should read my own retrospective or something

So, Mack’s brother, Mackensie (Mack’s real name is Alfie – go figure) it’s actually quite rare to look at someone’s personal life within the team, we only got that brief bit with May and Andrew near the beginning of the season, and that was just as foreshadowing for later. The problem is that this plot-line is so cliché. Arrow and the Flash used this trope too during the early seasons (before literally everyone found out their respective secrets) and it’s a trope I applauded SHIELD for avoiding. At the very least, it doesn’t look like we’re going to be revisiting it any time soon since Mackensie does not know.

Daisy’s journey is somewhat curious to me; it’s been building but at the same time I can’t but feel that this is very out of character for her. She’s always been strong-headed and stubborn and I can imagine her interrogative methods but for someone who’s longed for inclusion she’s doing a spectacular job alienating herself. Her ‘them or us’ attitude is clearly going to have consequences later down the line. Having said that the line with aggressive interrogation is kind of a moot point since she never actually hurt the guy she interrogated.

Going against direct orders and nearly getting Fitz killed in the process doesn’t seem to have affected her attitude at all.

There are still a number of gaps to fill with Lincoln, but it’s nice to know that he is trying to follow Coulson’s orders, even if he was unsure about the idea of killing anyone – Coulson knew it was a robot the whole time.

Oh and HYDRA has a missile now, this is very much an afterthought.

Rating 6.5/10

Spacetime

You know spacetime really isn’t a word, right? Right?

So, the SHIELD team find out about an inhuman who can show someone their future via physical contact. After someone he touched calls out for Daisy, knowing she was going to come, he makes contact with Daisy and she sees visions which point to something bad going down. Meanwhile, Hive finally makes himself known, taking over a company, presumably to serve towards his own ends whilst offering Mallick the promise of power (as in superhuman power)

This is something I wish the Flash would do more with Vibe, in fact. The fact the visions are not 100% clear, they could show you something but it’s down to interpretation how you plan for it, bearing in mind that planning for it and committing certain actions could cause the events to happen.

And is the case here, despite them trying to avert these events, they come to pass, but the misinterpretations actually work in their favour allowing them to survive the day. It was quite clever really to have Daisy use her (apparently very vivid) memories of the flash to show May how to do it and thus train to combat them. My only question is how they know that events will happen exactly the same now May is the one fighting but semantics.

So… Hive doesn’t really give a sh*t about Mallick, does he. The problem is we still have no idea what he wants so it’s hard to get invested in his plan. At all.

Meanwhile they have the subplot forced into the story to pad out the runtime and ensure May isn’t around for the climax, yes, Lash has returned and it seems his next transformation will likely be his last.

May and Andrew get a chance to reflect and wonder about changing the past in scenes which hold only some dramatic weight. It seems it’s a little late for Simmon’s vaccine as the transformation occurs and Andrew is lost forever. It’s interesting to note he believed he answered a higher calling and wanted to stay with SHIELD under the impression they could help.

I still have to wonder what that means for Lincoln, who Lash has targeted in the past. He was exceptionally bland in this episode. Fitz and Simmons held hands, aww. Erm, I’m kind of running out of subjects now so let’s end this review

It’s a much stronger episode than the last one, but I hope it’s a sign of even better things down the road as HYDRAs game begins to unfolds

Rating 8/10

Paradise Lost

So, 2 episodes ago we had a new female character introduced to the plot, 2 weeks and she’s dead, I can only hope it was worth it. Her character had little meaning in life, let her have something in death.

So, Paradise Lost explores the origins of Gideon Mallick, gives us more info about Hive, delves further into Lincoln’s backstory, introduces a Mcguffin item that’ll prove useful later and FINALLY sets up a story for the Secret Warriors to show up next week.

                                                                            

Oh, and Coulson’s feeling kind of down about killing Ward because he did in an act of vengeance or something… Look, you know my feelings on this, sure this kind of killing should have an impact but I’m glad they’re going for a subtler build-up as opposed to having him instantly regret it because it would’ve been really stupid.

Speaking of stupid, Mallick’s blind faith in Hive is being tested, for a man who’s smart, not to mention aware of impending death, doesn’t try to set up some kind of contingency. And now HIVE’s killed his daughter, I hope he does something about it because putting the villains at odds is interesting and at the moment the villains could use a dose of interesting.

Turns out Hive’s agenda for taking over that company is to kill off a load of things and take what he can. Can we talk about Lincoln now? Turns out he was a drunk who damn nearly killed his ex-girlfriend after one of many fights he can barely remember. OK, that’s certainly a start, more of that please

I love how Daisy after nearly getting caught on the first mine just decides to detonate all of them afterwards. Turns out Giddeon’s former henchman can now move human flesh, was that a power upgrade from HIVE or just something he was hiding to lure them into a trap, either way, awesome.

Rating 8/10

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