AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 3 Episode 3: Trouble in Paradise


Continuing with its strong start, AGENTS OF SHIELD is moving this season’s story right along. It’s also made the smart decision of leaving some of the main characters out of the loop, instead of trying to force them into every episode.

Like last week there was three story lines. There was: Simmons back from the planet afar, May and Hunter continuing their pursuit of Ward and Mack and Daisy trying to bring in Lincoln. In what’s becoming more of SHIELD’s style, all of the stories ended rather dramatically. No longer is everything wrapping up in a nice little bow.

No, instead there are things going on like Simmons’ reaction to being back on Earth. Naturally there would be some side effects and those are explained, somewhat, in the beginning of the episode. Gravity was heavier on that planet, her respiratory system is scratched – no doubt from all the sand she was breathing in – and she was covered in various scratches and other wounds. Beyond that, she’s extremely sensitive to certain sounds. She reacted very badly to cellphones going off and other types of vibrations.

And all that didn’t stop dear old Fitz from trying to help her though. He’s finally got her back in his life and he desperately wants things to be normal again. In something of a reverse of last season’s plotlines, Fitz is the one caring for Simmons’ trauma. It’s sweet to see him be so caring and I’m glad they’re not letting Simmons recover so quickly. She was gone for months and that’s clearly going to leave some mental scarring. That fact that she has to go back is curious, though it felt a tad like LOST; since it is the same network and all.

Why would she have to go back? Is there something there she was working on? Someone she was trying to save? Does it have to do with what was chasing her? Or, possibly the saddest of reasons, she feels more attached to that planet than Earth. There might be a bit of Stockholm syndrome going on.

There was a lot going on with the Inhumans as well. Lincoln has been suspicious of SHIELD for a while now. Since everything went to Hell at the end of Season 2, he's been hesitant to work with anyone. He wanted his own life. But here he is on the run from the ACTU. So the fact that Daisy and Mack are headed to the rescue kind of makes sense.

At the same time, Coulson is dealing with the head of the ACTU, Rosalind. Coulson did a ton of stuff in this episode. From placing the tracker in Lincoln from the pilot, to handing him over to the ACTU, to saving Daisy by aligning SHIELD with the ACTU. It really cements his position as a leader and as someone who can see the bigger picture no matter how many times Daisy whines at him.

I’d like to briefly mention the forced romantic interaction between Daisy and Lincoln. Not only was it cliché, but the two don’t really have any chemistry. I hope it isn’t something that develops further. It’s something that’s hard to care about. Speaking of clichés, the whole thing with Lincoln’s friend, who discovers he’s an alien and calls the cops on him, was a really boring plot device. At the very least Lincoln wasn’t able to save his friend. Therefore the understanding the two would come to didn’t need to happen.

Finally we have May and Hunter. Their storyline was fairly simple. They needed to get into Hydra. Thankfully, Hunter had a buddy who could get them. Hunter only needed to survive a round in fight club. I’ll note briefly that the bit with the subtitled accents was hilarious. I got a big kick out of that.

The storyline ended a bit oddly. I wasn’t expecting Hunter to kill Spud in the fight. It makes sense that he’d have to, but I also wondered why he didn’t use the brass knuckles in the first place? Did he know that if he used them then he’d wind up killing Spud? I just wonder why you’d let yourself get nearly beaten to death before winning the fight. Either way, it was bizarre to see Hunter covered in so much blood. This show really isn’t pulling its punches anymore.

It seems that next week we’re going to get a better look at Lash and what his deal is. My hope is we’re going to start to see the formation of the end goals for this season. Or at the very least the first half.

Written by Peter Freeman, AGENTS OF SHIELD Beat Writer