Alright here’s the deal... a lot happened here. I mean, a lot. This was a big episode for only being the fourth in the entire season of AGENTS OF SHIELD. I’m still not sure what the endgame is yet, because we have three very large – very separate – plot lines going on.
To recap: We have Simmons’ journey back to her alien planet. We have Ward/Hydra going on. Finally, we have the Inhumans and the ATCU.
At some point one of these will have to take over as the season’s focus, right? At least in Season 2 we knew that Whitehall was the villain of the first half, the Inhumans were the villain of the second half. Right now I’m still waiting for a bit of clarity.
But moving on to the actual episode. All three of the story lines discussed above were featured. It’s funny to note that Elisha, featured prominently in the teaser for this week’s episode, is in roughly three minutes of the whole episode. She was basically a vessel to help introduce Lash back in the fray. Most of the ACTU storyline was about hunting Lash and figuring out why he’s been killing Inhumans. From the little he spoke of during his time on screen, it sounds like he believes himself to be on a mission. He says that he’s “necessary.” The more interesting discovery is that he’s more like a werewolf, or something. He’s able to transform at will into this beast.
The other interesting aspect was the general relationship growing between Coulson and Rosslyn. The two get on quite well and frankly, they’re a good match for each other. Coulson has grown a bit colder over the course of the show and that’s served him well. Hell, he even choked that Inhuman in order to get him to back down. Rosslyn seems like someone who can go toe-to-toe with Coulson in more ways than one.
Simmons’ storyline didn’t really do a whole lot this episode despite talking up a third of the time. It was a lot her whining and playing coy. I understand the trauma she went through, but I wish we didn’t have to do this dance where she hid stuff from everyone. Thankfully it looks like next week we’ll, more or less, get the full story.
The biggest part of the episode was the assault on Hydra. I didn’t really think they’d get Ward in the end here, but I had hoped. That would have made for a huge ending, but we got something else in exchange. The “death” of Andrew is a big deal… if that’s actually what happened. Although it concerns me we didn’t actually see him dead. We just saw a boot and some blood. Now that could be the show just not wanting to show a bleeding dead body, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he somehow survived.
Even so, the fact that he’s “dead” to everyone else for the time being will still affect May in a pretty big way. She seemed almost willing to shoot Hunter in order to get him to stop. I don’t think Ward would have left Andrew alone if Hunter let him go. But I digress.
I’m curious to see what happens now with May. She didn’t seem like she wanted to come back to SHIELD yet, but maybe this is what brings her in full-time? Or maybe she just beats the crap out of Hunter and leaves for a while again. It’s hard to say with her.
My hope for next week is that the entire episode isn’t taken up by Simmons’ story of what went on when she was away. I’m curious to discover what’s going on there and if it really has any meaning beyond some kind of personal journey. But so much happened in this episode that I would hate to leave things hanging for another week.
Written by Peter Freeman, AGENTS OF SHIELD Beat Writer
Related Posts:
AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 3 Episode 3: Trouble in Paradise
AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 3 Episode 2: Unlikely Ally and Search For Simmons Continues
But moving on to the actual episode. All three of the story lines discussed above were featured. It’s funny to note that Elisha, featured prominently in the teaser for this week’s episode, is in roughly three minutes of the whole episode. She was basically a vessel to help introduce Lash back in the fray. Most of the ACTU storyline was about hunting Lash and figuring out why he’s been killing Inhumans. From the little he spoke of during his time on screen, it sounds like he believes himself to be on a mission. He says that he’s “necessary.” The more interesting discovery is that he’s more like a werewolf, or something. He’s able to transform at will into this beast.
The other interesting aspect was the general relationship growing between Coulson and Rosslyn. The two get on quite well and frankly, they’re a good match for each other. Coulson has grown a bit colder over the course of the show and that’s served him well. Hell, he even choked that Inhuman in order to get him to back down. Rosslyn seems like someone who can go toe-to-toe with Coulson in more ways than one.
Simmons’ storyline didn’t really do a whole lot this episode despite talking up a third of the time. It was a lot her whining and playing coy. I understand the trauma she went through, but I wish we didn’t have to do this dance where she hid stuff from everyone. Thankfully it looks like next week we’ll, more or less, get the full story.
The biggest part of the episode was the assault on Hydra. I didn’t really think they’d get Ward in the end here, but I had hoped. That would have made for a huge ending, but we got something else in exchange. The “death” of Andrew is a big deal… if that’s actually what happened. Although it concerns me we didn’t actually see him dead. We just saw a boot and some blood. Now that could be the show just not wanting to show a bleeding dead body, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he somehow survived.
Even so, the fact that he’s “dead” to everyone else for the time being will still affect May in a pretty big way. She seemed almost willing to shoot Hunter in order to get him to stop. I don’t think Ward would have left Andrew alone if Hunter let him go. But I digress.
I’m curious to see what happens now with May. She didn’t seem like she wanted to come back to SHIELD yet, but maybe this is what brings her in full-time? Or maybe she just beats the crap out of Hunter and leaves for a while again. It’s hard to say with her.
My hope for next week is that the entire episode isn’t taken up by Simmons’ story of what went on when she was away. I’m curious to discover what’s going on there and if it really has any meaning beyond some kind of personal journey. But so much happened in this episode that I would hate to leave things hanging for another week.
Written by Peter Freeman, AGENTS OF SHIELD Beat Writer
Related Posts:
AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 3 Episode 3: Trouble in Paradise
AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 3 Episode 2: Unlikely Ally and Search For Simmons Continues