Rewinding to the beginning of the episode though, we quickly saw where the episode was going. We had two very concise plot lines. The first was the prison break and the second was Simmons navigating her way around her boss’s polygraphs. It was easily one of the more tightly packed episodes. The focus was strong because we didn’t have the three normal plot lines that most episodes have.
Obviously, a simple prisoner transfer was never going to be that simple. So began the Watchmen level prison break spread out over the course of twenty minutes or so. It was a fun set piece that also weaved in a great deal of character development. Robbie and Mack made for good partners as they squared off against a pair of ghosts (or spirits). Some of them even had lines in previous episodes, so it was interesting to see them get killed off so blatantly.
Their deaths also make me wonder about the legs of this storyline. What was the work that Lucy was doing at the energy plant? Is Eli now joining her on this, so now they’re both the villain of this first half? We’re four episodes in, and only a month and half way from the mid- season so things should start picking up soon.
In terms of character development, May is already back to her grumpy old self. Death didn’t do much to slow her down. That said, it was interesting to have Coulson bug her about what she saw when she died because he didn’t remember anything about his time in the after world. What did she see? Coulson. Why? Who knows. It could be that old-time friends are about to be more than friends? Or maybe it’s just meant to solidify how close the two are as friends. I have no idea, but both are fine with me. They have good enough chemistry.
The other developments came from Robbie. While in the prison he saw a member of the gang that put his brother in a wheelchair. Originally Robbie thought that he and his brother were at the wrong place at the wrong time. They were shot up, trapped in the car, and left to die. I have to wonder if this is the moment Robbie sold his soul and got possessed by the Ghost Rider. It seems like the perfect, near death moment for something like that to occur. The other meaningful development was that someone put out a hit on them. Not sure where that’s going to go, but it’s an interesting wrinkle.
The real drama was in the other storyline though. The idea that Director Mace isn’t all smiles and squeaky clean like he presents himself is super fun. It makes everything else he does seem fake, instead of just being a goofy dope. What’s his plan? Why is lying? Is his entire past in the military fake? I also feel like he and Coulson are going to have a talk soon. Coulson is doing a lot behind the Director’s back and it’s making him look bad. My hope is that there will be consequences for Coulson for constantly doing this. Otherwise what was the point of the installing a Director if he was just going to do whatever he wanted anyways?
Written by Peter Freeman, AGENTS OF SHIELD Beat Writer -- Click to read Peter's posts
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