By: Tyler Miller
Agents of SHIELD has been on its midseason break for quite some time now, so it’s great to finally have it back. While its return episode wasn’t an amazing one, it was a good one that got us back into the fold and raised some interesting questions.
The episode started off in media res three months from now, panning through what looked a Quintet that’s in space. On the inside was a cross, blood, an explosion, and a SHIELD agent that we don’t get to see. What made that situation come to fruition is something that we’ll most likely have to wait until the season finale to see, but it was an intriguing way to kickstart the episode.
Jump back to the present day and we’re in Bogota, Colombia, the source of a brand new Inhuman named Elena Rodriguez who’s been stealing weapons from the police in the blink of an eye. Initially it appears as if her powers are the same as Quicksilver’s in the sense that she can run super fast, but as we find out later it’s not that simple.
Back stateside, we catch up wth Coulson and May who are at Rosalind Price’s home, awaiting President Ellis for a meeting. Apparently Inhumans are the big hot topic and all the news stations are talking about them damn near all the time. Although they’re doing a good job, SHIELD still can’t exist in the public eye, so the ATCU will continue to be the public face of Inhuman operations once they get a new leader. The silver lining is that they’ll answer to Coulson. On top of all that, the President can’t do anything about Gideon Malick, so it’s up to SHIELD to find him on their own. This is SHIELD though, so it shouldn’t be too hard for them to find him, right?
After all the catch up is done and out of the way, we finally get into the real meat of the episode, which is our team’s mission to find Elena. It’s nice to see a majority of the team out in the field, including Joey (the Inhuman that could melt metals), after he joined them to complete the mission in the midseason finale. The mission in Colombia doesn’t go well at all though, with Mack getting kidnapped by Elena and no one noticing. After he wakes up in her apartment, we see that she has an accomplice that turns out to be her cousin, and they have all the guns from the police. At this point, it’s still unclear as to whether or not she’s good or bad, but that doesn’t matter to Mack as he’s getting out of there. He manages to escape the bathroom he’s been held in, but doesn’t make it too far since Elena stops him. It’s here that we see she can move really fast, but gets pulled back to wherever she started.
While Mack is playing prisoner, the rest of the team is trying to find him. At the same time, Coulson decides to use the memory machine that was used on him in season 1 to try and find Malick. Who’s the poor soul that has to be put in the machine? None other than Werner von Strucker, who’s a vegetable due to what Malick’s men did to him. Boy does it suck to be him.
Then finally we get to catch up with our villains and see how things are going for them. Malick is no longer the top dog since Ward came back from the planet Maveth, but he’s not the same since the Inhuman (Hive) that Hydra idolizes is now in his body and controlling him. And boy does he look BAD. Coulson did some major damage to him, but it certainly seems like that damage will be given right back to him.
Back over in Colombia, Mack and Elena are having as good a discussion as they can since she doesn’t speak any English. But Mack gets the gist of it, and starts to try and explain to her that her powers aren’t gifts from God when Daisy and the team come and rescue him. They put her in one of the containment modules, and when she wakes up she talks with Joey and he tries to help her understand the situation that she’s in. Meanwhile, Coulson uses the memory machine on Warner and has some reservations about it along with Lincoln. It’s the only choice they have though, so they go through with it and find out a way to get to Malick. Thanks Warner!
Returning to Daisy’s group, we find out that Elena’s associate was her cousin, and things aren’t looking good for him at all. Bobbie and Hunter find him tossing the guns off a bridge and stop him, but then complications arise when the local police come and interfere. Things seem like it’ll go our heroes way until one of the officers reveals that he’s an Inhuman, and paralyzes them Medusa style. Unfortunately, Elena’s cousin gets killed and they take Bobbi and Hunter. Once his body is brought back to Elena, she agrees to help the team stop the police and get Bobbi and Hunter back.
Our team goes off on their rescue mission, and it’s made much easier with Elena’s help. We find out that her powers are connected to her pulse, so she can only go as far as she can in one heartbeat. It makes sense now why she never really ran anywhere far. The team goes in and they get Bobbi and Mack from the police station without much trouble. It’s nice seeing Joey having more control of his powers and Elena working together with Daisy. I totally want her to be a Secret Warrior. They come across the Medusa-esque Inhuman (who will be called Medusa Eyes from now on, courtesy of Bobbi), and he manages to freeze Elena, but they still capture him. It’s only for a bit though, as Hydra comes and takes him away. Guess we can’t have everything right?
While the team carries out their mission, Coulson goes to the location in Werner’s memory to try and find Malick. Instead he finds a phone that connects him to Malick (after being put on hold with some funny music). They each make threats to each other, with Malick saying that his influence runs pretty far. What’s that supposed to mean?
At the end of the day, Elena and Joey go back to their homes, but are still connected to SHIELD if the need ever arises. It sucks to see these two leave the team when they worked so well together with everyone. Plus, we JUST got the Secret Warriors together an episode ago and they’re already being disbanded. I was hoping we’d get more of them with the team, but at least Lincoln’s staying (albeit only for Daisy). With the reveal that Talbot will be heading the ATCU, things are certainly going to get bumpy for the team as him and Coulson are definitely going to clash. Plus we still have the problem of Ward/Hive and Malick, and whatever it is that they have planned.
Other thoughts:
- The cross that was in the ship at the beginning of the episode belonged to Elena. Is that a sign that she’s the one on the ship? Or is it a red herring, and the one the ship is really Mack? The only reason I think this is the fact that they connected and have a pretty cool relationship. I can totally see her giving it to him.
- Fitz and Simmons are starting over again! It sucks that they aren’t going to finally be together, but after everything that they’ve been through it’s probably the best for them.
- Lincoln’s reveal to Simmons that the Inhumans powers are based on the evolutionary needs at the time raises the question of what kind of powers other Inhumans have and how are the needs determined. Maybe this can of worms will be further cracked open in the near future.
- Coulson has a new hand, and it looks like a human hand! Perhaps it has laser fingers? That’d be a nice surprise.
This first episode back was a pretty good one for Agents Of SHIELD. It was a fun return back into the world if spies and superheroes. Hopefully the rest of the season keeps it up.
TheComfySpot 