S.H.I.E.L.D., Dec 10 - The Bridge

And so, “Agents” have returned from their latest hiatus with a vengeance. Mike “The Hooded Hero” is back from the pilot episode as is Raina and her ally Poe from ep 5. By now “Centipede” has perfected their serum to an extent – it is now stable, but its soldiers’ are much more cybernetic than Mike is...but do not show much superiority over Mike, on the other hand.

The main villains of the episode, Poe and Raina, are still impressive – nearly emotionless and inhuman, but not quite, as there is a scene that shows them caring for each other at least. Pity that they do not care about anyone else.

Mike, on the other hand, is an emotional mess – he cares either too little for his son or too much. Then again, it is hard to gauge people when their families are involved, or to judge. Mike made his choice and he apparently died for it in the explosions that occurred once the hostage exchange went wrong. Of course, his choice also involved in handing Coulson over to the enemy, so the titular characters are also having problems.

That aside, most of “The Bridge” went like a typical episode, where the agents are fighting their enemies and defeating them through their teamwork skills, but... after the fight with the soldiers the team began to have new problems.

For one thing, May is not as comfortable with Ward as she thinks she is, or perhaps she is more comfortable: she assumes that Ward pushed her out of harm’s way for his feelings for her, and when he denies – in a rather May-like way – that, she turns on Skye.

Skye’s beef is that she is with S.H.I.E.L.D. because she is looking for her parents who may have been S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Only “The Bridge” implies that they were something else, somebody that S.H.I.E.L.D. was not particularly friendly with, and that Coulson intends to lie to Skye, with May alongside him. That did not sit well with May, and she turned on Skye, suggesting that she is relinquished her family search or S.H.I.E.L.D. membership, in a matter of speaking.

The Fitz & Simmons duo were in the background for this episode, but considering that this episode was more action than research, it worked. And Ward is still Ward, he is getting better with his fighting, with his talking to women and he is left-handed, apparently. Funny that.

Speaking of ‘funny’ as ‘weird’, why does S.H.I.E.L.D. disbelieve in psychics? After the events in “The Girl in the Flower Dress”, for example, they had to deal with a fire-generating enemy, for example. How’s clairvoyance a stretch from that? But a stretch it is.

Incidentally, but has Mike died, or at least been incapacitated, because he was an individualist, while “Agents” are a team-oriented show? Perhaps, and if he had put more trust into his new teammates, the ending of the episode would have been different.

So: Mike came and went, Raina returned with a new friend, and both she and Poe show every sign of staying, Coulson was captured and the rest of his team are in trouble, both with his kidnapping and between themselves. Hopefully then, the next episode will start resolving those problems.

PS: Oh, and the titular bridge? It is possibly refers to the place where the hostage exchange went sour at the end of the episode, or – something else. Maybe the next episodes will shed more light on this question.