And so, the exciting rollercoaster that is the “Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D.” TV series continue!
First of all, however, my apologies on missing last week’s
episode due to a blackout. Pity. Cal Johnson tried to round-up a group of
super-villains to stop Coulson and his team, but failed. That is disturbing,
and not just for our heroes, who will now have to worry about people with
powers going after them on top of regular villains, but also for the fans of
the Marvel-verse: are the Inhumans the new mutants? X-Men movie/Marvel
franchise is not doing that great – Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Mystique, is
about to quit for example – but to replace them with Inhumans role-wise? That
does not sound right.
Back to this week’s episode, Coulson and his team are in
trouble once more. Contrary to the episode’s title (more on that later), new
their problems are not from an external source (like Hydra), but from the
inside: a schism is brewing in S.H.I.E.L.D., with Mack and Morse throwing their
lot with the schismatics, who think that Coulson is not that good of a leader.
Considering how much the “Agents” scriptwriters love to throw curveballs at
their audience, maybe they are (the schismatics) correct. Still, considering
that their M.O. is turning onto anyone they do not trust (Hunter can been
handcuffed in a closet during last week’s episode, for example), and that
includes Skye, (who cannot catch a break lately, let us be fair), the odds are
set against them, in terms of viewers’ sympathy. In terms of material
belongings, planning and the like, however, the separatists are in a different
situation: they got, apparently, an aviation carrier with plenty of airplanes
to use it upon, and with plenty of crew to run it. True, the Playground, where
Coulson currently at, is very formidable, but that will probably not be
enough...
On a more personal level, Hunter and Morse have appeared to
have broken up over this – Hunter is going pro-Coulson, while Morse is clearly
contra-. The actors, of course, have delivered wonderfully upon this, but the
scriptwriters haven’t: why is exactly Hunter is so pro-Coulson? ...The problem
here is the lack of back-story of Hunter (and Morse): they were an item at one
time, then they broke-up and Hunter became involved with Isabelle Hartley, who
died in the beginning of S2, (because she was played by Lucy Lawless, and guest
stars’ characters tend not to last long on “Agents”), and then, during S2,
Hunter and Morse got back. Fine, but why they did not stay together this time?
Because Hunter was kept out of the loop by her and Mack? Because he was
handcuffed in a closet – or because of Coulson? Some further elaboration would
be nice, as “S.H.I.E.L.D.” s2 continues to proceed.
Even now, however, some presumptions can be made: namely
that as the ship HunterMorse is sunk, so is the ship SkyeWard: Morse and Hunter
have split up, and Ward has given up on Skye, and is doing his best to bond
with agent 33/Kara instead. Considering that Skye has shot him, this makes
sense. Considering that Ward and Kara have this sort of an Angel(us)/Drusilla dynamic
going on as well, the odds of Skye running into Hunter and starting a new
relationship with him in the future episodes is very good.
(Don’t forget – “Agents” got Josh Whedon on their side, the
man who split up Buffy with Angel and set her up with Spike, whose British
accent surfaced very noticeably in Hunter during “Love...” this week.)
And then, of course, we got the “Love” from the episode’s
title – and the episode featured only two couples (as couples): Hunter/Morse
and Ward/33, with Skye being the odd one out – but she had a protégé/guru thing
going with Coulson himself, so it’s clear that whatever love Skye is going to
experience in the future, it won’t be with Ward...
Of course, we also got general Talbot and his wife (as a
couple) in this episode as well: Ward and 33 have kidnapped Bakshi from Talbot
so that Kara would get closure by subjecting Bakshi to torture. Let’s be honest
– she earned it, and Bakshi has officially become pathetic, now that Whitehall
is dead, and the immediate Hydra inner circle that was under him, was destroyed
by S.H.I.E.L.D. Good riddance to bad rubbish in Bakshi’s case!..
And in case of Talbot, the good general and his wife were
this episode’s comic relief: it is not that Talbot is incompetent, his
character is, as 33 and Ward were able to fool him easily enough. Talbot is the
Sheriff of Nottingham and not even the competent Vaisey from BBC’s series, but
the buffoon of the traditional Robin Hood stories instead. Sucks to be him –
almost as much as it sucks to be Bakshi...
As for the rest of the main cast of “Agents”? Coulson and
May have realized that something is wrong with Mack at least but Mack has
learned that Skye was shuffled sideways to clear the air at S.H.I.E.L.D., and
in combination with Hunter flying the coup; this has served as a detonator
instead. Coulson and May and their team are up to their toughest challenge yet –
their fellow agents.
...True, Ward, and Garrett, and the others had been fellow
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as well, at least initially, but then they defected over to
Hydra (or were Hydra to begin with), so it was easier to deal with them as
enemies instead. With Mack, and Morse, and the others things will not be as
black and white – but that is what you get when you live in shadows: eventually
everything starts to appear grey...
So: Ward has given up on Skye, (while Coulson didn’t),
Hunter has given up on Morse, Morse, Mack, and their fellow separatists have
given up on Coulson and his loyalists, and everyone and everything is ready to
blow on the next episode of Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”!
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