On the newest Agents of SHIELD, we finally get to do what they were hinting at in the season premier, as we “Meet the New Boss.” In the opening, it’s what seems to be a typical “kid having a nightmare” scene. Except the kid’s father ends up seeing the ghost that’s troubling the boy, and then Dad ends up seeing visions much like the Asian gangsters and even Agent May did last episode. Clearly, there’s more going on than a child’s bad dream.
The Agents of SHIELD return for a fourth season. They lead off with a lot of changes, and a title that could work on several levels: “The Ghost.” To recap a few points: Lincoln’s dead, Daisy quit and is on some kind of crusade of her own, and sometime in the break, Coulson’s been demoted to agent again. There’s a new director, but whoever it is has made themselves remarkably unpopular with just about everyone.
The third season of Agents of SHIELD comes to an end with a two hour finale. The hours are titled “Absolution,” and “Ascension” respectively. Each title makes sense as the episode goes on, and things don’t go as well as they could. Also, as promised for weeks now by annoying voice-over man, “SOMEONE WILL DIE.” The two hours together are collectively “Fallen Agent,” which is somewhat ironic, really.
“Failed Experiments,” begins in distant past. We get to see Hive’s origin, when he was what looks like some kind of Indian who was captured by the Kree and experimented on. It doesn’t look like it was an enjoyable process, that’s for sure. When they return the story to the present, Hive talks about how those early experiments were the first Inhumans, and now he intends to start converting humans, beginning with the few members of the Hydra ruling council he has left with him.
Things get a bit weird, even for them, on “Spacetime,” the latest episode of Agents of SHIELD. The opening scene at first seems to be a slice of urban life, with a homeless guy in an alley. A restaurant worker tells him he needs to move along but is actually kind about it. It’s all going ok until the man gives the homeless guy some money which gets weird. The restaurant worker is apparently having visions, and says, “Save me Daisy, help. This is where I die.”
The writers on Agents of SHIELD dug deep into the catalog of Marvel characters to find a really obscure group of bad guys for “Watchdogs.” They are an obscure hate group that, in the comics, was part of a long term plan in one of Red Skull’s conflicts with Captain America. They played a large part in the early career of John Walker, who was one of the men to temporarily replace Steve Rogers as Captain America before going on to become US Agent.
After a long mid-season break, and the run of season two of Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD finally returns. After the surprises at the end of the showdown with Hydra, the team has to see if they can “Bounce Back.” They scored some victories, but took some losses, but the Terrigen-mutated Inhumans don’t care as more of them manifest.
So what happened to Jemma Simmons during the months she was missing? We’ve seen hints in her reactions to being back, but we finally get to see the details in “4722 Hours.” With Agents of SHIELD being an ensemble cast, we don’t get a lot of focus time on any of them individually as a rule. This is the first episode I can think of that was almost all just one character, and actress Elizabeth Henstridge carries it off nicely.
“Devils You Know,” opens with a nice domestic scene of a couple making dinner. Gradually, they show that the man has powers, so, given the current storylines, he must be an Inhuman. The couple get two visitors in quick succession- Alicia, the “Ginger Ninja” from the SHIELD vs SHIELD battle last season, followed by Lash. As you can imagine, this doesn’t go well for anyone but Lash.
One of the things I give Agents of SHIELD credit for is amusing episode titles. A lot of this week’s show is about Lincoln being on the run, so they call it, “A Wanted (Inhu)Man.” They throw in a lot of twists and turns and some interesting character choices and subplots. The opening shows Lincoln…
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