Tuesday, October 22, 2013

No big reveals in tonite's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

But lots of little tidbits to digest.

No new insights into the "is he or isn't he" question about what's different about Agent Coulson. It appears that Melinda May may have taken the bait from Akela Amador in last week's episode, as she tries to get Coulson into a little hand-to-hand exercising like the old days. I don't think that was a throw away, but rather her chance to check Coulson out up close. Subtle touch.
Update: I had forgotten that May had queried Coulson about his problems sleeping. So there's that little bit as well.

The teased betrayal by hactivist Skye, turned out to be that she has a sort of boyfriend from The Rising Tide who hacked into a S.H.I.E.L.D. data stream to help some unsavory folks. Since I finally watched IronMan 3 the other day, I can say that it appears that the people from the episode 1 that were making people blow up when they got mad are perhaps an offshoot of the AIM baddies in that movie. They're using the same chemical compound, extremis, to pump up mutants into super-soldiers or something.

I wasn't sure about Skye's flip-flop on her feelings for/about her fellow hacker after they were captured by the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. It seemed a little too convenient, like maybe they were playing for the agents they knew were watching them while they were under surveillance, but it made more sense by the end of the episode.

I liked how they exposed a harder edge in the agents and agency this time -- when they couldn't talk the firestarter guy down, they overloaded him with extremis and let him blow himself up. After capturing Skye's boyfriend, they gave him the choice between prison or an undetermined time wearing a bracelet that prohibits him from using electronics.

One interesting bit, was Coulson finally got Skye to reveal what her "big" secret was -- why she had infiltrated the team and such. Apparently her parents disappeared when she was a child and all evidence of them scrubbed from public records. The only thing Skye has is a redacted form of some kind. Redacted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson promises to look into what the dealio is there, but gives Skye a bracelet also. Not sure how she's going to do all their nifty computer work if she's banned from electronics by the bracelet unless Coulson and company can moderate the bracelet's effects.

A lot of stuff going on for an episode that didn't seem like it was going to offer much at first. The series is growing on me more each week, which is nice. And despite my earlier hunch, they do seem to be giving out background info and foreshadowing in small doses to string viewers along. Nice.

Also nice -- we got some post coital lingerie action from Skye. I'll take a little saucy from time to time in my broadcast viewing day :-)

chloe bennett

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