With Lash’s big secret revealed, the hunt is on.
By Eric Goldman
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Once again, SHIELD moved very quickly this week, as the revelation that Andrew is Lash resulted in an immediate confrontation between the team and their friend turned murderous Inhuman.
I must say, I was a bit disappointed to find out Andrew/Lash was simply driven by a vampiric sort of compulsion to kill other Inhumans, rather than any bigger or more complicated purpose, as seemed to be the case earlier this season. Certainly, when he killed Dwight Frye a few episodes back and said, “I’m not merciful, I’m necessary,” it felt like some bigger agenda was at work than what was revealed this week.
On top of that, by the end of the episode, Lash was already neutralized. While SHIELD is to be commended for moving quickly, this seemed a bit too quick, wrapping up what had been the big threat so far this season just one week after a really compelling reveal occurred. Oh, don’t get me wrong, there’s no doubt he’ll be back sooner than later, but it still seemed odd to halt this storyline, even temporarily, at this point.
We want to hear it.
Those issues aside, there were a lot of good moments here. Ming-Na Wen sometimes has a tricky role as May, playing a character who keeps her emotions closely in check, and did strong work playing a very on-edge May, dealing with finding out the worst thing possible about the man she loved and trying to process it. It was especially strong seeing her in that final moment, nearly about to let down the veil and burst into tears after all that had happened.
This was a strong episode for Rosalind, as we saw more of her and Coulson’s growing rapport (before they really had an off-screen rapport before the epsiode’s end). The big reveal at the end that she’s dealing with Gideon has to be a “she doesn’t know he’s a bad guy,” one, one would think. This episode really reinenforced her good intentions, and we directly saw her tell her men to follow Coulson’s lead on a mission, without anyone from SHIELD present, so it wouldn’t chart to just say she’s a villain now. Okay, her telling Daisy her powers could kill her and Daisy then using her powers to save her was very on the nose, but it still was a nice moment.
We want to hear it.
Meanwhile, the Fitz and Simmons storyline had some strong scenes as Fitz was able to access the phone she had with her on the other planet. His anger at seeing Will’s photo, followed by his emotion seeing her at her most desperate, beaten down place was very powerful – even knowing she’d made it back, we could still feel the power of Fitz seeing what was, at the time, essentially her farewell message to him.
Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge were also excellent together in the scene where she told him she meant everything she’d said on those videos – even as they both acknowledged that didn’t solve anything about the situation they were in now.
After several episodes of being on the run, Lincoln finally decided to stick around here. His rapport with Mack, of all people, is a nice touch, though I do hope Mack gets his own storyline pretty soon.
I was also glad to see Joey back again, for the first time since the premiere – and to learn that Lash killing him was only in Andrew’s head. With Lincoln now finally under the same roof as SHIELD and Joey returning, hopefully we’re getting closer to the Secret Warriors becoming a reality (though I’m now guessing it’ll be the second half of the season where that really happens…)
Lastly, It was surprising to learn Werner Von Strucker was, in fact, still alive, albeit in a coma (everyone’s in a coma!) – perhaps that means he’ll still have a chance to make more of an impact than the Von Strucker’s have so far.
After the big Andrew revelation, Agents of SHIELD didn’t waste a second dealing with the Lash situation… but almost seemed like maybe it should have spread things out a bit more, as the somewhat weak reveal of Lash’s motivations and him so quickly being dealt with (for now, that is) somewhat undercut all the build up he’d had over several episodes. Though it must be said, May shooting Andrew at that moment was a great beat – I had predicted someone else was going to shoot Andrew and ruin May talking him down, but her doing it herself was pretty notable, as was her admitting she had no idea he’d survive the shots in human form, but was willing to take the gamble to stop him.
