As SHIELD returns for Season 3, things have gotten superpowered in a big way.
By Eric Goldman
Full spoilers for the episode follow.
SHIELD is an ever-evolving show and Season 3’s premiere found it, more than ever, truly becoming something some fans have wanted since the start – a show about superheroes, not simply a show set in a world where superheroes exist.
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I never had an issue with SHIELD being about normal people in the Marvel Universe, but obviously the show had plenty of early issues to deal with above and beyond that and perhaps that “Why are we spending time with these guys?” aspect some dwelled on became a symbol for the issues those making the show wanted to move beyond. Regardless, as the story and pacing problems were dealt with, Season 2 also began to offer more, well, “Marvel-y” aspects, especially with the introduction of Inhumans and the revelation Skye Daisy was one of them.
Season 3 hit the ground running in a big way in this respect, with a great opening sequence that showed Joey (Juan Pablo Raba, doing a good job playing his character’s normal guy confusion at what as happening to him) manifesting his Inhuman powers and the chaos that followed. There’s no doubt about it, having Skye Daisy (or “Quake”, though that name wasn’t said here) show up using her powers delivered a kick ass comic book thrill.
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Later in this sesame episode, we also got Skye Daisy and Lincoln teaming up to take on the villain Lash (Matthew Willig, who I’ll always remember as Dexter’s Little Chino) and seeing their earthquake and electricity powers up against that monster was another, “Okay, this is fun” moment.
One quibble – who is funding SHIELD? I’m trying to remember how much the end of Season 2 explained what happened after Gonzales died, but obviously everyone seemed to then go to following Coulson again. But are they employed by the government again? And if not, who is paying for something as impressive as that new plane they have? It just gets a bit murky, especially when Coulson’s crew was pitted against this other group who clearly were government backed.
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That group (dubbed the ATCU by the end of the episode) turning out to not be as nefarious as they seemed – they weren’t, at least, the ones killing those Inhumans – was interesting and the scene where Coulson met their leader, Rosalind, was great. Constance Zimmer and Clark Gregg had a very fun dynamic as each attempted to outwit the other.
SHIELD’s doing a good job of making use of it’s expanded cast. They’ve wisely avoided shoving in every character into every episode when they’re not needed (Ward and May were both MIA this week), while also finding new combinations of characters to pair up to keep things interesting. Skye Daisy and Mack were an unlikely, cool pairing here, with Hunter taking turns in the field with both them and Coulson.
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Meanwhile, it was very cool to see Fitz on his solo mission. As much as he was in a much better place by the end of Season 2 from where he began, it’s a slight stretch that he’s become this calm and collected since, but if anything can justify it, it’s his hope of saving Simmons.
I’m very glad there wasn’t a prolonged wait to see Simmons again (especially since we knew she’d be back simply by Elisabeth Henstridge remaining part of the cast). The reveal of her on that alien world was a really cool one, moving SHIELD into yet another new place for the series.
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Some notes:
-The mentions of what happened at both Sokovia and the Pym lab were an amusing mixture of gratuitous and appropriate, given these were indeed rather crazy things that happened in the MCU in the past few months.
-Speaking of the larger MCU, I loved seeing William Sadler return as President Ellis, having established the character in Iron Man 3.
-Iain De Caestecker was amazing in that big final scene, as he pounded in desperation on the monolith. Poor Fitz! She’s out there, buddy!
-Biology degree or not, Bobbi in the lab is a weird fit. Hopefully she’s back in action soon.
-I love that Hunter actively has a plan to hunt down Ward. And not just because his name is Hunter. Get him!
-Two great axe-related moments here. One was seeing that Coulson, nostalgic guy that he is, had the axe that took his hand on the wall. The other was Mack wishing he had “a shotgun-axe combination of some sort.”
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I am a bit wary that the ATCU could turn into “The Real SHIELD” storyline Mark 2, now that we know they aren’t truly bad guys, per se. But Rosalind has a very different energy than Gonzales, which already sets it apart. Meanwhile, with Skye Daisy suited up and powered up and the inclusions of more superpowered elements, the show is in a very different place as far as what the team feels like, especially with the promise of more “Secret Warriors.” That, along with the “Where the hell is Simmons?” question is a pretty exciting place to begin this year on.
