Episode Title: “Girl in the Flower Dress”
Writer: Brent Fletcher
Director: Jesse Bochco
Previously on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”:
One of the more interesting aspects to come out of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” was the notion that Skye (Chloe Bennet) was a double agent for Rising Tide; which was potentially an organization actively working against S.H.I.E.L.D. and its agents.
“Girl in the Flower Dress” brings that plot to a screeching halt and it completely reworks Skye’s motivation for staying with the team. As presented here, Rising Tide is more like the hacking collective Anonymous than Hydra. And the real enemy is Centipede, the organization that gave Mike Peterson (J. August Richards) his powers in the pilot episode. Shannon Lucio reprises her role as Debbie, the malevolent doctor from the first episode before she’s replaced by Raina (Ruth Negga), the proverbial “Girl in The Floor Dress.”
The shifting of Skye and the introduction of Raina as an ongoing adversary seem like course corrections for the show. But I’m not sure either step is an improvement. For one thing, Raina isn’t any more compelling than her predecessor, Debbie and Skye’s new quest doesn’t do a lot for her character either.
There are full spoilers ahead for “Girl in The Floor Dress,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” then you’ve just been “Scorched!”
As far as superhero or supervillain names go, Scorch is pretty awful. Raina is responsible for giving Chan Ho Yin (Louis Changchien) his “name,” but it was endearing to see him claim it as his own with his over-the-top theatrics. Yin didn’t necessarily want to be a hero or a villain, he just wanted his fire-based powers to make him famous and memorable.
The few times that Raina worked were when she expertly manipulated Yin into seeing things her way. Changchien also had a strong moment when Yin realized that his powers could now severely burn him. However, I didn’t buy Yin’s full blown transformation into Scorch the supervillain. When Scorch murdered his S.H.I.E.L.D. handler, his character completely went off the rails. There just wasn’t enough to justify that turn. I did appreciate the way that Scorch’s burns spread across his body and the way that his supervillain name was openly mocked. But he was not a well constructed character.
The same argument could for most of the main characters on this show. Only Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) seem to resonate. Coulson treats Melinda like an equal and they seem to be the parental figures on their team. Some fans are already reading into Melinda’s comments about sparring with Coulson as fodder for a romance. But I think that Melinda probably meant exactly what she said. That actually makes it even funnier.
Keeping with the parental angle, Melinda is the one who catches Skye just after she sleeps with Miles Lydo (Austin Nichols), the Rising Tide hacker whom she was supposed to be tracking down with the rest of the team. Coulson is particularly incensed by the betrayal, but all of Skye’s teammates shun her for what she did.
Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) and Skye had a cute scene early in the episode as they played Battleship. And while Grant was the one who released Skye from the holding room when she was needed to rescue Coulson and Melinda, he rebuffs Skye’s request to accompany her into Coulson’s office for her punishment. It can be argued that Grant was being a jerk about it, but what do you expect? Skye may have had good reasons in her mind, but the team can’t and shouldn’t trust her. Even Coulson isn’t ready to quickly forgive her, as he slaps a technology inhibitor bracelet on Skye at the end of the episode.
To stay on the team, Skye does reveal that she’s looking for her parents, who were both connected to S.H.I.E.L.D. in some way. That’s why she joined the team and that’s why she had warned Miles to stay away from S.H.I.E.LD. while she was on the inside. As motivations go, it’s not that bad. But I much preferred Skye as a double agent. Moral complexity is always going to be more interesting. By comparison, this is far too straightforward.
“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” needs more moments with dramatic bite and it had a few during this episode, when Scorch murdered his S.H.I.E.L.D. handler and Debbie before Coulson and Melinda fatally injured Scorch. However, most of the fight between Scorch and the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents was staged in a very sloppy and unexciting way.
The tag scene involved Raina meeting a prisoner who remains active in Centipede as she tells him to consult “the clairvoyant.” Coming so soon on the heels of Skye’s confession to Coulson made me think that the man in that scene might have been connected to Skye, if not her actual father. “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” doesn’t have a lot subtlety, so that’s a distinct possibility.
Of the five episodes to date, this was my least favorite. “Girl in the Flower Dress” never falls so far that it actually becomes bad, but I’m starting to wonder if this creative team will be able to make “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” into the great TV series that we all want it to be. As of now, I have some serious doubts.
