Episode Title: “The Well”
Writer: Monica Owusu-Breen
Director: Jonathan Frakes
Previously on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”:
I’m not sure how many of you have seen Thor: The Dark World, so I won’t spoil it. I’ll only say that the very last scene in the film leaves something big in our world that Thor neglected to deal with. And when I saw the movie, I thought that would be the tie-in element for this week’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” episode.
But it wasn’t, and the actual subject of this week’s plot was far less interesting than the angle that could have been followed up on from the film. Technically, Asgardian artifacts do come into play in “The Well,” but it’s incidental to Thor: The Dark World and not the direct tie-in that ABC and Marvel seemed to be promising us.
Given the chance to tie into Marvel’s most recent blockbuster film, you’d think that “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” would deliver its A-game. But “The Well” is C-list material at best and a few promising moments can’t entirely save this one from itself.
There are full spoilers ahead for “The Well,” so you if you missed last night’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” then you should probably skip this review or else you’ll have to jump into the well.
Technically, “The Well” does take place in the aftermath of Thor: The Dark World as Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team are assigned to comb through the wreckage of the Dark Elves’ attack and remove any alien tech. The dialogue primarily serves to bring Skye (Chloe Bennet) up to speed on the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s contention that Thor and the Asgardians aren’t Gods, they’re aliens. Supposedly not making the Asgardians into real Gods keeps them grounded. Sure it does…
It was enjoyable to see Coulson’s exasperation over cleaning up Thor’s mess again and his annoyance when both Skye and Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) describe Thor as “dreamy.” But again, the episode isn’t really about The Dark World cleanup. Instead the focal point is an Asgardian staff that once belonged to a Berserker soldier who split it into three parts and hid it in order to assume an ordinary life on Earth.
The first part of the Berserker staff is found by Jakob Nystrom (Michael Graziadei) and Petra Larsen (Erin Way), members of a militant “Norse neo-paganism hate group.” I have no idea what that means. At first it seemed like Jakob and Petra’s group worshiped the Norse Gods thanks to Thor’s return to Earth. Whatever else Thor is, his existence proves that some of the Norse myths were real. But Jakob and Petra;s group also seems to be afraid of the Asgardians as they use the Berserker staff to empower themselves.
Unfortunately, Jakob and Petra turned out to be duds as villains of the week. The only time they convincingly came off as a threat was when they empowered their followers and set off a riot in the opening minutes of the episode. Nothing they did after that even came close to creating a believable sense of menace.
Peter MacNicol’s Professor Elliot Randolph goes a long way towards redeeming this episode. His offscreen history with Coulson makes sense after the first Thor movie and I loved the reveal that Randolph was the Berserker soldier who hid his staff on Earth and refused to return to Asgard. Randolph is so ordinary looking that you wouldn’t guess that he’s a God/alien/ or whatever they are. MacNicol gave Randolph so much presence that he should have been the antagonist of this episode. Compared to him, Jakob and Petra barely registered at all.
“The Wall” is the closest we’ve come to an Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) spotlight episode, as exposure to the second part of the Berserker staff unearths a painful memory for Ward that fuels his own uncontrollable rage. One thing that “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” seems to be good at is making the episodes seem like they matter even a few weeks later. Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) is suffering a fear of heights after her ill-advised leap from the Bus two episodes ago. And during Ward’s angry phase, he throws his heroic moment from that episode back into the face of Agent Leo Fitz (Ian De Caestecker).
The source of Ward’s anger and pain is the memory of a boy drowning in a well from his past. But the kid in the well isn’t Ward, he’s the one holding the rope as his older (and even more dickish) brother threatens to throw him into the well if Ward sends down the rope. I wonder if Ward’s brother is being seeded as a potential villain on this show.
Odin knows this show could use some decent recurring villains. Even when Coulson’s team is surrounded by the empowered Norse group they never seem like they’re in real danger. The injury to Randolph was a nice misdirect, as it made me question whether an Asgardian could be killed by a human. Coulson’s method of saving Randolph’s life was inventive and one of the better moments in this week’s episode.
But the late MVP here is Melinda May, who kicks all kinds of ass once she gets her hands on the Berserker staff. For May, less seems to be more. She may not say much, but May doesn’t have to. Her not-so-subtle hotel room invite to Ward was surprising, but not entirely unexpected. Ward and May have common ground as two highly trained field operatives and ‘The Hub” demonstrated that they act like a two person team. Ward’s acceptance of May’s unspoken invite was a nice moment. I’m looking forward to seeing where that’s going.
The other promising note is that Coulson is more actively aware that his memories of Tahiti may be a lie. More intriguingly, Coulson says that he has no memory of his recovery and recuperation… and that he’s missing a few months between his death and his time in Tahiti. Perhaps his resurrection wasn’t as immediate as we thought it was. Or maybe it takes that long to program a Life Model Decoy.
But if Coulson’s an android, do androids dream? Coulson’s nightmare had a fun “Dollhouse” shoutout, but I’m not quite sure where this is leading. Earlier in the episode, Coulson alluded to his time in Portland while trying to convince Randolph to possibly settle down there. You may recall that Coulson mentioned having a cellist girlfriend in Portland during The Avengers. We may eventually get back to that on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” in the future.
The characters in this show are growing on me, although Coulson and May are far more interesting than the rest. But this episode was pretty far from the best that this series has to offer. It’s disappointing that the show has squandered an opportunity to draw in Thor fans with an episode that not only failed to tie into the film in any meaningful way, it also failed to generate much excitement or even a worthwhile story. It doesn’t matter how appealing the cast can be if the creative team behind this show can’t figure out how to make “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” work consistently.
