AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episode 1
Episode Title: “Shadows”
Writers: Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen
Director: Vincent Misiano
Previously on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
Episode 1.22 “Beginning of the End“
After a pretty solid pilot episode, “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” spent most of its first season trying to find itself as a TV series. The aftermath of Captain America: The Winter Soldier helped make this show a lot more interesting, but it still wasn’t fully formed.
Fortunately, the second season premiere of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” feels like another step in the right direction. For the bulk of the hour, it felt like the show had moved beyond its myopic focus on Coluson’s gang of misfits. And then half of the new characters died.
Right, I should have said SPOILER ALERT! From this point on, there are full spoilers ahead for the latest “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” episode.
The prologue for the episode kicks off with very welcome cameo appearances by Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan (Neal McDonough), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi) and the rest of the Howling Commandos as they arrest Hydra war criminal Daniel Whitehall (Reed Diamond) and confiscate the very first 0-8-4 object. It hasn’t been announced if McDonough or Choi will reprise their roles in the “Agent Carter” TV series next year, but I’d say the chances of another return are pretty good if they were willing to appear here.
Checking back in with the team several months after the first season, Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) actually behaves like the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. should behave. He doesn’t go on field missions and he’s more concerned about recruitment and resources than babysitting his team. Skye (Chloe Bennet) has somewhat improbably transformed into a fully fledged agent, but I’m willing to go with it. Meanwhile, Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) has a greatly diminished mental capacity after last season’s trauma.
I hated the reveal that Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) wasn’t actually there because it felt like such a cheap Shyamalan twist and I have a hard time believing that Simmons would abandon Fitz after everything he said to her in the finale. I’m also not a fan of De Caestecker’s portrayal of Fitz’s new state of mind. I think I’d have rather the show killed off Fitz and kept Simmons on the team. But she will obviously be back at some point.
Speaking of someone who should have been killed off or written out of the show, Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) is hanging around in the basement of The Playground as prisoner of Coulson’s team. Dalton is actually pretty good as Ward attempts to convince Skye that he wants to share intelligence on Hydra with her after admitting that he tried to kill himself a few times. I really don’t want Ward to rejoin the team and redeem himself. But limiting him to occasional appearances could go a long way.
What I really loved about the episode was the way that the team had expanded in the off season. Antoine Triplett (B.J. Britt) stuck around and Coulson brought in Isabelle “Izzy” Hartle (Lucy Lawless), Lance Hunter (Nick Blood), Alphonso ‘Mac’ Mackenzie (Henry Simmons) and at least one other operative whose name I didn’t manage to catch during the episode. Plus it was great to have Patton Oswalt as Billy Koenig, the operative whom even Coulson’s team suspects may not be human. Along with the always reliable Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), that’s a pretty good ensemble of characters.
That said, I was impressed that the writers were willing to kill off Isabelle so swiftly. It would have had a bigger impact if she had stuck around for a few episodes, but it still worked as a shocking moment… especially since she had Lance cut off most of her infected arm moments before. That’s a character I would have liked to have seen more often.
The episode also did a good job of establishing Carl “Crusher” Creel (Brian Patrick Wade) aka The Absorbing Man as a genuine threat to the team. Remember when “Scorch” easily burned out and Deathlok never killed anyone important? Creel not only overpowered the agents and stole the 0-8-4, he is also directly responsible for the death of Isabelle and her driver. The writers also gave Creel some personality when he half-heartedly dismissed the “Hail Hydra!” from his handler.
I’m less impressed with Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) as a recurring nemesis for Coulson and the team. Talbot is more of a walking joke than a credible adversary. I just don’t like that character or Pasdar’s portrayal.
As a season premiere, “Shadows” did almost everything that could be expected of it. If this is new direction for the series then this is a show that I can get behind and fully support.
