Last night saw the return of Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D”, the television series based on Phil Coulson and his team as they deal with their own sets of problems in the MCU, fighting to keep SHIELD up and running whilst coping with the fallout from the main movie stories.
Obvious spoilers if you’re haven’t caught up/ watched the show yet.
Season 3 thus far has seen Coulson dealing with his loss of limb, and the whole team dealing with the aftermath of the Terrigan contamination in the ocean, helping find newly turned Inhumans and trying to help them and the public become safe. It then also saw the turning of Andrew, May’s ex-husband whom she was reconciling with, into an Inhuman with a desire to take out other Inhumans. It also saw the controversial argument of how to handle Inhumans and of how the public should see them.
The mid-season finale, “Maveth”, ended on a massive massive high – which saw us finding out that the man Jemma fell in love with on the alien planet was dead, and possessed by the creature – a creature of immense power. It then also saw beloved traitor/anti-hero/villain/murderer of women Grant Ward killed rather violently by Phil Coulson himself. It was a huge, action packed finale with so many questions to answer and so many places for it to go.
So how did “Bouncing Back” hold up?
Considering the show is coming back off of one of it’s massive and now infamous hiatus’s, it held its own very well. I’m glad we didn’t have an instant throw down of “AAH PLOTS AND THINGS” because realistically, it needed to reintroduce itself to it’s audience after a long time away. And it did exactly that.
The episode introduced us to a new Inhuman, affectionally named “Yo-Yo” for her ability – she has superspeed, but she has to go back to a fixed starting point – much like, a yo-yo. In the comics, she’s actually known as “Slingshot”, but considering her powers come about for completely different reasons than “I had fish for dinner that day”, I think it’s a nice nod to the comic book alias.
The episode also featured, and handled well, the subject of police brutality in other countries and the severe in-balance of justice in certain areas of the world. I also absolutely adored the ending – where she chose to stay in her home country instead of going with them to join SHIELD. It shows a chance for SHIELD to grow and develop, to become a world-wide force once again, and this time, with the right people at the controls.
There was also the whole issue of FitzSimmons and their ever perilous relationship – considering Fitz had to destroy her ex-boyfriends possessed corpse, and that they shared a rather intense kiss, viewers weren’t sure where and how this was going to go. This episode seemed to point in the direction of them trying to rebuild and “start again” – it’s going to be interesting to see how they do this, considering everything they’ve been through and how different they are as characters, but it seemed like the adult thing to do, and it’s a really refreshing development to see after the past season and a half of them being in pieces.
And then, there was the whole thing about Ward’s cold pale corpse being used as an alien vessel. Brett Dalton’s acting is absolutely wonderful. He’s done an insanely good job as Grant Ward, the mentally twisted and very complex ex-SHIELD/Hydra agent. He plays the perfect all-mighty alien power that’s come back to earth. He’s mostly silent, but his cold, purple and grey exterior paired with the small tilts and facial movements makes for a genuinely subtle and scary villain for us to look forward to.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable episode. No, it wasn’t this super duper action filled incredible episode, but that’s not really what’s needed after a long time away. What we need is a re-introduction to the plot points, to the things left hanging after the events of “Maveth” and this is exactly what this episode was. And now, it’s pointed to where the show is going from here and what foes the team are up against this time.
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