By: Jeffrey Bell (story)
The Story: Unsurprisingly, S.H.I.E.L.D. makes it even harder to get your medical history.
The Review: I’ve always had serious questions about this show’s attempts to wring a sense of closeness out of the cast before they’ve fully earned it, ever since the second episode, when they set all friction aside to watch the sunset together. Things have improved since then, with the last episode in particular displaying how good a chemistry the team can have when allowed to bounce off each other, instead of delivering one-liners in between exposition.
The thing is there’s still a gap between the unity the show thinks they have and what actually comes across on screen. Early in the first act of this episode, after S.H.I.E.L.D. medics strive and fail to repair Skye’s mortal wounds, a doctor tells Coulson and Co. to contact Skye’s family. Coulson takes a beat and declares, “We’re her family.” Allow me a dubious “Hm…” as I discuss the presumptuousness of that line.
Look, I’ll gladly say that Team Coulson has a friendly dynamic that’s certainly capable of intimacy—but only as between certain pairs: Fitz and Simmons, May and Coulson, Skye and Coulson, Ward and nobody. But to say they’re all “family” is a muscle-pulling stretch, even when specifically focused on Skye. I know the showrunners have done all they can to make her the center of this crew, but much of these efforts has fallen flat and left her relationships with the other characters no deeper than before. At the very least, you’re definitely not convinced that Skye’s possible death would send May into a tearful rage, beating Quinn’s face into a pulp as she screams, “He deserves to die, not her!” It’s awkwardly out of character, and you’re not sure she’d even have that reaction for Ward or Coulson, much less Skye.
So emotionally, this episode is somewhat off throughout. Yet there’s something more that feels awry, which I couldn’t quite verbalize until near the end. On the most basic level, this episode lacks a strong sense of tension. Coulson’s decision to completely flaunt S.H.I.E.L.D. rules, keeping Quinn in custody and delving into his “Tahiti” file for a way to save Skye, results in little consequence. Agents Garrett and Trip, sent to recapture Quinn, prove strangely amenable to Coulson’s goals and devotedly assist the team thereafter.* Despite slight hesitation from Simmons and May in using the Tahiti procedures on Skye, no one really makes a fuss over it. Even the two or three agents guarding the complex where Coulson was resurrected put on a fight out of professional responsibility rather than any real opposition.
With so little direct conflict, it’s not surprising that the action in the episode is also lacking. The fighting is reduced to a brief (and, as it turns out, unnecessary) spar between Ward and Trip, as well as slightly longer underground gunfight. The most fantastic parts of the episode are a toss-up between Fitz and Simmons going wild with their holo-projection tech** and Coulson discovering that the miracle drug the team uses to save Skye is harvested from a blue-skinned humanoid floating in a tube.
Conclusion: If last episode was something of a breakthrough for the series, this one reverses course, going back to the same structure that’s made it lose nearly half of its viewership since it premiered.
Grade: C+
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: * Some suspect that Garrett may be the Clairvoyant, and I can see good reason to sign on to that theory. It explains why he’s so interested in saving Skye and why he appears to be speaking for the Clairvoyant when mocking Quinn.
** An admittedly fancy bit of CGI that must have forced the show to keep the rest of the episode to two sets so as to make up the costs.
– I rather love that Garrett, Ward, and even Fitz go underground in battle gear, but Coulson stays in his suit.
– Join us next week, when the show is joined by Sif, the more affordable member of the Marvel film franchises.
Grade
Conclusion