Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S01E15 – Review

By: Shalisha Francis (story)

The Story: The ultimate girly-girl and ultimate tomboy have it out, once and for all.

The Review: As I mentioned in my review of Loki: Agent of Asgard #2, Lorelei is a minor figure in the Thor mythos—minor in the sense that she’s far less likely to be recognized than the Warriors Three, Sif, or even her big sis Amora.  That makes her a somewhat unusual, but safe choice for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s first bona fide supervillain.  We’ve had power players on the show before, but Lorelei is of a different level altogether.

You can see that right from the cold open, in which her voice alone puts a whole motorcycle gang under her permanent sway and she sends her first conquest flying with a single flick of her wrist.  True enough, her army of men never grows much beyond this first group of desert rednecks, but her potential for wide-scale chaos is very clear.  In that sense, she’s the perfect S.H.I.E.L.D. target, someone who poses a major risk that they can preemptively shut down.

At the same time, however, Francis takes a lot of effort to contain Lorelei’s reach, lest she become too big for our team to handle alone, even with Sif’s help.  Actually, with Lorelei’s powers, it’d be easy for her to quickly spiral out of control and it’s hard to see what stops her from doing so, especially once she moves out of the boonies into an urban metropolis.  Confining herself to the Bus, where her greatest enemy is waiting, seems counterintuitive, to say the least, and I suspect it was done simply to keep costs down.

That’s the double-edged, double-bladed sword, I suppose, when you start drawing characters from the Marvel films down to TV.  Sif doesn’t have the star power as any of the Avengers, or even Nick Fury or Coulson himself, but the presence of her character gives the episode a much greater power than, say, an Asgardian disguised as university dom.  She also fits very well within the team’s dynamic; unlike Fandrel or Volstagg, she isn’t so boisterous as to steal the show from the cast, but she has enough personality to stand out as a special figure among them.

Although Sif receives her due spotlight in this episode, Lorelei’s specific abilities guarantee that the plot will revolve around the love triangle of May, Ward, and Skye.  It’s a given that at least one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. men would be caught by the goddess, and Ward, being the purely straight-and-narrow man he is, had to be one of them.  This doesn’t sit well with May, who reveals a greater attachment to Ward than she’ll ever admit, but we all knew that relationship was doomed (and not a little weird) from the start, right?  We didn’t need Lorelei to expose where Ward’s true affections really are; his squeamishly obvious remarks to Skye at the top of the episode say everything, from the awkward cover-ups (“It’s great to see you.  Better.”) to the passionate declarations (“[Mike] let this happen to you.  I’ll never forgive that!”).  The sooner they consummate the constant sexual tension, the better; then we can put this whole sorry Ward-May fiasco behind us.

There’s actually another triangle on this show, one far more rife with credible drama than May-Ward-Skye, and that’s May-Coulson-Skye.  Unlike Ward, Coulson has a genuinely special bond with both May and Skye, May as trusted confidante and Skye as beloved mentee.  This episode brings those pairings into direct conflict.  Coulson and Skye have grown closer all season, developing a father-daughter relationship in place of their own absent families.  Now the same…maybe not blood, exactly, but something vital to their lives flows through both of them, making their bond as close to biological as it can get.  It’s not surprising that he now entrusts Skye with secrets he won’t share with May, even with her prodding.  The tensions become even greater when it’s revealed that May’s overtures to be a sounding board are really a way for her to convey Coulson’s knowledge to someone higher up.  That’s a juicy betrayal to come, one far more at home with May’s chilly nature than awkward flings.

Conclusion: Sif’s presence doesn’t suddenly make S.H.I.E.L.D. must-watch TV, but it does elevate an episode to enjoyable heights.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Do you think Rooster’s guttural voice is genuine or do you think it’s affected, like Christian Bale’s Batman voice?  Maybe to Dwayne, Rooster is his Batman persona.

– Word to the wise: try to make your essential villain-capturing collar of the same rifle-resistant stuff as your armor.  Just saying.

– “So Ward’s like, what, a pod person?”  Oh, Skye.  I have kind of missed you.