Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 12

Episode: Seeds
Original Airdate: 1-14-2014

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has come off of its midseason hiatus and hit the ground running. Many of the biggest problems that I had with the first half of the season are no longer apparent in these past couple episodes. The team finally feels like a team, even Ward is getting much more personality to him, the mysteries are starting to actually build upon each other and bring things back from earlier episodes to form a larger whole. There’s still a bit of the freak of the week going on, but for the most part, I think it’s really getting into the swing of things and I’m looking forward to where this goes for the rest of this season and hopefully beyond. If you’ve been reading my recaps to this point, you already know I don’t shy away from spoilers, but there’s a couple possible surprises here if you haven’t watched the episode yet, so you’ve been warned.

This episode is actually quite a well rounded episode in terms of how many characters get their moments to shine. If there’s any member of the team that actually doesn’t get much to do, it’s Melinda May, though even she still gets a couple of the funniest lines of the episode when she reveals her relationship to Agent Coulson in her typical straightforward way without getting a chance to say anything else about it until later in the episode. As far as the mission of the week goes, there’s a rogue student in the S.H.I.E.L.D. science and technology academy who let off basically a freeze bomb, almost hurting a student in the process. The reveal of who the culprit is isnt entirely too surprising, but the mystery surrounding it is handled well, and so is Ward working together with Simmons and Skye in the boiler room, i.e. the one place in the academy without cameras which has gone through several enhancements through the years.

He’s sure no Elsa.

Meanwhile, Coulson and May go off to further one of the other lingering mysteries of the show so far: Skye’s origin. As it turns out, Skye herself is an 0-8-4: an object of unknown origin, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who discovered her are all dead save one who disappeared off the grid until being found by May and Coulson. Both the agent and May tell Coulson that Skye should never know, but considering what Coulson has just been through, he disregards their advice and immediately tells her the first chance he gets, which was surprising at first, but then made complete sense. But a good TV show like this never reveals one answer without uncovering two more questions, and a character back from episode 3, who I still remember as the Ghost Whisperer’s husband, comes back and reveals that he also has ties to Centipede. And they also have a brief moment where they set up the kid scientist as a possible gifted villain again down the road. Overall, a great episode. As I mentioned before, I really like where this season is going and curious as to where it ends up, especially with Stan Lee’s hyped cameo in next week’s episode. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.