Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Week 19

episode: Light in the Darkness
original airdate: 4-22-14

Quick recap: The cat’s out of the bag, Hydra’s out in the open and Agent Ward is in with them, but the rest of the team doesn’t know it yet. S.H.I.E.L.D. is more or less dissolved except for a handful of scattered agents still loyal to Nick Fury and the ideals that he stands for. The Fridge has been opened and dozens of criminals both insane and superpowered have been released into the wild and Coulson’s team is one of the few groups out there willing and able to stop them. It’s almost an excuse to turn the show back into a freak of the week except instead of doing that, they tie the most wanted fugitive directly into the past of the show as someone that Coulson has dealt with in the past and it is finally a chance to meet the mysterious cellist that he has mentioned a few times. Meanwhile there are still trust issues within the team, not just towards Ward who the audience knows isn’t trustworthy, but also still between Fitz & Simmons, Coulson & May, and Trippett & Fitz. All in all it adds up to another great episode.

The freak of the week is honestly the weakest part of the episode, but it’s also given the least amount of screen time. Apparently he’s a known villain in the Marvel universe, but all I know is from the episode where he is someone with the ability to absorb energy around him, including heat and electrical energy from the human body. Not only that, but he has an infatuation with Amy Acker’s cellist and was part of the circumstances which caused Coulson to first meet her. I’ve always been a fan of Acker when she shows up in other Whedon shows and other occasional genre shows that I’ve watched.

The most interesting plotline in the episode however was what was going on in the secret base between Koenig, Skye, and Ward. There’s a nice bit of comic relief with the entire team minus Coulson taking the lie detector test for Patton Oswald’s Koenig which then quickly turns into a more tense scene when Ward steps up to the plate and gets through it by truthfully stating that he’s there for Skye, or at least that’s what we’re meant to believe. As Skye gets close to revealing Ward’s involvement at the Fridge, Ward makes a mistake in taking out Koenig and Skye really starts to show her progress as the show closes out with Skye aware that Ward is working for Hydra, yet she is ready to play along for her own survival. It’s a great sequence of cat and mouse and intrigue and intercuts between the two storylines very nicely. And to cap things off, May ends the episode on her own, with her mother, on her way to find Maria Hill and likely also Nick Fury. Very curious to see where this all ends up. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.