Warning Spoilers Ahead

With the fall break over, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back picking up right where the mid-season finale left off. S.H.I.E.L.D. is searching for the missing Coulson and now a new person is in charge, Victoria Hand (yes that one from the comics). The tone of the team is shifted and the team expanded with numerous faceless S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

From that hive of activity we switch to Coulson who is still in the clutches of Centipede as they attempt to figure out how he was brought back to life.

Skye has been booted from the team because she doesn’t fit Hand’s plan. So she’s off playing rogue agent trying to find Coulson. The rest of the team work on a captured Centipede operative to see if he’ll spill anything. Everyone does their thing tracking down Coulson while Centipede talks him into finding out how he was brought back to life, which is great because we finally start to get details as to what’s up with that.

And we kind of do! Clearly Coulson’s return was against his wishes as we get glimpses of what he went through to be brought back. And then further details as the show wrapped up. There’s resolution of one plot point at least and it’s actually somewhat satisfying. Though the “how” isn’t given a thorough explanation the why and some details are!

Overall, the best episode of the show so far I think with pretty good acting, lots of action and a plot that moved. There’s still group dynamics, but not 10 minutes dedicated to it. The tone was much darker with some pretty gruesome special effects. It looks like Marvel is keeping up their promise of ramping up the action and learning from the first half of the season.

Here’s hoping the rest of the season is this good.

Director: Kevin Hooks
Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 8.75

Related articles

• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 10 – The Bridge
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 9 – Repairs
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 8 – The Well
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 7 – The Hub
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 6 – FZZT
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 5 – Girl in the Flower Dress
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 4 – Eye-Spy
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 3 – The Asset
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 2 – 0-8-4
• TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 1 – Pilot