Warning Spoilers Ahead

Following up on last week, Coulson and his remaining team are still in the facility figuring out their next steps. When word from Grant comes that numerous villains have been turned loose, they decide to go after them and do their jobs.

But, before they can do that they must all pass a lie detector to see where their loyalty remains. That presents a problem for Grant. What’s nice though, is that the episode name drops Romanov, aka the Black Widow, the bunch. The last couple of episodes have done so. It’s a great touch.

But, the “baddie” this episode is Marvel villain Marcus Daniels, aka Blackout who is on a mission to track down a girl he’s obsessed with. It’ll be interesting to see if the series digs a bit more into his origin, especially since he has some connection to other Marvel characters like Darkhawk and Cloak.

The episode is really built around two things, will Grant be found out (including what happens when he is) and what’s Coulson’s obsession with Blackout (including why he wants to stop him first). It’s interesting to see Grant play the dual role, he’s shining a bit more than he has in the rest of the episodes.

When it comes to Grant as well as Blackout, things actually move along and move along well. Blackout unfortunately has a bad Ghostbusters vibe in the resolution, but Grant and Skye is rather interesting. I can’t say I totally see where that’s going or why Skye acts the way she does… but something is there… I hope.

Can someone also explain how May went from the snow to Ontario!?

Overall the episode is what I’d call a bridge. It doesn’t stand out on its own, but it moves the story forward. Not as solid as the last two episodes, but much better than most of the season.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 7.5

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