Director Phil Coulson and Agent Daisy Johnson leading the charge as S.H.I.E.L.D. searches the world for more powered people in the aftermath of their epic battle with Jiaying and her army of Inhumans. However, Coulson and the team soon find out that they are not the only group looking for these new Inhumans.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. kicks off the third season diving right into the Inhuman world with a new direction for the org, now containing (in a positive and negative way) the Inhuman growth. Terrigen Mist is loose, so new Inhumans are spouting up, and SHIELD is there to deal with it all.

The first 10 minutes of the show set up the rest of the episode in both tone… and look. The episode continues an issue with the series where it’s clear the budget doesn’t match the ambition. Horrible special FX and mashed with good FX, and great set design also goes along with sets that look straight out of the lot on the studio grounds. And Lash? Holy crap did he look bad. There’s a reason it was filmed in the dark, and even that didn’t help.

What really stands out is the need for new editors for the show, with horrible cuts breaking in to and coming out of commercials. Not sure where I’d put that budget, better FX, or this.

The episode does move along the story, a hell of a lot. The President address not just Inhumans but the events of Age of Ultron, the first Avengers, and more. His speech seems to lay the ground for next year’s Captain America: Civil War. Hell they even reference Ant-Man! In this way, plus movement on Bobbi’s story, are actually really good. The series should focus away from the spectacle and on these smaller stories instead. To say the strongest part of the episode wasn’t Fitz and Coulson’s talk about Gemma is just factually wrong.

When the series goes big, it trips, and trips a lot. But, it also shows a solid direction for where it should be going. So, it’s exactly like we’ve seen before, a series that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.

Overall Score: 7.25