Gamersledge Reviews – Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 205 “A Wolf in the Hen House”

Simmons and her lab partner

Welcome True Believers! Like I said in the previous review, it is getting harder and harder to write reviews for this show and say something original. But I keep trying. This week we see the return of Agent Simmons and Raina and almost every new character from this season, plus one notable introduction. I don’t know how spoilery sensitive folks reading this are, so for now I will leave it fairly vague. So the episode leads off with a terror attack that has symptoms similar to something we have seen before. Through a series of events, Simmons learns of the attack and the potential of what it could be and has to get a message to the team. At the same time, a desperate Raina who has already availed herself to the obelisk’s current owner and been denied decides to head to Hydra and beg mercy. She sees Simmons and finds away to manipulate the situation to her advantage. This brings in the scary security enforcer for Hydra who seems hell bent on revealing Simmons as a S.H.I.E.L.D. loyalist.

Scary Dad

Story: At this point you are either invested in the story and characters or you aren’t. If there is a weakpoint in this all, it is the show must be hard to jump into at this point. If you know nothing of the MCU or Agents, then there must be a lot that you just can’t follow. But by the same token, for those who are following the story it makes an amazingly well told and cohesive story. We keep learning more, but at the same time left with just as many questions. It has been masterfully crafted.

Visual: Not a lot of special effects here, but again just beautifully shot.

Acting/pacing/etc. I did find the pacing of the episode a little off. Nothing major, nut it was a noticeable shift from the previous episodes this season. In balance however, this is a minor infraction. There were a couple of minor character things that made me go head tilt a little, and ultimately those are the things that drug my score down a half point. They aren’t showstoppers, but slightly distracting.

A new dynamic duo?

All in all, this episode gets 9.5 out of 10 batons. ON TO THE SPOILERS!

[spoiler]

You are on your own lady…

1. Bobbi/Mockingbird – So we knew she was coming, but we weren’t sure which side she fell on. Honestly we still don’t. She could easily end up being a double agent/plant. Her action scenes were pretty awesome though.

2. Hunter is basically Hawkeye. The comic book one at least. MCU Hawkeye is too serious and such, so Hunter is all the other parts of Hawkeye, including having been married/in a relationship with Bobbi. Now THAT reveal was awesome. I LOVED that dialog.

Mockingbird’s opening fight – if the gif doesn’t play here click on it to play.

3. Scary Dad is Scary. Holy cow is he killing that part. And going from fighting to working with Hydra? Whitehall and Scary Dad together on the same team…..this can mean absolutely NOTHING good.

4. The fixing of Skye and Coulson’s relationship… you knew Skye couldn’t play the good soldier forever, and eventually she broke though. Coulson is still lying to her obviously, but we will get that all out eventually. Is Skye alien? Or simply inhuman? Or a miracle herself?

5. The obelisk is called “The Deviner”. Doesn’t mean anything to me.

the classic Mockingbird pose

6. Simmons was studying samples from “Bessie”. Hellcow…..really? I mean we did have “not” Howard the Duck, but Hellcow?! That would mean Dracula is out there somewhere too….

7. OK we have been string at this writing over and over again…but seeing it on a wall it can be divined as a map? hmmmmm…

8. Fitz had already recognized his “Simmons” was not real, so that “revelation” was hollow. But he finally gets rid of faux Simmons only to have the real one reappear…what happens next?
[/spoiler]