As the third season of Agents of SHIELD swings into full gear with Tuesday night’s episode, fans of the show were taken on a wild ride filled with deaths, resurrections, Inhuman conspiracies, and connections to the greater MCU.
Daisy and Robbie
I have to start off by saying that I really dig the casting of Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes. In tonight’s episode, the Ghost Rider didn’t make an appearance, which allowed Luna to shine as a compelling Reyes – a torn, caring, example of character who is quickly finding his place among the cast. Luna’s and Bennett’s chemistry throughout their scenes together in this episode is evident, and I’d watch a spinoff of just the two of them cleaning up the streets of East L.A. in a heartbeat. Their differing ideologies reminds me of the Punisher and Daredevil in the most recent season on the Netflix original, and it brings a new, welcome dynamic to the show, which brings me to the introduction of Robbie’s younger brother, Gabe.
Initially, Gabe seemed fine in terms of getting along rather well with Daisy during their short moment alone. However, his change of character during his realization of Daisy’s dual identity as Quake was a sudden shift. It seems as though Gabe is just as protective of Robbie as Robbie is of him.
The Inhuman Conspiracy
Yoyo had a big part in tonight’s episode, which was a treat, because Natalia Cordova nails the role as the Marvel speedster. While in Miami for a friend’s bachelorette party, a power outage disrupts the festivities. People looking for an Inhuman rush the hotel where they are partying. The tension in this scene is palpable. It’s so interesting to be seeing the fallout from the Sokovia Accords play out in the MCU. Since the next feature film (Doctor Strange) has yet to be released, television is where we can really see the effects of the Accords on the greater MCU. Earlier this season, it was revealed that Yoyo signed the Accords and was now on the Inhuman registration list. Because her name was on there, she could be traced to the hotel.
The reach of the Accords has stretched far and wide across the MCU now, and hate and prejudice that was directed towards the Inhumans at large was reminiscent of current real-world issues. I’ve always seen Agents of SHIELD as being at the forefront of progression in the MCU in terms of inclusivity, and tonight’s episode proved why that’s still the case.
You can read this piece about why Agents of SHIELD is basically an MCU version of the X-Men – about how people with powers and abilities deal with prejudice from society around them. Many times the show intentionally (or unintentionally) serves as social commentary for what happens in the real world.
When Coulson’s team arrives at the hotel and Yoyo uses her powers to disarm the bad guys, I almost cheered out loud. Props to the VFX team, because the visualization of her powers looked great. Originally, the blackouts in Miami and six others cities around the world were attributed to an “Inhuman Resistance,” but was later uncovered by the team to be nothing more than the Watchdogs causing the blackouts to frame the Inhumans and cause discord. At the end of the episode, we learned that a total of 14 Inhumans around the world were killed due to the event.
The Death of a SHIELD Agent
Oh yeah, May died. Kinda.
With Agent May still reeling from whatever infected her when the ghost (?) touched her, Agent Simmons and Dr. Radcliffe attempted to figure out what was plaguing her. Using a brain scan that was very similar to that of Jarvis and Ultron as shown in Age of Ultron, they were able to determine that May was suffering in a potential state of fear and paranoia. “How do you cure fear,” asks Dr. Radcliffe. Together, him and Simmons came to the conclusion that they had to kill May for a short period of time to allow her brain to reset itself. Although we are only three episodes into the new season, I found myself unsure about whether or not we were actually going to lose May.
SHIELD Out of the Shadows
Ultimately, the episode ended on a rather surprising note: SHIELD is finally out of the shadows and has been legitimized again in the eyes of the government. This begs the question: what next?
Other Highlights:
- I laughed out loud when Simmons and Radcliffe were working together and Simmons exclaimed, “Hell no, I’m not ready! We’re about to kill May!”
- Since Radcliffe used the power source from he LMD – will Simmons find out about the secret project?
- May also cracked me up when she was “resurrected” and said, “Get this crap off me!”
- WHIH News was featured in the episode – the CNN equivalent in the MCU.
- How much more unrest from the Sokovia Accords will we see in the next episode of Agents of SHIELD?