Agents of Shield “Watchdogs” Review

<p>A metric TON happened in <em>Agents of Shield<&sol;em> this week&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s clear that the writers are aligning their characters towards the finale &lpar;and <em>Captain America&colon; Civil War<&sol;em>&rpar; but&comma; in doing so&comma; are also taking the time to show us exciting and new combinations of characters in story lines&comma; and this led to an episode that felt dynamic and fresh&period; Because of this&comma; a lot of elements felt more successful than they might have in a previous installment&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s break it down&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>First up &&num;8211&semi; The Watchdogs&period; Turns out&comma; Malick has been feeding intel to a riled-up team of militant mercs seeking to take out inhuman &&num;8220&semi;freaks&&num;8221&semi;&period; Their use of Nitramine &lpar;a chemical used to cause implosions&rpar; made them a truly viable threat&comma; particularly as it latched itself onto Fitz&&num;8217&semi;s neck&period; While we didn&&num;8217&semi;t get a ton of action or a massive battle scene here &lpar;until the end&rpar;&comma; their presence also gave a lot of weight to Daisy&&num;8217&semi;s actions&period; This was the beginning of something new with Daisy&comma; as she began to turn to more aggressive means of getting the job done&comma; threatening not one but two guys with her powers to get information&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;103064" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-103064" style&equals;"width&colon; 900px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-103064 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03201835&sol;142139-3303-900x600-174169&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"900" height&equals;"600" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-103064" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Go Go Power Ra&&num;8230&semi;um&&num;8230&semi;nevermind&period; &lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of Shield&comma;<&sol;em> ABC&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It was interesting watching the dynamic between Daisy and Fitz here&comma; particularly as Daisy began to push the limits of what was acceptable within the mission&period; Fitz&comma; the quiet but good-hearted agent that he is&comma; is heartbreaking to watch as he holds a man at gunpoint through a truck window&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s obvious that this will be at the forefront of the rest of the season&colon; Inhuman rights&comma; and how the powers of those Inhumans fit into the world on a deeper level&period; If <em>Shield<&sol;em> can continue to explore this topic in meaningful and thoughtful ways&comma; it could take the show to new heights in terms of relevance&comma; especially in the lead-up to <em>Civil War&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Next &&num;8211&semi; Mack and Ruben &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm2173080&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Gaius Charles<&sol;a>&rpar;&comma; Mack&&num;8217&semi;s brother&period; Ruben was a solid presence on the show this week&comma; acting as a foil of sorts to a shaken-up Mack following the exit of Hunter and Bobbi&period; Ruben wanting to join the Watchdogs and was a nice touch&comma; and we got to see Mack struggle with family vs&period; what he had to do&period; This&comma; of course&comma; culminated in a final battle sequence in their dark family home&comma; which was extra violent for the show&period; Most of the time&comma; the show&&num;8217&semi;s action is reliant on powers or spy-tastic pistol shots&period; Here&comma; we got Mac blasting watchdogs in the face with a shotgun and cutting a guy with a butcher knife&period; The sequence did receive some levity in the form of Mac finally building his shotgun-axe &lpar;referenced in episode one of this season&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;103065" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-103065" style&equals;"width&colon; 900px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-103065 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03201818&sol;142024-9255-900x600-174157&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"900" height&equals;"600" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-103065" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Fitz does NOT approve&period; &lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of Shield<&sol;em>&comma; ABC&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Lincoln and Coulson had&comma; arguably&comma; the most interesting dynamic of the episode&period; Lincoln was absent last week as he was receiving his Shield agent assessment&period; However&comma; it turns out that Coulson didn&&num;8217&semi;t like what he saw in it&comma; and decided to take Lincoln out and test him himself&period; Coulson takes Lincoln to a safehouse in search of Blake&comma; the ex-Shield agent now running the Watchdogs&period; The highlight of the episode was Coulson snapping at Lincoln on the jet&comma; putting him in his place&period; Lincoln&comma; as a character&comma; has always been a cool&comma; yet annoying one&period; His attitude grates and he feels disjunct in his actions&period; This exchange&comma; then&comma; is a great one&comma; giving Clark Gregg some excellent moments while also giving Lincoln some much needed direction and discipline&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Coulson&&num;8217&semi;s interaction with Blake was interesting as well&period; One thing that <em>Shield<&sol;em> typically gets right is the depth of their universe&period; Blake wasn&&num;8217&semi;t just a bad guy with an evil plan&comma; but rather someone trying to do good when his world and beliefs turned out to be corrupt under his nose&period; The scene grew long after a while&comma; however&comma; so it was rewarding to have Lincoln blast him in the chest &lpar;hologram or otherwise&rpar;&period; Coulson&&num;8217&semi;s final approval of Lincoln hopefully sets us up for a more engaging and decisive Lincoln in the future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;103066" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-103066" style&equals;"width&colon; 900px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-103066 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03201800&sol;142024-1141-900x600-174159&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"900" height&equals;"600" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-103066" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Simmons has grown into a fantastic asset for the show&period; &lpar;<em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of Shield&comma;<&sol;em> ABC&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I want to give a quick shout-out to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm4464857&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Elizabeth Henstridge<&sol;a>&comma; who consistently brings outstanding work to the table as Simmons&comma; who we find this week struggling with the reality of all that has happened this season and blaming herself for the deaths of many&period; May&&num;8217&semi;s guidance was another nice dynamic between two characters who haven&&num;8217&semi;t spent much on-screen time together&period; Lash joining in the final battle of the season would be a very interesting addition&comma; so hopefully their search for him goes well&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A few things that didn&&num;8217&semi;t quite land this week&colon; There was a lot to cover&comma; and somethings that could&&num;8217&semi;ve been more fleshed out were sacrificed for the sake of getting it all in&comma; such as allowing Daisy more time to realistically turn more aggressive or giving Coulson and Lincoln more time to actually develop a character change&period; Ruben also didn&&num;8217&semi;t quite give us a stellar performance this week&comma; although his presence as a character for Mack was enough to move the story along&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; this was a solid week for <em>Agents of Shield<&sol;em> as the cannons align towards <em>Civil War<&sol;em> and the end of the season&period; <em>Shield<&sol;em> has a lot of potentially fantastic balls in the air&comma; but hopefully all of them land exactly where they should&period; Either way&comma; stick with BagoGames and we&&num;8217&semi;ll find out together&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Have thoughts&quest; Tweet at me&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;LoganASchultz">&commat;LoganASchultz<&sol;a> or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;BagoGames">&commat;BagoGames<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agents of Shield airs Tuesdays at 9&sol;8c on ABC&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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