Mad Mack
(This review contains
spoilers!)
After 4 painful weeks of waiting,
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has finally returned…for 2 weeks, and then it goes on
winter break. Looking it up, this has been the shortest first half of a
S.H.I.E.L.D season yet, with the other 3 clocking in at 10 episodes as opposed
to this one’s 8. I guess the election and Thanksgiving being back-to-back are
partially to blame, or maybe the second half of the season has more content
overall, but I found it a little bizarre.
Speaking of bizarre, this week picked
up directly after the last episode, with Coulson, Fitz and Robbie having
vanished. Nobody knows where they’ve gone, but things are starting to get weird
around the base. As it turns out, the lost trio have kind of made their way to
a dimension between dimensions where they still exist, but only they can see
and hear themselves.
I do have one major gripe with this
episode, and that is that a lot of it felt very repetitive for a reason. In
order to keep Coulson and the others involved with the story, the writers
decided it was best to show a group of scenes, and then replay them with the
missing characters inserted in to show their reactions to them. While this
worked better the second time they did it (showing their slight influences over
the world), the first time felt more like just watching the same scene replay
with Coulson acting as a couch commentator.
That was the only real issue this
week, because as is the standard with this show, things were thrown into a loop
and you could never see what was coming next. First and foremost, Ghost Rider
escaped Robbie’s body and attached itself to Mack, leading to an insane car
chase through the streets. And, sure enough, we got to see Mack turn into the
flaming skull man himself. I especially liked how the visual effects artists
subtly tweaked the look of the skull so it resembled Mack’s face more than
Robbie’s. It’s little changes like that that really add to the overall appeal
and universe that S.H.I.E.L.D is going for. Anyways, Robbie was able to chase
down the Rider and convince him to reattach to his body, allowing him to return
home. As the show stands right now, it seems that Robbie just wants to hunt
down Uncle Eli as his last bit of vengeance, but I really hope this isn’t the
case. The whole Ghost Rider storyline has been the best part of the season so
far, and it’d be a shame to lose him after just 8 episodes.
We also finally learned where Simmons
was sent to last week, as she was given the task of breaking that government
lady’s brother out of his terregenesis cocoon. I did find it kind of amusing
how she only opened up his back and face before being escorted out, leaving the
poor guy still stuck there. Overall, this subplot only really existed to give
Fitz a reason not to trust Director Mace, as well as potentially set up a new
inhuman somewhere down the line.
Radcliffe and Aida returned this week
as well to help May bring Coulson and Fitz back. With May having taken the
Darkhold for herself, Fitz was able to influence Aida to read it, lest either
May or Radcliffe become corrupted by its power. Another neat touch was how,
considering the Darkhold always presents its text in the reader’s native
language, Aida read the book in binary. This led to what I can only assume is
the Doctor Strange tie-in, as Aida opened up what looked remarkably similar to
the portals from the movie, pulling Coulson and Fitz back through.
Going forth, though, I worry that the
Aida storyline will end up exactly how I predicted it would in my review of the
season premiere: she uses her newfound Doctor Strange powers to turn against
Radcliffe and S.H.I.E.L.D, becoming this season’s final boss. The post-credits
scene showed her creating a brain, but for what purpose is unclear. Considering
S.H.I.E.L.D is especially good at breaking expectations, I hope that her storyline
will go somewhere other than the tired “evil robot” plotline we’ve seen so many
times before (including in the same universe S.H.I.E.L.D takes place in).
Regardless of where it ultimately
leads us (and regardless of when we get to see where it leads us, considering
this insane scheduling), this episode was another fantastic installment for
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s so funny to think how worried I was for the show’s
future after how much I disliked the first episode of the season, when my fears
were completely unfounded. With things sure to get crazy with next week’s
winter finale, I can’t wait to see how this is all going to wrap up.
FINAL SCORE
9/10
Amazing
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