Here come the Koenigs
(This review contains
spoilers!)
You know, I always wondered what
happened to the Koenigs. A fairly common sight in Season 1 and the first half
of Season 2, the characters basically dropped off the face of the Earth after
that, with barely even a mention of what was going on with them.
Fast forward to this episode, and the
Koenigs are back in full force, played once again by the one and only Patton
Oswalt. It’s only fitting they return during this storyline, as the Koenigs
were long rumoured to be the first LMDs in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, given
that they all look alike. I will say that this episode finally gives a
definitive answer to the question, but just what they are is something you’ll
have to watch the episode to learn for yourself.
It didn’t take long for us to learn
who the “Superior” Nadeer talked about last week was. We met him early on in
the episode, and it turns out he’s…just some buff Russian guy. Huh.
This was easily the biggest
disappointment of the episode for me. While the Superior wasn’t built up as
this super-awesome villain who was going to give our heroes a run for their
money or anything, I was expecting a little more than yet another evil guy who hates inhumans for sinister reasons. We’ve had
several characters like him on the show in the past, and he really doesn’t
stand out among them. The ending of the episode makes me feel like this episode
is mostly setting him up for later, but I’ll get back to that.
Most of this episode is focused on the
Darkhold and where it is. After Aida broke into the base at the start of this
arc Coulson gave the book to Billy Koenig, who hid it in a secret base. Now
Billy has been captured by Radcliffe and the Superior and the mission is to
figure out exactly what he did with the book and how to get it before Radcliffe
does.
The return of the Koenigs is easily
the best part of the episode, introducing us to new ones including a
slam-poetry Koenig and their awesome big sister JT. Of course with Patton
Oswalt on board this episode had some of the funniest moments all season,
especially the scene with Sam Koenig telling Daisy about the fanfiction about
her online, including her being paired with Black Widow. There were a lot of
fantastic one-liners sprinkled throughout (“What do you mean, ‘my brother’? I’ve
never seen this guy in my life!”), and honestly it made me wish that we could
have these characters around more often like we did back in the day.
While all this is happening, Fitz,
Simmons and Mack are back at home base interrogating the Radcliffe LMD for
information. After a lot of deliberation about Fitz’s daddy issues, they’re able
to learn that the LMDs have programmed brains of their own, leading Simmons to
put 2 and 2 together and figure out that May has been an LMD all this time. I
did enjoy learning more about Fitz’s past, considering it’s something that hasn’t
really been explored in previous episodes, but I do wish we had seen more of
it. It kind of felt like Radcliffe brought up Fitz’s dad, he got upset about
it, but after taking a breather he was fine again. Something tells me that this
is a storyline that will be coming back into play later on, however,
considering the attention it got this week. Maybe Fitz’s dad will be involved
with the Watchdogs or Senator Nadeer?
Anyways, them learning about LMD May
leads me into the next scene, and it’s kind of a weird one: Coulson and May’s
first kiss…er, sort of. Technically it was the LMD May, so I don’t know if that
counts. This brings up something that’s been going on the entire LMD storyline
but I’ve never felt it important enough to bring up until now: the Coulson/May
romance that’s blossomed out of nowhere. Don’t get me wrong, I feel it’s worked
for the storyline, especially as that’s not the real May. I just don’t think it
makes any sense in the overall storyline of the characters. They haven’t had
any romance with each other before this season. Hell, they’ve had relationships
with other people over the course of this show! Considering the large “Phillinda”
fanbase that seems to have sprung up, I worry the showrunners are putting this
in as a way to pander to the fans. Maybe it’s just me, but I dunno.
So LMD May is able to trick Coulson
and get the Darkhold from him, and Radcliffe runs off with it. I imagine we’re reaching
the end of the LMD storyline, as there’s apparently going to be a third arc
this season and this feels like we’re approaching the final battle with
Radcliffe. The episode ends with all the Koenigs reunited, LMD May being locked
up, and an interesting scene with Radcliffe and the Superior. The Superior
brings out a bunch of photos of Coulson, saying that whenever there’s an alien invasion
or something similar, he’s always there watching, and he wants to know more
about him. It’s not made clear how he knows about Coulson (especially
considering some of his photos are from classified S.H.I.E.L.D sites, such as
where Mjolnir crashed down in Thor),
but this is a very interesting setup.
Hot
Potato Soup is a lot of fun. Most of that comes from the fantastic return
of the Koenigs, but the storyline with the team chasing after the siblings and
trying to find the Darkhold is engaging and entertaining all the same. The
storyline with Fitz at home base is great as well, giving us new information
for a character we’ve spent years with. I do wish the Superior was more of an
interesting and unique villain and the Coulson/May kiss did feel a little
forced, but the episode was good enough to overlook those flaws and just have a
good time.
FINAL SCORE
8/10
Great
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