Saturday, 24 March 2018

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Review: “The Devil Complex”


Fitz v. Fitz: Dawn of Fitz
(This review contains spoilers!)

          What do you know, after I spent most of last week talking about how S.H.I.E.L.D should be preparing to take its final bow, this week they bounced back with an actually good episode. I think the biggest culprit for why S.H.I.E.L.D’s been so underwhelming this season is the main overarching story itself. I just can’t get invested in this weird “we gotta break the time loop” plot. But here, this episode was character driven, moved the plot forward in several significant ways, and employed a few of this show’s trademark surprises.

          While Coulson is trying to track down who’s responsible for Yo-Yo’s disarming, Fitz is spending this week trying to close the fear dimension portal for good. Unfortunately things get complicated when Framework Fitz returns, bringing with him a potential (albeit sinister) solution.

          I was hesitant about seeing Framework Fitz again at first, but after just a minute of him back onscreen I was reminded of what made him such a great bad guy last season. Iain de Caestecker plays a villain just as well if not better than he plays a hero. Every scene he’s in he just dominates everything and you love to hate him. I wouldn’t complain if we got even a teensy bit more of him during the season.

          But, of course, things get complicated. Framework Fitz wants to remove Daisy’s Inhuman inhibitor chip to allow her to use the gravitonium to close the portal, but of course real Fitz isn’t feeling it. Simmons shows up to help and then, of course, because even after marriage these two aren’t allowed to be happy, it turns out that Framework Fitz isn’t a creation of the fear dimension, but rather a split personality in Fitz’s mind.

          Talk about a great surprise. The whole episode (plus the previous two) makes you think that Framework Fitz is another creation of the portal, but having it not be the case is far more interesting than a cameo that just gets poofed at the end of the episode. Fitz has always had a problem or two in every season, but having his Framework personality still be hanging out inside of him leads to so much potential.

          Seriously, why didn’t they reintroduce it earlier?

          Meanwhile Coulson captured Hale, that general looking lady who’s been in charge of the random bad guys that’ve been hanging around lately. But, of course, it was a trap. Turns out she’s working with Absorbing Man and The Superior to make her own little League of Super Villains, and she wants Coulson’s help with something. They didn’t devote too much time to this subplot (it’s probably just setting things in motion for next week), but it was cool to see these old characters again.

          The episode ends with a shocking revelation: HYDRA is still around!

          …Yay?

          I mean, really? I feel like this show’s done everything it could do with HYDRA. I’m not super eager that we’re gonna be seeing them yet again. I guess they’re kind of this show’s main villains but I just feel like there’s nothing really new we can see from them.

          Aside from that, this was a great episode, and it was so refreshing to enjoy S.H.I.E.L.D again with how ho-hum most of this season has been. Fitz’s awesome storyline carried everything, and the way it ended was simply genius and broke all expectations. More of this, please.

FINAL SCORE
8/10

Great

No comments:

Post a Comment