Piece of the Puzzle: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S2 E1 - Shadows

A preface - This segment is not devoted completely to each week's new Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode. This is a general series that will actually appear a few times most weeks.  In it, I will review the latest episode of any series that I am following.  Right now it's just goin to be Gotham (starting with this week's Unreality article) and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  In October, Arrow, Flash and Constantine will be added to the roster.  January will add Agent Carter, and so on and so on as new shows and seasons roll out.  Needless to say, this should keep me out of trouble for a while.

Despite its four-month hiatus, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. began its second season with the same frenetic energy that its last season ended with.  Labelled a terrorist organization, driven underground by the U.S. government, forced to rely on mercenaries of questionable loyalties and ultimately unsure of who to trust, S.H.I.E.L.D. is on the verge of collapse.  Director Coulson can't even rely on Fitz anymore, who suffered brain damage after Ward jettisoned him and Simmons into the ocean.  When Hydra resurfaces to steal a devastating weapon from military custody, Coulson's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have no choice but to stop them.

"Shadows" proves that season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is just as interested in exploring the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the aftermath of Captain America: The Winter Soldier as season 1 was.  Now fugatives from the government, former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents - untrusted by Coulson and desperate to survive - have turned to selling classified intelligence to the highest bidder.  After Garret's death and Skye's rejection, Ward has become suicidal an desperate to redeem himself: refusing to be interrogated by anybody except for Skye.  His intelligence reveals a thriving Hydra network spanning the entire globe: saving their strength as the world instead goes after S.H.I.E.L.D.

Coming into the new season, my biggest concern was what direction they were going to take with Agent Fitz.  We knew that he had suffered a prolonged period without oxygen and had suffered at least some degree of brain damage because of it.  Until now, we had know knowledge of what state his body and mind were in.  Whether he was in a coma or walking around as good as ever (or somewhere inbetween), there was no indication.

The truth is more heartbreaking and tragic than anything that I could have imagined.  Although back, he is obviously damaged.  He is no longer the animated youn agent that was desperate to show Simmons what he really felt for her.  He's no longer the genius that he used to be.  He can't remember everything that he used to, nor explain his line of reasoning.  He can no longer remember the words for things that he used to be able to rattle off like the Doctor speaking techno-babble.  Feeling useless and unwanted, he has grown quiet, brooding and erratic: only able to take solace with Simmons.

The truth is, however, that Simmons is gone.  Fearing that her presence was holding back his recovery, she felt that the best thing for him was to leave.  Incapable of coming to terms with her departure, and coupled with his extensive brain damage, he began manifesting her as a comforting hallucination: something that the rest of the team knows nothing about.

If "Shadows" is any indication to the rest of the season, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has finally found its footing as a series.  Under Agent May's direction, the new Skye is now a full-fledged badass: ranked somewhere between Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley.  Antoine Triplett, with his easy smiles and off-the-cuff charisma, easily fills the hole on the team that was left by Agent Ward's defection.  Coulson's new position as Director suits him well, allowing to run his agency through his sole discretion, removing the awkward "this is okay for now, but you can't break the rules forever" framework that defined his previous attempts to do what he felt was right.  The stilted, episodic pacing of the first season has been replaced by a much more organic one, where narrative arcs are staggered so that nothing ever begins or resolves at the same time.

This is the best episode Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to date.  Everything about it - from its twists to its newly-expanded cast - is absolutely perfect.  Marvel had the courage to take Fitz's injuries to their logical extreme and the finesse to make it the best new development of the series.  "Crusher" Creel (aka, Absorbing Man) is an awesome on-the-ground villain whose used imaginatively and well throughout the entire episode.  Anybody who gave up on the show last season should seriously reconsider giving it a second chance in this one.  Overall, I give the episode a 10/10.