Some people called last week’s outstanding episode of Agents of SHIELD a sort of reboot for the show in terms of its direction, tone, and growth of the characters. This week’s episode proved the point that the show is re-structuring itself in many ways.
“Seeds” featured the live-action debut of Marvel’s Donnie Gill aka Blizzard — who is an Iron Man villain in the comics – (played by Dylan Minnette) and it was a nice introduction to the character. While it remains to be seen when/if Graviton (Ian Hart) will return to the show, it was cool — no pun intended — that the show’s version of Blizzard is so young in order to have some variety in their villains.
The interaction between he and Fitz was fun to watch, in addition, it gave Fitz the opportunity to be a mentor to a character like Donnie. This may also give Fitz a bigger role when/if Blizzard shows up again. Another good callback to the show’s first episodes was the return of Ian Quinn (David Conrad) and it was revealed that he is also working for the Clairvoyant. He was a lot better in this episode than he was in “The Asset” and hopefully he will continue to be a good secondary villain later this season.
There were nice references in “Seeds”, both from previous episodes — such as 0-8-4 – and from the movies, especially the mentioning of Bucky Barnes at the wall of valor. This was all thanks to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy focus. It can’t be stressed enough how enjoyable it was to see that academy because it also made the whole S.H.I.E.L.D. aspect feel big (which they have done a great job with since “The Hub”) and truly connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It’s always great to see Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen have scenes together because most of the time, that is when the show has some of its greatest scenes. They are continuing to explore their relationship and whenever their characters work together, it’s always intriguing. This week they focused on the second mystery of the show which has been Skye’s background and her parents. They are finally starting to give the fans more answers to their previous mysteries before dropping new ones.
These two latest episodes have really been Chloe Bennet’s breakout episodes as the character has improved so much. While not everything has been answered yet regarding Skye, it was nice to get such a big revelation that she is in fact a 0-8-4. Just like how Coulson’s mystery was dealt with last week, Skye has now gone through her own phase 1 which will make her personal phase 2 interesting later this season. They hinted that there is something special about her, even as far as that she may even have dangerous powers. The writing for this episode did really set up a lot of cool things to look forward to for the rest of the season.
Coulson’s struggle continued in this episode as it was revealed that he had received the files on him from Fury and this is where things got a bit confusing. Didn’t it feel like they were implying that this was a wrap up of the Coulson mystery in that scene? That is one way to look at it, but they shouldn’t be wrapping it up. Would they really finish that story by just having Fury (off screen) giving Coulson his files? Hopefully that isn’t the case because it felt that they were just beginning last week which felt so perfect. If you have your own theory on this aspect of the episode, please free to leave a comment below.
It’s phenomenal to see how much these agents has grown both individually and as a team as they are able to be strong characters on their own without Coulson being with them all the time. Hopefully the writing for each and one of them will continue to be as strong as it was last night.
Overall, “Seeds” was a powerful follow-up episode and it’s as of now one of the season’s strongest episodes (tied with “The Magical Place”) as it continues to flesh out the stories and the characters who are now clicking so perfectly more than ever.
The writing for this episode was compelling and continues to prove that these writers are improving on several aspects. While it stinks that the show is going to be gone for the next few weeks, the wait will be worth it as the returning episode will feature the appearance of none other than the Marvel man himself and the master of cameos, Stan Lee!
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will return with new episodes on Tuesday, February 4, 8/7c on ABC.
[Photo via Justin Lubin/ABC]
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