Friday 5 February 2016

TV Review No. 7: Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Devils You Know (S3, Ep4)

Strong points:
Good action
An interesting Inhuman 
Original, personal, objective for the Inhuman killings
Impactful choices
Strong acting

Weak points:
Lack of focus - Ward or Inhumans
Put in characters we were meant to recognise from last season but didn't 
Story arcs don't mix particularly well
Good characters get killed off

Spoilers ahead: 

In-depth review:

The overwhelming thoughts this episode gave me were ones of lack of focus on behalf of which story arc they should focus on at one time. The main three are: Lash and the Inhumans, Simmons and the Monolith and Ward and Hydra. I personally don't feel that these three arcs mix too well with each other but we will have to see if links will be made. 

For example, as much as I love Ward's character, he takes focus from the Inhuman storyline (which seems to be the main arc at the moment) and his personal story seems to be getting no closer to the goal he has set himself. This would be fine but the fast pace of the other two (Simmons has been saved and we have found out Lash's goal already) offsets Wards story a bit and makes him seem to be there for fan service with no actual objective. 

Of course, it's what Ward makes others do instead of what he does in this episode that makes all the difference. In a twist that could have been better if they had set it up more, Hunter goes against his better judgement and takes a shot at Ward even after finding out that Andrew is being held at gunpoint. This has been building up for a couple of episodes as we find out that Hunter will do literally, whatever it takes to get his revenge. 

The reason Andrew was being held by Hydra was so that he could act as security against May, the only person Ward seems afraid of due to his increased breathing and general worry when she walked in. It was both great to see Ward become less powerful and a bit weird but, as always, we'll see how it turns out. In the end, Andrew is seen to supposedly burn up in a building although I'd be very surprised to see him stay that way as he is too much of a main character to just die like that. Maybe a disability like Fitz's to make him start to understand the need for Inhumans? 


Talking about Inhumans, we got to see an Inhuman with the power to get migraines whenever another Inhuman is close. While this seems a bit odd to begin with and not as exciting as the other powers we've seen, if you think about it, he could be used as a tracker to find the others! That is until we find out that he is the one who is unleashing Lash onto the other Inhumans so as to stop his headaches (certainly original), and then proceeds to die at the hands of Lash. You know, keeping hold of an Inhuman for more than one episode is an option to! 

As Lash walks away we are witness to a transformation from Inhuman to human. So, Lash isn't a Great White Shark (although a character that is just a mindless killing machine may have been interesting to see) but is actually an Inhuman with a mission to kill all other Inhumans. Personally, I still find this story arc the weakest out of the three but that might be because they are all new characters compared to the other two arcs.

Finally, Fitz doesn't know what to do about Simmons, who has retreated into herself (which is understandable considering she was on an alien planet). Quite a poignant moment of the episode was when Simmons said that 'she had lost hope' when Fitz said he hadn't. This allows us to feel more of the trauma that Simmons had gone through and her deciding to tell Fitz about what happened on the other planet should be very interesting to see.

Conclusion: overall, it was a good, if not focused episode. Hopefully the next episode will focus on the one story arc.

Rating: 78%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.

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