Wednesday 18 May 2016

TV Review No. 24 Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Paradise Lost (S3, Ep16)

Strong Points:
Coulson coming to terms with killing Ward and differing opinions on it
Giyera escaping and fight scene
Gideon's backstory
More misinterpretation and misdirection
Starting to explain Hive's powers
Nice acting
Twist and turns
Land mine fever

Weak Points:
Would've been nice to have given [redacted] powers
Build up to Lincoln's confession falls flat
Other [redacted] reveal was a bit short and rushed

Spoilers Ahead:

In-depth Review:
Well this was a fun, necessary and surprising episode. Twists everywhere, some more effective than others mind. The main story arc was Malick and his backstory, resuming just after he sees his own death in the episode previous. Now, understandably dishevelled, Gideon returns to his home to see Hive already there and he realises that his time is almost up. However, with the help of his daughter he decides to try and stand up to Hive, reminding him of his importance. The big confrontation happens after Stephanie (Malick's daughter) finds out that her father is actually a coward (understandably though) and joins forces with Hive. She kisses Hive/Ward and... What? No. That can't be right? She's dead now? Ah. OK. Right...

Why is Gideon and coward you ask? Well, Hydra is actually a cult worshipping Hive (as has been mentioned previously) and at special meetings the group all pick a rock with the person with the white rock getting whisked off to a 5-star vacation to pretty certain death on the same planet Simmons was stranded on. Following in his father's footsteps, Gideon used a slight of hand trick after learning it via a returning Whitehall via flashbacks to replace the white stone with a white stone with... wait for it. A notch on the side! Now all he has to do is not pick the one with the watch and oops, his brother picked it and gets whisked away to this 5-star holiday I mention earlier. That can't be good for your conscience.

You ask now (that's a lot of questions by the way), what about the death Gideon for told? Well we know that these flashbacks can be misinterpreted quite drastically and Gideon's heart being ripped out was actually imagery for his daughter dying. Lovely. Another death where the effect is more important than the death was Ward's and more importantly the effect it had on Coulson as he started to question his motives for such a brutal killing. What was interesting was the differing opinions on his actions by the other members of the team. Fitz understood what he had to do and May, after finding out that Dead Ward was actually alive in one of the shortest reveals in history, (and due to us knowing about it for weeks I actually forgot the agents didn't know) was excited to be able to kill Ward herself. We all need a hobby I suppose.

We had a couple of other reveals this week as well from seeing Hive's true form for the first time (even if it was only for a couple of seconds) to finding out about Lincoln's temper and previous altercation with the drink. While it's nice to see Lincoln's character explored more, I felt that this 'reveal' was built up a bit too much in the rest of the episode for what it actually was, especially as Daisy already knew about his temper. 

We met a new Inhuman this episode as well, or at least he would've been if they'd given him powers in the end and not just taken off with the Cree item he had in his possession. It could work out in his favour though as some Inhumans that have been introduced straight away haven't really lived too long.

Conclusion: overall, it was quite a good, if mixed in terms of twists, episode and I do have to give a mention to the awesome choreography in Givera's escape and fight scene as we finally see him not just use his powers. Although if he can beat the Deus Ex Machina containment box then what hope do we have?

Rating: 77%


Thanks for reading, Satamer.

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