Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., “Bouncing Back”, Review!

By ‘Lil Yoda.

For those unfamiliar, here is a basic introduction to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They were meant as a sort of rapid response team, Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) made Phil Couslon (Clark Gregg) the head of team and allowed him to hand pick members. They were Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), Leo Fitz (Ian De Caesticker), Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), and Skye, later to find out her real name is Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet). Most of the first season is stalling until Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiered and we found out that a good portion of S.H.I.E.L.D. is made up of Hydra sleeper agents. We find out that Ward is one of those sleeper agents as he betrays the team. The second season is about rebuilding the team, the threat of remaining Hydra agents and finding out more about Inhumans as Daisy herself is turned into one. We have some new members on the team such as Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) known as Mockingbird in the comics, her ex-husband Lance Hunter (Will Blood), and Alphonso Mackenzie known (Henry Simmons) as Mack. As the Inhuman activator is accidentally released, the third season revolves around protecting Inhumans and public. There is also the problem of Simmons accidentally being teleported to an alien planet, Maveth, and bringing her back. As well as a dangerous alien entity that inhabits the planet. This entity takes over Ward after Coulson kills him and finds Hydra. We also have new Inhuman additions to the team with Lincoln Campbell officially joining the team, as well as Joey Gutierrez (Juan Pablo Raba). And from there we take off on the second half of season three.

After the long break from S.H.I.E.L.D., partially bridged by Agent Carter, we are back. We are greeted by the sight of a quinjet in space and an obviously dead agent in it. It looks like Elena ‘Yo-Yo’ Rodriguez aka Slingshot (Natalia Cordova-Buckley), first appearance Mighty Avengers #13 from the necklace we see her wearing later in the episode. It reminds me of the the whole ‘Who’s in the grave?’ thing that Arrow has going on this season. Supposedly this happens three months in the future so we have some time to figure it out. Back in the present day, we find Coulson staring at a bloodstained carpet where his girlfriend and former head of the ATCU, Rosalind Price (Constance Zimmer) was killed by Ward. Enter the President of the United States, Matthew Ellis (William Sadler). Before we go any further, in case you were wondering why the President is white, is is speculated that President Obama was not re-elected in the MCU due to the alien attack on New York that occurred in the Avengers. Anyway, the President meets with Coulson and appoints him head of the ATCU, and gives S.H.I.E.L.D. permission to operate as a sort of black-ops. Coulson enquires about about any information he may have about Gideon Malick (Powers Boothe), but the president won’t budge.

In Columbia, police are attacked by an unseen force and have a weapons shipment stolen from them. S.H.I.E.L.D. is soon on the scene recognizing the attack as Inhuman. Daisy and Joey go to the police station to find out what happened and to offer their help while Hunter, Mack and Bobbi go to the crime scene. There Hunter and Bobbi joke about taking one of the vitamin pills that contained the Inhuman activator, to which Mack responded that they were crazy and deserved each other. Mack goes around to take a further look at the scene and discovers Elena. She takes him out and takes the rest of the weapons shipment with her. Ward wakes up in Elena’s bathroom ducktaped to the sink. Back at the base it is clear that the whole trip to Maveth has put a further strain on Simmons and Fitz’s relationship. Simmons mentions that the Inhuman changes seem random, to which Lincoln reveals that they aren’t. They are meant to balance each other out.

Back out in the field, Daisy and the others figure out that Elena has superspeed. Mack attempts to escape only to be stopped by Elena. Mack gets the chance to explain terrigenesis to Elena just at Daisy and the other bust in to save him. Then we get to see Malick and Zombie Ward at the Super Secret Hydra Base™ and find that the alien entity is in full control of Ward, and is apparently ready for snack time. I’ve mentioned special effects before in previous reviews, but I’ve got to mention it again as they did a great job of making Ward look just barely alive. Back at base, Coulson is using the mind control machine to get information from Werner Von Strucker (Spencer Treat) about Malick. Meanwhile, Elena is showing off the full extent of her powers as she attempts to break out of S.H.I.E.L.D. containment. They question her to only eventually find out that she was only stealing weapons from the police in order to stop the police from abusing them. Meanwhile, Bobbi and Hunter find her cousin and confirm her story. The Columbian police show up and bring an Inhuman with them. He takes out Bobbi and Hunter by just looking at them and kidnap them. They take what is left of the weapons shipment and kill the cousin.

At the police station they keep Hunter awake and question Bobbi, looking for an alternate motive for her being there. Elena offers to help after she finds out her cousin had been killed. She explains that she can go as far she can in a single heartbeat before returning to her original position. She helps Joey, Mack and Daisy storm the police precinct. Joey melts down the armory while Mack goes and rescues Bobbi and Hunter. One thing I loved about this whole montage is how well Elena and Daisy work in concert. It is going to be awesome to see them work together in any future episodes they do together. The Inhuman with dangerous eyes comes in and takes out Elena before she can take him out. Joey solves the problem by melting his sunglasses to his face. Just when we think we won, Hydra sweeps in and captures the enemy Inuhuman. Meanwhile Coulson is able to take the information from Strucker to find a way to trace Malick, as he talks with him he sends a team to take the Inhuman, and Coulson only manages to take out a few of Malkin’s field offices.

Mack tries to convince Elena to stay with the team, but as she preferred to stay at home and make a difference there, he gave her a watch as a way to call for backup. The chemistry between Mack and her are very clear and I am personally shipping it. Mack has to spend a lot of time being the voice of reason of the team and it is nice to see him lighten up every once in a while. Before Elena leaves she is given her nickname ‘Yo-Yo’ by Daisy, who again, I’m looking forward to her and Daisy working together. Meanwhile with Fitz-Simmons, it seems that they want to bridge the gap and end the awkwardness. They agree to ‘start over’ and do this adorable little ‘re-introducing themselves’ thing. I am personally very happy that they decided to not strech the drama out over multiple episodes. Over with the SS SkyeLincoln, everything is smooth sailing as the to enter a heated liplock before the scent switches to Coulson and May. It’s revealed that Fitz made him a more life-like hand (aka the budget didn’t want anymore robot hands), and Coulson talks more about trusting his team a delegating responsibilities, something important in his role as director of an expanding agency after he’s spent so much time micro-managing his small team. Hydra, moonlighting as ‘Gothite Industries’ is shown shutting down multiple offices and it is revealed that Coulson is going to be in command of Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar). To quote Coulson, “Oh boy.” Meanwhile Zombie Ward has been snacking on raw meat and getting progressively stronger, he senses disbelief in Hydra as to what he is. He, or rather ‘it’, decides to show him as we see his hand disintegrating towards the screen.

Overall, a very strong return for the Agents after a three month break. I simply love Elena and hope to see her frequently in upcoming episodes. As for Zombie Ward, Brett is doing an excellent job of portraying a whole new terrifying character. I am excited to see the extent of this creature’s powers and how on earth S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to combat it. The episode itself was a bit hard to follow at times, it took me a little while to figure out who Von Strucker was as we hadn’t seen him in a little while. Other then that, it was great. Four out of five unnecessary S.H.I.E.L.D. logos.