I'm Actually Starting To Like Agent Ward: What We Learned From Last Night's 'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.'

By Joanna Robinson | TV | October 16, 2013 |

By Joanna Robinson | TV | October 16, 2013 |

What The Skrull?: Let’s kick off by jumping ahead to that mysterious scrawl on the Top Secret Chalkboard. Some eagle-eyed Marvel-lians have identified the writing (the kanji-looking stuff, not the lines and circles) as Skrull. Or, Skrullese? Skrullian? The writing of the Skrull peoples. Anyway. Who are The Skrulls? Well you can look for yourself if you don’t mind “spoilers.” What I will say, though, is that so far this show has been dealing with a lot of extraordinary things. But scientific-based extraordinary things. That’s one part of the Marvel universe. The gamma rays and the mech-suits. But then there’s the other side. The Norse God from another planet side. And it looks like the show might be headed in that extra-terrestrial direction.

He Does Have Another Look: Agent Ward! You astound me! So charming was our robotic agent in this episode that I’m willing to call him by his name for once. I’m not alone, right? He was pretty great and mostly humanoid when speaking Russian and failing to bromantically seduce a guard.

Not to mention the ticklish scene. Seriously, was it just me? Or was it just the glasses? Am I really that susceptible?

Chick Fight: If Ward’s Russian gave me fond flashbacks to Agents Vaughn and Bristow swapping wigs and accents on Alias, then Melinda and Akela’s fight made me think of the infamous Season 2 throwdown between Sydney and Francie. In miniature, of course, and without the emotional weight behind it. But I do so love watching two gorgeous women try to kick the ever-loving sh*t out of each other.

Downright Whovian: The cool-looking men from the promo were mostly a red masked herring and we were done with them after one short ride on the metro. But the affect was great. Atmospheric and reminiscent of the best kind of Doctor Who villain. (Not the bad, dinosaurs on a spaceship villain.)

And The Incompetent Ones Weren’t WHOLLY Incompetent: Okay, fine, the shiny-haired hacker can’t be trusted with a gun. And the kids engaged in a whole lot of snacks and restroom-related hi-jinks in the surveillance van. But Skye did accomplish a lot with her hacker skills this episode. Those glasses were pretty swanky, no? And Simmons did her job extracting that eyeball. No, I’m afraid the loser this week was Agent Fitz who made this squeamish face at any mention of an eyeball. Genius techies, they’re just like us!

But The Ward Development Is The Best News: I’m not over-stating when I say this was the best episode yet and provided a lot of hope for the future of the ensemble. The annoying geek chatter was toned down a little and the charisma vacuum that is Agent Ward stopped sucking for at least two-thirds of the episode. If the show manages to strike the correct balance between the hyper energetic and the more subdued (read: mostly wooden) characters, then we might be in business. That’s something New Girl struggled with for the first few episodes and that ensemble came out the other side clean. May and Coulson aren’t a problem. They’re never a problem. They’re perfect. We just need the rest to fall in line. Especially you, Agent Ward. I think we need you to work out most of all.