After a strong start and some solid developments, this episode represents the first truly weak entry in an otherwise strong season. Skye continues to struggle with her new condition and Agent May brings in someone for her to talk to who has experience helping people put on "the index" of exceptional persons. Meanwhile Skye's father assembles a team made up of undesirables who'd been on the index and sets about drawing out Coulson and his crew.
Half of this works really well, and half of it falls down painfully. Blair Underwood as Dr. Garner is terrific. He brings a level of compassion that most of the members of S.H.I.E.L.D. lack. He favors humanity over pragmatism, and he's got strong chemistry with both Agent May and Skye. The rift that's come between Fitz and Simmons is played a bit heavy handedly, but it feels earned none the less.
What doesn't work is Cal and his "supervillain" team. It's not exactly an intimidating group, with possibly the exception of one character who has vocal based powers. The rest are just a hacker, a strong guy (which Cal already is himself,) and a lady with razors on her fingers. It's really this last member that makes the episode extremely difficult to take seriously. She's introduced in an apartment with metal coverings on her fingers that she can't take off. There's a build up and I'd expected something like everything she touched got burned or disintegrated or something like that. To reveal that she just has razors on her fingers was not only a let down, but also confounding on multiple levels. What kind of solution is covering them up, was that the best S.H.I.E.L.D. could come up with? Why can't they be removed? Or at the very least filed down to dull points? And even setting that issue aside, what kind of asset is she to Cal? There's no mention of her having combat training, so how is she any more dangerous than any random person with a knife? Or better yet, a gun? And the show ever tries to make it seem like Bobbi has trouble taking her down, which is completely unbelievable given that she's held her own again an alien that took down a freaking Asgardian. Suddenly a random lady with tiny metal claws is a problem?
The conclusion salvages things slightly by setting up some intriguing questions regarding the Inhumans and the very nature of S.H.I.E.L.D. It will be interesting to see how these pan out, but this episode by itself was probably the weakest of the season so far.
Half of this works really well, and half of it falls down painfully. Blair Underwood as Dr. Garner is terrific. He brings a level of compassion that most of the members of S.H.I.E.L.D. lack. He favors humanity over pragmatism, and he's got strong chemistry with both Agent May and Skye. The rift that's come between Fitz and Simmons is played a bit heavy handedly, but it feels earned none the less.
What doesn't work is Cal and his "supervillain" team. It's not exactly an intimidating group, with possibly the exception of one character who has vocal based powers. The rest are just a hacker, a strong guy (which Cal already is himself,) and a lady with razors on her fingers. It's really this last member that makes the episode extremely difficult to take seriously. She's introduced in an apartment with metal coverings on her fingers that she can't take off. There's a build up and I'd expected something like everything she touched got burned or disintegrated or something like that. To reveal that she just has razors on her fingers was not only a let down, but also confounding on multiple levels. What kind of solution is covering them up, was that the best S.H.I.E.L.D. could come up with? Why can't they be removed? Or at the very least filed down to dull points? And even setting that issue aside, what kind of asset is she to Cal? There's no mention of her having combat training, so how is she any more dangerous than any random person with a knife? Or better yet, a gun? And the show ever tries to make it seem like Bobbi has trouble taking her down, which is completely unbelievable given that she's held her own again an alien that took down a freaking Asgardian. Suddenly a random lady with tiny metal claws is a problem?
The conclusion salvages things slightly by setting up some intriguing questions regarding the Inhumans and the very nature of S.H.I.E.L.D. It will be interesting to see how these pan out, but this episode by itself was probably the weakest of the season so far.
