Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D overcame major growing pains over its first two seasons. The series was a product of the superhero hype machine, Marvel’s first attempt in bringing its cinematic universe to the small screen and it floundered quickly.
The show followed Phil Coulson, his group of agents, and their missions against bad guys and threats against the world. Early episodes had some fun moments, but had barely any connections or cameos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and bland characters who weren’t nearly as engaging as their movie counterparts.
Is this Deathlok or somebody looking to play laser tag?
The show enjoyed a serious bump in quality following the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where HYDRA was revealed to have secretly infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D, which had a massive impact on breathing new life into the show. Things were set in motion: Daisy “Skye” Johnson’s (Chloe Bennet) Inhuman identity was slowly revealed, great new characters like Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) were added to the cast and Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), arguably the least interesting S.H.I.E.L.D agent, was revealed to be a rogue HYDRA operative. The Inhumans (one of the planned Phase 3 MCU films) storyline was especially interesting, because it finally gave the agents reputable heroes and villains to spar with.
The season two finale left things in a dramatic fashion. In perhaps the weirdest scene the show has ever done, Inhuman Terrigen crystals contaminate the ocean, are consumed by fish, and packaged around the world as fish oil — which will certainly have implications on those who take them. Coulson had his arm chopped off after saving other agents by touching a Terrigen crystal. Simmons was engulfed by the mysterious monolith. Daisy was becoming a superhero in her own right, slowly learning how to control her earthquake-generating powers.
That can’t feel great.
Season three’s premiere, “Laws of Nature,” starts with a small time jump, opening with a man named Joey being chased by an unknown black ops team. His inner Inhuman has been released, causing unwanted mayhem with his new ability to melt metal, a lasting side effect from taking the tainted fish oil pills. The S.H.I.E.L.D agents, led by a newly uniformed Daisy, intercept him and promise him safety.
Daisy tells Joey he’s undergone a biomorphic event, his DNA altered with the Terrigen crystals from the contaminate. She reveals that a small amount of the population has an alien gene which, when mixed with the Terrigen, unleashes their Inhuman capabilities. The contaminate, while not deadly, has broke out in the continental U.S. and spread throughout the ecosystem, so it’s not just fish oil that will cause transformation. This could be setting up the show for a “new Inhuman of the week” style storyline. It would be a relatively simple way to introduce new characters.
The black ops team (named the Advanced Threat Containment Unit) chasing Joey is revealed to be a team crafted together by the President in order to neutralize and protect citizens from the Inhumans, led by Rosalind Price (Constance Zimmer), who is introduced as the head of the group. It’s shown that Inhumans are being captured and experimented on. Price accuses Coulson of being responsible and vice versa. After a quick banter, she reveals she knows more about the agents than Coulson thinks (even name-dropping Tahiti, the experimental drug that brought him back to life). It’s still unclear if Price is a villain or a hero, but more Constance Zimmer is always welcome.
The agents think Lincoln, one of the Inhumans who’s desperately trying to shake his alien origins, can help them transition Joey, so they pay him a visit at his hospital day job. While there, this season’s big baddie, Lash, bursts in to look for the Inhumans. Daisy and Lincoln try to overtake him, but Lash easily overpowers both of them and disappears. Lash is a moderately new Marvel villain, introduced in 2014’s Inhuman #1 comic book. He’s got the powers to absorb and manipulate energy, which is why he had no problem dealing with Lincoln and Daisy. He should make for a formidable challenge for the S.H.I.E.L.D team, considering how easily he dismantled the Inhumans.
While all this is going on, Fitz is desperately on the search for Simmons. He’s exhausted every option in order to find her, even wondering if she’s been shrunk to a microscopic size by the “Pym technology disaster,” a nod to the events of Ant-Man. His quest brings him to Morocco, where after dealing with some tough customers with a surprisingly badass attitude, he finds an important artifact with the word “Death” in Hebrew. Coulson wants to stop the search and notify Simmons’ family of what’s been going on, but Fitz isn’t ready to give up.
The final scene shows Simmons, fully alive in the monolith, which is an empty, mountain-filled alien planet.
Simmons' location was finally revealed on #AgentsofSHIELD: http://t.co/KURp5bEd3F pic.twitter.com/19TkKazo6W
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) September 30, 2015
In order for the team to save her, they’re going to have to get creative since there’s no clear opening into the monolith.
It’s an interesting direction for AoS to take. The Marvel universe is full of aliens and different planets and dimensions, and it’s about time we saw that on the show. It will open the book for more characters, more easter eggs and possibly a look at a side of Marvel we haven’t seen explored (outside of Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor).
“Laws of Nature” was an encouraging premiere for a show that at times has been stuck in the mud. There’s a clear direction with the Inhumans storyline and the series is starting to feel like it’s finally embracing its more fantastical comic roots.
