I take back everything bad I’ve ever said about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and their inability to show people with powers. While season one and two had a dearth of special-effects this season already has kicked off with a bang. Of course effects by themselves generally aren’t enough you also need to have the underlying story to tie everything together and while it’s perhaps a bit early in the year to comment on the overall story arc currently my hopes are quite high.
If you recall at the end of last season the Terrigen mist had been put into the earths ecosystem when it fell into the ocean. The effects of that are now being felt with multiple people with powers popping up all over the world. Our story actually starts with someone that seems to have an ability to melt metal and while he is initially being hunted by an unnamed group of soldiers Skye or as she now calls herself Daisy come to his rescue and with Mac they transport him into the new bus. This new vehicle seems to be a scaled up Quinjet so I assume it also has similar cloaking capabilities too.
When our gang try to track down the people that seemingly are hunting down Inhumans around the land they discover that the leader of the group has had a host of different governmental responsibilities all around the world. Coulson and the Scooby gang come up with a plan to capture her or at least confront her, however she’s able to flip that’s on its head fairly quickly and easily demonstrating that she is absolutely more than what she seems. While their initial conversation fences around why each of them are there, they quickly come to the realization that the people that are killing the Inhumans must be somebody else and perhaps they should be on the same side. However, before they join teams both of them receive an alarm informing them of another attack in progress.
While this is going on Daisy continues to try and speak to the metal melting guy and persuade him of who and what they are and the fact that they are the good guys but she quickly comes to the realization that the best person for this job is actually Lincoln. As her own trainer and person that integrated her into the Inhuman society he is absolutely more skilled at this sort of action than she is and while they have previously tried to bring him on board he had rejected them initially. When Daisy and Mac appear at the hospital where Lincoln is working they try to persuade him once again to join up with them however they are here confronted by another powered character that quickly attacks them. Lash (who has appeared in the Inhuman comic books) is seemingly the killer of all of the people. His power seems capable of absorbing the powers of other Inhumans. When both Lincoln and Daisy attack him, he is momentarily stopped but is able to to overcome this and continues to confront them. He seems to have no restrictions on his abilities as Mac even pumped a full clip into him and was unable to put him down. He was only defeated when Daisy managed to knock out the floor under his feet.
Fitz meanwhile continues his search for a solution to Simmons disappearance and while he seems to make some progress, unfortunately it is nothing more than a red herring and he is persuaded by Coulson to “let it go”.
Overall a really good first episode and one that I enjoyed thoroughly. The fact that Colson is managing with an artificial hand while still searching for a cure for his existing hand, the whole change in leadership in tone of the organization where people are filling in slots of others that have been lost. Mac for example seeming to really own the relationship with the powers and Bobbi taking over for Simmons now that she’s disappeared very very good. The new director or leader of the alternative agency seems a little bit to well-informed however which is a bit annoying and while HYDRA and grant ward have yet to make their appearance I’m sure they too will soon show up.
However perhaps the best and in and best portrayed part of the show for me is the character Lash itself. In the comics he was primarily responsible for culling those Inhumans that he judged unsuitable for the powers they wielded – basically he acted as the judge, jury and executioner and while you’d definitely question his criteria as he seems to have included Lincoln and Daisy on this list, he seems to be fulfilling similar a objective here and at the current time it looks like there isn’t too much that can stop him.