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Agents of Shield "S3E12 The Inside Man" - Review: Returning faces yeild great results


Agents of Shield "S3E12 The Inside Man" - Review: Returning faces yeild great results
9 out of 10

The Inside Man – As the new head of the ATCU, General Talbot accompanies Coulson to “A symposium on the alien contagion” in the hope of easing global tensions towards Inhumans

Now, the main setup of this episode boils down into a good old-fashioned spy game of spot-the-imposter, and it’s very entertaining. The suspect pool is narrowed down enough to give each significant character, and there are all kinds of fun to be had from miss-direction. The reappearing General Talbot becomes great comic relief through the first half with his lack of detective finesse, “Congratulations, you’ve just narrowed it down to everyone”. However, this does get taken too far and Talbot really feels like he’s been overly dumbed down for much of the episode, which makes it harder to take his return as recurring character seriously. Did we really need his “wearing a dress” routine? It’s minor faulting but it’s something that really could have been done better. However, everything improves dramatically once things start going down and Hydra makes their presence known. There’s some excellent material over switching and questioning allegiances. Coulson’s firm handshake is the coolest spy gadget the show has featured since Mockingbird’s recalling batons (which also make an appearance). There’s also a good feeling of payoff and significance to the course of the episode’s events all stemming from the new Coulson/Talbot friendship. They’re been firm enemies in the past, but now they are effectively partners. Of course, that will come with some degree with animosity and distrust so this episode plays that out physically rather than just emotionally and leaves us assured and invested in not just their cooperation, but their friendship going forward. In the past one of Shield’s biggest problems has been moving too slowly and stringing the same things out from week-to-week but right now, it is making real progress with each episode.

Though Glen Talbot isn’t the only returning face this episode. Welcome back, Carl Creed, AKA Absorbing Man, formerly seen as a villain and Hydra operative in season 2 with the power to absorb/change his body’s composition based on whatever substance he touches. At first, there is a feeling of bringing him back purely for the sake of being a cool powers guy. The notion of being previously brainwashed by Hydra makes sense because we know there was a lot of that going around last season but more importantly, he quickly proves to be a great dramatic addition to the group thanks to a key aspect of his history. In his first episode, he killed the rest of Bobbi and Hunter’s team: Hartley and Idaho. They’re still pretty pissed about that which not only creates an immediately plausibility to the idea of Creed’s betrayal but sets up a redemption for his character through the distrusting perspective of Hunter. Then to top it all off, he makes a great fighting addition to the team being both physically capable and able to manipulate circumstances with his abilities, like absorbing a rubber car tire to protect against Lincoln’s electricity. The nature of his return (yeah, I thought he was dead too) also sets up an interesting new development/end game exit strategy for the Inhumans element to the show with the idea of an anti-Terragensis vaccine. It’s an idea well-argued between Daisy and Lincoln (“Shake & Bake) from different points of morality. Lincoln’s harks back to the Inhuman society of Afterlife and their more selective approach to Terragenesis are well-made. Just because someone can change doesn’t mean they should and a preventative drug could save a lot of people form a traumatic one way process that they’re not physically or emotionally capable of dealing with. It’s definitely going to become a bigger feature as the season progresses, most likely caused by Creed’s blood getting into the wrong hands.

 The Grant Ward/Hive scenes continue to fascinate and this week they manage flesh out the ground rules of his powers and abilities. The biggest point is confirming that Grant Ward is dead, such is the requirement for being a host (also not an Inhuman). That still doesn’t mean that Bret Dalton will go down with the ship if Hive is defeated at the end of the season.... this is a superhero show --death is merely an inconvenience. As we saw at the end of last episode, Hive exudes some form of spores that look to be a means of controlling Inhumans as both Giyera and Bogota’s former paralyzing stare police officer are now firmly following his orders. It doesn’t look like a mental takeover as both clearly display and inhibitions towards creation actions and orders. It seems more like a leash that can be yanked if required; they obey willing in fear of the consequences. It looks like Hive comes with some degree of immunity or at least resistance to Inhuman powers and that  drawing energy from human life has restorative effects on him. The end scene had a brilliant feel of being “new born” to it, plus full credit to Dalton to striking a decent naked Terminator pose.

Blink and you’ll miss a few curious Easter Egg setups for future episodes. Australia is revealed to have an Inhuman named Eden Fesi captive for experimentation, AKA comic Secret Warriors team member Manifold (he can bend reality allowing him to teleport). We can be pretty sure they’ll be a rescue mission on the cards soon. Daisy also mentions an Internet alien hate group called the Watchdogs which is the title of episode 14. Despite some niggles in its setup, this is another great episode that successfully blends the spy and superhero genres together. With Daredevil dropping this weekend and Shield’s form continuing this is a great time for Marvel TV shows.

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