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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Window of Opportunity

"You can tell a lot about a world by its currency."

Who is the man wearing Coulson's face?
It turns out it could be Coulson himself.

"Window of Opportunity" showed us more of Sarge and his crew in action and it also revealed that his DNA is identical to Coulson's. Could he be our Coulson, yet again resurrected and now brainwashed, or a Coulson from a different dimension? Sarge didn't want to talk about his past and he said that the name "Coulson" rang a bell. Time will tell what's his deal, but May was shook by the possibility of Coulson being alive (and doing all the nasty things he's been doing).

She was the MPV here and it didn't take her long to admit that Alt-Coulson's existence is messing with her mind. In fact, she lost a fight because his arrival distracted her, but boy, surely she can still kick ass. Even though it was reckless of her to go into unknown territory so unprepared (no gun or backup), she was truly remarkable in that fight against the bad guys. I was impressed by how she managed to take down Jaco, and later handle both Jaco and Snowflake at once.

The heist was a must. The writers and director incorporated the portal between the vault and the truck into the fight sequence very deftly and I loved that it ended with May locked inside the vault the agents were trying to open. What a fun little loop for them.

Sarge and his team are engaging bad guys, the kind of villains that are entertaining to watch. They have this advanced tech but are street smart and tough. Have we seen this type of characters before? Sure, but Agents is making good use of the archetype. As of now, it looks like they are on Earth to destroy it, although Pax is down with enjoying it for a while. I like Pax. Unfortunately, he's not so beloved by his team due to his different mindset, and I can see Sarge offing him if he gets on his nerves too much.


As for the story unfolding in deep space, it was again the weak link of the week. Let's take a look at the villains because that's where the difference in quality is more evident. In one scene the writers fleshed out Sarge, Pax, Jaco and Snowflake, as well as established their distinct points of view and roles inside the group. The alien villains, though, continue to be given no personality at all and are written and portrayed as clichés. I know Sarge and his pals are here for the season, but a little more effort into the one-off villains wouldn't hurt.

Fitz and Enoch's adventure this episode is stronger than the space adventures of the premiere, though, mostly because it's focused on reintroducing Fitz into the story and to the audience. Since the Fitz we followed through most of season five is gone, we need to catch up on this rolled back Fitz. We know the Doctor is in there somewhere, but as of now Fitz is trying his best to be a good man. His actions were truly noble, he could have easily used the crew's xenophobia as an excuse not to care about them, but instead he fought for the lower workers until the very end. Bravo, but does he need to make it all about Jemma? Boy, I'm really off the Fitzsimmons train as of late.

Anyhow, Fitz continued doing good deeds and decided to take the workers to a safer planet. Of course, that led to Jemma and Daisy's ship missing his by the fraction of a second, because that way we can have yet another week of space adventures! Yay... not. Judging by the preview, that seems to be the focus of the next episode, so here is hoping the third time's a charm.

Intel and Assets

- Mack is onto Yo-Yo and Keller, who have an amount of chemistry equal to zero.

- You could tell Fitz was tricking Viro, but it was a good moment nonetheless. Go Fitz. Enoch not being dragged into outer space, when he had NOTHING TO HOLD ON TO, was hard to buy, though.

- LMDs and Coulson's previous resurrection being mentioned was nice. The writers know very well the universe they've built thus far, don't they?

- I loved the "Conglomerated Ministry of Shipping" bit. They could actually explore the other worlds Sarge and his team have been to, I'd watch that show.

- I'm really enjoying the visuals this season. Many more scenes shot outside, much more light. I like it.

- Last episode, Fitz had very little screen time. This episode, it was Jemma's and Daisy's turns.

Quotes

Benson: "Odds are it's related to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s previous mistakes, which I'm working my way through a very long list."

Yo-Yo: "We didn't bring [Coulson] back to life, trust me. That was a hot topic."

Better than last week. Two and a half out of four piezoelectric gems.
--
Lamounier

4 comments:

  1. Given that I read a fair amount of spoilers for the premiere episode I couldn't really say if this episode was better or worse than the premiere. I guess it's about even though I might lean towards the former just for the Daisy of it all.

    Overall with the Fitz stuff it's strength was definitely in the character stuff with him and Enoch more so than the actual plot. The villains and side people in that story just weren't all that interesting. I'm also in agreement with you that while I appreciate Fitz saving those people the fact that he had to make it about Jemma was disappointing. Like we already know that he's doing all he can to get to her, she doesn't have to be the centre of all his actions. Like him doing it to try and redeem himself or just because it was the right thing to do would have been enough.

    I also have to wonder if people in space know about Earth and there wasn't word of it being destroyed should Enoch and Fitz not have assumed that the future may have already changed and that there's no need for him to go into Cryo. I mean maybe they didn't get too many specific dates from Robin but it's just something to consider. And who knew getting another cryo pod would be so difficult.

    The stuff on Earth was fine and there were some solid moments. You can rarely go wrong with portals.

    I was a bit worried that they were gonna pull a LOST/Walking Dead/Farscape S3 and not have Daisy (and Jemma too I guess) at all but they managed to squeeze them in at the last second thankfully (they've been in all the episodes thus far (if we count hallucination Simmons) so it's nice not to have the streak broken thus far). But talk about unlucky timing Jemma (you almost want a WOMP WOMP WOMP afterwards). Word on the street is that the next episode should be one of the stronger ones so that's nice.

    I'm also enjoying the visuals this season. And in general this season is at least looking better than S5 thus far. Hopefully they can keep it up.

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  2. I'm stuck on a loop on this. Can anyone give me a reasonable explanation as to how SHIELD is funded. I know it doesn't matter. I really do. But it drives me a little loopy sometimes.
    Any excuse will do. I'll hang my hat on any silly idea. Stocks, patents, Tony Stark.

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  3. I am so disappointed, I waited all this time FOR THIS? Anyway why can't YoYo have a relationship with this Keller guy, didn't Max throw her to the curb?And ofcourse he knows. I kinda enjoyed the first episode, Coulson as a badass and Fitz being some sort of freaked up alien but Episode2, I didn't even finish watching it.
    I have been waiting for a come back since before Ghost Rider I was about to stop watching it then but Ghost Rider resurrected the show for me. Sad that he left why don't they bring him back. My friends are encouraging me to continue watching it will improve they say, so here it goes. I will watch Episode3.

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  4. Bad Phil as head of an intergalactic bad guy gang was fun. Loved the bit with the diamonds and the Mad Max invisible truck. And honestly, I also really enjoyed the Fitz and Enoch buddy movie. Enoch is awesome. So glad to have him back.

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