REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Paradise Lost"
We return after the team discovers the startling revelations about Ward, finds another edge in Hydra’s plan to hopefully take them down, and glimpses the frightening prospect of the future. In the midst of these exciting prospects, there’s only one thing that SHIELD can do. That’s right, give us an episode that shows us the inner workings of Malick and a bit of Lincoln.
If you’ve read some of my other reviews or articles, you would know I’m fond of learning backstories of characters even if they do tend to drag down episodes. I, however, will take some exceptions to characters I don’t really care about or who aren’t main characters. Both of those situations apply to finding out more about Gideon Malick. Unfortunately, SHIELD has had a habit of being involved in about a dozen supporting characters, so this was inevitable. This episode already goes south from last week.
This part of the season has gotten a little better at dividing up the characters when right off the bat they split May examining a company connected to Transia, Fitz and Simmons examining the corpses of executives, and Daisy and Lincoln meeting with an old Inhuman acquaintance of Lincoln’s. It’s nice how they can organize these characters in an easier way now even though you can easily point out which ones are more interesting. Case in point, Mack returns in this episode, and I am automatically interested in whatever direction he’s going.
However, this episode also reminds me of one of the problems of the show, and the show’s not too short of them. On the one hand, there needs to be a level of tension to keep you interested in watching an hour long show. On the other hand, some scenes last a total of one minute with Coulson delegating what everyone is going to do for the next twenty minutes. I’m not sure if these scenes are too short or the others are too long, but either way, it makes me tired pretty fast.
It doesn’t help that a lot of the things that happen in this episode are important. The team’s looking to find out what the Not-Ward thing is just like we are, even if it took them six more episodes, but this dragging can be frustrated. And if Whitehall thinks that something is crazy, you pull out. Though I have to admit, I enjoy moments when evil is matched by even eviler evil. It makes you wonder how crazy things can really go. Apparently, it involves tentacles coming out of heads.
While this may be a more common episode, I will commend it for some of the minor details, which is usually why I like backstory episodes. The stunts were unusually good in the fight between May and Giyera, which was never a problem on the show. Mack was still criminally underused, but they have gotten better at explaining characters’ absences or trying to anyway. And this is the episode where all hell finally decides to break loose. SHIELD usually only waits until the finale to do that.
I guess I have to spend another paragraph talking about Lincoln since he was the other half of the backstories I did not care about in this episode. Once again, we’re filled in on a vague if not somewhat clichéd story that’s only become relevant now that he's a main character. In fact, the only thing this episode seemed to reiterate is the idea why Daisy and Lincoln should never even think about being a couple. His last girlfriend ending up nearly dead is probably one of the biggest red flags behind serving a violent prison record or having a Beanie Baby collection. Also, saying you will never hurt someone is almost a guarantee that in a future episode Lincoln will hurt Daisy. All we have to do is wait.
Onto the better part, the ending, SHIELD tends to surprise and/or creep people out with the Hive thing remembering Malick’s brother’s memories and in return killing his daughter after kissing her. The change in Malicks who die this episode was surprising, but it was definitely overshadowed by the question popping into my head of if the Not-Ward has Nathaniel’s memories, is kissing Malick’s daughter technically incest? These are the questions SHIELD will never take the time to ask. It’s not a big deal, but it is a shame.
This week’s episode was never going to top last week’s standards, but it has too many significant parts to not qualify as a decent episode. True, those things are about Malick and Lincoln, but…nope we’re just going to have to deal with that. On the bright side, the Secret Warriors are set to return to rescue the team. Even though that only includes two new characters (who I admittedly care more about than I do Lincoln), this was something promised seventeen episodes ago and at least makes me forget the boring details.
