REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "The Singularity"
Are you still here? I’m honestly surprised that I’m still here. Since I’ve never given up on a show intentionally, and since I’ve braved through Agent Carter, I guess that's why we’re still here. In the first line of episodes hopefully leading to backtracking that story, how does this one measure up? A little better, and also a little worse. Pay attention, because that up and down is a common theme here.
I’m going to start out by saying I’ve calmed down a bit about the twist in last week’s episode. No, that doesn’t mean I’ve gotten over the fact that they completely tainted the superhero team-up with their lead female being brainwashed by the ultimate baddie. That’s just rude. What I mean is that I’m currently prepared for the awkward and possibly disgusting moments that will continue until this awful arc ends. Since there are still about four episodes to go, I’m already setting this episode low on my scale.
To the show’s defense, they try to balance out the barely watchable Daisy and Hive scenes with the team actually planning to do something about it. The episode already starts out quicker than the last few barring the Secret Warriors, which I prefer in these endless seasons, but I can’t stand that we have to have them to balance out Hive with Ward’s face and memories. If there’s anything to discourage you from ever calling her Skye after seventeen episodes, it’s hearing Hive call her that.
On the more positive ends of the episode, FitzSimmons embark on their first covert operation as a couple of spies, and I mean both of those words. It’s so nice when SHIELD cuts the bullshit on tension for some things and goes straight for the meaningful chemistry. I’m sick of TV people believing that the only interesting thing that can happen between characters is if they’re fighting or disagreeing intensely about something. Sure, people disagree on things, but when we’re supposed to like two people together, it’s probably better for us to like scenes with them together.
For example, I think we’ve long past the point of caring about Lincoln and Daisy together. Once again, it’s been seventeen episodes (more if you count his introduction in season two), and I think I like them less now than I did when the idea was first introduced. Lincoln’s kept showing time and time again that he’s completely dependent on his relationship with Daisy who has many more and much bigger problems to handle with besides being a love interest. Heck, that’s the one thing that most people universally didn’t like about her is her tastes in guys. It’s funny how they twisted on the guy being reduced to a love interest, but they can’t even do it right with Lincoln, and that’s not good if he’s looking to be one of the few Inhumans on our side at this point.
If I’m going off of that, one thing this episode reminded me of is that there are things in this show that I cannot stomach, even if I have to go through them for the sake of the plot. Ward, no matter who or what he is, makes the top of the list, mostly because there are still people out there in the world who continue to like this guy, and this episode doesn’t help. Additionally, we end the episode with Daisy still being crazy (ha), and the base is still in pieces. It had me looking forward to the brief moments when nothing was happening because at least I didn’t have to deal with those things.
That’s basically what this episode, a continuous balance of the wins with the disgusting moments. The mission with FitzSimmons is altogether fun, and they even end the episode ready to take their relationship to the next level. Sex, I’m talking sex. On the other hand, Hive’s still moving forward on his master plan which is beginning to sound eerily similar to Magneto’s from X-Men. For a company that can’t use the term “mutants”, they seem to borrow a lot from it. Sorry, losing focus. They also defeat Hydra, just totally and completely defeat it. I'm honestly curious where they plan to take the new season because of that.Anyway, what do I rank this episode when all of these things happen at once?
We know the bad guy’s plan, but they steal the only guy who can help them. Simmons finally gets to shoot Ward, but that does no good at this point. We finally get a superhero namedrop with Hellfire, but who the hell cares about him? It’s like a rollercoaster and not in the complimentary way. More like that rollercoaster that your friend begs you to go on, and you wait in line for an hour even though you really really REALLY don’t want to ride it. Huh, that’s actually a pretty good comparison.
It’s pretty interesting that this episode followed the one I mentioned tainted the good with the bad. What this episode did was do it on a much smaller level in order to move forward with the plot. While I don’t despise it as much on a smaller scale, it’s a lot harder to find it memorable. I’ll at least remember “The Team” for what it was, but, other than FitzSimmons having sex, I’m not sure what I’ll remember of this one.
