REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "The Patriot"
Are you ready for the changing-yet-still-mostly-the-same, tense-yet-still-not-surprising, important-but-still-middle-of-the-season, latest episode of SHIELD? To be fair, I wouldn’t be this confusing if the show wasn’t. Some of that has to be the network issues, but how am I supposed to tell what’s important and what’s not if I’m just guessing when the season’s going to end? Enough questions, time for my review.
The reason I comment about this is because this episode, episode ten, would ordinarily be the mid-season finale or more accurately when the plots get tied up and something big happens. We got a small revelation, which I’ll get more into later, but nothing really worthy of the placement. I know episode eight was really the mid-season finale and it was truly appropriate for the spot, but it is a question when they switch up their orders. The whole thing just lowers my expectations for episode eleven, which is supposed to be the build-up. Then again, we could do with less of that.
This episode was directed by Kevin Tancharoen, who is ordinarily my favorite director of the series. That being said, this one was probably my least favorite of his, though that still places it higher than many. While it has his staple tension and lack of bored moments even though plenty of scenes are simply telling me things I already know, there’s no real action scene that I’ve come to enjoy from Kevin. That doesn’t make the episode bad, just not special.
Granted, being special doesn’t necessarily make it good either. The surprise reveal of Mace actually being a fraud though interesting was not really a plot twist. To the show’s credit, it doesn’t seem to be treating the surprise like one, but it’s still a character change that should have been a shocking moment. Here, it was just…knowledge. They played it out as expected, in a dangerous situation, but it just reminded me more how this should have been in a mid-seasonesque episode rather than what will come to be known simply as episode ten. It feels sadly underwhelming.
Despite that, the story moving forward with Mace being a fraud is an interesting one. Coulson is now, for all intents and purposes, back in charge so things can go relatively back to normal as they go after their less impressive enemies in the senator and the Watchdogs. I’m interested in these plots that get them in dangerous situations but not really in the enemy itself. It’s an odd description, but that’s what I’m going with for now.
Oh right, I almost forgot about the plot with the fake May. We’ll probably get more into that idea in the next episode, because pretty much nothing new was learned on that front. There’s this new twist that this fake May doesn’t even know she’s a fake May, but that’s sadly undercut by the fact that we know the real May is being held captive. Oh no, I’d feel sorry for the robot? Probably not, not after that slightly gross last scene.
Another annoying thing to deal with is how half the cast seem to be liars at this point. Fitz is lying to Simmons, the fake May is basically lying to everyone, and Coulson’s keeping the Mace secret. The only people who seem free from this are Daisy and Simmons, and that’s just because they have no plots coming in their direction. I even exclude Mack from that because he has barely had a plot to work with in the first place. It doesn’t help that those are usually the characters who do something, but I digress unfortunately.
Despite the many things I’m not looking forward to them covering, there are a couple of interesting concepts that have to return eventually. Mace is no longer the Inhuman director of SHIELD which means there has to be another one, and they’ve already hinted at who that could be. And it was fun to see a ceremony honoring Daisy when these characters are usually hidden from public view. Granted, those things aren’t exactly plot-driven. The only thing that drives them is the fact that Mace will most certainly not make it past the finale, which is a shame. He was a good guy.
I guess I was just disappointed in this episode. That doesn’t make it bad so much as it reflects my high expectations for a Kevin episode as well as what would have been a mid-season finale. Overall, the developments that are coming aren’t things I’m looking forward to watching. A couple of things were nice, but there isn’t enough to save this episode. Okay, there is the fact that this episode had a normal title. That is a saving grace.
