REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "All The Madame's Men"
Very rarely has tension-filled episodes come through stories that don’t mean much. In a weird way, it’s the exact opposite of how the show usually deals with the season around this time, and I’m not sure which one’s better. Then again, this one is easily more fun to watch, so style over substance might mean something.
I guess all it takes is an Extra (capitalization intended) opening fight scene to get the ball rolling. If the episode’s not exciting, they can at least trick me into thinking it will be. Still, the show’s better when things are moving, and that opening fight with Daisy and May was certainly on the better half of the season. And that crash of Madame Hydra breaking her spine after Daisy force-pushes her out a window is certainly one of the more unsettling.
Also, they win! Symbolically and unrealistically, but still, it’s the first time they’ve had such an obvious win. And with only one death. Yes, they still have to deal with Hydra, but they’re heroes doing it now, even with the namedrop by Phil Coulson himself. How hard can their mission be now? Unfortunately, if they have such a pleasant outing with spreading the truth to the world, there must be some detractors. I mean, they never have a strong win now.
For the life of me, I almost couldn’t watch the rest of the show from eye-rolling at the Ward scenes. I’m thankful beyond belief that there wasn’t a kiss (yet), but there’s only so much of this effort I can take. The whole thing is this unbelievable re-writing of Ward’s character, down to his backstory, to give even a brief sympathetic look at him. I’m not holding this to the episode too much since I’ll get the better part of this deal with Ward not being real, but this is getting worse by the scene.
Also, I’m not interested in anything to do with Radcliffe, Fitz’s dad, or the Superior. So, of course, this episode has scenes involving them. What does the Superior do now? Um…remind us that he still exists? Give Aida someone to talk to sometimes? I guess that’s a better answer. Radcliffe had some use in disclosing an exit, but him being tortured by Fitz’s dad means nothing. And it gets worse when Radcliffe reminds us that none of this is real. Then again, when Simmons tells that to Trip, it almost means something, but Trip makes everything better.
In other news, Aida’s plan is finally revealed: to make a real body. Oddly enough, it’s still not as disappointing as season three. I can buy that as her goal, and she clearly cares about it. There’s still a chance to defeat her, and it’s not a story that comes out of nowhere. That might be the first time that ever happened on this show. I’m not saying she’s the best villain of the series, but I would rather watch her play two roles than Ward again. I can’t even stand seeing Ward now.
With May back on the team, we now have 83% of the team reunited with no clear way of getting Fitz back. Maybe they took all the unbelievability of how they would defeat the villain and stuffed it into how the frick would they plan to get Fitz back. Either that or the writers are putting far too much faith in viewers believing that Simmons can (and will) make a difference. I mean, I know that’s how they’re going to accomplish this, but at this point, it’s looking like more and more of a copout. And it’s getting boring to watch him be evil all the time.
What’s in store for the future? Well, we shall hopefully see real Daisy and Simmons again since the Superior mentioned their ship. The team has survived their ship blowing up twice, so no concern there. Perhaps an escape? From the way things are going, it looks more like the climax might take place on both worlds to at least give a sense of stakes. I would like something real pretty soon.
This episode was a thing, and it wasn’t terrible. I wish there was more to say about it and that it was far less political than it ends up being, but that’s it. Oh, and if anyone asks about that miraculous terrigenesis healing thing, I admit I was all for it until it involves eyeshadow.
