Aftershocks

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has returned at last from its nearly three month hiatus, and it served up a great episode that quickly got the ball rolling again as though it had never left.

Joss Whedon is notorious for killing off characters, but he's never done so without fully exploring the effect that has on the survivors. That same philosophy has stuck with the writers of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., who used the death of Triplett to put fractures in the tight-knit team as everyone tried to cope with the loss in their own way. There were many scenes I loved that dealt with this, but a favorite of mine was the conversation between Mack and Fitz -- the "you don't know what it's like," "yes, I do" scene.

But as far as propelling the plot, it was hard to top Coulson's vow to rain fury (Nick Fury style) down on Hydra... and then making it happen. It was a punchy exit for the Hydra plot. For now, at least. I doubt very much we've seen the last of Hydra, though I suppose the writers did have to wipe the slate a bit to make room for Inhuman themed stories.

As for those stories, it was great to see a new Raina -- not just physically changed, but completely shaken when she's usually unshakeable. But the Big Deal, of course, was Skye. I'm a huge fan of how Fitz and Simmons are on separate sides here. It's natural that Fitz, who has gone through a fundamental change of his own and fought to reclaim a place in the team, would back Skye and help hide her secret. It's a little harder to buy Simmons' sudden desire to scour the world of all things alien. I like that her normally sweet character is now the one spewing pseudo-hate speech... but the turn feels a bit abrupt, and the dialogue maybe a bit too on the nose. Still, it's all a good premise to operate from.

All that, plus the tantalizing revelation at the end of the episode that Morse and Mack are working to steal something of Nick Fury's back from Coulson. I doubt they're working for "Bad Guys," but I also think the writers did the "Good Guy seems Bad but is really Good" story in the first season with May  spying on Coulson -- so I don't think this is that either. I'm very interested to see where it goes.

About the only lingering question from the mid-season finale that wasn't addressed is: where did Ward head off to? But we have plenty of episodes ahead to get into that. As for this episode, I give it an A-.