Fun & Games

The latest installment of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. marked series star Clark Gregg's debut effort directing an episode of the show. Two things usually happen on a series when one of its actors tries the director's chair. One is that the episode is a restrained, dialogue driven affair to shield the director from any major complexities; that was very much not the case here. The other is that the entire cast, wanting to see one of their own do well, steps it up with great performances; that certainly did happen.

This was a jam-packed hour in which multiple recurring characters were killed, two extensively choreographed fights took place, and the narrative essentially declared "we're moving on now." Fitz's arrival facilitated a "jailbreak," with everyone dropping all pretense (or essentially being forced to) and making a run for it.

This somewhat sudden acceleration seems to be saying that the structure of season 5 might be similar to that of season 4: we look to be in for a handful of "mini-arcs" contained within one larger story arc. For season 4, three different 7-episodes-or-so stories were held under the Aida umbrella. Here in season 5, it seems like the broader container is "saving the future," but we're now likely coming to the end of the "imprisoned on the Kree station" mini-arc.

If so, it certainly went out delivering the "fun and games" promised by the title. The writers have long ago learned that Ming-Na Wen and Chloe Bennet do great with fight choreography, and smartly gave them the two big set piece fights. Each was entertaining for a different reason. The fight with May did a nice job of giving her a triumphant moment or two even within a struggle that logic demanded she would lose. The fight involving Daisy was fun for putting her against the menacing (but no longer completely silent) Sinara. (Maybe logic was strained by Daisy punching so much and not Quaking more, but there needed to be a little meat on the bone.)

The writers also set up Iain De Caestecker to chew the scenery in Fitz's assumed character. It's a tiny slice of what's working so deliciously right now over on Star Trek: Discovery -- it's fun to watch good guys have to pretend to be evil. We also got a series of teases of the "curse" between Fitz and Simmons. Having him pour his heart out to her when we the audience knew she couldn't hear was a particularly delicious scene, though some of the other moments felt more forced. As reward for being teased all episode, though, we did get the marriage proposal and acceptance in the end.

Several of this story arc's recurring characters were killed off in the course of the episode. Ben's death landed with a nice emotional punch; after being caught lying to Kasius, he was summarily executed. Tess' death was more abrupt and not I think as emotionally effective. Just as we were getting to really know her and root for her, her role in the story was abruptly ended and handed off to a character we barely know, a young, freshly made Inhuman. Lastly, we had the death of Grill, the taskmaster who has had half the team under his thumb for most of the season so far. I want to say that that death wasn't quite satisfying either, though it did go probably the only way it could have. Given the moral ground staked out between Mack and Yo-Yo, our heroes couldn't kill him. But Grill had to die, to definitively resolve that he would no longer be hanging over their heads. That means some outsider had to do the deed.

With a brisk pace and plenty of great highlights, I was largely entertained. I'd mark this episode a very solid B+.