Aiming to put his knowledge of both the future and S.H.I.E.L.D. technology to use, Deke Shaw has been leading a tech company, trying to "innovate" his way to riches. But when "not Coulson" shows up at his office to kill him for unknown reasons, the covert agent who has been watching Deke has to call for the rescue squad. Meanwhile, back at base, a parasite has gotten loose and is threatening the life of Keller -- and there may be nothing Yo-Yo or Dr. Benson can do to save him.
I did find Deke a fun character to have around in season 5, and I'm probably glad overall to have him back on the show for the new season. That said, the thing that was fun about him was how different he was from the other characters -- specifically how his different energy played off the rest of the cast. Here, he's carrying an episode essentially by himself, and it's a bit too much. Without one of the more grounded characters paired with him, Deke felt pretty broad. Maybe he can be used more seriously and effectively as the center of a story, but that wasn't the story being told here.
That said, perhaps the most broad aspect of his story this week was one that I started out kind of hating, but then gradually wore me down to laughter by the end of the episode. That was his boba-loving girlfriend Sequoia. Played by series writer Maurissa Tancharoen, the character was a classic running joke -- keep repeating it, and it eventually does become funny. By the time we reached the tag scene, a montage of her social media postings, I had a perpetual smile.
The B-plot of the episode focused loosely around the love triangle of Mack, Yo-Yo, and Keller. And brought that story line to an end sooner than I would have imagined. On the one hand, I'm surprised they went to the trouble of setting it all up for so few episodes. (They weren't even in one of the episodes so far this year, which took place all off Earth.) On the other hand, this is planned as only a 13-episode season... and the series had already moved into tight 7 to 8 episode story arcs a while ago. So I guess "set 'em up, known 'em down" isn't all that strange for the series -- don't linger too long on any one thing. But really, I hadn't reached the point yet where I was even believing or invested in this new Yo-Yo relationship. I guess if the aftermath for her is played right in the coming episodes, it may prove to have been worth it.
I would say that this season's slow-but-steady improvement from episode to episode was stalled in this hour. But it wasn't a backslide either. I give "Code Yellow" a B-.
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