What I’m Watching: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Season 1, Episode 19 “The Only Light in the Darkness” (B-)

Despite technically still being in crisis mode, things are a bit more back to normal on this show as Coulson and most of his team ventured out of their secret base to deal with a relatively routine case with one big twist: the woman the criminal with special abilities was obsessed with happened to be a major romantic interest of none other than Coulson himself. The obvious choice to play Audrey was of course one of TV’s most reliable recurring actresses, Amy Acker, an alumnus of numerous Joss Whedon projects including “Dollhouse” and recent Shakespeare cinematic adaptation “Much Ado About Nothing.” Hopefully, we’ll see plenty more of Audrey, who thought that she hallucinated seeing Coulson only to have likely seen the real thing. As Coulson gets more humanized with hints of his personal life being dropped, we also got to see an unexpected family member: Agent May’s mom. She seems to have just as much of a personality as her daughter, and it looks like they both want to talk to Maria Hill, who is played by Cobie Smulders of “How I Met Your Mother” fame and who, in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” seemed like one of the only true good guys left. I’m sure having her back will be a boon for the show. There’s no doubt now that Ward is fully bad, especially after he killed poor Eric (goodbye, Patton Oswalt). I’m glad that Skye realized what Ward is up to, and hopefully she’ll be able to outsmart him enough to score one for the good guys and help get what remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. back on track.