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

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Season 2, Episode 4 “Face My Enemy” (B)

This was definitely this show’s best episode in a while, and a positive sign that it can continue to operate under its current circumstances. It would have helped, of course, if Coulson had realized that the woman in his car was not May before he spilled the beans about the fact that he’s going to need to be taken out when he starts acting crazy like Garrett. It’s fun to see Coulson and May operating together, and I liked their final scene in which May said she already had a plan involving a remote cabin and Coulson said that she needed to follow his orders. The May vs. May fight was interesting, and this face-grafting technology was actually pretty cool. It was jarring to think that Talbot was working with Hydra, and it made much more sense when it turns out that he was actually Sunil pretending to be him. Agent 33’s infiltration of their home base gave Fitz a great opportunity to step up and to bond with Lance, who amusingly has no technical skills of any kind. It’s good to see Fitz easing back into human interaction, especially since we didn’t hear from the real Simmons at all this week. We did get to see more of Dr. Whitehall, who continues to be a calculating menace to those around him, this time confronting another villain with a different employer, Raina, and telling her that she needs to hand over the Obelisk or face unbearable pain. Let’s see how S.H.I.E.L.D. manages to get caught in the crossfire of that exchange.