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

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Season 3, Episode 9 “Closure” (B)

Sometimes, this show surprises me with its darkness. It’s crazy to realize that we’ve known for a season and a half that Ward is bad, and he’s still a main character in many ways. Taking out Rosalind just as she and Coulson were enjoying a nice meal together that enabled them to get past the absurd nature of their situation was harsh, and finding out that it was on Malick’s orders made it only moderately better since Ward still tried to have Coulson killed against Malick’s directives. The ATCU doesn’t seem long for this world as Rosalind’s number one lieutenant, Banks, was also taken out courtesy of his own gun, and now it’s up to Coulson himself to try to kill Ward on that distant planet inside the monolith and to save Fitz, who went in so that Gemma wouldn’t be killed. There’s a lot at stake right now, and plenty of players on the ground who could influence things and hopefully make the outcome a bit less devastating and unfortunate for the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. Mac is a solid choice to take charge of things because he is the only one without a personal investment, and Hunter and Bobbi seem to have come around to a productive and positive point. I have to imagine that Ward can’t be long for this world given the only character who he cares about, his brother, hates him, but right now he’s not even on this world, so who knows what will happen in the surely eventful mid-season finale.