Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Episode 5 Review

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR EPISODE FIVE!

Episode 5 of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is an episode that backtracks on a few things, particularly on Skye's role and on Centipede, which have only been very lightly hinted at in previous episodes. This story comes right out and explains why Skye joined SHIELD. It's not evil at all, and is for personal reasons, so when you watch the episode a second time round it becomes apparent why she's so keen to be in SHIELD: she wants to find out who she is. This is a very human and generally unpredictable revelation, although its a pity that guest character Myles is so boring compared to her. He literally adds nothing on screen and its almost as if Chloe Bennet is having an argument with a brick wall trying to learn English. There's no heart to his character, nothing human, which makes him seem like an utter over-confident moron. While some characters may not seem so human at first, they have developed and their reasons are at least hinted at. Agent May isn't completely human, but she needn't be as that is who her character is. It's a welcome relief that Skye hates him by the end of the episode.

This also shows how much Ward trusts Skye, as he believes her story, but now that it is set back to complete distrust, it is going to be interesting to see how the team get on with Skye, although she wasn't responsible for the SHIELD hacking, which shows how stupid Myles is to everyone.

The team come across as intelligent people, knowing something is up with Skye and you really feel sorry for Coulson, with Skye breaking his trust and faith in her. Oh, and Clark Gregg gives his best performance to date, blending everything so great about the character into one episode. Beware the wrath of Phil!

Also, Centipede's story arc is becoming very interesting with the girl in the flower dress and their modifications to Extremis. I am interested to see how this links back to Rebecca Hall's character in Iron Man 3 and Aldrich Killian. I hope this is addressed by the end of Season 1, especially as the new trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier shows no sign of having these plot elements. I also thought Scorch was an interesting character, and very different to Michael Peterson in the pilot episode, and characters like him show how much hate there is for SHIELD. I am really enjoying this series as it is progressing the story arcs along very well, and no character seems stupid. This is what I like about Joss Whedon's TV series' - he treats the characters like real people, and the confrontation between Coulson and Skye at the end did make me think of the episode of Firefly where Mal confronts Jayne about betraying Simon and River, because both times its clear these are real people with motivations, despite Jayne's stupidity.

I'm also interested to see what the certificate will be when the DVD and Blu-ray for the series comes out, with severed hands one week and burning alive the next. This isn't exactly family viewing, and its really good to watch from that respect, although I suspect younger viewers do watch it, despite certain content. (8/10)