Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Episode 15 Review

This is again a rather tough episode to review. It sets up many elements (that I won't talk about just yet) but also contains its own self-centred story, albeit connected to the Thor films.
The episode is primarily focussed on Lorelei - a sorceress who escaped Asgard after the mass breakout in Thor: The Dark World. First things first, what has she been doing between Episode 8 (set shortly after the film) and this episode. There must have been months! OK, plot-holes don't always mean a bad story so let's carry on.
Lorelei has the ability to control men to her very will and make them fall madly in love with her. This is a rather clichéd idea, and the predictability of Ward being taken over ruins it slightly. Clichés can sometimes work in Marvel films. After all, they know that they are quite cheesy at the end of the day (even if some elements in Captain America: The First Avenger took it too far) and so it can work. It has worked in previous episodes, but in this episode, not so much. Lorelei is a character in need of an actual back-story with some kind of reason for why she does all this. Loki, despite his insanity, had a wide range of reasons, yet she has none.
Another problem is the lack of Lady Sif. There was a fairly big announcement that she would guest appear in Agents of SHIELD, but ends up being severely underused. I feel she was dragged out to film this episode and wasn't particularly keen on it. While her acting is good, she shares little-to-no chemistry with any of the other actors, despite everyone trying. I feel there were meant to be some Thor-style jokes in there, but if there are they weren't funny at all or memorable. She adds so little to the story that she could have been Bertie Basset and it would have made no difference!
The whole episode felt rushed. It couldn't decide what the focus on. There was only so much you could do with Lorelei taking over Ward, so why can't Lady Sif do something awesome? Neither of the Asgardians do anything cool. It looks like low-budget stunts to try and look slightly more powerful than the human characters. I know its a TV series, but if you're going to try stunts like that, at least do them well! The action scenes are so dull its unbelievable. The gun fights have nothing to them, especially when compared to last episode's fight sequence.
However, despite this, I really liked the ending. Coulson and Skye are my two favourite characters of the series, and I would be perfectly fine if they were the only two characters (come on Marvel, make of film of the two!). Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet have a great on-screen relationship and have two brilliantly realised characters. It's a shame the rest of the team just have their "moments".
Overall, the episode was a mess, and sadly very little worked. It was a fantastic premise wasted. I'm hoping SHIELD doesn't try this again for a while, especially seeing as this is two episodes connected to Thor: The Dark World that have just got an average rating. 6/10

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