Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Episode 18 Review

Agents of Nowhere...in Canada.
With John Garrett revealed as the Clairvoyant and Ward a traitor and HYDRA member, as well as our Agents being on the run, the build-up for this week’s instalment of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD was pretty intense. Is everything as it seems? The show’s tagline is “It’s All Connected”, so obviously there are more surprises to come.

The episode continues from Episode 17, with Agent Hand killed by Ward and John Garrett setting up an army to fight for him and HYDRA. Along the way he recruits “flowers” girl Raina and breaks into the Fridge, stealing the Tesseract weapon from Episode 2 and breaking out the Prisoners.

Meanwhile, Coulson and co. leave the Hub to escape Colonel Talbot but when Fury sends coordinates to Coulson’s badge, the team are sent to Providence – a top-secret SHIELD base where resident Agent Koenig reveals to Coulson that Fury is in fact alive, but he has no idea where the former director is.

Raina is finding problems with the Hard Drive that Ward has given her (she is trying to find the files on Coulson and Skye’s blood), so Ward is sent to Providence to get the password from Skye herself. Ian Quinn is taken to Garrett’s secret hidey-hole and the Clairvoyant shows him the Gravitonium (from Episode 3), the same Gravitonium that Dr Hall was absorbed into and possibly turned into Gravitron. If they are bringing Gravitron into the series, it would be a great inclusion as he would be a unique enemy for the Agents to face compared to just super soldiers and rogue agents. I am wondering what has happened to the Centipede programme though. Are they bringing it back? I hope so, and with Gravitonium it should be more interesting.

The Visual FX for this episode did look a little rushed, particularly the bird’s-eye view shots of the “Canadian Wilderness” (I’m presuming its Banff), compared to previous instalments. I was pleased to see Agent Triplett join the team, as he is a great but simple character that gives the series a nice little supporting character that just isn’t evil or rogue or whatever. I much prefer him to Ward already.

Clark Gregg’s performance in this episode was spot-on for a Coulson who has lost everything that he fought for, and I was particularly impressed by Bill Paxton’s evil Clairvoyant, combining the charm he had previously with a real menace.

Overall, the episode was fantastic, and with only nit-picks to point out, I’m pleased to give it a 10/10. It was a welcome game-changer for the series, and I eagerly wait for next week.

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