Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 5, Episode 6 Review

With Fitz leaping into action to rescue Daisy and Simmons, "Fun and Games" raises the stakes of this fifth season with the team finally leaping into action to escape the post-apocalyptic 'underground' base.

Getting to see Fitz pretending to be this fearful potential buyer from Kasius was an interesting angle for this episode to take, and unlike in most TV shows, he's actually pretty convincing - aside from his reactions to seeing his teammates. His rough persona also allowed us to explore a little more about Kasius - who has been exiled to the station by his father, seen as a disappointment. Kasius' decision to prove himself worthy of his father's respect makes for an intriguingly vulnerable villain. The Kree are constantly shown as these physically imposing strongmen, but Kasius' more gentle nature makes him a much more compelling villain - even if he isn't too sympathetic. Sinara is also quite a good hench-woman character, with her domino mask-esque white marks around her eyes making her standout against the other Kree, even if her two spheres make me think of Magneto's in the X-Men films. Perhaps its an intentional reference? Who knows.

There was also the story-line following Flint, who was briefly introduced in Episode 4, as he undergoes the terrigenesis process. It's not a bad sub-plot to hand over to Coulson and company, but his role in the episode felt a little odd considering how much of our focus had been on Fitz. His opening sequence made for a nice exploration of the station, but given that we're already pretty used to it by this point, it didn't serve to add much more than character back-story, which in itself isn't a bad thing. Perhaps its because I was much more invested in Fitz's story-line, but I found Flint to an unnecessary change of focus every time the episode cut back to him. However, he did help Coulson and company to escape Grill - smashing him with a giant rock - so, that was pretty cool.

The tension seems to be building for the agents of SHIELD though, and I'm intrigued to see where everything goes from here on out. May has yet to be rescued, and there's no apparent means of time travel back to 2018 (or...maybe 2017 depending on when this episode aired in the States). The season is picking up pace, and I'm actually quite pleased to see a lack of Deke for two episodes in a row.