Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 5, Episode 4 Review

I'm writing this review a little bit later than I had originally intended. Given that I mostly end up having to catch up on Agents of SHIELD even after it airs in the UK, it gets quite difficult to keep going with these episode-by-episode recap reviews. Sooooooo...apologies if this isn't as in-depth as the next two. They were written almost instantly after having seen them.

This episode was very clear in that it wanted to play with your expectations. The parallel narratives with Coulson, May and Deke inspecting Level 35, alongside Mack and Yo-Yo being assigned by Grill to threaten another person on the station don't seem to connect until its revealed that the person Mack's supposed to beat-up is actually trying to save babies being raised by the Kree on Level 35 as perfect Inhuman servants. It's an unsettling twist, and hits Mack quite hard, given that he lost his daughter in the Framework after having been able to mourn her death in the real world. It's something that hadn't occurred to me until the show pointed it out specifically, but the events of Season 4 have led straight into Season 5 - even if its been about a year in between for us UK viewers. It makes me start to wonder if Agents of SHIELD is better when binge-watched in one go as opposed to week-by-week viewing.

May also got to have a big showdown with Sinara, which was cool to see - if a little (intentionally) anti-climactic. It was a well-staged fight, and made for a great climax to the episode, along with the revelation that the mysterious person on Earth's surface is in fact Deke's father. Personally, I find Deke to be an incredibly irritating character, so getting to see Coulson lock him in until he's of use was quite satisfying to watch. Oh, and FITZ IS BACK!!!

Yes, the episode ended on quite a tease with Fitz's return to the show, although it was very well-played by the writers. His arrival signals a change of pace for this season, hopefully building up the tension over the next several episodes before we reach the mid-season point.

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