Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 5, Episode 11 Review


So here we are, back again with another set-up episode of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD as the team at long last return to present day at...the Lighthouse. Again. Yup, it seems that Agents of SHIELD spent too much money on that rather standard Lighthouse interior set to let it go to waste. Maybe it replaced the old SHIELD HQ set? Either way, it's not a bad location to set the rest of the season in, acting as a constant reminder of the imminent threat to the planet - a threat that the show is very keen to emphasise in this mid-season opener.

There's a real sense throughout this eleventh episode that while the team appear to be temporarily safe, they have very little time left. So little, in fact, that they discover a Kree beacon mid-town that may be the cause of the Kree's arrival...or it may not, as the team discover that the US Government are hunting them down as "most wanted" criminals and have used the signal to lure them into capture - which, admittedly, is a bit of an anti-climax. Or perhaps that signal has inadvertently led the Kree to Earth, in which case the episode seems a little more validated.

A plot element slightly ignored, however, was Daisy and Deke's capture at the police station. The episode set up that they were being forced to stay longer to be captured by government robots, but that didn't happen. They seemed to walk out of there alright - unless something was cut. Deke's arrival felt a little contrived for my liking, but the show seems pretty intent on making him a lead so I might as well give in and accept that his imminent relationship with Daisy is an inevitability at this point.

Speaking of Daisy, I actually really liked how her confrontation with Coulson was very short and sweet; Coulson just flatly explains to her that he wasn't going to leave without her and that she should know him better than to argue, and she concedes - even if it means staying in the Lighthouse as much as possible for as long as it takes to let the apocalypse not play out. Daisy resorting to her Season 1 "hacktivist" role worked quite well in the story, and forcing her to not use her powers may work to the character's advantage in this back-half of Season 5.

Other things to note where Enoch's replacement Noah, who felt a little too derivative to me, and Ruby - whose role as a new antagonist seems interesting. There's definitely an element of a human Sinara to her, but her brutal attack on Yo-yo worked very effectively. Both twists were rather predictable, but seeing Yo-yo's reaction as she looked down at her severed arms was really quite horrifying; a rather tragic end to "All the Comforts of Home".

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