Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 6, Episode 2 Review

The struggle with reviewing individual episodes of a serialised show like Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is that each episode naturally builds on the last. Not enough Sarge or Fitz in Episode 1? Give them more focus in Episode 2. And surprise surprise it actually works really well, even if it does highlight that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would perhaps work best as a binge-able streaming show as opposed to a week-to-week network drama. Each episode is considerably more action-packed and engaging than standalone episodes of Marvel's Jessica Jones (or most of the Marvel/Netflix shows), but that partly comes with the format of a network television drama - you need to keep the audience hooked, not just to come back next week but to sit through horrific amounts of adverts.

'Window of Opportunity' dedicates a lot of its time to setting up Sarge and his team, establishing their dynamic with one another and teasing their threat to planet Earth, which is thankfully handled with more tact than I'd thought. There's no awkward "as you know..." exposition, and often they use colloquialisms that none of the other characters - nor the audience - can actually understand, which feels much more naturalistic. It'd odd to see the lovable Clark Gregg in a villainous role, and initially I wasn't sure if he just didn't fit that sort of role, but Gregg manages to blend his natural charm with an aura of menace. Like Coulson, he's one for dramatic speeches - "in times like these, people fantasise about doing something heroic..." - but does so in such a way as to outwit his victims. He's calm, calculating and honest with other people, which makes for an interesting, atypical antagonist. There's a clear mystery going on as to who exactly Sarge is, but Agent May seems pretty confident its not Coulson. To be fair though, it can't be - he didn't pick his glasses!

The season seems to be trying to pit May against Sarge in a rather personal battle, but this never really develops across the episode. I was expecting to see May temporarily kidnapped at the end of the episode, but alas the crew escape her clutches and thus the story feels slightly held-back as a result. May's journey this season is presumably about grief, but it seems odd to leave some interesting development for May off-screen and between seasons. Will this inform Season Six's story in any way? Honestly, I'm not too sure, but it's quite a noticeable narrative gap - and one I'd like to see filled.

We also get to find out what's been happening to Fitz so far, in a plot-line that felt somewhat underdeveloped. Fitz had supposedly changed his eyes and learned an alien language to fit-in aboard an alien ship, and hidden Enoch away, but all of this is revealed very, very quickly - and with little exposition. I think the episode could have taken more time to explore this status quo before disrupting it with Fitz's conflict with the ship's captain - which too is resolved by the end of the episode. Perhaps the writers didn't want to slow down the story too much to focus on the beginnings of Fitz's story this season, but I felt it could've really used some more time to develop.

My hopes for next week? More Simmons/Daisy please, their storyline was almost entirely absent this week - and I'm sure for good reason.