(Marvel Studios, 2015)
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 2 Episode 13 - Review (2015)
Summary: Agent Phil Coulsen leads a ragtag group of agents through the mud as he fights Hydra and any other baddies that comes along the way. As our heroes learn to adapt to one another, and the changes happening around them the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. This is a tale where not every superhero needs a power to save the day. This is a tale about survivors.
“One of Us”
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen; Written by Monica Owusu-Breen
[SPOILERS!!]
Review: “One of us, one of us, gobble gobble, one of us!”
If that didn’t pop into your head going into this episode, then I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. But enough on that, let’s get down to the episode itself. In an interview we were told this episode would have more of a “gothic feel” to it and I would whole-heartedly agree. I actually like this episode quite a bunch, and the creepier tone it took was a nice shift for once.
I liked seeing Cal’s ragtag group of super villains and I believe this is the first time we’ve ever seen a group of super baddies team-up together in an MCU story. Yeah, they’re kind of third-rate compared to other big bads, but it was still cool to see. And I’m glad we go confirmation on the origin of Cal’s strength. It’s not as strong as in the comics, but it was made in a lab and he is definitely meant to be Mr. Hyde. The strongest of the group, the guy who could cause catatonia with a whisper, I was saddened to see him downplayed a bit, but I’m sure he’s supposed to be a precursor to Blackbolt who we shall one day see.
It was smart how they drew Coulson out in order to take him down, and the throw down on the football field was a lot of fun. We need to see more people from this “Index” everyone keeps going on about. We finally saw a few, and I hope we start seeing some more. Both good and bad. We need to see someone from the index now who is a good soul.
Cal is an interesting character though, he’s so driven by revenge and the chance to see his daughter that he can’t seem to gather a rational mind about himself. His wife was killed, and his long awaited revenge to take down her killer was taken away from him, and now all he has left is his daughter and he can’t even see her. I definitely can understand why he would be driven so hard, but the man does need to calm down. I’m just very interested in what atrocities he’ll cause next in order to see his little girl, and whether or not they’ll finally get alone time to talk – or fight – out their issues.
It was also nice to get more background info on May, who has continued to be one of the enigmas on Coulson’s team. Just because we know a few things about her, but it’s interesting to me that she was once married and she was the one who divorced him – not even because he did anything wrong. I do like May’s ex-husband though, and the two have wonderful chemistry. I like how downplayed their relationship really was in the grand scheme of things.
They were together, but that’s what all this is about, and by the end, it didn’t matter – this was bigger than them both and they treated it as such. I really dug that sort of writing in this episode.
Overall, this was a pretty solid episode, there’s just one little thing that drove a tiny nail in it. That we didn’t get to see what happened to all those poor kids and people who suffered catatonia because of Angar and his voice. - I wish we had got an epilogue for them, and maybe we did and I missed it, but I don’t think we did and that’s rather sad.
Final Score: 4 Masters of Evil out of 5
Derrick is a born and raised otaku with a love for comics, anime, manga and movies. The full list is pretty long, but that’s just the basics. Stories set in space are his bread and butter.
You can find more of his writing at IndieComix.net
@KazekunForever