(Marvel Studios 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.
“The Frenemy of My Enemy”
Directed by Karen Gaviola; Written by Monica Owusu-Breen & Paul Zbyszewski
[SPOILERS!!]
Review: Oh boy, was this one helluva an episode. It’s one of those episodes where you just KNOW something bad is going to happen, because there is a lot of hope dangled in front of you at the end of the episode, only to have it snatched away at the final moment.
Such was “The Frenemy of My Enemy,” where we witnessed several factiones descend upon an abandoned building and many new alliances and enemies were formed. - We saw Skye and Cal go on a father/daughter date while enjoying and afternoon at his old work spot. We witnessed Coulson and Ward team-up for the first time in I don’t know how long. And Bakshi, the ever resourceful, turned on a dime and gave Deathlok and Lincoln over to HYDRA.
And that’s still only half of what actually transpired.
I really enjoy episodes like these, they keep me on the edge of my seat the entire time. You have all these different story threads finally meeting face-to-face and I just sit there wondering the whole time: “Okay, how are they going to pull this off? Who’s going to get hurt? How will everyone scatter this time?” With Age of Ultron on the horizon, and only 4 episodes lef to go in the season the show has really begun pulling in way more story than it had going last time we had this going on.
Last season it was still just Coulson’ group and HYDRA at 4 episodes. Now it’s Coulson’s group, “Real SHIELD,” HYDRA, the Inhumans and we’re about to throw Ultron on top of the flames. Like, holy crap. However the show is showcasing their talents to balance story elements wonderfully. This episode officially brought Ward and Agent 33 back into the throes after their tiring love story in “Love in the time of HYDRA.” I still consider Ward to be the weakest character this season in terms of acting and blandness – right behind Simmons – I don’t really know if they fully understood what to do with him after season 1. Thing is, in the first half of this season I thought he was great, creepy, but great.
Now he seems to just be a shadow of his former self, hamming up his performance when there is no need to. We also saw very little Real SHIELD this episode, and I’m curious how they’re going to tie all that together. Will Ultron’s seige bring the two factions together finally?
If there was anything wrong with this episode, it’s most that I’m wearing a bit thin on HYDRA being the big baddy of SHIELD still. I get it though, they weren’t even a part of it before the last little bit of last season, so they’re making the most out of them in season 2, but I hope after season 2 is over and so is Age of Ultron that we have HYDRA die down for a bit, get back into the shadows and let maybe an actual super villain team take over as the big bads.
It was rather nice to see so many different characters interacting with one another. It was onl for a short while, but I loved seeing Deathlok and Lincoln meet. Since the two of them are now hostages I hope we get more scenes with them together. I’m also rather curious how severe the beating will be the Cal is going to give Gordon, and if this is going to get both Cal and Skye kicked out of Afterlife.
Everything converged yet again next episode. This episode, however, was amazing.
Final Score: 4.5 Frenemies 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