Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - "0-8-4" - Review

Intro

Because I know there's people waiting to see how my interview went and because I know there are people who don't follow me on either Twitter or Facebook, I'm gonna start with that. I think my interview went swimmingly, especially since it was my first face-to-face interview. I felt it wasn't nearly as awkward as it could have been. I'm not sure how prepared I was for parts of it as I could have been, but I blame the internet for focusing mainly on certain questions rather than ones that are less hard to answer. I'm actually really hoping I get that job, it sounds like it would be a lot better fit for me than I thought.

And now we're off to the S.H.I.E.L.D. review, because I know most of you are really here for that.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for last week or this week, there will most likely be spoilers in this review. If you are worried about spoilers, I will direct you to watchabc.go.com so you can watch the episodes and then come back to the review.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - "0-8-4" - Review

Characters:

• Agent Phil Coulson - Played by Clark Gregg. Not dead. Leader of Level 7.
• Agent Melinda May - Played by Ming-Na Wen. Pilot.
• Agent Grant Ward - Played by Brett Dalton. Black Ops Specialist.
• Skye - Played by Chloe Bennet. Computer hacker. Member of Rising Tide.
• Agent Leo Fitz - Played by Iain De Caestecker. Engineering.
• Agent Jemma Simmons - Played by Elizabeth Henstridge. Biochem.
• Commandante Camilla Reyes - Played by Leonor Varela. Old flame of Coulson's. Peruvian government.
• Director Nick Fury - Played by Samuel L. Jackson. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Review:

I was extremely impressed with the second episode of AoS. I'm pretty sure it satisfied anyone who was looking for this show to be more action-based than the last episode. This was the episode that put the team under fire and galvanized them, at least for the length of the episode. I'm sure they still have many many kinks to work out.

I fell in love with Fitz-Simmons this episode. We got a sort of showcase of what they bring to the team. I loved that Simmons is essentially a Willow-style babbler. I thought Fitz ended up being really endearing. I very much enjoyed his argument with Ward.

Speaking of Ward, I'm starting to warm up to him. I think he's still incredibly cocky, but he's got a squishy center under all that. I really enjoyed that, even though he was doing his black-ops thing while he was talking to Skye, he was really listening to what she had to say. It was cool of him to not only listen, but apply what she said later.

I'm still liking Skye. I'm glad she's making a bit of headway into integrating herself into the team, despite not having an official function. I was amused by the way she dealt with her confused situation and I like her worldview. She's quite right, the way social media is bringing people together is kind of beautiful when you think about it. Also, apparently Skye is a lot higher up in the Rising Tide than we thought... which sort of makes sense. I do kinda wonder what her objective is, ya know, aside from infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D.

As for Agent May... she was cool. I really want to know more about this "Cavalry" thing. I mean, I get that it has a lot to do with her kick-ass-ness, but I'm pretty sure there's more to it. I wanna hear the stories Fitz-Simmons were talking about.

As for the actual story... I liked it. I found the way Reyes took over the plane to be realistic, though I'm kind of wondering what that would actually have meant for international relations if she'd succeeded. I'm not sure I buy the raft sealing the hole in the plane, but it worked for my suspended disbelief while I was watching. I also really enjoyed Coulson... who I should have talked about before, but obviously didn't.

Coulson has shown that, despite not being especially hands-on with his team at the moment, he knows they can join together when push comes to shove. I like that he's got a thing with collecting old gadgets. I have a feeling those are going to come in handy at some point. You could almost say that's been sign-posted. I was really impressed he figured out Reyes' plan and was able to shoot it off like he did. That was great. I'm also impressed with Coulson's rope skills. I couldn't even see myself messing with knots behind my back the way he did. I'm also very glad he saved Reyes. A lot of other people would have let her fall out of the plane.

Overall, another spectacular outing for AoS. Oh, but wait! The very last scene! OMG, I was laughing to hard. I love what Samuel L. Jackson has done with the Nick Fury character. He's authoritative and hilarious at the same time. My favorite bit, besides the last line, was the bit about the bar. He was really sad the bar got destroyed. I giggled.

But anyway... another great AoS episode. I'm really looking forward to what the team, in show and behind the scenes, come up with for next week.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The monument had some really kick-ass CG. Fitz-Simmons taking selfies in front of it was amusing.
• Loved the shots from Sleepy's POV.
• Not sure why Ward felt the need to flip off the steps to plant the knock-down device in the ground, but it was cool.
• I loved it when everyone took a step back from the 0-8-4 at once.
• Commandante Reyes reminds me of Suzi from Torchwood a little.
• So... we've lost Sneezy. Was I the only one who noticed that?
• The scene at The Slingshot reminded me a bit of the very last scene at the end of Buffy.

Extras:

I ran across a pretty cool little website that posted the Easter Eggs for the episode. I didn't really look at the rest of the site, but... it looked cool so... You can find that HERE.

Favorite Lines:

• "Yes, we do. It means - we don't know what that means." - Coulson
• "Yeah, it's kick ass, all the violence." - Ward
• "I was your first. Sweet." - Skye
• "Yeah, we're gonna have to kill the fish tank." - Coulson

Housekeeping

I know I said yesterday that there was going to be a Nuzlocke Challenge post... yeah... that didn't happen. Tonight, however, I am definitely planning on actually putting one up despite there not being so much to report at the moment...

Love ya, Jessie