Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - "The Asset" - Review

Intro

Okay, I've got a couple things real quick and then we'll get to the review. First: I'm still sick. I'm also worse than yesterday so any mistakes, omissions, misspellings, or whatever are completely on me and aren't normal when I'm healthy.

Secondly, I forgot Supernatural was premiering last night and so forgot to mention I'd be reviewing that today in addition to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The Supernatural review will probably be posted a few hours after this one because I haven't written it yet and... yeah... I'm sick.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1, episode 3: "The Asset" please leave the blog, watch it, and then come back and read the review. There are spoilers for the entire episode, including the little bit at the end. You can view the episode at watchabc.go.com.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - "The Asset" - 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.
• Dr. Franklin Hall - Played by Ian Hart. S.H.I.E.L.D. Scientist. Taught Fitz, Simmons, and Quinn.
• Ian Quinn - Played by David Conrad. Extremely rich guy. Former student of Dr. Hall's.

Review:

I applaud AoS for putting out another very solid episode. This time around we got more of a focus on Skye. We got to see the beginning of her training, her cleverness, and a few of her vulnerabilities. I was very impressed with Chloe Bennet's acting all through "The Asset."

I wasn't as impressed with the villain of the piece, and I hesitate to actually label Quinn a villain. He was entirely too self-absorbed. But I suppose he fulfilled his purpose in giving Dr. Hall something to do. On that count, Dr. Hall was a very interesting character. He was very much the scientist, though more aware of the consequences of his work than a lot of scientists in media tend to be. I like that Dr. Hall knew his invention would only be used to make Quinn more money. I like that Dr. Hall decided to destory his invention instead of let Quinn use it. I like that he made the decision to sacrifice everything in order to destory his invention, though I'm glad he didn't end up taking everyone else with him in the end. I'm looking forward to seeing what becomes of his character down the line. No, that's not a spoiler. Hall was clearly reaching out of the Gravitonium ball at the very, very end of the episode.

Okay, back to actually discussing Skye. I really enjoyed the one-on-one scenes between Skye and Ward. Their relationship is developing very organically, which I like. I also enjoyed how their conversations usually started out light and ended up going on a more serious, personal bent. I'm glad Skye and Ward have found some common ground. They definitely need it. I think my favorite bit was actually when Ward rescues Skye from Quinn's goons. The way Skye just sort of clung to him for a second made me smile. And no, I'm not shipping them.

I was also really impressed with Skye's twisty improved plan after being caught by Quinn. I have no doubt she was originally planning to take him up on his job offer, but I'm really glad she double crossed him instead. The whole thing came off as smoothly as it could have, given the circumstances.

As for the rest of the team, I loved seeing more of Fitz and Simmons nerding out. I find Fitz's freak-out moments really endearing. It was also quite fun to see May getting itchy to be in the field, despite her initial insistence on a non-combat role. I'd really like to know what her relationship with Coulson was like prior to AoS. She's clearly more fond of him than it originally appeared. As for Coulson himself, I'll discuss that in the Theories section.

So... yeah. Another solid episode. I'm really enjoying the AoS ride so far. Can't wait to see what turns up next week.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• That Gravitonium gadget acted suspiciously like a telekinetic person, rather than a gadget. That threw me.
• Gotta love villains with giant doom machines.
• David Conrad's voice sounds an awful lot like Tahmoh Penikett's voice. I found that a bit disorienting.

Theories:

Today's focus: What's up with Coulson?

I think Coulson is either a clone or a Life Model Decoy. Both options are supported by Coulson's death in The Avengers, his lack of muscle memory with the gun, and the thing about Tahiti. His memories could have been transferred to either a clone or LMD via either a telepath or really advanced tech.

I think the LMD option is more likely than the clone route, though. I've pretty much been sold on that by the very first AoS episode. Coulson ducks backward really quickly in order to duck the van door. LMDs have some degree of super speed, so there's that explained.

Not really much else to go on at this point, but these are the most likely explanations given this is the Marvel Universe.

Favorite Line:

"How can you run if you're curled up in a ball?" - Skye

Housekeeping

Let me know what you thought down in the comments below.

Remember that my review of last night's Supernatural will be up some time later today. Tomorrow will be my reviews for Arrow and The Tomorrow People.

Love ya, Jessie