Agents of SHIELD - "Girl in the Flower Dress" - Review

Intro

Finally got this review done! I think I've been promising it since Wednesday... Ah well.

I think it's just gonna be this one tonight, folks. I'm still recovering from work today and I still have to watch a bunch of stuff and review a bunch of stuff and do Halloween events on lots of websites... I might not have a life, but my littlest sister is coming into town this weekend so my time will be further taken up by family stuff. I promise I'll catch myself up at some point... Hopefully before the end of this TV-watching Season. Maybe over Christmas break... (Nope, not being PC about that)

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Season 1, Episode 5: "Girl in the Flower Dress." If you have not seen it, either head over to watchabc.go.com or get it on DVD or Netflix or whatever depending on the time of you actually reading this review. Just watch it and then read the review because I do spoil things.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - "Girl in the Flower Dress" - Review

Characters:

• Agent Phil Coulson - Played by Clark Gregg. Not dead. Leader of Level 7.
• Agent Melinda May - Played by Ming-Na Wen. Pilot of the Bus. "The Cavalry."
• 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.
• Agent Kwan - Played by Tzi Ma. Chan's handler.
• Chan Ho Yan/Scorch - Played by Louis Ozawa Changchien. Pyrokinetic.
• Raina - Played by Ruth Negga. The girl in the flower dress.
• Miles Lyndon - Played by Austin Nichols. Skye's lover.
• Debbie - Played by Shannon Lucio. Scientist for Centipede.

Review:

"Girl in the Flower Dress" felt like a big old setup, at least in terms of Skye. Surprisingly, though, Skye was setup from the outside rather than the inside. I quite enjoyed that little twist. The B Plot of the episode following Chan Ho Yan/Scorch was interesting, but mostly fun because of his powers.

Scorch is essentially a Mutant without outright being called a Mutant because ABC doesn't have the rights to Mutants of some such nonsense. I thought Scorch's powers were fun. It was interesting to see how he could survive the amount of burns after his platelets were injected back into his system. However, platelets are what makes your blood clot and have nothing to do with your skin so... that was just plain weird. I thought the switch from street performer to villain was a bit quick, but I didn't really mind that. Scorch is, after all, a one-time villain, presumably anyway. As for Raina... I don't like her, which was the point but I thought it needed to be said.

So... Skye's reasons for joining up with S.H.I.E.L.D. were revealed. Or at least, I'm gonna assume they have. It's always the search for the parents that drives people into infiltrating "secret" or government entities, isn't it? Not to say that's not an acceptable reason, but still...

I quite liked how much growth we got to see in Skye. I suppose it was kind of hard to tell until she got put next to someone she used to be really close with, ideals-wise. It was really heartbreaking to see how low Skye got during this episode when everyone turned against her.

It was quite interesting to see the team react to Skye's apparent betrayal. I think Fitz's worldview is too black and white for his own good. I liked that Simmons was more understanding and open-minded about the situation. I thought Ward and May essentially giving Skye the silent treatment was in character for them. And... Coulson's reaction was weird to me. Yes, he took a chance on bringing Skye in. Yes, she apparently betrayed his trust. No, that wasn't much of a stretch for her. No, he didn't need to get to seriously angry about it.

Overall, another solid episode by the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. team. I liked the return and development of the Centipede villain. Can't wait to see what they do with that.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Skye and Ward playing Battleship was fun, though the lighting was really dark.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. has one of those Skyping robots!
• This is weird, but I appreciate that Skye did not have matching underwear.

Favorite Lines:

"You're a hacker, Skye, not Seal Team Six."
"No, but he is." - Miles and Skye

"Aw crap, they gave him a name." - Coulson

"You have two choices. Take what's in this box or we put you in a slightly bigger one." - Coulson

Love ya, Jessie