NEW EPISODE | ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ S05E03
Following last week’s explosive double-dose of the spy-fi show, ‘A Life Spent’ sees the ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ team adjust to life on the Lighthouse.
True believer Virgil may have suffered an unfortunate and premature death last episode but his presence, and secret notebook, are still felt on the show. With Coulson, Mack (Henry Simmons), May (Ming-Na Wen) and Tess (Eve Harlow) on a mission to decode the hidden notebook; Daisy is left to her own devices, and Quake powers, to rescue Simmons.
SPOILER ALERT!
Deke, still joined at the hip to Daisy, claims she’s deflecting the fact that she’s 'Quake, Destroyer of Worlds' and that the reason she doesn’t remember quaking the world apart is because of the multiverse theory. Deke goes on to explain that for every universe, there are infinite parallel universes; so, while Daisy might not have quaked the world apart in our universe, she could have easily done so in another. It’s a nifty little reference to the Marvel Comics Multiverse and it’s going to be exciting to see just what ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ will get to play with in that sandbox.
Coulson, Tess and Mack are invited on a trawler run, piloted by May, where they try to make sense of Virgil’s journal. It’s noted that Virgil frequently visited one particular section of Earth, 616 (another reference to the Marvel Comics Multiverse), and Coulson realises that the toy globe Virgil always had with him has a cabinet knob hidden inside. With it, Coulson and Tess open the hidden compartment and find a radio with a faint transmission from Virgil’s mysterious friend on Earth.
Audiences are fleetingly introduced to Flint (Coy Stewart), another Inhuman from the comics, and it’s clear that we haven’t seen the last of him. With Daisy being the team’s resident Inhuman and her gradual transition into more of a leadership role, it would be nice if fans got to see a mentor-mentee relationship between the two but time will tell.
Speaking of Inhumans, Simmons is tasked with helping young Inhuman Abby (Ciara Bravo) control her powers of molecular density in time for a special ceremony run by Kasius. This is ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ though and nothing is ever as it seems so said ceremony is, of course, a gladiator-type fight to the death. Thanks to Simmons compassion and help, however, Abby manages to pull off a win – only to be sold to a different slave owner.
In the final moments of the hour, Daisy is able to infiltrate Kasius’ living quarters but before she is able to rescue Simmons; Deke, who claims he’s “just playing the long game”, betrays Daisy and hands her over to Kasius to be his next champion ‘ceremony’ fighter.
While it didn’t pack as much punch as last week’s double-episode, ‘A Life Spent’ is a strong and necessary entry into the mythos of ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’
There’s been a lot of talk about Inhumans throughout this review so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two biggest highlights of the episode revolve around Inhuman agents, Daisy and Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley). In the middle of the episode, there’s a glorious sequence where Yo-Yo uses her speedster powers to retrieve a digital scroll and it’s one that proves ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ should showcase Yo-Yo’s Inhuman abilities more often.
Daisy, on her solo rescue mission, runs into two Kree superiors and proceeds to knock them unconscious in an elevator fight. The scene is a nice little reminder that May was Daisy’s supervising officer during season two and that as a result, her fighting style is a blend of May’s moves and her Inhuman powers.
Finally, it’s great to see Henry Simmons get that extra bit of the spotlight that he deserves. Simmons’ ability to seamlessly switch from comedy to high-stakes drama is no easy feat for an actor on a genre show and while every single cast member is equally as capable of doing so, there’s just something about the comedic dialogue that Simmons has been given so far this season. It’s safe to say that audiences can’t wait to see, or hear, more from Mack and his meta-critique, one-liners and popular culture name-drops.
While ‘A Life Spent’ may have focused a bit too much on the bleakness of life aboard the Lighthouse, it set up the groundwork for next week’s episode nicely and helped put the strange new world of the 'Blues' in context for the agents, and fans alike.
New episodes of ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ are updated weekly on Amazon Prime Video.
Amy Hua
