'Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Season Return! | S05 E01-02
SHIELD in space: roaches, humanoids and… metrics? ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ returns to television screens with ‘Orientation’ and proves just why the fan favourite deserved a fifth season.
After the longest hiatus in the show’s four-year history (two-hundred days - but who’s counting?), our favourite agents are finally back for the highly-anticipated fifth season of ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’
We last left Coulson and Co. in a diner (a la ‘The Avengers’ post-credits scene) where they were enjoying one last meal together before being imprisoned for the L.M.D.-havoc that left the S.H.I.E.L.D. base in ruins and General Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) in a coma. In the final moments, however, the team were apprehended by a mysterious team with a contraption that rendered them frozen. Moments later, Coulson (Clark Gregg) woke up… in outer space.
The final scene delivered more questions than answers and so began the wait for Season Five. Fans have been (im)patiently waiting for their beloved agents to return and the action-packed, double-dose season premiere did not disappoint.
SPOILER ALERT!
‘Orientation’ begins with a flashback to the aforementioned diner freeze – just from the perspective of new extra-terrestrial character Enoch (Joel Stoffer). He goes for a swim, takes a shower after shedding his human skin, and gets ready for work. You read that correctly, Enoch is not what he seems and with a military team in tow, captures the agents before placing them in front of a white monolith. If you need a reminder, Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) was swallowed by a black monolith and transported to an alien planet at the beginning of season three. The monolith sends the agents to a mysterious location in outer space and one by one, audiences play catch up with the team as they’re scattered around the space station.
Audiences are also introduced to alien species Vrellnexians (nicknamed Roaches), Virgil (Deniz Akdeniz) and Han-Solo type and Star-Lord look-a-like Deke (Jeff Ward). Simmons mentions that Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) was left behind on Earth and the team get to work on sending a distress signal his way. Over the course of the first hour, the team (and viewers) slowly piece together the evidence and realise that not only are they trapped in space…they’re trapped in the distant future (we’re thinking 70-100 years from now) where the Earth has been completely annihilated and mankind is a breath away from extinction.
In the second hour of the season premiere, we learn that the blue-skinned Kree rule while humans live a despondent life aboard the Lighthouse in a dictatorship-type ecosystem – there’s even a sequence where they fight over rations of what seems to be dog food. What’s more worrying is Simmons’ meeting with Kasius (Dominic Rains), the Kree overseer of the Lighthouse who is disturbingly obsessed with physical perfection. She is made a servant and a silver fluid slithers into her ear – deafening her and taking away her ability to communicate with the others.
In the final moments of ‘Orientation’, Daisy (Chloe Bennet) confronts Deke before he angrily spits back that her Quake powers are what destroyed the Earth. Cue the stunned looks and the show’s title card.
After four seasons, ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ is leaving the comforts of home and the decision to catapult the Marvel Television flagship into space is a welcome change and testament to the shows’ ongoing transformation. With Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell returning as showrunners, the momentum is sure to keep going whilst experimenting and pushing the boundaries of what viewers have come to expect from a comic-book show.
With the new setting, big-bad, costumes, lingo (get used to ‘metrics’ and ‘the renewal’), props and a new set of characters shrouded in mystery; ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ is continuing to surprise audiences, old and new, in the best way possible.
The next episode is ominously titled ‘A Life Spent’ but after learning the true meaning of the phrase during the premiere, it’s safe to say that our dear agents (and fans) are in for a wild ride this season.
New episodes of ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ are updated weekly on Amazon Prime Video.
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