10.15.2014

Television: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., "Face My Enemy"

It's always fun when Mom and Dad are out.

This episode had Coulson and May on a mission to retrieve a miraculous painting that just happened to have "alien writing" on the back. Writing very like the weird stuff Coulson has been inscribing on walls. They infiltrate a party in the house where the painting is supposedly being stored, only to have to run interference when Talbot turns up too. But then they discover Talbot already has the painting . . . And he's willing to make a deal with Coulson to allow Coulson to look at it if Coulson will help them translate the writing.

Big change of heart?

Well, no. [spoilers] Talbot isn't Talbot. It's Bakshi in some über Hallowe'en mask. So when May goes to "Talbot's" hotel room to make sure he's playing on the level, she finds Bakshi and the converted Agent 33. Outnumbered, she's knocked out and Agent 33 takes on May's identity. This gets her onto the Bus, which she then sabotages. Then she takes Coulson back to the hotel to meet "Talbot."

But of course her behavior gives her away; Coulson knows May really well, right?

We get the obligatory fight between May and Not May. We get Fitz having to utilize Hunter (hey, look, I know his name now!) to save the Bus. We get Fitz trying to fit in with "the guys," which was awkward and sweet . . . In fact, the best bits of the episode were with the "kiddos" on the Bus as they talked about exes and such.

And we get Coulson making May promise to shoot him in the head if he goes the way of Garrett. She had a plan of sending him off to the Australian outback, but he'd rather just die. (I think that came out wrong . . . No offense, Australia!)

So after a couple weak episodes, it seems the season is hitting its stride. We're back to what Tiggers do best: interplay, banter, things that are a good balance of sweet and funny. Plot is plot is plot, but give us characters we love and we'll follow them anywhere.

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