2.05.2014

Television: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., "T.R.A.C.K.S."

There is, in television and film, a gimmicky way of telling the same story from the various points of view of many characters, and this episode had it: The audio marker of the P.A. announcement. So that one could discern where everyone was when that announcement was made. It's fine . . . It's nice to see the writers try to do something different and interesting with the structure . . . But it still felt a bit like a gimmick.

It was also pretty clear Russo was the bad guy long before they revealed it. But at least they didn't try to drag it out and turn it into some huge surprise. Because it wasn't. No, the "big" reveal near the end of the episode was that Michael is Deathlok. So I guess we're filling in the margins of this massive universe.

The rest of the episode . . . Meh. We spent so much time seeing where everyone was when the announcement was made that my attention wandered. By the time we got to Skye being shot, I didn't much care.

The setup was that Coulson horned in on Russo's territory in an attempt to grab Quinn and so get closer to the Clairvoyant. The team went undercover on an Italian train, and I kind of wish they'd spent more time exploring that aspect because it could have been a lot of fun. But Russo had some underhanded deals that he wanted to keep to himself and so set up an ambush on Coulson's team. And there was some technology involved that caused the train to "vanish" (cloaked it), and froze time for people . . . Whatever. Really, I just couldn't be bothered. Though I'm sure it will be important later.

Sum total: Michael is Deathlok and Skye got shot (because Quinn had orders from the Clairvoyant).

We won't see the ultimate results of all this until March 4, which is when the show returns. Maybe I'll care more then.

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