Episode Title: “T.A.H.I.T.I.”
Writer: Jeffrey Bell
Director: Bobby Roth
Previously on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”:
It says everything about the state of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” when two brand new characters were added to the mix and they completely outshined the regular cast. By the time that Agents John Garrett (Bill Paxton) and Antoine Triplett (B.J. Britt) were ready to head out, I was half hoping that the show would start following them around rather than staying on the bus with Coulson’s team.
Paxton brought a lot of life to Garrett and he even made his character’s cheesy sense of humor enjoyable. Garrett had a commanding presence and for the first time in a long time, he was a character who seemed like he legitimately belonged in S.H.I.E.L.D.; which is a problem with this show. Coulson’s team essentially has two Qs and a Skye (Chloe Bennet). Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) and Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) are the only real field agents on the team. And Coulson is simply Coulson (Clark Gregg).
Truthfully, Triplett didn’t do much in the episode besides constantly flirting with Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and briefly fighting with Ward. And yet somehow he was still more interesting than Ward. Go figure.
One of the bigger miscalculations of this show is that Coulson’s team seems like a slightly modern update of the S.C.O.O.B.Y. G.A.N.G. from “Buffy.” And seriously, T.A.H.I.T.I.?! The writers of this show really need to layoff of the acronyms.
On a side note, Forbes has run a real fluff piece on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (and I mean fluff in the porn definition of the word). Essentially, the article argues that “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” had to go through a very rough creative start to the season in order to reach the potentially more interesting storylines ahead, but “the show is good.” And for emphasis, the writer of that article felt the need to say that twice.
But “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” is not good, America! It’s had some good episodes, and the pilot was great. However, “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” lacks consistency and it has had a few awful episodes. The biggest failing is that “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” hasn’t been able to make any of its new and original characters into compelling figures in their own right. This show wouldn’t need to rely on its Marvel connections if the audience really cared about these people. Or if the stories were genuinely exciting.
All of that aside, “T.A.H.I.T.I.” is actually one of the better episodes of the season. It doesn’t quite match the Rashomon style fun of “T.R.A.C.K.S.,” but there were some promising signs. If the series can fully utilize what it started here then maybe it can be the show that we’ve wanted all along. However, there’s still a long way to go before we reach that point.
There are full spoilers ahead for “T.A.H.I.T.I.,” so if you missed last night’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” then you should probably skip this review or else Triplett won’t mix any drinks for you.
The highlight of the episode came late in the story, as Coulson found the real T.A.H.I.T.I. and there was some real tension as he got closer to the source of the super drug that restored him. In another first, I had no idea what the source is supposed to be. A dead Kree, perhaps? Or some other alien species? It’s not something that we’ve seen on the show before.
Another interesting angle is that Coulson’s resurrection wasn’t an in-house operation as we had been led to believe. Instead, the procedure was carried out by the doctors of “The Guest House” at the behest of Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). This would have been a good episode to throw in a Jackson cameo so that Fury could address these revelations directly. But Jackson’s absence allowed the writer to make it appear that Fury was ducking Coulson’s phone calls because he doesn’t want to share any more answers.
As far as villainous plans go, the Clairvoyant had a good one: place Skye in mortal jeopardy in order to force Coulson to revive her with the same technology that brought him back to life. One of the more popular fan theories is that the Clairvoyant is someone we’ve seen in the Marvel movies. If that’s true and its who I think it is, then fans won’t be disappointed. On the other hand, if the Clairvoyant is completely brand new then the buildup may have been for nothing.
Some of the signature, low budget action of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” reared its head when Coulson, Garrett, Ward and Fitz (Ian De Caestecker) stormed the hidden mountain compound of the Guest House… and they were only challenged by two guards. Not two guards out of a battleon or even a small group of soldiers. Just two guards, that’s it.
Having Garrett involved in the action scenes helped elevate the assault on the Guest House and he had some fun interplay with Fitz. It’s been widely reported that Paxton will be making several appearances this season, so Garrett will probably be back on the show very soon. It also helps that Garrett is hunting for Deathlok aka Mike Peterson (J. August Richards). That should be an interesting showdown when it finally comes.
If anyone expected Skye to die in this episode, then they haven’t been watching enough TV. Of course she lived. Skye may not be widely popular among the hardcore Marvel fans, but the show was never going to kill off its audience surrogate. The only question is whether Skye will be physically changed after being injected with the super drug.
Meanwhile, Coulson is so shaken by the implication of what he witnessed that he tried to prevent Skye from suffering the same way that he had. It’s still not very convincing when Coulson acts like he’s Skye’s surrogate father. The bond between them needs more time to develop before I can take that dynamic seriously.
The tag scene for this episode was promising, as the Asgardian trickster, Lorelei (Elena Satine) uses her abilities to mesmerize and enslave a newly married young man. Consider it the wind up for next week’s episode; which is going to feature the live action TV debut of Jaimie Alexander as Lady Siff from the Thor movies. Aside from Commander Maria Hill and Nick Fury, Siff is the biggest Marvel movie character to crossover with the show. However, Alexander’s presence doesn’t necessarily mean that the solid streak of episodes will continue. But I would like to see that happen.
