Week 12: The Hub, The Well

The Hub: Worst episode yet? Skye continues to misunderstand the assignment so badly that the fact that she hasn't been fired yet is doing real damage to the show's plausibility. The scene where Simmons shot Sitwell (say that ten times fast) was hard to watch. How were both Simmons and Skye not drummed out of the service immediately, and Coulson demoted for this fiasco? I think the A story was meant to flesh out Fitz the way that last week's "FZZT" fleshed out Simmons, but other than showing him being quick to improvise, I don't think we really learned much about him. I do appreciate the show planting seeds in earlier episodes about Ward distrusting Fitz's competence so that he could gain respect for him here; the series is better at long-term plotting than scene-by-scene writing so far. The part where May rolled her eyes at Coulson was the most relatable moment. (2/10)

The Well: I'm a fan of Ming-Na Wen from her years on ER, and her randomly hooking up with Ward at the end was the first time that AOS felt like her old show. This episode wasn't bad, just rushed and trying to tell too much story in too few minutes. The villains got the shortest shrift -- how did they find each other? how did they know where to cut into which tree? why were they meeting in what looked like a parking garage? -- but Grant's memories were scarcely better developed, and I hope to see more there. As for Coulson's Tahiti experience, the show badly needs to shit or get off the pot! We've had enough foreshadowing already. I really liked seeing this episode take place in the immediate aftermath of Dark World, which is the kind of interconnectivity that I want more of from the MCU, and the fact that the AOS characters made fun of the Dark World characters was a happy bonus. (5/10)