Week 16: Yes Men, End of the Beginning

Yes Men: Even though pretty much every twist in this hour was predictable before it happened, I still enjoyed this episode, partly for using the A-plot to develop the team's interpersonal relationships further (as it should) instead of merely delivering some movie tie-in action, and partly for the funny scene where Coulson improvises upon finding a mind-controlled Fitz and rolls with it. (Most men charmed by Lorelei seem to fight over her. Poor beta-male Fitz seems to have no such impulse.)

I don't understand S.H.I.E.L.D.'s choices to keep sending male agents after Lorelei after they learn of women's invulnerability to her powers; the organization should not need to behave this foolishly just to further the plot. And I don't know what the sex scene between Lorelei and Ward was meant to accomplish narratively since it didn't explicitly come up again in the subsequent scenes with May (unless I missed something). And Asgardians are still kind of tedious, although Jaime Alexander is not without charisma. I appreciated the connections to Dark World: I assume that Lorelei's liberty was a result of Kurse's mass jailbreak in Odin's dungeon, and that the order from "Odin" to return her alive is actually from Loki. Plus, it was just neat to see a big-budget network series film on location in Vegas (or use a very convincing green screen); I'm used to certain other genre shows (including some coming up in the MCU Project) cut all kinds of corners to save money, and it's just nice to see a big expensive show splurge because it can. (5/10)

End of the Beginning: Here at last the show gets to that inevitable espionage-series trope, when circumstances force the team to doubt each other and the paranoia ramps up. AOS does it well and without cheating; I don't feel like anything was forced here except maybe Sitwell's cameo to set up Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Skye's field commission was a nice scene, and although I didn't understand how her double-blind assignment was supposed to outmaneuver the Clairvoyant (couldn't his telepathy read her mind too? I think I missed a detail), I liked the team-ups and intrigue that followed. Casting Brad Dourif in such a tiny non-speaking part was a weird touch, but it didn't matter for long as Coulson and Skye deduced the nature of the threat, a great sign of the show figuring out how to tell stories like this. Deathlok is the weak link here, with ill-defined powers and motives (how did the Clairvoyant finally break him?), but it was neat to see his comic book appearance through Fitz's drone camera. This episode feels like the show is finally running at full speed, and I like it. (8/10)

In the final scene of End of the Beginning, Victoria Hand orders the deaths of the entire AOS team sans Coulson. I have seen Winter Soldier and thus I'm pretty sure why she did that and it's not particularly shocking to me, so I'm trying to wrap my head around how that scene must have played to audiences watching this on its initial broadcast eight years ago. Why in the hell would she do that, right? It must have been a little mind-bending, or perhaps very frustrating for those few who lacked faith that the show had plans for it and just thought the writing was really bad. :-)