“A Hen In The Wolfhouse” Reminds Viewers Just How Much Peril The Marvel Cinematic Universe Is In!

The Good: Plot moves along, Moments of character, Decent performances
The Bad: Stands poorly on its own, Very much a middle act
The Basics: “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” is one of the best episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. thus far, though all of its important moments are meaningless without already being invested in the show.


Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is five episodes into its second season with “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” and the show was in danger of going off in too many directions to be accessible to those who are not already fans, watching each episode. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not even trying to be episodic at this point and the strongly serialized nature of the show actually makes “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” a better episode. Given how “I Will Face My Enemy” (reviewed here!) ended with Raina being given a ticking clock and a mission of her own, it was pretty natural that “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” would pick up almost immediately after the prior episode.

Almost immediately, “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” is tasked with either pushing forward the central plot of the series or mortgaging a reasonable sense of suspension of disbelief in the show. Fortunately, “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” aims for the former and hits the mark. Unafraid to burn the dangling plots that have the potential to be truly problematic the longer they linger in the background, “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” effectively burns the Simmons plotline from “Making Friends And Influencing People” (reviewed here!). Fortunately, the movement made in this episode is well-executed and makes the spy show actually work in a credible way, despite the science fiction aspects of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D..

After a wedding where H.Y.D.R.A. agents experiment upon the guests and kill most everyone there, H.Y.D.R.A. becomes obsessed with obtaining the obelisk. Raina, tasked with getting the obelisk from Skye’s father, is denied the treasure and when she sees Simmons at the H.Y.D.R.A. laboratory, she strikes up a plan to save her own life. Skye, having seen the alien writing carved into the desk in Coulson’s office and after an unsettling conversation with Ward about the nature of those symbols, confronts Coulson. Coulson admits that he and Garret reacted poorly to having alien DNA put in their bodies, but Skye did not. Told she might actually be an alien, Skye freaks out. Raina calls Coulson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. team meets with Raina.

Raina puts Coulson on the defensive, threatening to out Simmons if he does not help her get the obelisk and Skye. Refusing to concede to Raina, Coulson calls her bluff. The H.Y.D.R.A. security agent who is closing in on Simmons suddenly comes to her rescue to extract her from the enemy lab. Bobbi Morse blows her cover, but Coulson uses Raina to try to find the obelisk and Skye’s father. But when Skye goes rogue, tailing Raina, to try to find her father, the entire mission is put in jeopardy. But Skye’s father is struggling to maintain control over his own monstrous abilities and in trying to elude Skye, he runs right into the arms of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s greatest enemy.

The burden of continuing Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the climactic events of the first season and Captain America: The Winter Soldier is that the show is plummeted into a genre that has been mined to death. The savvy television viewing audience has seen spy shows and we know virtually every twist coming episodes in advance. To make the heroes interesting, the villain has to be credible and powerful. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s adversary is H.Y.D.R.A., an evil superspy organization that worked with the Nazis . . . and the Nazis were the cuddly half of that arrangement! In making H.Y.D.R.A. the supervillains of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the burden of the show is to make the enemy smart enough to keep world governments and S.H.I.E.L.D. on the ropes. “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” does that quite well by having H.Y.D.R.A. and Skye’s father becoming appropriately menacing and causing the few clandestine assets Coulson has to be burned.

Adrienne Palicki bursts into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Bobbi Morse wonderfully. From almost her first moment in “A Hen In The Wolfhouse,” Palicki makes viewers wonder just how the hell DC Entertainment failed to successfully launch Wonder Woman with her. Palicki is articulate and has great physical presence in the role of Morse. She instantly upstages Nick Blood’s Agent Lance, though they have decent banter between them in their scenes.

What keeps “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” grounded is that Skye and Coulson are focused on enough to make sure that the episode is not a Raina episode. Clark Gregg and Chloe Bennet have decent on-screen chemistry in the episode as Coulson and Skye. Bennet has grown as an actress and in “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” has her losing her uncertainty in playing Skye. The enhanced performance ability comes at the ideal time as her character has a fairly emotional episode. Skye nears her lifelong goal only to discover that her father is not looking for her for positive reasons. Bennet plays Skye as appropriately shaken and those moments resonate. Fortunately, Gregg’s Coulson grounds the emotional moments of the episode.

Holly Dale directs “A Hen In The Wolfhouse” with mixed results. While the episode moves along with amazing pacing and good cuts to make the banter flow, but the meeting between Fitz and Simmons is cut in such a way that there is nothing cathartic about the much-awaited, potentially emotional moment. Even with that emotional flaw and the necessity of being already invested to care about the sweeping events of “A Hen In The Wolfhouse,” the episode is quite good.

For other works with Adrienne Palicki, please visit my reviews of:
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Red Dawn
Legion

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
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8/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Movie And Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Takes “The Bridge” Back To Enjoyable Television!

The Good: Decent acting, Engaging-enough plot
The Bad: Light on character development, Somewhat unimpressive until the final act
The Basics: “The Bridge” brings Mike Peterson back into the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. mix and twists in a way that promises a better next episode.


The more my wife has been watching Torchwood around the house, the less excited I have been about upcoming episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The two have remarkably similar plots and Torchwood beat the Marvel show to the punch by years. But as I watched “The Bridge,” the latest episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., I started to recall how different an experience it was to watch episodes of Angel (reviewed here!) as they aired, as opposed to on DVD (which is how I watched most of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and other Joss Whedon television projects). “The Bridge” is a “middle act” type episode and until the final act, it does not go anywhere particularly compelling or at all original (it’s remarkably familiar, especially for fans of other Joss Whedon productions or Torchwood).

But, fortunately, after middling around playing the various lingering character threads (something that I’ve discovered plays much better for Whedon productions when one is able to sit down and spend a day watching the entire season of his work), “The Bridge” turns and starts to reveal how serious Joss Whedon and his creative team on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are about playing a long arc and building a villain worthy of devoting hours to building to. While the obvious highlight of “The Bridge” is to bring back to the forefront Mike Peterson, the antagonist from “Pilot” (reviewed here!), the real thrill of “The Bridge” is in the concept that there is an anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. working in the world and its infrastructure is being built. Just as one of the big thrills of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (reviewed here!) was the build-up to the Dominion, an organization described by the executive producers and writing staff as “an anti-Federation,” Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been alluding to different individuals (like references to “the Clairvoyant” in “The Bridge”) who are part of the shadowy organization who corrupted Project Centipede in the series premiere and have been behind at least one other major storyline in the first season. Bringing Mike Peterson back to the plot gives the show a chance to reflect on where it has been the prior nine episodes and tease new big elements. And the ones that do not feel remarkably familiar are quite enjoyable.

After the Edison Po is broken out of Havenworth Prison by Centipede Soldiers, Coulson continues to monitor Skye. Skye is still looking into who her mother might have been, while May and Ward flirt. To capture the three Centipede Soldiers, Coulson enlists Mike Peterson, who is still training to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. Despite the cold reception given to Peterson, Coulson plays it safe as the team looks for Brian Hayward, who might have clues to who would break Edison Po out of prison. Getting footage of Edison Po, Peterson is able to identify the woman in the flower dress as the woman who tried to recruit him.

When Grant Ward approaches Hayward’s sister, the team learns that the Centipede Soldiers have been moved to California. With Peterson on the team, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents descend upon Oakland. In defeating the Centipede Soldiers, the enemy learns exactly what they need to stabilize their supersoldiers. Raina uses Peterson’s son to arrange an exchange and when the Agents arrive for the trade-off, Coulson learns just how much Mike Peterson needs his son.

The unfortunate aspect of “The Bridge” is that is does not advance any of the main characters of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it further diminishes S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be an intelligence agency and as such, the members of the organization give up certain civil liberties as a matter of course. In order for an intelligence agency to remain less vulnerable to moles, there must be a counterintelligence division that monitors its agents. S.H.I.E.L.D. either has the least effective or least competent counterintelligence division of all time in that Skye has previously rendezvoused with Rising Tide agents, back in “Girl In The Flower Dress” (reviewed here) and with Mike Peterson in “The Bridge.” Peterson started the series as a threat, so the idea that he could communicate with his son (and Raina) without S.H.I.E.L.D. counterintelligence reacting is beyond the suspension of disbelief . . . even for a series with telekinetics and alien artifacts!

That said, “The Bridge” does a decent job of keeping the loose ends flowing and in the mind of the viewers. Skye’s search for her parents and the increasingly complicated relationship between May and Ward are referenced enough to keep that fresh. As well, “The Bridge” seems to lead the viewer to the promise that the nature of Coulson’s resurrection will finally be made explicit, especially considering how the episode finally resolves itself.

The performances in “The Bridge” are fine. J. August Richards is a solid performer and his return to the show as Mike Peterson plays well, though he is not given any greater range to play than his fans have already seen from him before. An irksome amount of the camera’s attention is still pointed on Chloe Bennet’s Skye (even when her character is not doing much), but she does not flub any lines or waste her time on screen. Ming-Na Wen continues to dominate the versatility department by playing Melinda May as layered and complicated. Clark Gregg continues to bring a withholding quality to the role of Coulson that is enough to keep those not in the know guessing and those who have a clue as to how his character was resurrected laughing to themselves.

Ultimately, there are no real deeper themes or concepts relayed in “The Bridge.” It is a plot-centered Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. that is good and, one suspects, will hold up as a more necessary episode in the context of the full first season as opposed to on its own.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season here!
Thanks!]

5.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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