Agents of SHIELD S03E06 Review: And Lash Is...

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 6: Among Us Hide…

After that distraction with Simmons on another planet last episode, this one brings us back in full force into the Inhumans plot.

I did find that they spent way too much time with Coulson and Price just dicking around avoiding going to the ACTU holding facility until the last quarter of the episode to be a bit grating. Especially the staged robbery at Price's house, Coulson's Sherlock scan and everything. Funny, yes, as always, but we've had a good number of funny Coulson/Price scenes and honestly we don't need that much more. I mean, I get that it humanizes Price a fair bit more so she feels human -- a tactic that Coulson himself actually points out.

Skye (Daisy, Quake, whatever, she's still Skye to me) has recruited Mack and later Hunter in investigating the fact that Lash might be one of the ACTU members. It's good that she's being proactive, I guess, but at the same time, the obvious red herring scene from episode 4 has informed us that neither Banks nor Price are likely to be Lash. It's still good fun seeing them try to investigate on their own, even if the Banks thing ended up being a dead end. Skye also hijacks Fitz's experimental Dwarf drone ("It's awesome. So I stole it.") to go invisible and enter the ACTU facility... and find out that they're doing some crazy Matrix-esque shit with the Inhumans they capture, putting them in suspended animation and doing horrible things to them...

Okay, just the former. Skye, Mack and Hunter also see Price and Coulson calmly discussing things, and they jump to the wrong conclusion -- although thankfully common sense prevails and they didn't just go marching in going all "Coulson is evil and working with the enemy we're overthrowing him" or some bullshit like that, because, well, the ACTU isn't evil. Coulson and Price's conversation really puts things to perspective, because Price views this as the humane solution. Like 'freezing' someone with a terminal disease for a couple of years until they find a cure, something that was triggered by Price's own husband (whose stuff Coulson kind of pointed out in the house scene, which honestly wasn't necessary) dying of cancer. It's a nice speech, a nice sentiment, and basically another side of good. I like it, though I bet Skye would probably contest it with the argument of 'free my people'. Which also isn't wrong, granted, but hey.

Hunter, meanwhile, having found himself suspended, has resorted to just bugging everyone around him, which is actually quite hilarious. He's bugging Fitz and trying to resort to wingmanning for him (even suggesting that Fitz leave Will stranded on that planet and cut off the love triangle entirely!), just going all "I'll drive" when Mack and Skye are discussing tailing Banks, showing up in a ski mask and ICER-ing Banks, punching him in the nose to get a blood sample... Hunter, you may have done questionable things putting Andrew's life in danger for a vendetta, but you have not lost your funny streak. Bless you.

Meanwhile, with Hunter getting kicked off the Ward case, May recruits Bobbi into her mission (much to Hunter's chagrin, though he at least takes it in stride, acknowledging his faults at least). After a moment where May shows her vulnerable side when a not-dead (see?) Andrew was brought in, we get May and Bobbi actually fighting each other. Granted, May's just testing Bobbi with the excuse of 'you caused Andrew to get hurt rawr' to make Bobbi think that the fight's for real, and it's a glorious little scrabble.

May and Bobbi basically assault the Hydra base to get to Von Strucker Jr. and while it's definitely the filler plot compared to the Coulson/Price and Team Skye plot threads, it does tie in pretty nicely, proving that Agents of SHIELD can pull off the 'all plots are intertwined' thing they did before without, y'know, sucking. There's also the fact that, y'know, Hydra assaulted Andrew a couple episodes back, which again ties in pretty neatly with the revelations in this episode. Bobbi does a good show for herself, killing off Kabo, Ward's second-in-command, with her Mockingbird batons. That's a cool fight scene. 

Also awesome is the bit where Bobbi and May talk in Chinese (Bobbi's Chinese is better than Kingpin's, though still leaves something to be desired), with May putting sarcastic remarks as Bobbi tries to defuse things with words. It's the right balance of funny and tense, and doesn't take up too much time.

Werner Von Strucker, meanwhile, tries to shack up with this rich Hydra dude, Gideon Malick... who only the most observant of MCU fans will realize is played by the same actor that played one of the shadowy World Government dudes in The Avengers, and one that was absent during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Obviously I didn't realize this until it was pointed out to me that Gideon Malick wasn't a newcomer. He might as well be, though, since we didn't need that slight backstory to understand how cool the old Hydra dude is. The little backstory that he's probably a Hydra member that clawed himself to the top of the government is a bonus.

Gideon Malick chooses a side, though, preferring to 'help' Grant Ward -- though he makes it clear that he's only going to help Ward as long as he thinks that Ward is asking the right questions -- and hands Von Strucker Jr. over to his men. May and Bobbi's rescue is a bit too late, as Von Strucker Jr. falls to the same fate that his father did, namely to die and be nothing but wasted potential... but Werner Von Strucker managed, to, with his last breath, inform May that her husband, Andrew Gardner, is in fact Lash, and we see the flashback of the attack happen in full. I'm pleased to have actually thought of it before this episode, and indeed the show does pepper itself with enough clues.

RIP Werner Von Strucker, alas, you too can't be as awesome as you potentially could.

Poor May. It's not just Fitz that cannot get a happy ending. May's one sole source of happiness -- a possible reconciliation with his ex-husband that he very evidently still cares about -- is wrenched away from her when she realizes that Andrew is a murdering monster. The twist is well done, and May's shocked expression definitely sells it. And at the end of the episode, Andrew asking Skye about Lincoln's whereabouts, while still done in the same friendly doctor tone that he had for the past five episodes, is underscored with the same scare chord to show us that, well, good friendly Dr. Andrew is... not very good or friendly after all.

Also, Lash's transformation sequence? That was beautiful. Lash himself might look like just another dude with really good prosthetics and costume, but that transformation was gorgeous.

Also to note is that the episode title, 'Among Us Hide...', isn't just appropriate to describe Lash's situation as hiding within SHIELD, but it's also a homage to the title of the very first comic that introduces the Inhumans.

Next episode seems to be setting up to a confrontation with Andrew Gardner, the man otherwise known as Lash. It's a solid episode, and a fair amount of stuff happens here and there. It's a bit slow on the Coulson front, and since we know the ACTU is an obvious red herring it would've been boring if it wasn't done so well. And this is where all the humour and comedy actually makes the scenes bearable. It's a nice buildup episode, setting up for... well, something big, I'm sure.