Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 10: Maveth
Well, Agents of SHIELD is another show that has reached its mid-season finale, and holy fuck what a mid-season finale it was! Really a treat to watch after that relatively underwhelming Flash episode. We've got plot twists, more plot twists, backstory, confrontation and even character death! A major one, in fact, one of the original main cast.
Spoiler alert, of course, but then you'd have to be an idiot to read a review and not expect yourself to be spoiled.
There's a lot going on in this episode and some plot points really felt under-developed, yet the necessity of the setting really means that it needs to be done now, since by the end of this episode all of Team SHIELD will be extracted and rescued safely from Hydra clutches and there's no way for Simmons to unleash Lash and struggle with the knowledge that she knew she did so... but the impact of all her guilt at indirectly causing the death of all the Inhumans captured by Hydra ends up being moot as the reunion with Fitz and the lack thereof with Will kind of overwhelms the little shot of guilt she may have.
Let's talk about the big things first, shall we? All the important stuff are the ones that happened in that planet Coulson so hilariously dubbed 'Tatooine', especially in light of Star Wars premiering in less than two weeks. We've got Fitz, who definitely stole this episode, meeting up with Will while always subtly trying to undermine Ward being in control, very quickly striking up a rapport with Will and the two of them ended up working together to escape from the Hydra goons when they got to the No-Fly Zone.
Where the big reveal happens -- that Will is, well, dead and "It" is possessing Will's body. There were subtle foreshadowings all throughout this episode and during the stinger that showed Will is alive on the planet without the blue sandstorm filter. We saw Will being far more savage and murdering the Hydra goons, we see how he recognized Hydra as an 'old name' instead of just part of the Nazi, how he turned down the offer for goggles, and the fact that "It" never really attacked them despite Fitz being bleeding. Stuff like the goggles or brutality could be chalked up to Will having survived on Hell-Tatooine for years, but in the same vein it also paints a picture of strange unfamiliarity with what little we know of Will.
The twist is, of course, that Will is dead and Will's corpse has been taken over by "It". Or, as Gideon Malick puts it, "Death", or "Maveth". For lack of a better term since no one can agree what to call "It", I'm going to call "It" Maveth, which is less awkward to type than It. Well Maveth does deliver a couple of nice backstory to Helltooine, showing Fitz an ancient city. Apparently there used to be a civilization there that eventually wiped themselves out thanks to Maveth. And Fitz and Ward ran onto a collapsed monument that was erected in the symbol of Hydra. It's a bit weird since according to previous episodes the goat head symbol didn't turn into an octopus until WWII, but hey, I'll buy it. It's cool.
Speaking of Maveth's identity, some people are speculating lots of things in the internet since there's no Inhuman that fits how Maveth is described. The Venom symbiote. Death itself, the lady that Thanos is courting... and I honestly doubt it's either of these things, and if they're going to introduce Death as a character I don't think it'll happen in Agents of SHIELD.
And Maveth just seems all sorts of awesome. It's strange why he doesn't use his sandstorm creation or canyon making powers on the planet to stop Fitz and resorted to fisticuffs, but whatever the case Fitz managed to light him up on fire with a freaking flare... but while on the other side of the plot Coulson and Ward finally had their conclusion, Coulson giving in to catharsis and killing Ward ends up providing Maveth with a vessel to inhabit.
Fitz definitely rocks in this episode, though, from standing up to Ward to being generally awesome when dealing with Maveth. The show decides to throw him a bone by pulling the 'kill the hypotenuse' cause and killing off Will, a decision that really has the greatest result in causing that big plot twist that Will's body is taken over by Maveth instead of really causing much drama. As abrupt as it concluded, the love triangle angle really functions best showing how much Fitz and Simmons care for each other despite the whole 'Simmons falls in love with space man' angle, and for that I appreciate it. It's a bit of a cop-out that they killed said second love interest, but I honestly don't care for Will.
The other big conflict in the episode is Action Hero Coulson hunting down Ward in vengeance for everything Ward did, especially after Rosalind Price's death. I thought the random near-death vision of the two of them in bed and Coulson waking up to find a random skull next to him was kind of on-the-nose, but Coulson is still in full Action Hero mode as he hunts down Ward and is forced to keep him alive right up until they find Fitz. And, well, things go down dirty, Coulson and Ward fight each other... and in an absolute moment of catharsis ever since season one, Ward dies. A brutal, brutal death too as Coulson's broken heart is replied in kind and literal function. That mechanical arm crushes Ward's ribcage in an utterly brutal fashion, and Ward finally kicks the bucket.
It's an odd moment for Ward where he finally embraces some kind of purpose and destiny, being totally bought in by Malick's words. Ward's whole character arc throughout the second season is how lost he is without the guidance of John Garrett and how he's just trying to find his niche in the world with Skye, with Agent 33, as the head of Hydra, being obsessed with revenge... and now he finds purpose in something new, only to have his past sins of revenge catch up with him. And ironically becoming an instrument of the greater destiny he wants so much in death as Maveth's host.
Granted the show finds a way to keep Ward kinda-sorta be in the show by having Maveth possess Ward (and Maveth looks gross, like some kind of parasitic leech worm thing), but I suspect that Grant Ward himself as a character is done, since Will doesn't show any signs of his personality when revived as a zombie. It's more to keep Ward's actor in play, I suspect, because that was a great death for Ward and a fitting end for his twisted character.
MavethWard ends up meeting up with Gideon Malick at the end of the episode and presumably entering an alliance with the already-awesome Malick, so there definitely will be an escalation in the second part of the third season on that front.
The rest of the cast still on terra firma aren't slouches either, with Mack leading an operation to assault the Hydra castle and its fortified structures, and it's mostly a series of action sequences. May, Bobbi and Hunter get some pretty cool standard ones, and the newly-formed Secret Warriors (why are we not calling them that?) manage to not fuck up on their first outing. Mack, I think, shows some character development as he shuts down Skye and Hunter's plans to have everyone bunker down, showing authority as leader and a pragmatism when he orders everyone but him and
Speaking of Skye, it's cool how she's been out of focus throughout this season, still a main character but mostly relegated to being a pro-Inhuman POV character or just there to bust out the Quake powers, where she's basically the main character of the first two seasons. But she's still cool, leading Lincoln and Joey and generally being an awesome superhero squad. Lincoln is shown to be more brutal, as usual, and when they were confronted by Giyera, Lincoln was the one to lash out with a lightning bolt and would totally lightning bolt Giyera a second time to, uh, double-kill him if not stopped by Skye. Doubtful Giyera survived that lightning bolt to the chest, and even if he didn't the airstrike probably finished him off. RIP Giyera, you jackass. You killed Banks.
I do love the nice, gleeful smile on Lincoln's face when they were arguing main goals and Mack lists saving the Inhumans among them.
Joey also gets a lot of awesome lines, and he plays off Hunter well. Hunter's the resident wisecracker and he doesn't do much in this episode except be funny, but he does it well! From deadpan-answering Joey, to "I dunno about you guys, but I'll run", to waving to make sure that the thermal signatures are them... Hunter's just comedy gold. Stop using Hunter for depressing vengeance fight club plots, just have him stick around and be funny. Joey, though! It's his first outing as a newly-minted SHIELD agent, and he's awesome! He block-melts the bullets shot by Giyera and he gains massive respect from going to a scared civilian to someone ready to take a bullet for Skye -- he wasn't aware his powers would seemingly auto-cast and melt those bullets. We also see Joey's powers work as he easily breaks through the aqueduct grills and (sadly off-screen) fortify their position with barricades. You go, Joey!
Joey and Lincoln need superhero code names real bad. Also, Mack, for fuck's sake stop calling Skye "Tremors". It's a cool superhero name but hers is Quake. Get on with the program!
Mack and Skye staying behind ends up allowing them to rescue Fitz and Coulson when they got back, hilariously enough with a nice callback to the fact that the Inhuman containment cells can fly straight to Zephyr One.
Simmons herself has a little mini-arc going on, breaking free from her bindings with the little sharpened stick she was shown to be keeping around all the way back from when she was rescued from Helltooine. She makes great use of the blackout that Lincoln created and escapes, although she ends up cornered in the Inhuman holding room. The conversation with Andrew really could've gone on longer, but then the short, truncated one they had really underscores how Simmons didn't have much time to think and it's the lesser evil against the greater one. It really could've been given more focus and I get that the budget for special effects this episode is big enough as it is without featuring more Lash (we see Andrew start to transform, but everything Lash does afterwards is offscreen), but still.
Simmons releasing Lash ends up with Lash going around on his Inhuman genocide quest again, and every single Inhuman in those containment cell ends up being killed. I don't think there's anyone in those cooler boxes that we know, though the shot of May going around to look for Andrew and finding only the dead corpses left in his wake is a great moment. May doesn't get a lot of moments in this episode other than general asskickery, but Andrew definitely got a reaction from her. She doesn't blame Simmons at all, and really none of them do, but Simmons does look rather bummed that she inadvertently unleashed this monster upon a group of helpless Inhumans, whereas May's just all conflicted over the thing.
May also gets to be interim leader when Mack is down there playing sacrificial lion, and she's still hard as ever, ordering the airstrike without flinching. We get a lot of nice CGI shots of Zephyr One this episode and the shot where it airbombs the Hydra castle is awesome.
Bobbi ends up really not doing much, the only character in all this who I honestly need to think hard what her role is other than being an action girl.
Overall, it's a packed episode that isn't really perfect, but definitely delivers on most fronts. The Ward and Maveth plots really work well, and it's a nice close to the whole ATCU, monolith and planet portal plots, tying it up with a nice ribbon and proceeding to the next phase with Maveth arriving on Earth and allying itself with Gideon Malick. On the other hand, though, Lash being unleashed and Simmons' general trauma with Will's death end up feeling like a bit of an afterthought. It's not all bad, though, and it's definitely a stronger mid-season finale than Gotham's. Sadly Agents of SHIELD is on a break for now until the second season of Agent Carter premieres and is over. It's easily the strongest first half-season that Agents of SHIELD has ever had, and I'd even argue that it's stronger than the later half of the first season. Keep up the good work, SHIELD!
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