Agents of SHIELD, Season 6, Episode 2: Window of Opportunity
A relatively solid episode, even if it's nothing quite as fun as the previous episode. Mostly it's just more table-setting for the season, with slightly more focus on the extra-dimensional Coulson doppelganger finally confronting SHIELD in a more tangible manner, while Fitz and Enoch take up the space segment as opposed to Team Skye.
And... it's all right? The production of the episode is pretty top-notch, as is the generally witty scripting, but while it's never bad, it's never quite as spectacular as it could've been. The actual fight scene between Sarge and May's team with the very Portal-esque dimensional portals that connect the jewelry store's vault with the extradimensional hoppers' base is perhaps the best thing in this episode, making what would otherwise be a pretty repetitive fight scene end up being something quite creative.
Other than that, though, we don't really learn a whole ton about Sarge Not-Coulson other than some slight speculations and confirmations of things we can draw from the pilot episode. They have been to multiple other worlds and realities, and seemingly is present for the utter annihilation of one such Earth. They go around looking for special crystals called 'PEGs' that turn out to be equivalent to quartz in our dimension. "Sarge" has the same DNA with Coulson to a fashion. There's some ever-so-slight dissent between them, mostly on the part of the younger male minion, but not enough to make this a full-on Starscream moment. And they really, really have a great time hamming shit up robbing that convenience store. That was hilarious. And... well, it's still a pretty neat sequence as they rob the jewelry store and end up fighting SHIELD (well, mostly the one-woman-army May) again, but manage to escape.
Ultimately, after the huge shock of Sarge showing up as a Coulson doppelganger, this episode just sort of takes time to hammer this point home while re-iterating some of the revelations we foud out about the extra-dimensional hoppers from the pilot episode. Granted, that was a wonderful action scene, with the wall-portals being constantly moved around in a very dynamic fashion as May fights with Butterfly Psycho-Lady and Jaco the Tall Dude, but for the most part, the only real character moment, if you can call it that, is May being so rattled and unsettled because, y'know, evil doppelganger Phil Coulson. There was some inherent comedy in the utterly poor attempts from Team Sarge. "We're from the... shipping company." That was neat.
The Fitz B-plot is... it's all right? It's mostly self-contained as Fitz and Enoch find their cover on an alien smuggler ship blown, and they end up working together to save the other engineers from the extremely pragmatic and assholish alien mob boss Viro. There's nothing in the subplot that's too bland or unentertaining, but the plotline itself is pretty obvious, with Fitz of course choosing not to side with the clearly assholish and murderous mob boss, and Enoch ending up getting inspired to do the right thing and help Fitz fuck with the airlocks, probability be damned.
Of course, in true Agents of SHIELD fashion, poor Fitz and Enoch hyperspace jump out of that quadrant in space just as Team Skye/Simmons show up. That's a bit eye-roll inducing.
Ultimately, it's... a serviceable set-up episode, if not a particularly exciting one.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Viro's cargo was Xandarian Snails, which is a reference to the planet Xandar, featured prominently in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. Whatever happened to the planet after Thanos razed it in Infinity War, I wonder? Xandarian Snails themselves actually showed up in season 5 in the alternate-future, where they were served to Kassius the Kree master of the Lighthouse.
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