Picking up after the cliffhanger in the last episode, we see the Agents jumping right into the action. With Agent Coulson being abducted, the team is highly motivated to find any clues or leads to his whereabouts. This also means the team is working with Victoria Hand and several other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. It's a little weird seeing so many agents on the Bus. A complaint often made was the team seems to work on dangerous missions without any support.

Unfortunately not everyone is on the same page. Victoria Hand's main priority is finding leads on the Centipede organization and the team may not be allowed to operate under the procedures they've grown accustomed to.

For viewers, the main focus is finding out the secret to Agent Coulson's resurrection after seemingly getting killed in The Avengers. Coulson's abduction is to uncover how he returned from the dead and this means they want to know probably just as badly as we do.

Due to the circumstances, the episode allows some of the characters to see a little more action. They are being forced to go against protocol and this is giving us a chance to see what they just might be capable of. How much can Coulson take? What can Skye do out on her own? Can Victoria Hand be trusted?

The episode does deliver some of the goods. We do get a good look at happened to Coulson after his death. Do we have all the answers? It gets a little heavy for Coulson. Not quite but things are getting interesting. The show is getting on track. It's still not the Marvel Cinematic Universe show we want. If you try not to focus on that or the lack of actual Marvel characters, you might find yourself getting pulled into the show. There's still more answers to be revealed but at least we're starting to get somewhere.

I stopped watching ages ago. You're telling me the season is halfway over and we STILL don't know what happened to Coulsen??

@the_stegman: It's AGENTS of SHIELD. Not "The Agent Coulson Show." But yeah, it was dragging. Pretty whacked out scenes with Coulson from after he died in this ep.

@g_man: Yeah. But Coulson is obviously the reason people tuned in, he's the only connection to the MCU, he's essentially the main character, It might as well be the "Agent Coulson and the Agents of SHIELD", yet we still get nothing??

Ok structural issues that undercut actual earned dramatic beats aside, I kinda think it was a totally decent ep. It got me to actually like and have fun with Skye for a couple of minutes...and then the scene went on a bit too long and got a little to self satisfied.

Cheap Plug to User Review

me too

@the_stegman, It's only been a few months and the show is still finding its footing. The show is definitely getting better as the plot threads become more related and interconnected. I really enjoy Arrow and I don't remember thinking that I knew a whole lot about the island at the half mark of season one (a plot thread I would argue is more important to Arrow than Coulson's resurrection is to AoS). Try out the show again.

agreed agent coulson and to a lesser extent sky are the only good characters on the show because agent robot, mysteries kung fu girl, and the team of not scotty and not female scotty are not entertaining in the slightest the shows just past the half way mark and they still havent given a reason for the viewer to care about these four characters

i hope you know that those arent positives for the show at this moment in time since their all ready a little more than half way done with this season

So, Peterson is Deathlok, right?!? Did anybody else get that, but me?!?

Well, at least we found out HOW Coulson came back. Now we just need to find out WHY. I really like the show, but it does drag at times. Nevertheless, I'll see it through to the end, because I know the return of Dr. Hall/Graviton is gonna be epic (it'll probably be the season finale).

If that ends up being the case, my respect for this show just spiked exponentially.

@millennium, I don't don't think thats very long. Especially for a show that could last 4 or more seasons. What ever happened to patience? If you are not into the story I can understand, but if you are into it then it is not really proceeding that slowly.

Ive tried watching this show multiple times but i just cant. Besides Coulson all the other actors are pretty terrible. I really dont understand why they cannot make this a better show. Either cancel it or actually do somethin with it.

Usually I wait until a series finishes a season before I watch it in its entirety, but from what I've hear about Agents of SHIELD, can't say I'm excited.

First off, someone should tell these blind writers that there's an entire universe of Marvel characters at their disposal. I doubt they realize that is the actual draw to this show. I mean, the entire cast is new, all except for Caulson. I heard Hill and Fury made very small cameos, but cameos aren't even close to enough.

Back when before the show when we saw all those trailers, they teased magic, they showed Gunn (from Angel) with powers to show that superpowers are making an impact. I haven't even heard of him since, nor any other superpowered human. Apparently Graviton shows up in an episode, but he doesn't have powers yet.

Finally, I read that the main threat is an organization, but typical to how this show operates, this group isn't even from the comics. What about AIM, Hydra, Maggia, Purifiers (more anti-powers than anti-mutant), or they could have made the show more focused on smaller villain groups like Zodiac, Wrecking Crew, Serpent Society, Redeemers. They can do entire Redeemers/Thunderbolts arcs, which would be brilliant to showcase smaller heroes and villains.

The problem these idiotic writers can't seem to realize is that they might as well have left Marvel out of this show. If what I've heard is true, then this show will be a huge disappointment.

Skye was some actual use. One of their better episodes.

i stopped watching this because what i actually expected was for marvel to adapt lesser known characters like iron fist, daredevil, dr strange, luke cage, electra, and shang chi with other lesser known villains.

Agreed.

There is another show that was really great by Whedon and wasnt that great in its first season. Just relax people give it time

This. It feels more like "Interns of SHIELD".

I would've created a roster using actual agents from the comics and have them go against actual Marvel threats, with maybe some original villains thrown in.

My roster:

This would be similar to the setup of Agents of SHIELD as I would show how the team got together and explore how they all eventually became the characters that we know and love, kind of like the approach taken to Kirk and Spock in the Star Trek 2009 movie. However, I would take a slightly more serious approach, and I'd actually utilize villains from the comics like HYDRA, Taskmaster,Arthur Perry, Buck Richlen,Val Adair, Carl Delandan, Adam Manna, Spymaster, etc. that could make sense on a TV budget. You could even have cameos from various other members of SHIELD and obscure characters from the comics.

Marvel is not taking advantage of the potential this show has.

@xrayhal: Man, that would be great. I kept laughing to myself that Marvel high-jacked Cyborg cause I couldn't think of anyone. Great call(even if it will probably never happen). On a side note, I was just on some other forums reading the comments & I find myself amazingly stunned at how many genius writers, producers, directors, & actors there are that find the time to write in. I am even further blown away by the fact that Marvel(or DC for that matter)hasn't begged them to come work for them. It's WIERD. -_-

Anyone else think either Gateway or M.O.D.O.K are the the Clairvoyant?

That ep was freaking great! Could that guy at the end (forget his name, the dude that lost his leg) possibly become deathlok??

Thank you big man for the spoilers

@xrayhal: woooaaahh really? thats awesome!!

@sun_pusher: spoilers? What, you haven't seen The Avengers? That's impressive.

Controversial show.

I'm just watching this show out of habit more than anything at this point. My pull list is 90% Marvel and yet Arrow is my favourite of the two shows. I think that says a lot.

They lost me when I saw that moment in the trailer when that dude cracked a joke about SHIELDS name.

Not sure what this show is trying to accomplish. At first I thought it was a link between the MCU and television. But then all the avenger references were really getting annoying and sort of stifled the growth of the show. I stopped watching after a few episodes. I've been keeping up with it through websites and it seems to me that the show still hasn't found much traction.

One thing I will say is if they want AOS to be a link to the MCU, then S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to be more of a presence in the MCU. With Virtually no presence in IM3 and none inTDW, SHIELD hasn't loomed largely in the MCU since the avengers. I was really hoping during the break they would seriously retool the show and aim to link it to CAWS. Strong SHIELD presence in that movie, which could make for some very strong television. It's still early, so I'm holding out hope that it can be done.

Same, it just didn't do anything for me. The constant beating over the head to remind you this is set in the Marvel Universe didn't help either.

@xrayhal: Wow, you caught that! I sure didn't put the 2 together.

If it was dominating in the business,then,maybe it would've been okay......but there's a show called "Arrow" and it's knockin it out of the park,so.....

@g_man: I agree it has dragged at times but I think the biggest issue with the show are the fans expectations. Everyone wants something else. I enjoy it though!

@cgoodness: was thinking modok as the big bad and the team they are fighting is maybe some off shoot of aim

@themantisshrimp: true this show could last 3 to 4 seasons but if each following season is done in a episodic fashion (like it is now) then more people are going to stop watching it (the rating for this show are all ready proving that) and one of the reasons for that is because this show is episodic and episodic hour long shows don't work (unless their a crime drama in which this show is not) don't get me wrong i like the story for the Centipede organization which should be the over arcing story for this season in which its not and this is what they need to fix because as it stands right now this show hasn't been renewed for a second season

@millennium, fair enough. I think Centipede is being positioned as a larger ongoing threat, specifically the leader, and I would agree that to maintain interest the episodes need to feel more connected to one another.

Even though I liked the fact that this episode revealed what happened to Coulson and Skye taking more action in this episode, I wasn't a huge fan of the ending (poor Mike). Anyway, I think the problem that a lot of fans have with this show is that it doesn't have any recognizable Marvel characters, even though the premise of this show is supposed to be about non-superheroes living in a superhero world. I think that premise would only work if there were some episodes where the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D actually did meet up with some superheroes and are either competing with them to show the world that not everyone has to be a superhero to save the world or prove to the fans that this really is set in the Marvel Universe by introducing characters who came from the universe.

Well this is absolute bullcrap. I used to watch the episodes online at ABC's site since I'm working when it comes on, but they just made it so you can only watch it through specific cable providers now, and mine isn't one of them.

LMD

@g_man: No I havent see it so you get a

This episode and the one before it were really good, they were the best of the series.

The first half of the season was, let's face it, boring. No amazing stories, no amazing characters, just a poorly done Fringe-like show that sometimes refers to Marvel movies for no reason. BUT, those two episodes makes me hope that the show will be able to find his own thing, also hope that the main cast will get more depth, because for now, they are just walking stereotypes going through not-so_thrilling adventures...

Anyone else think Fitz is a Skrull? He used the Embrace Change line at the beginning and was angry at all the other agents.

My guess, Hand is a double agent for Norman Osborn, trying to find out how Coulson was resurrected to cure whatever Osborn was dying from in "Amazing Spider-Man"