Agents of SHIELD: Seeds review

Agents of SHIELD juggles two stories that advanced the SHIELD mythology while establishing a bona fide, albeit minor, Marvel villain.

Okay, Agents of SHIELD, now you went and done it twice. I’ll ask nicely…can we please not do the “Now he has powers, muah ha ha” ending? Ok, thanks. The clichéd climax aside, the story of Donnie Gill (Blizzard to you comics fans) was mostly very well done and served as the introduction for SHIELD’s version of Hogwarts, a school to train the next generation of SHIELD scientist, one formerly attended by Fitz and Simmons. It seems “Seeds” could have served as a backdoor pilot for the once discussed Mockingbird series that now seems dead in the water, which is a shame because the school looked like a pretty cool setting for an Agents of SHIELD sister show. There was more Marvel history packed into the intro to the school than in most of the show’s run so far.

SHIELD was called to the school to investigate a mysterious assault on some of the school’s top students. Ward, Fitz, Simmons, and Skye investigate the assault involving a device that freezes moisture in the air. Marvel fans would have realized right away that Donnie Gill was responsible, but the show plays the reveal close and would have been a nice twist for those not in the know. Blizzard was never exactly an a-lister with anything near an iconically established origin, so this episode’s origin worked as well as any. The best part of the reveal was the character work done with Fitz who saw a great deal of himself in Gill.

This version of Blizzard was a villain cut from a very Marvel mold, a genius who may have been a hero if he followed a different path. While the origin was nicely handled, it would have been cool to actually see the Agents throw down with a legit Marvel baddie.  It seems like the show is pulling away before things get too comic booky, which isn’t a great thing when they have comic fandom’s attention and refuse to take the plunge with legit comic characters, even when they introduce one. The look into Fitz’s past was enough to keep the show engaging, but the lack of real intense, classic Marvel style conflict is getting tedious.

“Seeds” other story arc deals with Skye’s past, and even though Skye has been the least interesting character thus far, this episode’s reveals brought her character to a much needed next level. Turns out Skye has a mysterious power and many SHIELD Agents died protecting her when she was an infant, making Skye a fascinating piece of SHIELD’s history. It also brings Skye’s parentage into question which could provide some more interesting story fodder down the road. By the time this episode ended, Skye was a very different character than the somewhat irksome rebellious hacker. She is now a piece of SHIELD history with Coulson carrying on the tradition of her protection. A responsibility that snapped him out of the naval gazing ennui brought about by last episode’s reveals.

Ad – content continues below

All in all, a good episode with some good plot progression, it would just be nice if Agents of SHIELD would wholeheartedly embrace some of the more comic book elements that fans are expecting. The films certainly do, and look how that worked out.

Oh yeah, Agent May flies The Bus into the eye of a hurricane, so we had that little bit of awesome.

Marvel moments:

Bucky Barnes on the Wall of Valor. That might be important around, oh, April 4th.

A mention of Professor Vaughn’s class by Fitz. Was this the first mention of Quasar in Marvel media?

Shout outs to HYDRA and AIM.

Ad – content continues below

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!

Rating:

2.5 out of 5