Agents of SHIELD: Chaos Theory review

This Agents of SHIELD review contains spoilers.

Agents of SHIELD Season 3 Episode 7

Love was at the heart of Agents of SHIELD this week in an episode that just kind of sat there. It wasn’t bad by any means (that would be Gotham) and it wasn’t mindblowingly awesome (that would be The Flash), but it did create some interesting romantic dynamics as we move into the next phase of season three.

First off, we have the most engaging and interesting romantic entanglement on the series – the star-crossed (literally) romance of Fitz and Simmons. Here’s a little peek into the life of your recapper, I watch all this stuff with my wife, a CPA from Beijing, China who is not what would be called a classic fangirl. And man, does she want Fitz and Simmons to get together – really, really bad. So the earnestness of the Fitz and Simmons story arc seems to be working if she’s that into it. I have to agree. I just want to see these two brilliant kids finally find a moment of happiness.

This week’s focus on the Fitz and Simmons bit of business saw Fitz watching Simmons’ smartphone logs from when she was imprisoned on  that mysterious planet (which I so want to be Ego). Basically, he got to witness the woman he always loved confess her love for him during her darkest hour and then he had to endure seeing a photo of her and another man, a man who shared her planetary confinement.

Fitz knew that saving this man could lead to losing Simmons but he still was determined to find that planet and rescue this hunky astronaut because Fitz is just a good dude. A really, really good dude that puts morality first and would sacrifice his personal desires to see a mission through. I’m telling you, whenever Agents of SHIELD rides off into the sunset, it better be with Fitz and Simmons living somewhere warm with lots of brilliant children in lab coats around them.

Fitz wasn’t the only agent to make a sacrifice this week as we saw the culmination of the hunt for Lash. Last week, May discovered that her ex Dr. Andrew Garner was, in fact, the bestial Lash.

This week, we got to learn Lash’s origins. His transformation was the last act of evil by Daisy’s mother who booby trapped an ancient book with Terrigen dust. When Garner opened it, boom, Inhuman monster. Turned out, Lash was some kind of Inhuman vampire who fed on the essence of those transformed by the Terrigen. So the agents set up a task force of Daisy, Mack, Coulson, and Rosalind Price and her ATCU to take down Lash. May had to bring down her ex-hubbie who was suddenly an eight foot engine of Inhuman death.

All in all, we haven’t had that much metahuman action on SHIELD this year, but this made up for it as Lash was every inch the beat stick he should be and went through SHIELD and the ATCU like a scythe though wheat. Even the returning Inhuman lightning hurler Lincoln couldn’t take down Lash. But of course May could, and did, coolly and efficiently and imprisoned him in SHIELD’s anti-Inhuman cell. After she shot him point blank, like, five times. Oh, that May. Surprisingly and effectively, we did get to see May weep over the loss of Garner as she knew that their relationship would finally be over.

But what to do with Lash? That little problem was foreshadowed earlier in the show. SHIELD had a way to keep Inhumans in stasis as they waited for a cure. Of course, Daisy didn’t like being compared to a disease and protested the whole thing. For real, it was the same argument that appeared in every X-Men comic from 1988-2003 and it made me feel kind of tired.

It all seemed like a waste of time until the ending, where Lash’s presence proved Rosalind Price correct about the Inhumans being dangerous, but when Daisy saved Price’s life during the Lash attack; it proved the former Skye right about Inhumans having the capacity for heroism. I must admit, I am really liking superhero Daisy this season mainly because she is part of the narrative instead of its controlling mechanism. And man, does the show pull of the visual side of her powers in a really cool way.

As Price and Daisy butted heads over the morality of Inhuman imprisonment, Coulson and Price grew romantically chummy. The two seemed to have found a mutual admiration for each other, particularly because they both had lost so much, Coulson his hand and Price her husband. The two shared a few spark-filled moments and even bedded down together. What about the cello player, Phil? Who would choose anyone over Amy Acker?

Anyway, Phil seemed content but it was just too bad that Price seems to be in league with Gideon Malick and HYDRA. Now, I think that Price is just Malick’s pawn because it would be just way to obvious to make her HYDRA.

As I said, not a bad episode by any means but nothing all too memorable other than May coolly dispatching her one true love and Fitz’s inspirational and self sacrificing heroism. It seems like we will get more HYDRA goodness next week which has me pumped because I’ve been longing to see where Ward’s story takes us next.

Marvel Moments

Not a blessed thing.