I frankly don’t understand why Agents of SHIELD is struggling in the ratings.  Maybe there was sufficient criticism to be leveled at the very beginning, when the show was forced into slow pacing by the larger demands of the MCU.  But now the show is in a much darker and more substantial place, and the continued dismissal of the series (especially in light of the recent announcements regarding Phase Three!) seems out of order.

 

Take this episode, for example.  Mockingbird’s arrival on the series has given the team a boost in several ways.  She’s a nice compliment to the male agents, and also to Agent May.  Like May, Bobbi has the fighting chops, but she’s a bit more personable.  That she looks the part is even better; her field uniform was sexy yet entirely functional, and her more casual look in this episode was a nice callback to her classic comics color scheme.  Her rocky relationship to Hawkeye may have been replaced with her previous marriage to Hunter, but I see that more as a practical consideration than anything else.

 

The writers also addressed more of the fallout from The Winter Soldier.  Some feel like the anti-SHIELD sentiments don’t make sense, and yet, the very end of Winter Soldier set the stage perfectly well.  There hasn’t been a public distinction made between SHIELD and Hydra that has really stuck, and perception is 99% of reality.  The only real oddity is that Hydra has such ubiquitous internal branding; one would think they would continue to pose as SHIELD more often.  But once again, that feels like a device to help the audience keep the sides straight.

 

It was really good to see the tension between Fitz and Simmons continue, since it would have been far too easy for them to reconcile right away.  This is classic Whedon, of course: set up a near-perfect relationship, and then crush it into powder and linger over the fallout, pushing the characters into unfamiliar and deeper territory in the process.  For all that the current pain is difficult to endure, it’s already clear that there is potential for both of them to grow into something better when all is said and done.

 

There was even time for this episode to focus on Ward’s future.  Though his escape at the end was entirely predictable, I’m not sure that all was as it appeared.  Coulson has been very sneaky this season, and I could imagine a scenario where getting played by Hydra and knowing Christian Ward’s level of self-interest would lead him to allow Ward to roam free as a wild card.  On the other hand, just having him out there as a potential ally, enemy, or both is more than enough.

 

There’s a lot of speculation that the alien writing and the Obelisk/Diviner is tied to the eventual revelation about Inhumans, and there is evidence to support that.  So I’m left wondering, with the announcement of a future Inhumans film and the ambitions of Phase Three, if the synergies of Disney/ABC/Marvel Studios are such that the enormous film franchise machine that is the MCU is seen as enough profit justification to keep Agents of SHIELD on the air with minimal ratings.  It goes against the conventional wisdom of network television, but that wisdom was based on a world with far less media consolidation.  My worry is that even lowering the bar significantly still may not be enough in the end.