Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 3 Review: All Hail Graviton!!!

Agents of SHIELD picks up the business in their third episode with a classic comic book character beginning to come to life in the series…

By Trevor Dueck — Staff Writer

Finally we have an episode of S.H.I.E.L.D. where we don’t get references to Thor’s biceps. Episode 3 was called “The Asset” and it was no surprise that they focused heavily on Skye, the hacker with the nice…ass…et. Honestly this stuff writes itself.

Skye , who let’s not forget is also still aligned with the “Rising Tide” organization, gets her very first solo mission for the S.H.I.E.L.D. cause. Who does her hair? Seriously that woman is very well coifed. Where does she get the time? Immediately we start wondering where do Skye’s loyalties lie? Is it with S.H.I.E.L.D.? Rising Tide? Or with her hair stylist?

What else that I liked about this episode is that we got our first super villain creation story. For you comic book nerds you know what I’m talking about. For the rest of you, hang on and continue to read this recap. Speaking of bad dudes, this week’s evil antagonist was named Ian Quinn, and he kidnapped S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist Dr. Franklin Hall. (Recognize the name comic geeks? Big hint on the super villain) Dr. Hall has pioneered the Gravitonium, which manipulates the field of gravity in a crazy and dangerous way. Quinn of course wants to exploit the technology for his own agenda. That rich bastard!

S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to rescue Dr. Hall but unfortunately the rich and evil philanthropist lives in Malta, a place where the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization is not allowed to tread for political reasons. Of course they try and skirt by the rules and they send their “hacktivist” Skye into Quinn’s compound with a fake electronic party invitation. Is there an app for that?

They give Skye a fancy little spy toy that is disguised as a makeup compact. Once the green light on the compact is pressed the compound’s defense shields will open for three seconds and thus giving Agent Coulson and Agent Ward time to enter and do their thing. It’s a fun little plan with a ton of holes but who cares its television!

Skye goes to the party wearing a hot little dress and armed with her wit, makeup compact, and boobs. At the beginning of the episode Agent Ward had been teaching Skye how to punch and disarm bad guys with guns. It was obvious that at some point Skye would use what she had learnt because that is preciously why they showed the two practicing it. Again its television! The other reason for the scene was to build up the sexual tension between Agent Ward and Skye. Just ask her out already man!

Back to the mission. Skye managed to schmooze her way into Quinn’s private lounge. After a tense moment where Skye almost gets found out, she is able to use the whole double agent shtick and pretend that she really is there to help Quinn. While she talks tough she manages to use her magical makeup compact and run some sort of high-tech interference that disables Quinn’s security, which allows for Coulson and Ward to fight their way inside. Just like how they planned it. Perfect.

Agent Ward is able to come to Skye’s aid before she gets captured, and Coulson goes in to rescue Dr. Hall…who apparently didn’t want to be rescued. It seemed that the whole kidnapping arrangement was all part of Dr. Hall’s grand master plan. The good doctor wanted to take out Quinn and destroy the Gravitonium before it got into the wrong hands and really screwed up the world. Dr. Hall thinks that the only solution is to trigger the machine into self destruct which would in turn kill everyone in the compound. That was not a good plan for our S.H.I.E.L.D. friends was it?

Agent Coulson was obviously not down with this idea so he tried to talk Dr. Hall out of it but to no avail. The Gravitonium started going crazy and the only thing that Agent Coulson could think of was to throw the doctor into the evil creation. It makes sense right?

In every good comic book story all of us comic geeks know that it takes equal parts of pure genius and a good revenge story to create the perfect super villain. The last thing we see of Dr. Hall is a silver hand trying to pull itself out of the spinning gravitational vortex. We nerds know that Dr. Hall has become Graviton. Mmmuuuaaahahaha!

This was the best episode of the series so far and although I still find myself clinching up with some of the dialogue and acting, it’s a fun show. Honestly, I watch these later in the evening and I just like turning my brain off. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is definitely building some momentum. It was good to get some more insight about a few of the agents like Agent Ward’s harsh childhood birthdays. Like seriously that is his back-story? His big brother use to torment him on birthdays? They couldn’t think of anything better? Anyway, I think after a few more episodes most of us will be thoroughly hooked.

This latest episode of Agents of SHIELD rates a 3 out of 5 of the Skolnick Scale:

S.H.I.E.L.D. Notes

• Agent Coulson’s near death experience is still shrouded in mystery but we find out that he has lost some of his muscle memory. Is he actually part man and machine? A terminator perhaps? Okay that’s probably a bit of a stretch, but something is wrong with the man. I’m sure each episode will give us more clues.

• I’m hoping we get more back story on Agent Melinda May. She is this kickass agent who scowls a lot and wears leather. I wonder if she becomes the focal character on one of the missions in the not too distant future. I’m also tired of the forced romance brewing between Agent Ward and Skye.

• Speaking of Skye, I liked it better when she was helping out the bad guy Quinn there for a minute. I thought that was a great twist to have her as a back stabbing double agent with her claws in everything. There was a moment there where I thought the deal that Quinn was offering her was something she had trouble not accepting. I guess the writers didn’t agree as she kept loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. Damn that’s too bad. I think her character would be far more interesting if they went that route rather than just some good looking hacker who gets spoon fed a love interest in Agent Ward. Yuck! Too formulaic.