Kyle’s Review

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. took flight with “Chaos Theory.” It didn’t take long for the Lash story thread to be tied up—for now—and just when I thought Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. made a wrong turn dispatching an engaging antagonist, they pulled the trigger on how Rosalind Price, Agent Coulson’s government belle, factors into the larger web. You won’t get any spoilers from me but “Chaos Theory” left things a beautiful mess.

I can’t believe how different Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is in its third season, compared to its first. The creators were cut loose from the Marvel movies after Captain America: Winter Soldier and they didn’t look back. Even though Marvel doesn’t have cinematic control of most of its aliens (outside of the Kree), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has made good use of the ones under Marvel’s umbrella. The characters have a sense of history and place and most have well-defined wants, which is always a good thing. These same characters tend to get in their own way when it comes to obtaining their wants, which is even better. And in short, the human characters and Lash are engaging. Which is why I’m still a little nervous with where Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going.

The Fitz and Simmons team up is always good viewing and going back to Ego the Living Planet will make for a great story. There will be plenty of fallout between Coulson and Price. But Lash was the only interesting inhuman. Marvel has time to set up the movie—Inhumans isn’t due until the summer of 2019—but they’ll have to develop the current cast of inhumans. If Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. can build these characters in the same way it built Fitz, Simmons, Bobbi, May, Hunter, and even Mack, there’s no doubt in my mind that they’re up for the task.