Now THIS is more like it.
In the fourth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s third season, things finally start to get going. Of the season's numerous dangling plot threads, a large number of them are addressed here, perhaps most excitingly the Inhuman who is going around and killing other Inhumans, now identified as Lash. Now, SHIELD and the ATCU are focused on chasing him down, which is good, because the absence of this subplot from the previous two episodes bogged the season down a little. Unfortunately, the subplot with SHIELD and the ATCU, which the Lash subplot is intertwined with, is growing increasingly dull. As a shady rival agency for SHIELD, they're too sympathetic and have too many reasonable criticisms of SHIELD to really function as a "bad" counterpart for the now-underground titular organization, but that latter point doesn't coalesce into something more meaningful despite the genuine potential to.
Daisy continues her impulsive streak, having an understandable mistrust of the ATCU but not having a reasoned approach. This could serve as an invaluable perspective to SHIELD if it was actually of use, but in this episode she's at her most helpful when she's not questioning Coulson or insisting that she "needs" to be with the Inhuman of the day. For "Devils You Know," this renders her a little boring, and so far the season has wasted the opportunity to make her temperament particularly useful to SHIELD.
Thankfully, Hunter and May's attempt to take down Ward is really heating up. In the previous episode, Hunter got into Hydra, and here he is brought straight to the head honcho himself. May shows up as backup when Hunter gets into trouble, but this allows Ward to threaten May's ex, Andrew Garner, as blackmail. When Hunter attacks Ward anyway, it's assumed that the Hydra goons attack Garner, and this is clear from a scene where one Hydra goon escapes the exploding building where he was shopping. And yet, there's only one goon left, and we don't actually see the face-or even the hands-of the man who's laying in his own blood when the fire hits the gas. Did Garner survive? For the first time in a little bit, the show has left us with an exciting new question.
Previously, Garner had been doing psychiatric work on the SHIELD helicarrier. This, ultimately, was a factor in May's departure from the organization, as the rift between the two is still strong. We learn a bit more about them, but considering the already present ex-spouses tension between Bobbi and Hunter, this ground is already well-worn, and both of these subplots come across as melodramatic and unnecessary in the face of the various alien threats that SHIELD faces.
Meanwhile, the plotline with Simmons moves slowly in this episode. She hasn't opened up to Fitz, and feels the need to return to the place the Monolith sent her to. Unlike the dinner at the end of the previous episode, there's comparatively little romantic tension between the two. After all this setup, I'm still hoping this subplot is resolved in this season, especially given its relative irrelevance to the plot at large.
With both Lash and Ward still being at large, however, there's no real conclusiveness here, and the actual steps made forward are small. And yet, this is perhaps the most exciting episode of this season since the premiere, and while it still doesn't top that episode, it sets up the potential for a future episode-even the next episode-to approach it. This episode is engaging in spite of some tonal monotony, which is certainly more than I could say for last week's, and thankfully brings some of the superheroic trappings back up a few notches. This is a good sign for the show, and promises that this season might be getting back on track. Considering that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. can, at its best, be as essential as the films of the MCU, that is a good sign indeed.
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