Our brief interlude last week on the alien planet with Jemma is over, and this week we are back with the S.H.I.E.L.D. team on good old Planet Earth. That doesn’t mean some crazy stuff didn’t go down, though – quite the opposite, as this one of the most shocking episodes so far. Let’s lift the cover off of “Among Us Hide…”
SPOILERS AHEAD
First of all, I have to point out that, if anyone had taken the time to find out this week’s episode title, it would have been a major plot spoiler! How could the show’s writers make such a suggestive title, when the team has been looking so hard for the human alter-ego of Lash, whom they think must be someone they know? It would not have been hard to narrow the list of suspects down to Dr. Garner and maybe a couple of other people.
Luckily, I did not know the title before I watched, and the Lash reveal was a huge shocker. I definitely knew that Garner had survived his assassination attempt, since they only showed his lower body. But I would have never guessed that he would turn out to be Lash. As it turns out, he became Lash during the attempt on his life, and it’s Von Strucker who tells May the shocking news about her former flame.
Just as a side-note, it was weird to see Von Strucker exit so unceremoniously from the show last night, as it seemed like the writers had big plans for him. They made such a big deal at the beginning about showing him to have “special genes” from his evil father, that this episode seemed to almost be contradictory. In “Among Us Hide…” Von Strucker has become a weak wimp, and Ward casually disposes of him like nothing. It seems as if his whole character was either a major red herring by the writers, or they just weren’t sure what to do with him. Either way, it felt unsatisfying.
But you have to give the show credit, they don’t milk story reveals to string you along as a viewer. Just like with Jemma’s experience on the alien planet, the identity of Lash is dealt with pretty quickly, and now the fact that it is Garner hiding in plain sight makes for an even more interesting storyline going forward. It was a great moment last night when Garner/Lash casually asks Daisy about Lincoln’s whereabouts, and she tries to avoid his answer without letting on that she knows. Lots of great irony that I know will only get better as the weeks go on.
As for Coulson, his relationship with Price continues to get … weirder? More complex? Deeper? I am not quite sure what I think of these two. And the show is really keeping me guessing each week as to where they are headed with these two. Some weeks, it seems that Price is hiding a lot more sinister intentions than she lets on to him. Other times, like last night, she is presented as a good-intentioned human being who just wants to be loved like everyone else, gosh darn it. But even then, she is clearly up to something sinister, as in this episode, where she shows Coulson her horrific, fascist-y program to freeze Inhumans and store them until they can be “cured.”
And even weirder is Coulson’s attitude to Price and what she is doing. Daisy quite rightly points out that he doesn’t seem all that upset at what is a pretty awful thing. He does question Price anemically as they watch the bodies being stacked by a robot arm, but his “protest” is very half-hearted and frankly, offensive. I totally don’t blame Daisy for being pissed at Coulson over all of this. Why isn’t he more outraged? It can’t just be because he is into Price – love is blind, but it’s not that blind.
Lastly, May and Morse showed us once again why Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been about bad-ass women who kick ass, and punch life in the face. May gets all up in Morse’s grill about Hunter’s lone-wolf routine that almost got Garner killed. It seemed at first like May had finally lost all control, but we (and Morse) soon learn there’s a method to her madness: she is trying to “wake up” Morse, who has been in a funk ever since her run-in with Ward. It was genuinely powerful to see Morse come alive and join May in her quest to finally get Ward. I have always been on the fence about May, but this week she was a really inspiring and interesting character who (literally) brought S.H.I.E.L.D. to life again.
This week, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. showed again that it won’t shy away from revealing big plot points to move the action forward. They have taken really original steps, and risks, during this season, and I hope that viewer ratings start to reflect that as it goes on. One interesting thread to follow is the fact that Garner/Lash seems to have some kind of tie to Price and the ATCU. This sets up major conflicts between the team and their ATCU rivals, Price and Coulson, and Garner and the rest of the team. It will be exciting to see how the shows writers bring them all to a satisfying close.