Midseason Thoughts on Season 3 of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD!

Stewart here…

Fair warning, SPOILERS for the season so far…

Okay, walking into the midseason return of Agents of SHIELD, there were some big expectations after what went down in the first half of the season. So how did it fare? Well, how about we discuss the big points of the season and see where we are with them in this week’s new episode?

Inhumans. The whole Terrigen fish oil capsule thing, absurd as it was when introduced, has been creating some legit surprises. One of the biggest and most tragic is May’s ex-husband, a key member of SHIELD, being turned into an Inhuman killing machine. With him back on the loose after being caught by Gideon Malick and Hydra, this is one thread looking to pop up again before long. It’s certainly help Daisy become a more important character, as she’s become kind of a surrogate aunt, locating and maybe recruiting Inhumans for SHIELD.

This week’s episode introduced to another Inhuman ally from the comics, the speedster Yo-Yo. By the end, she’s left alone, but odds are she’ll be coming back.

Coulson. Phil has been quite the busy bee this season, new robot hand or not. He even seemed happy by starting a thing with Rosalind, the head of the ATCU. Leave it to Grant Ward to screw that up by killing her, and putting Coulson on a personal vendetta to kill his former teammate once and for all. And that he does, but we’ll chat more that later.

Now, it seems the focal point of Coulson’s revenge is to wipe out Gideon Malick, which is easier said than done, considering how much wealth and power he has to spare. But Coulson does strike a metaphorical blow to Malick by destroying his secret HYDRA communication network, one he promises won’t be the last. Oh, and Phil gets a real looking new hand too! Saves money on buying gloves, and throwing away the right hand ones, right?

The Bus 2.0. Or The Bus-A? You figure it out.

SHIELD. Its good to see the core team is in good shape, considering everything that’s been going on. And now, they are technically not fugitives anymore, so that’s a relief. Of course they still have to work with the ATCU, which is now run by Talbot, which…yikes. But there’s still the occasional shade of grey happening here and there, like the comatose Von Strucker kid being put through the old TAHITI machine to extract info.

Fitz + Simmons? This dynamic duo (yeah, I said it) has been through a lot before Jemma found herself on another planet (and her plight, which made the season’s best episode). And even when Fitz brought her back, he tried to be the cool guy by helping to save her new boyfriend on that planet, Maveth. That lead to some awkward moments between them, and then this:

It looked like they were gonna be a thing now, right? Well, after discovering her boyfriend on Maveth was dead, it seems Jemma and Fitz are trying to just focus on rebuilding their friendship. We’ll see how long that lasts now that they stepped briefly out of the friend zone.

Grant Ward is dead, long live Grant Ward? So, Ward has been a thorn in SHIELD’s side for some time, and maybe a bit too long. He certainly got marked for death by Coulson after killing Rosalind in front of him, but the psychopath didn’t realize how determined Coulson would be in ending him. Like, crushing a man’s chest with your robot hand kind of ending Grant Ward. I mean, Ward surviving after that Rosalind thing would seem a cop out, but unfortunately he’s still alive, albeit the host of that destructive alien life form on Maveth.

And when we find him in the midseason, he’s on Earth, being tended to by Gideon Malick, and catching up on world events. Also, it looks like the alien wearing the “Grant suit” can control people, which is pretty creepy, or at least will be once he’s gotten his strength back.

He looks pretty good for a guy who just had his chest crushed into his insides.

So what do you think of the season so far? Hunter and Bobbi finally growing on you? You ever think of taking those fish pills? What the hell is with that flash forward to that damaged Quinjet in Earth orbit? Comment below, and let’s discuss…