Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Recap: I Dream of Tahiti
Credit: ABC
Recap and review of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Episode 8 - The Well:
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been hyping the tie-in with Thor: The Dark World for several weeks now, so it's interesting that "The Well" ultimately doesn't have all that much to do with the blockbuster film besides a clumsy MacGuffin that links the two. But this was still a pretty interesting episode by itself, as it explored the darker natures of Ward (Brett Dalton) and Coulson (Clark Gregg), two men in a constant struggle to claim some semblance of agency in their own lives. That's a fascinating story to tell, particularly as it relates to people who frequently need to have control over a situation. "The Well" is far from perfect, but it's an engrossing episode just the same.
The episode follows the recovery of the Berzerker Staff, a weapon of Asgardian origin. When touched by a mortal, the staff grants the user immense power, but also plunges them into a state of uncontrollable rage, bringing out a darker side to the user. And so Coulson and the team meet with a literary professor in Seville, Spain: Professor Elliot Randolph (Peter MacNicol) is an expert on Norse mythology, and is all too eager to help S.H.I.E.L.D. in piecing together the artifact. Yet, as with seemingly every guest star introduced in an episode, there's something shady about Professor Randolph. And we quickly learn what that is while Skye (Chloe Bennet) and Ward are navigating some ancient ruins to find the second of the three pieces of the staff: Prof. Randolph is apparently Asgardian, and has been living on Earth for centuries. He's the "warrior who stayed behind" from the old stories about the Asgardians, and while he's mostly enjoyed his time on Earth over the last thousand years, the Berzerker Staff was never something he actually wanted. Which I suppose is a good thing, since that means we have one less psychopath to worry about...
Credit: ABC
As it turns out, a group of sinister-looking Norwegians have discovered a piece of the staff in the woods and, empowered by the artifact, have gone on a rampage through Oslo. So now S.H.I.E.L.D. has to handle these nutjobs while also dealing with an Asgardian of questionable allegiance. It all makes for a fairly well-paced episode, as the story never really stalls long enough to feel like we're not getting anywhere, although this has far less action than just about any episode so far. Not that I'm complaining, as I really think the show could use a breather, in that regard. There needs to be a greater focus on fleshing out the characters, so that when they're placed in peril, we have an established attachment to them because we know who they are at a deeper level, and we identify with them. In this instance, "The Well" goes a long way in giving us reasons to care about Ward, as his contact with the Berzerker Staff brings out all the bitterness and hate he's buried inside.
Credit: ABC
We learn that Ward had a brother whom he let drown in a well, because he was too weak to stand up to a bully who wouldn't allow him to lower a rope to rescue the boy. I take it this was some kind of twisted initiation gone wrong, as the bully orders a young Ward (whom we see in flashbacks) to wait a little longer before lowering the rope, or else risk being thrown down into the well too. Ward eventually ignores the bully's warning and lowers the rope anyway, but it's too late. His brother has sunken below the surface, and that's the last we see of the boy. This traumatic memory continually haunts Ward, as he explains that it's the first time he remembered feeling true hate. His pain manifests itself as hostility, as he lashes out at the team for what he perceives to be their shortcomings. We know that Ward is mostly being a jerk because of the reaction to the staff, yet it seems as though there remains a kernel of truth in his hostility, as he pesters Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) about having to rescue everyone all the time, and tears into Skye for never shutting up, since all she ever seems to do is talk, talk, talk. These observations are interesting enough on their own, but they become all the more telling when Skye reveals -- in a throwaway comment -- that she isn't sure if Ward's crabbiness is the staff or just his naturally dour attitude. And that says a lot about the kind of person Ward is, and just how much the death of his brother still haunts him, as so much of his personality is couched in that irrevocable tragedy that has shaped him into the stony, insular person he's become.
Credit: ABC
I found the Ward plot to be so effective that it essentially made me far less interested in the case of the week, as Prof. Randolph gets stabbed by the hulked-out Norwegians, May (Ming-Na Wen) gets to play badass again, and Fitz, Coulson, and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) are able to keep Randolph alive just long enough for his body to regenerate itself. It sounds like it should be far more exciting than it is, given the climactic nature of the battle, but it just feels like business as usual. Of course, one good thing that does come out of this plot is Coulson's continued curiosity about just what S.H.I.E.L.D. did to him after the Battle of New York. They told him he didn't die, but he's not so sure. He has gaps in his memory for which he can't account, and there doesn't appear to be any clear-cut solution to his existential problems, as he struggles to reconcile the man he is now with the man he was before. It's one of the show's best ongoing storylines, and the mystery only deepens at the end of the episode, when Coulson has a dream he's getting a deep tissue massage in Tahiti -- a dream that prompts him to wake in a cold, confused sweat. Could Tahiti be the key to the mystery? For now, it's hard to say, but it appears that not everyone ended up sleeping alone. After Ward makes piece with Skye over some alcohol at the bar, he retires to his quarters...only to find May slinking off her to room with a bottle of wine. As Ward looks on, May leaves the door open for him...and he follows her in and shuts it behind them. Are Ward and May seriously about to do the deed? If so, I can't really complain -- at least it's not the obvious Ward/Skye romance. Not yet anyway.
Credit: ABC
"The Well" is an interesting episode more for its character work than for anything that actually happened in the ostensible A-plot of the episode. The show still has kinks to work out in its storytelling as it struggles to balance incisive character work with serialized storytelling, sprinkled among procedural, case-of-the-week action. But Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting much closer to the show that many people feel they were promised in the summer, and while I still don't think the show will ever be the TV version of The Avengers people want it to be, there's no reason it can't still be a fun, compelling hour of primetime action television.