Gamersledge Reviews – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Ep 105 “Girl in the Flower Dress”

I wish my wife had seen this episode, because I would REALLY like to know her thoughts on it. I have a feeling there is an event in this episode that is going to not make her like this episode, but I think a lot of the folks that haven’t been feeling the series are going to love this episode. I think this episode has the tone, the arc and individual plot progression and just that Whedon something that fans have been feeling like wasn’t quite there. So as has been said pretty much every episode by me – Best episode yet!

I am a fire starter…

This episode opens with a street performer, Chan Ho Yin, having a rough night with his magic act. He sees our titular “girl in the flower dress” and for some reason feels prompted to show off something that seems to be a little more than magic. The girl identifies herself as Raina, and gets invited to our powered friend’s place. From there we find out she is no mere fan of magic or powers and our story is off. We also get back to the Rising Tide in this episode. Of course this causes a skewed eye to be cast at Skye, but she helps by tracking the hack and getting them on target. From there, it gets hard to say much without getting really spoilery. Things happen. Moments are had. Things go south. Two week wait for episode 6. Yes, for some reason (I suppose it is that little sporting event going on), there is no new episode this week, so there is that.

Said Girl in the Flower Dress

There are several great character interactions in this episode. Skye and Ward, Coulson and May, Coulson and basically anyone and Chan and Raina. Acting is the best it has been. Everyone seems to really be in touch with their character and the reactions all seem genuine. Dalton as Ward has a subtlety at a critical juncture that I think many thought he couldn’t produce. This episode does have a lot of tension in it, and the entire cast steps up to the task.

Visually this show has always hit it dead on. This episode is no exception. We have a super powered individual, with a highly visual power. The effects are VERY nearly movie level quality. There is actually an event at the end of the episode that I think IS a movie effect.

Sky Hacks with “SEAL Team 6”

Story-wise again this episode gets it almost all right. There is the episode arc that overlays perfectly into the larger story arc. Everything lines up and fits together in a way that just feels right. There are a good number of reveals, and character building. This story is a little darker than what has come so far, and shows that there is a point where things go just so wrong they are willing to handle it with extreme prejudice. I have recently read that this episode just barely makes the show tolerable….and I have no word to express my disbelief and sadness on that.

Overall I have a hard time scoring this one simply because I scored the earlier episodes too high. After rating the three sections we come up with a 9.5 out of 10 S.H.I.E.L.D. tracking bracelet rating. I think this episode really sets the bar for where the series is going. Looking forward to the next episode!!

Experimentation

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Experiment’ has gone wrong for him

Holy Crap! Killed the Centipede doctor, Killed Chan..That escalated quickly.

The Index…A list of all powered things and people….guessing this will come into play again soon.

Skye the traitor – well we find out why Skye infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., and that she is genuinely in to help, she just didn’t know how. It KINDA feels like she is getting a bum deal, but at the same time she has been lying and sneaking around. Bonus to the script writers for using the term CRACKED vs. HACKED correctly. But we now know she isn’t actively sabotaging the team, just using them for her own purposes. The show goes out pretty hard to show she really feels the team is doing right, though if she knew how that encounter had actually ended I don’t think she would have been so pliant.

So we still don’t know why Chan’s blood was fireproof or how he got his fire powers. Seems like a great candidate for mutant, but we can’t use that word so, seems to be laying the groundwork for just randomly occurring powers justifying Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in Age of Ultron.

Still think it is AIM. Eco research company, the suits, and that symbol on the lab techs suits…..I know I have seen that symbol somewhere before.

I like how we basically got mutants introduced without going into mutants. Chan appears to be a mutant, either his fire powers of his platelets or both seem to be mutant like qualities. Though why they wouldn’t have tried to leave with him I am not sure. Platelets are constantly replaced in your system.

I have NO idea what the stinger tie in is, aside from “the clairvoyant”. Who could this be? The only actual Marvel character I can think of that fits that bill is Cassandra Web, but I doubt it is her. There are a fair number of telepaths in the Marvel U, but clairvoyants……and willing to work with a “villainous” organization….I can’t think of someone who fits the bill really.
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