REVIEW -- Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 1, Episode 14 - T.A.H.I.T.I.

After what seemed like an eternity after the month-long hiatus since the previous episode aired, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD returns to Tuesday nights on ABC.

After the events at the end of last month's episode that warranted a perfect rating from yours truly, let's see if Agents of SHIELD continues to deliver.

The Plot: (Full Spoilers)

Skye is rushed to a S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility to save her life. The doctors are only able to stabilize her, forcing Coulson to bring her to the S.H.I.E.L.D. location where he was revived. Agents John Garrett (Bill Paxton) and Antoine Triplett (B.J. Britt) board the Bus in order to claim Ian Quinn, who Garrett's men had been pursuing, and bring him to the Fridge for questioning, as Coulson refuses to turn him over. Garrett compromises with Coulson when he realizes he is keeping Quinn until he can save Skye.

Through interrogating Quinn, Coulson and Garrett learn that the Clairvoyant made Quinn shoot Skye, so he could learn how Coulson came back from the dead. Fitz and Simmons, who are looking over Coulson's medical files, realize that S.H.I.E.L.D. did not revive Coulson, rather a place known as the "Guest House". They realize a specific drug would be there to help Skye. At the "Guest House", Coulson, Ward, Garrett and Fitz enter and find the place rigged with explosives after taking out the only guards. Fitz is able to find the drug, while Coulson finds a room marked "T.A.H.I.T.I." Inside, Coulson finds additional drugs as well as the upper half of a blue-skinned humanoid corpse. All are able to get out before the facility implodes, with Fitz getting the drug to Simmons in time to save Skye, despite Coulson's reservations, based on what he saw.

In the final scene, Lorelei (Elena Satine) arrives at a motel in Death Valley and comes across a newlywed couple. She mesmerizes the man, who drives away with her, leaving his wife at the motel.

The Verdict: 

(Laughs) No, that is NOT Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen...

I'm going to be completely honest and say that after this episode, I have completely NO idea where they are going with this Clairvoyant angle, who or what is "G.H." nor why S.H.I.E.L.D. is keeping all of this under wraps. I have read a lot of great theories across message boards and other media outlets, with the best being that "G.H." could possibly be a Kree high ranking officer, assigned to this system of the Marvel Universe. That same Kree alien could be Mar-Vell, who most Marvel Comics fans know as Captain Marvel. My issue with that theory is that I cannot see Skye in Carol Danvers role as Ms. Marvel in this continuity. Sure, the current Ms. Marvel in the current Marvel NOW! revamp in the comics is a Muslim female in high school, so anything is possible at this rate. I just have this strong hope that we will see Carol Danvers pop up in this series later down the road before becoming Ms. Marvel and joining the Avengers. In the comics, she easily outranks Steve Rogers/Captain America in S.H.I.E.L.D. officer rankings. I wouldn't mind seeing how she fares in the field prior to having super powers. Alternatively, this actually could be a deceased Kree alien which could lead into a potential (most likely as The Accuser is confirmed...) setup for the Kree-Skrull war to be explored in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film. That being said, Skye could potentially be a Kree/human hybrid, which is why her body didn't seem to have a negative reaction to the serum. Another interesting theory that I read about was that "G.H." was a dead Frost Giant that were seen in the original Thor. My only problem with that theory is when did the Frost Giants have access to traveling to Midgard and how does their blood have curative properties?

I have to admit that this episode laid on the cheesiness pretty thick with this episode, especially with a lot of bad one liners from newcomers John Garrett (Bill Paxton) and Antoine Triplett (B.J. Britt). Paxton is a fine actor, but I was disappointed at his portrayal of Agent Garrett. Paxton came off as a generic action hero straight out of a '80's action flick, which was pretty ironic with his array of references to American pop culture. I just wish that Garrett gave us a bit more to chew on in terms of narrative. It was interesting that he has connections to both Coulsen and Ward's backgrounds, but it wasn't enough to warrant a reason to care in this episode. Triplett was immediately thrown into the creepy guy archetype, who appeared to be stalking flirting with Simmons throughout this episode. I understand that they were trying to drive the point home that he has a school boy crush on her at first glance, but there's more creative narrative directions to that could have portrayed that message better than the "creepy bastard" approach used in this episode. Coulsen didn't help on the cheesiness in this episode either when he told the doctor that "We're her family" when informed that Skye didn't have much time left. I honestly rolled my eyes at that statement. It's clear that Coulsen's team is a tight-nit group, but I would not say they are a family - yet. Fitz and Simmons have that inseparable bond that you can't help but love while secretly wishing that your siblings were this cool. Ward is the boy scout/"big brother who does no wrong" or rather, the teacher's pet (pretty much Cyclops from the early X-Men runs...) while Coulsen and May are the firm uptight parents who mean well, but keep their children in line with an iron fist of discipline. So I guess you could see them as Skye's surrogate family, but it was just so lame hearing it said out loud. I feel that character development on this show hasn't grown to that stage that we can easily connect all of Coulsen's team to that level. There are still some secrets that are being hidden, such as Ward and May's relationship to everyone outside of Coulsen.

Other than cheesiness, this episode was littered with a few head scratching moments as well. I couldn't understand why the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents felt the need to kill the guards without thinking twice after they got to the "Guest House". Fitz has shown off firearms designed to stun in the past, but in this episode, the guys just run in there like Rambo guns ablazin'? C'mon, a little consistency please. I can understand the urgency to save Skye, but would she really want them to save her at the cost of slaughtering other people? Another thing I didn't understand was if The Clairvoyant can see everything then why would he allow Quinn to be captured in the first place? So much for that catch-22, if the place blew before Coulsen's team left from out of there, The Clairvoyant wouldn't have learned anything period. I'm just ready for them to reveal The Clairvoyant's identity and get this over with. As it stands, I'm going to predict that The Clairvoyant is someone from Skye's old group of hackers and only knows everything since he/she has been hacking S.H.I.E.L.D.'s networks for years as I seriously doubt that Joss Whedon is going to inject mutants (especially telepaths) into this continuity yet. At least not before Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (i.e. Magneto's children) are confirmed to debut.

Enough of my rambling... what did I think of this episode as whole? "T.A.H.I.T.I." gets a 3 out of 5. After the raising the bar to perfection on last month's episode, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD falls short with this return from hiatus. Sure, the "G.H." situation and the inclusion of Lorelei got people talking, but this episode didn't provide much else in terms of substance.

Jaime Alexander is set to reprise her role
in next week's episode as Sif.

While we're on the subject of Lorelei... My favorite part of this episode came from the teaser of the Asgardian, Lorelei, being introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For those not in the know, Lorelei is the younger sister of Amora the Enchantress, known to ally herself with Loki for his approval. I wanted Amora to be in Thor: The Dark World, but I will settle waiting for her to appear in a later Marvel film. Lorelei's arrival on Earth will give the perfect excuse Marvel's Agents of SHIELD to bring in Jaime Alexander to reprise her role as Sif from Thor and Thor: The Dark World in next week's episode.