Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season 6 First Impressions

“Well, that’s not how it works here princess. Who is this girl? You get a name?… Quake!”

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Season 6 premiere might be the first instance in which the show has been actively held back by the nature of the universe it inhabits. That’s a moderately harsh statement, but this is the type of premiere that offers far more questions than answers, and many of those questions wouldn’t be present if this show existed in a vacuum. Instead, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which has had a bit of an upheaval lately. Ultimately, I spent far too much time scratching my head during this episode and wondering about the MCU timeline. Setting those issues aside, this is a decent first episode, but it’s still hampered by unanswered questions in its own internal continuity. To put it simply, I don’t have any clue where this season is going, and that leaves me mildly curious rather than properly hyped.

The episode kicks off a year after the previous season finale. Mack has taken up the reins as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. while Daisy and Simmons search space for Fitz. However, Mack is troubled by odd dimensional disturbances that are occurring. This is a decent enough division of the team. One group deals with the fallout from last season’s overarching plot, while another deals with a new threat. The problem is neither of these narrative threads have a properly defined antagonist yet, and the viewers are missing out on a year of developments. Yo-yo and Mack have split up, Simmons’ team has started unraveling, and the cast is settling into new roles that can easily throw audience members for a loop as they struggle to pin down everything that’s going on. A comparison could definitely be drawn to Young Justice’s second season which featured an even more significant time jump, but Agents isn’t being patient while it fills in the viewers. It is layering questions from the previous season with time jump based questions and expanded universe questions, and the end result is a big ball of… “Huh?”

There were some solid moments in this episode. Daisy gets to show her powers off in a particularly cool fashion during her initial appearance. Simmons shows a bit of her darker side during an interrogation. Still, my favorite part was the suggestion that they were going to create a new S.H.I.E.L.D. academy. We’re introduced to the newly proposed head of said academy, Marcus Benson played by Barry Shabaka Henley, who seems like a fun enough character. He doesn’t have enough of a presence in this episode to draw a strong conclusion on the character, but I like the idea of a weary curmudgeon who still gets excited when he encounters the weirdness of S.H.I.E.L.D. Unfortunately, my interest in these little moments highlights the muddled nature of this first episode. The big hook of this first episode is probably supposed to be Clark Gregg showing up as the probably villainous “Sarge,” but this was revealed in the first trailer, and he only shows up at the tail end of the episode. Season 2’s premiere offered up an impressive and flashy villain with the Absorbing Man and the intrigue surrounding the obelisk. Season 4 had Ghost Rider’s reveal and the incorporation of supernatural elements. This season doesn’t offer the clarity necessary to evoke excitement yet. Here’s hoping it gets there.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• The end of season 5 included allusions to Thanos, but there isn’t a single reference to him or the events of Infinity War or Endgame in this episode. This is evidently due to the show’s team not knowing how the events of those films would play out, but it puts Agents in a notably odd place. My understanding is the time shenanigans during the previous season ended up placing them into a different dimension, but it’s an awkward justification, due in part to the mentions of Thanos by the Confederacy.
• No sign of Deke yet. We know he shows up in this season, but there is no indication of how his presence will be justified.
• The scenes in space look really nice, but, with the Zephyr’s black paint, they do come across as rather dark.