Agents of SHIELD Season 2 Premiere

            After last season's thrilling finale, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back, and I have to say, better than ever. Last season we saw a revived Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) leading a kick-ass team across the globe doing SHIELD’s good work, and taking down threats like The Rising Tide, Norse Gods and HYDRA. The climax of the season was when Agent Grant Ward (Bret Dalton) is revealed to be HYDRA and betrays his team. Along the way, we got to meet new characters, and got cameos like Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) from Thor, Cobie Smulder’s Maria Hill, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and even Stan Lee himself.

            This season premiered last Tuesday, and it starts off with a bang, and that bang is called Peggy Carter. We are taken back to 1945, shortly after Steve Roger’s “death”, and Peggy is leading the Howling Commandoes, raiding what’s left of HYDRA’s. They capture the HYDRA agents and a strange object that is the center of the episode.

             In present day, after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Nick Fury has stepped down as director of SHIELD (well, he “died”) and left Coulson in charge. Throughout the episode, we get glimpses of Coulson being busy as director and making tough decisions. Skye is now a full on Agent, May (Ming-Na Wen) is still kicking ass, and Ward is being held prisoner and kind of acts like a creep towards Skye. Fitz, after suffering from oxygen lost last season, is battling his mental issues, forgetting words and being unable to work properly. Simmons is shown alongside him, offering moral support, but it turns out she was a figment of his imagination, and no longer with the team.

            The episodes antagonist, Carl Creel a.k.a. The Absorbing Man proves to be very cool at using his absorbing powers to his advantage. What’s left of HYDRA (which is a lot, according to the map in Coulson’s office) has ordered him to retrieve the object that Peggy and the Commandoes had apprehended at the beginning of the episode. He is successful at his mission, but at the cost of a few SHIELD agent’s lives.

            In my opinion, this episode has been one of the best of the show so far. It was thrilling from beginning to end, with badass cameos and really good storylines. Everything was well written, well acted and there was honestly not a dull moment in the room. Like every human being with a heart, the revelation that Simmons was a figment of Fitz’s imagination was completely heartbreaking, but it brings the question to where Simmons is, and what’s going to happen to Fitz. I really enjoyed the fact that Ward was being held prisoner. I’m very against him getting a redemption story, and I find agent Triplett to be a fantastic replacement. I do hope in this season we do get more relevant information on Skye’s past, and the reason to why she’s a 0-8-4 (unknown threat). I also would love to see a bit more badass Coulson, and am scared his character might get downplayed due to his directorial duties. Finally, I would ADORE seeing bigger and better cameos (Chris Evans maybe? We do love a swooning Coulson) from the MCU.

            Overall, if the rest of the season is as good as this episode, it will turn out being much better than last season.

Personal verdict:

8.5/10

-Talia