[TV Review] “Providence” Episode 18, Season 1 of Agents of SHIELD

May, Coulson, and Skye prepare to retreat. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)
May, Coulson, and Skye prepare to retreat. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)

Should you watch it, wiki it, or wait for the recap? Wait for the recap.

While Coulson and his team follow Nick Fury’s last instructions, Garrett and Ward slowly assemble Hydra’s forces and weapons. But when Coulson’s team falls prey to doubt, will they be able to co-operate in the face of danger?

Raina's picked up a new hobby while incarcerated. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)
Raina’s picked up a new hobby while incarcerated. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)

“Providence” has some nice moments, but in comparison with the previous two episodes, it’s a bit of snoozefest. It’s not entirely irredeemable, but it offers so little in the way of the overall plot arc and action that you wonder if everything here could have been condensed into one scene. Still, it does come in hot on the heels of two very good episodes, so it’s inevitable that even the slightest dip in quality will be magnified.

Coulson's secret badge. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)
Coulson’s secret badge. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)

Highlights:

Hydra assembles

This is probably the best part of the episode. You finally get to see three members of Hydra together – Garrett, Quinn, and Raina – and with Ward on their team and Deathlok somewhere around, that means that we’ve got an even number of members on both SHIELD and Hydra. This showdown is going to be exciting.

Garrett beats up Ward

Ward can really take a beating. And it shows his level of loyalty, dedication, and how unhinged he is, when he lets Garrett beat him to a pulp just to allow him to infiltrate SHIELD. I’m not entirely sure whether I buy his performance as a turncoat, but I do question his sanity at this juncture – which might be the whole point of his characterisation!

Ward grows stubble when he's evil. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)
Ward grows stubble when he’s evil. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)

Letdowns:

Incredibly slow pacing

It. Is. Incredibly. Slow. This episode seems to have “tell, don’t show” as its motto, and it’s evident in the way exposition is delivered – the UN announces they will invade SHIELD rather than actually invading, for one. Having Adrian Pasdar (the voice of Iron Man in Ultimate Spider-Man!) cameo as the UN general is interesting, but it doesn’t add much to the episode.

The draggy “Agent Coulson might be going senile” subplot

It’s baffling why Coulson’s team will follow him to literally anywhere, but suddenly doubt his judgement when it comes to Nick Fuy’s orders all of a sudden. It isn’t consistent with their characters, and just makes the team seem incredibly fickle-minded. This subplot seems like more of an unnecessary complication to pad out the episode, which is rather thin on plot already.

The first three Acts

Honestly, nothing happens. It’s mostly talking heads, doesn’t advance or explore anyone’s character, and all of the scenes could effectively have been eliminated with a few lines of dialogue. It really looks like this episode was an Act that was expanded to form one whole episode that goes nowhere by itself.

Garrett, Quinn, and Raina - Hydra has assembled. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)
Garrett, Quinn, and Raina – Hydra has assembled. (Agents of SHIELD S01E18)

This episode is mostly filler – if they even had a case to attend to, it might have been interesting. Sadly, this is a short stop off in what is otherwise a very good story arc. Skip ahead to the next episode – they’ll have to repeat what happens in this episode anyway, so you haven’t lost much.

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