Tonight's episode is called Fzzt, which could be the sound of a viewer's last ounce of patience frying like a lightbulb filament...
...OR...
...it could be the sound of SHIELD jolting itself back to life with a combination of competency and charm.
Reminder: If you're reading this, you either a) have already watched the episode, or b) don't care about spoilers. Because there's going to be spoilers.
After the jump, we load up a taser with electric medicine, and we see if these rats will float.
The horror-flavored cold open proves the show's only consistent component is its intros. The episodes that follow have varied quite a bit, but those pre-credits sequences always entice. Makes sense considering the show's was essentially borne from a DVD extra.
As Fzzt started in earnest, I began rethinking my opinion on the show a little bit, and not just because the character interaction between the Science Twins and Skye was a lot more naturalistic (and enjoyable) than it's ever been. I've been working from the assumption the show's wildly uneven tone was due to corporate influence, handsy meddling, and relative inexperience on the part of showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.
(This week, I also noticed that Jeph Loeb is credited as an executive producer, a man responsible for overseeing the worst of Smallville, LOST, and Heroes, not to mention his complete fucking of the dog regarding the Marvel Ultimate Universe. It's possible I hadn't noticed his name previously because my brain opted to protect me)
But maybe it's only the inexperience that's a factor, and maybe only partially. They worked on Dollhouse, but they weren't really running the show. That Fox regime wasn't the same as Disney/Marvel/ABC breathing down your necks, either. But as the Science Twins began to (gasp) work as characters for once, it occurred to me, maybe these first six episodes aren't uneven because of meddling; maybe it's just nobody knows how to write these guys as a functioning team, and with each episode, they're just rolling the dice until they hit a configuration that kinda work. Fzzt, credited to Paul Zbyszewski, found one that works better than the Pilot's, differently from Eye Spy's, and it managed that while primarily focused on the Science Twins, of all the characters.
Now, with television writing, the person credited with the episode is never the person who really "wrote" the episode, at least in the way people think of things being written; someone hunched over a computer, drinking themselves stupid, the walls spackled with notecards, the air weighing about 40 pounds thanks to the sweat, frustration, resentment, and millions of dead ideas suspended within it.
Television writing happens with about 10-20 people in that room, hunched around a table, drinking themselves stupid, etc. etc, until the notecard spackle resembles a story, and then one of the writers is assigned to go into their own room, and knock that story into a shootable script.
I don't know exactly how much of Fzzt's story and character work is Zbyszewski, but he's got a team dynamic that I hope The Whedaroen recognizes as one to keep: Instead of trying to make Skye an action heroine, trying to make Ward a thinker, this episode solves the Gordian knot by just cutting the team down the middle: Skye & the Science Twins stay on the bus and do sciencey shit; Coulson, Ward, and May go out in the truck and do the action spytech stuff.
Essentially, a trinity of Bond, and a trinity of Q.
With that dynamic locked in place, Fzzt gets room to actually dig into the story it's telling, and by doing so, takes one of the most annoying parts of the show - constant references to The Avengers - and makes them fucking mean something. When Coulson tells the story about dying at the end of Loki's staff, it's not just a glib reference, it's a means to give a man a moment of peace and clarity before the death they both know is coming to him. The Battle of New York isn't just a thing that happened in the past, it's a thing that is legitimately affecting this team, as the electro-virus offing people in very eerie ways was brought here by the Chitauri.
And it's probably harder to riff on the Kobayashi Maru and have it not work with a genre audience, and once Fitz and Simmons are seen slumped against opposite sides of the glass, formula dictates the rest: Fitz is going to break the quarantine even though he knows he shouldn't, and Simmons is going to sacrifice herself because the needs of the many, etc. etc. But knowing what's coming doesn't mean it still can't work. Surprise isn't the only element of storytelling, after all. Or even its most important.
Not to say there weren't a couple twists (The vaccine did work! Spock you're skydiving for nothing you green-blooded bastard!), but even those twists were decently set up, like Ward admitting how helpless he often feels even though everyone sees him as an all-purpose action robot. You're almost happy for the squinty void of personality when he gets to do an Iron Man impersonation off the back of the Bus. He gets to make a difference.
Fzzt was written and shot before reaction to the pilot or the following episodes could have rolled in, which makes how efficiently it addresses the show's major complaints more impressive. Coulson's shift of personality is directly addressed, as is Ward's dipshit toughguy act, and May's hardass facade. The team acts like a team, the stakes feel like they mean something, and again, all of this happened in an episode centered specifically on the single worst element of the show to this point: The Science Twins.
The show's had more ups and downs than the teeth on a hacksaw, but this episode working the way it does? Hopefully that's a sign that we're about to even out.