TV Review: AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 3, Episode 06: Among Us Hide… [ABC]

ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Among Us Hide… TV Show Review. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., season 3, episode 06, ‘Among Us Hide…,’ followed through on its title with Directors Coulson & Rosalind (Clark Gregg, Constance Zimmer) facing up to some of their face-to-face shell-gaming; a not so safe haven for Alexander (Spencer Treat Clark), behind a major MCU mole; and the man behind the Inhuman revealed to have been hiding in plain sight. All-in-all, this was a decent checklist to work with.

Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) had notched one more IOU with his get-out-of-assassination activation of Alexander measure; but that ploy going up in flames left the Strucker kid a lit loose end – and the kid knew it. Fortunately for Alexander, this cued the entry of Gideon Malick (Powers Boothe), a HYDRA big wig that had been hiding among the highest ranking officials of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s oversight (see the first Avengers film), promising him sanctuary. Unfortunately for Alexander, Malick was hiding another agenda; one involving the very person he had promised to hide. It was good of Agents to put Malick squarely on the board, while establishing that this HYDRA head has considerable slipperiness to it.

While Alexander was a brat, he only got so far as to attempt a dirty deed; making him pretty much everyone’s pawn – including the show, itself. I wouldn’t miss him, if he gets written off; but there is still some potential to his character. As for his attempted deed, it was good of the showrunners to get behind the mystery in fairly short order. Andrew (Blair Underwood), as the object of Ward’s attempted leveraged escape, filled in the gap, regarding what happened & how he survived.

While a perfectly good explanation, the same key to The Usual Suspects applied here. Always be mindful of who fills the role of sole eyewitness. All the same, the close call lit a fire under May (Ming-Na Wen), who promptly went John Wick for operation Ward Removal 2.0: Boys on the Side. Hunter (Nick Blood) got off with a warning (in a let’s-not-cross-paths suggestive sort of way), while Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) got jumped in, so to speak.

In some way, May’s assessment made Bobbi out to be something of a kick-ass field agent hiding behind the injuries – physically & mentally – she received at Ward’s hands. While neither Bobbi’s Kebo (Daz Crawford) boss fight, nor May’s warm up session with the extras, were worthy substitutes for a Ward rematch, it was good to get some forward momentum going, regarding Bobbi getting over herself, and a ranking HYDRAnt getting taken down (after the way Ward has treated him, and his getting owned by Alexander – justifying the slow nature of the payback – Kebo might have become something of a designated whipping boy… oh, well). I was left wondering how well insulated Bobbi’s outfit & baton casings are, given how her boss fight turned out (since a cheap shot, to Kebo’s tender bits, didn’t seem to occur to her – blame it on the PTSD).

Now, as the given reason for Andrew’s close call, you’d think Hunter would’ve learned something valuable, from getting well onto May’s bad side (especially since she never liked him, to begin with). Instead, he tacked himself on to Team Daisy-Mack’s (Chloe Bennet, Henry Simmons) pursuit of a Lash (Matthew Willig) alter-ego lead. He then proceeded to apply a hammer to their precision operation, involving their suspect: ATCU field honcho, Banks (Andrew Howard). Contrary to Daisy’s admission, there was nothing smart to Hunter’s smash & swab plan. Mask or not, his icer is uniquely S.H.I.E.L.D. issue, and I’d expect Banks to know when he was on the wrong end of one. Yeah, Hunter got issues.

It was nice to see that some of hacktivist Skye still remains within Daisy Johnson, but ultimately, Team Daisy-Mack +1’s efforts would lead to another you’ll-never-be-my-new-mommy moment. The trio not only stumbled upon ATCU’s gifted wrapping operation, but Coulson & Rosalind seemingly playing nice about it. Here, Rosalind did a decent job of reasoning the op – and herself – past any righteous indignation Coulson may have had, and their relationship continues to evolve quite brilliantly; but I have to go back to Banks, for the real meat of the episode.

Banks was just too easy a mark, but the actual culprit was kind of obvious. So obvious, in fact, that I really had hoped that the premature execution, of the Quantico gambit, would amount to a red herring. Well, it didn’t, the easy out theories were right, and now we’re back to another fox-in-the-hen-house scenario.

Between the outcome to MayBi’s first outing, and the ongoing pace of the show, I have reason to believe they won’t be milking this scenario for any real stretch. With a recently elevated character about to take a major turn, however, I’m hoping for a corresponding corner turn for the season. The Inhuman arc has been reduced to a rival agency race & single big bad, so far. Time to expand beyond & behind Lash.

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