'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Recap: 'Together or Not At All'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

You know, I have to be honest. While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the big-time mystery and setup that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has put together this season, I’m also coming to realize that the plot is really starting to drag as the weeks go on. The world building continues without any end in sight, the show refuses to stop hammering home the point that the Agents must save all of mankind and the team is constantly on the run and really, what finally opened my eyes to all of this, was last night’s episode.
 
Because ‘Together or Not At All’ simply featured more of the same. The Agents were still on the run, they made a mild stand against the evil that is the Kree and the only plus side to come out their scurrying about was that it would seem they’ve finally managed to influence the last vestiges of mankind to do something about their situation, since Flint is suddenly empowered and encouraged to help push back the Kree. But outside of Flint’s bold and beautiful moments, there really wasn’t much else for the Agents to do outside of mug for the camera and slap some Kree around.
 
However, I won’t call this episode a total loss. Because there were some epic surprises waiting for us when it comes to the Kree, well one Kree in particular, since wouldn’t you know it, Kasius survived Jemma’s attack. Apparently the quick and bloody motion we saw happen last week turned out to be nothing more than a flesh wound upon his face and well, while I would like to say that Kasius was ready to unleash his vengeful fury, he instead remained his cowardly self, worried more about his appearance than the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. was running around the complex and the show wasn’t done surprising us with his mere survival.
 
Because we spent a lot of time learning about Kasius in this episode, and surprise, surprise, it turns out he’s done some questionable things. He abandoned his post and ran from the enemy ages ago, and that’s what landed him the gig on Earth and well, for the most part he was quite the weakling in this episode, since he let his brother push him around for a better part of the hour. But as it turns out, Kasius isn’t quite okay with being viewed as the black sheep of the family, and he does have aspirations for power after all, since he was willing to kill his own brother, and alter the story surrounding his brother’s death to curry favor with his father down the line, and what’s scary, is that if he’s willing to wax his brother to get ahead, what does he have planned for dear old dad.
 
When all is said and done however, when the most interesting element of a particular episode ends up being the villain that likely is on borrowed time, that’s a problem. So, here’s to hoping that shifting the setting to the surface of the Earth next week, along with adding more screen time for a much older Robin, gets this season going again. Because this year really does feature a cool premise, and a great idea storytelling wise, it just needs to kick into high gear so our heroes can finally save the day. Until next time.

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