"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Recap: "Laws of Nature"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Oh what a long and painful wait it has been for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to return to our television screens. After all, despite a stellar season two finale we were left with so many questions and unresolved issues. How was the world going to react once the Inhumans began to appear all over the planet? What happened to Agent Simmons and more importantly...how the heck was Phil going to function without a hand?

Thankfully the wait is over as last night brought us the season three premiere of the show and "Laws of Nature" wasted no time in getting us right back into the Marvel mix. Our first burning question was answered quickly as we met Joey, a man who takes his fish oil regularly and finds himself going through the Inhuman change process and damn near blows up his city after the transition. Thankfully S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives to extract him, but not before dealing with a mystery organization that is trying to get their hands on the same man.  It leads of course to a healthy investigation by Coulson, with his new robot hand I might add, to discover who this team really is. 

At first of course it seems as though these mystery folks are foe but in the end they are both working toward the same cause, because as it turns out, some of the Inhumans Coulson and the gang have been trying to save have gone missing and the new guys, led by the mysterious Rosalind Price, are finding the poor souls dead. She thinks Coulson's crew has been doing the killing, and vice versa for Coulson but in the end we discover, when Daisy and Mack go to enlist Lincoln's help with Joey's transition to Inhuman status, they meet a big and powerful Inhuman monster that turns out to be Lash from the comic world, and he has come for Lincoln.  

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In the end, the battle is just another in a line of crazy incidents in the MCU, enough that President Ellis (William Sadler cameo!) announces that Rosalind's new organization, dubbed the Advanced Threat Containment Unit (A.T.C.U.) will handle these isolated matters going forward to quell the public's growing concerns over these issues. It seems like for the time being, all the messes are as wrapped up as they can be, but we did forget the matter of Agent Simmons. Fitz as it turns out went super bold and traveled alone to the middle east to find a scroll that explains what the Monolith is and how to deal with it and risks life and limb in the process to get Jemma back. We also discover he loves her, which it's nice to finally hear that said aloud. 

None the less he discovers that the scroll only contains a single word, "death" in Hebrew and well...Coulson tells him this means it is time to say goodbye to Jemma and nothing else can be done. Fitz of course goes into a rage, bringing on the feels as he kicks and punches the monolith in the hopes of goading it into doing something to him as well and we finally discover that Jemma is actually on another world, running and hiding from some...thing, chasing her.  So yeah...what a loaded and awesome episode and I loved every single second of it. I mean there was so much amazing to be found here. 

For one, this episode sure did manage to name drop every single major event in the MCU in the last year or so, consistently referring to the events of Age of Ultron and even briefly making mention of Ant-Man as well. All with good reason, this season already has a new feel to it, one that oozes fear and distrust because it's clear now the public is growing weary of constant surprise alien attacks and crazed robots trying to destroy the world. It's all part of the buildup to Civil War no doubt and it's a plot line I expect to build in intensity as the crazy Inhumans storyline continues to grow. Either way, I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with this season premiere of the show, it keeps getting better every year and kudos to Marvel for dropping in that epic William Sadler cameo. Either way, only a week to catch our breath since next week it looks like Ward and possibly Hydra...make their return. Until then. 

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