TV REVIEW: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. “A Fractured House”

By Felicia Kudronowicz

This week the team is back together … sort of.

While the team may be initially be back together, they quickly get pulled into their own mini missions in this week’s Agents of SHIELD. “A Fractured House” kicks off with a strong reference to the Avengers, strategically placed to remind viewers of the new movie coming next year. Luckily though, this wasn’t the only purpose of the cold open. We also learned that HYDRA is attacking the UN again and the UN is blaming SHIELD. We also find out that Ward’s older brother is actually a United States senator. Talk about a twist!

Our first little team mission contains May, Bobbi and Hunter on a hunt to find HYDRA’s weapon maker in Japan. They are successful in discovering that HYDRA is still working to create a weapon that can replicate the affects of the obelisk.

Back at the base, Fitz and Simmons are reuniting, but not in the way we hoped. Instead, they end up fighting. Fitz explains how he felt abandoned especially after he confessed his feelings for Simmons and she just left. Unfortunately we still don’t get any answers as Simmons storms out of the lab. These two are going to have a rough season.

The next pairing is Ward and Skye. Skye is sent to talk to him and find a potential weakness in his brother while Coulson goes to visit Senator Ward. Ward mostly tries to turn the conversation to Skye’s family but ultimately tells then not to trust the senator. He also tells her everything he knows about Skye’s father, which isn’t much. All he knows is he killed HYDRA agents when they came after Skye and her mother (who was also killed).

Coulson goes to meet with Senator Ward and they manage to make a deal. If Coulson gives up little brother Ward, Senator Ward will make an announcement that HYDRA and SHIELD are two very different organizations and that SHIELD is the good team. This all goes off without a hitch … except in the final scene where we see Ward breaking free of his restraints once in the senator’s custody. Uh oh. I feel like Coulson had to see this coming. Senator Ward’s team doesn’t know how dangerous Ward is and they definitely don’t have the same security measures as SHIELD.

The very final scene this episode features a man getting a tattoo of those weird alien symbols. I’m pretty sure they have been mentioned in every episode so far this season. I am predicting that Skye’s father is part alien or something and that’s why the alien goo isn’t having any side effect on Skye. That’s just a theory though.

Overall, this week’s episode proved a little uneven with too much action and not enough dialogue, although the addition of Adrianne Palicki’s Bobbi Morse to the team can only be considered a positive step. It was was also disappointing not to not see Skye’s father this episode. Now that we got a glimpse of Skye’s father last episode, those questions just keep coming. However, the only real development this week was Ward’s escape. It’s hard to say where he’ll go or what he’ll do next. Something tells me he’ll go find Skye, but that could potentially land him right back where he started at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately we have to wait two weeks to find out.