Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "A Hen in the Wolf House" Review: A Family Man

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S02E05: "A Hen in the Wolf House"

I'm just going to put this right out there: "A Hen in the Wolf House" was easily the best episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so far this season, and considering how generally strong the show has been lately, that's a nice compliment. It barely resembles its Season 1 self, having finally learned how to balance action, emotion, and humor to create a series that's worth tuning in for each week. Of course, the addition of some great new recurring characters hasn't hurt; Kyle MacLachlan and Adrianne Palicki are excellent as Skye's monstrous father and Agent Bobbi Morse, respectively, and I'm not above begging if that's what it takes to make both of them permanent cast members.

Maybe it's because I once saw Palicki in person and was simultaneously in love with her and incredibly intimidated by her beauty and her height, but I completely believe she can kick my ass. Her role in that failed Wonder Woman pilot from a few years ago is now but a distant memory, and it's a shame that it will forever keep her from playing the role in the future, because it's obvious now that she's got the goods. Oh well; DC's loss is Marvel's gain, I suppose.

And speaking of our comic overlords, at this point it won't do much good to complain about Marvel releasing the identity of Palicki's character over the summer, but I do understand if it affected your enjoyment of the reveal and/or "A Hen in the Wolf House" as a whole. For me personally, knowing she was playing Mockingbird didn't do all that much to detract from the moment the mask came off and she saved Simmons. I found the energy in those scenes still very palpable, because I was on the edge of my seat wondering when she was finally going to tell Simmons the truth. The element of surprise wasn't there, but the stakes still were, and that's quite an improvement over S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1, when the show's threats only rarely felt real. I suspect it's because we finally have a true enemy in Hydra and know that its forces will keep coming at us even after we cut off one of its heads, making everything feel more urgent and more dangerous.

Posing a more immediate threat than Hydra, however, is Skye's father. Any theories as to who or what he is? MacLachlan is playing a role we've never seen him play before, and he's killing it. But for all the time we spent with him this week, we still know very little about him other than that he's a dangerous man with superstrength who wants his daughter back. He was even willing to team up with Whitehall and Hydra to get what he wanted, though I don't believe for one second that Hydra has the upper hand here. I don't see Doctor Daddy handing over the Obelisk, or teaching Whitehall how to survive it, but I do think this temporary partnership is going to make for a fun ride, at the very least. Especially since he's doing all of this because he feels threatened by the relationship that Skye shares with Coulson.

MacLachlan's character is struggling to control whatever powers he has, and being called a monster clearly sets him off, but I think what sets him off even more is knowing that someone else has taken over his role in his daughter's life. This layered storyline is something that S.H.I.E.L.D. would have struggled to pull off in Season 1, but I now have confidence that the writers know what they're doing and won't drag it out. A quick pace and quick reveals—similar to the Ward unveiling last season—is ultimately what will keep this storyline from becoming stagnant. The growing size of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cast will either work in the show's favor by forcing it to speed through developments and storylines (totally not a bad thing), or it will become a hindrance as the writers try to give everyone their time in the spotlight. Let's hope it's the former.

Skye is a much more confident character now that she's a full S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and we've seen that both in the field and in her relationships with the rest of the team. Her determination and drive have steadily replaced her previously bratty tendencies, and that's most obvious with Coulson. Skye's never been shy, but she's pushing him a lot more these days, even as he's trying harder and harder to protect her from the truth. The conversation they had in which he floated the theory that she might be an alien because she didn't react to the GH-325 in the same way that he and Garrett did? It was funny, but also very important. Unfortunately, now that the alien theory is out there, it probably means it's not true. At least Skye's no longer in the dark about Coulson's late-night scribbling, because it means she might be able to help.

Last season, I didn't much care for the mystery of Skye's origin, and I still don't think it's as interesting as the show keeps insisting that it is, but I also hated Ward for quite a while, and then he became the show's most interesting character. At the very least, returning to the "Where did Skye come from?" stuff is giving Chloe Bennet some good material, and I'll never argue with a good emotional scene like the one that followed Coulson tracking Skye to her father's former... lair? Yeah, let's call it a lair because it's nice and dramatic. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s emotional storylines are just as important to the show's overall success as the action sequences and the witty quips, because they're what keeps the show grounded and relatable to its audience. So far, Fitz and Simmons have carried most of the weight in that regard (more on that in a second), so I don't mind the show spreading it around a bit. There's great potential in the "conventional family versus unconventional family" storyline, and I look forward to exploring it further.

Now that Simmons has returned home, it's probably safe to assume we've seen the last of Head Simmons, which is a shame because I rather liked it when she commented on finding Mack's physique attractive and Fitz replied, "Well obviously I agree, what with you being my subconscious and everything." I'm going to miss these little insights into Fitz's brain, but it's also time for him to begin his real recovery. I do worry that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s writers pulled Simmons out of Hydra too soon—this was only the fifth episode of the season, after all—but I much prefer having FitzSimmons back, so I'm not going to quibble. I'm also not above admitting that during their tension-filled reunion, I wrote in my notes, "HUG EACH OTHER, DAMMIT!" Deal with it.

All in all, "A Hen in the Wolf House" had all the elements of a great hour of television. There was suspense, action, and humor ("Your cover as what? Ron Burgundy?"), but more importantly, it made us feel things in our collective heart region. The overall strength of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s early Season 2 episodes is comforting, and knowing there's no new Marvel movie coming out until May's Avengers: Age of Ultron relaxes me. I'm no longer spending my free time worried that the show will never reach its full potential because it proves with each passing week that it does, in fact, know what it's doing (for the most part). Now if only we can figure out a way to make Bobbi Morse a permanent cast addition, everything would be that much closer to perfect.

DECLASSIFIED CASE FILES

– Simmons totally framed her partner (???), but he was cool with killing millions, possibly billions ,of people, so I'm totally cool with that. Kind of worried about Simmons being on Hydra's radar now, though.

– If I have one complaint about the entire Mockingbird storyline, it's that it was far too obvious that she was going to be revealed as Hunter's ex-wife. The references to the demonic hellbeast were too heavy-handed over the last four episodes for it to be anyone else, but even knowing it was coming, it was still fun to watch Hunter flip out. Especially when she told him she was the one who vouched for him to be part of the team.

– Ward was concerned when he thought Skye had been the one carving those scribbles into everything. And I'll admit, for a second I was like, "That's nice!" like a wannabe Shirley on Community.

– And speaking of Ward, even though he said that Garrett wasn't the same man he once knew after he'd started carving the map into everything in sight, it felt a bit cold to hear that he was okay with him being put down. It's waaaay too easy for that dude to compartmentalize his feelings, which is why it's still hard to deal with his feelings for Skye. What's the truth? Who's the real Ward? Will we ever really know?

– "I'm not going to have this conversation with myself again."

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