[NOTE: This review is for the Agents of SHIELD episode Yes Men and contains SPOILERS!]

Finally! This episode puts Agents of Shield in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it only took fifteen episodes. But in all seriousness, this is probably what fans of the show were looking for on day one. Lorelei’s (Elena Satine) story is overall pretty week, to be fair though Arrow hasn’t solved the problem of having an underwhelming episode with a notable bad guy as the villain of the week. However this is more of a crossover than “The Well”. Lorelei is counted among the many prisoners who escaped during the events of Thor: The Dark World. Or even the reveal that Odin sent Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) to apprehend Lorelei to be a part of a group of warriors, which foreshadow a larger story surrounding Odin (Loki by this point). Over all it was a great episode, and that was just the special guest’s spot.

If you knew that Shield was keeping secrets from you, it probably would take a back seat to an immediate threat, which is what makes Coulson (Clark Gregg) and the gang’s trust issues so tolerable this time around. It was interesting to see Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) desire to further science and the pursuit of knowledge rival Lorelei’s lust for power. Lorelei reveals to May (Ming-Na Wen) that Ward’s (Brett Dalton) desire was for another, spoiler alert it’s Skye (Chloe Bennet), but it’s enough to get under May’s skin. Coulson also tells Skye the source of the miracle drug GH-325, but she’s just thankful to be alive. He comes up with a plan of how to go about getting answer and request that no one but the two of them know. As it turns out May makes an encrypted call to an unknown associate stating he knows everything, we can assume it Nick Fury considering he’s gone off the grid. The focus on the character’s problems are properly proportioned out to the events happening.

Surprisingly the character development seems better than Thor: The Dark World. The heart to heart Melinda May and Sif has revealed not just May predicament with Ward, but also Sif’s bitterness for Jane and Thor’s relationship. There are glimpses of the original Phil Coulson. Whether it’s the meta line that Tahiti sucked, Lady Sif’s reaction to Coulson being alive, or the discussion between the two about blue aliens. Actually paying off is Ward’s wooden acting, which works well when he’s under Lorelei’s spell.

The hand to hand combat have gotten much better, namely the fight between May and Ward. The fight between Sif and Lorelei was also well done and had the energy from the first Thor film. As enjoyable as the episode was it proves that having superheroes as a regular thing would make the show unbalanced. May gets knocked down instantly when fighting Lorelei, how are the Shield agents supposed to compete with that kind of strength, which is an important question they need to answer.

The relationship between Skye and Coulson’s still feels forced, but we now have reason to invest in her character. The whole thing about both of them being kept in the dark, but now they can endure it together is a bit on the nose but is more or less what we’ve come to expect from Agents of Shield.

You owe it to yourself to check out this episode, especially if you trudged through any part of Agents of Shield’s first season. I don’t know what changed on the set of Agents of Shield but I like it. If they can keep the momentum going they could end its first season with a strong finish. There are seven episodes left before the season finale, but if the series doesn’t get renewed this episode for the most part stands alone and shockingly shifts the burden to the movies to finish the rest of the story.

What did you think of the episode? Do you think more supporting characters should make an appearance on the show? If so who and why? Who was May reporting to? Although we have to wait two more weeks for the next installment of Agents of Shield “End of the Beginning” viewers can tune in to see the documentary Marvel: Assembling a Universe, which will also have our first look at The Avengers: Age of Ultron, so you won’t want to miss that.

The writer of this piece was:

Laurence Almalvez
Laurence has previously written over at Whatculture.com.
Laurence tweets from @IL1511