Neil Brazier | On 13, Nov 2013

Photo: Walt Disney, All rights reserved.

For all the doubters who are tuning out of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, they have missed one of the series highlights in Episode 6: F.Z.Z.T. When volunteer fire fighters start exploding from massive electrical charges inside their bodies, it’s up to the Agents to determine what’s causing this. Deduced to be a Chitauri helmet – kept as a souvenir by the fire fighters after helping out at The Avengers’ battle of New York – the object contains a virus, which also infects one of their own: Simmons.

While the plot may not be the strongest, it contains enough emotional depth to house the realm of Jotunheim. We learn more about Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) in a speech with a dying fire fighter that will rip your heart out of your chest: Coulson died, for how long we don’t know, but since then, he hasn’t felt the same.

Lay on top of that the battle Simmons goes through to find a serum to the virus and you may well need to grab the Kleenex. Despite an overly tacky ending, Episode 6 is chock full of entertainment and emotion. It may lack any plot related to Centipede or the Rising Tide, but it does introduce Titus Welliver as Agent Blake – another potential obstacle for our team.

It’s episodes like this that will help to keep the faith alive in the series, which has had its detractors since the pilot. It builds character and shows that we do believe and care enough about these people that when they’re put in real threat and show real passion, it resonates with us the viewer. Perhaps, though, it’s too easy to feel for FitzSimmons and their cute relationship with one another; if this had been about Skye or Agent Ward, would that tug be as strong?

Revitalising and refreshing, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D continues to entertain, weaving through a Marvel Universe that is building around it with the recent release of Thor: The Dark World. How these Agents fit into the bigger picture remains to be seen – but with next week’s The Well announced as a crossover with the Asgardian sequel, it should be fun to find out…

 

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