S.H.I.E.L.D. Round Table: “Girl in the Flower Dress”

Before every TV season, the Nice Girls meet and decide who will be covering which shows. Sometimes two of us want the same show, so a sharing arrangement is worked out. In the case of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the number of dibs placed was high. We finally decided that four of us could cover the show, depending on schedules, and a round table recaplet seemed like the best way to let all of our voices be heard.

Here’s our first S.H.I.E.L.D. round table, for “Girl in the Flower Dress”.

1. Do you think Centipede is a worthy Big Bad?

Frea: I’ve had issues with Centipede since the pilot, mostly because they’re such a downgraded version of AIM with the Extremis serum that it smacks of being mad science rather than a government-funded think tank performing experiments on ex-soldiers. I understand their desire to “ground” the show into the universe by bringing up recognizable things from the movies (Maria Hill and Fury’s cameos, for example), but I wish there had been something new created for this show so that I’m not reminded of the budget differences (face it: the show looks like most of the budget goes into Clark Gregg’s suits). Also, I really would have believed that the doctor was credible if she’d been older than 22.

That said, I did enjoy Raina and look forward to finding out more about her. I enjoy it when antagonists don’t lose their cool like that. It makes them even more intimidating.

Louise: It has potential, and I think after not seeing it since the Pilot, there’s room for it to be something on par with HYDRA or Weapon X (wow, why did I just mix Avengers Big Bads with X-Men ones?) What I mean is this, there’s something evil and scary and crazy in the implications of Extremis, but there’s also a level of subterfuge imbedded that has me curious. I mean, Raina’s got larger plans and while I originally thought the Doctor was higher on the pay-scale, she clearly wasn’t. (Aside, Shannon Lucio, can you go back to being someone like Lindsey on The OC and not being evil – also see her start on Supernatural tonight.)

Mel: It didn’t seem all that scary until we met Raina. The calm, cool, collected villains, those are the scary ones. I can forgive some ludicrous stuff from a nebulous, mysterious entity if we have a truly frightening person fronting the organization. Raina is that person.

2. What do you think about Skye’s big secret?

Frea: I’m reserving judgment, but it’s interesting that I think she’s playing quite a few people at the same time. You could see her chameleon nature in what she told her boyfriend about jeopardizing her position on the strike team and then how she chose to deal with Coulson and the rest of the team. So I like the twist that she wanted access to SHIELD the entire time.

Louise: I’m glad to see that she has a reason for being so cagey, but it’s not rubbing me the right way so far. As it is now, I still can’t tell when Skye’s telling the truth and if she’s our way into the show, it’s hard to trust the narrative source who’s hiding worse than Magneto hides behind his helmet. Sure, she’s human and fallible, but how much of that is actually real and not very good acting?

Mel: It makes sense with what we know about her so far, and I do like that she got herself inside SHIELD so she could keep searching for her parents. It’s very “let’s have an origin story”, but I’m OK with it.

3. Most Valuable Player in this episode?

Frea: Melinda May. You ask this question like it’s possible for there to be any other MVP on this show. Honestly, Mel, I’m surprised. Sparring innuendo with Coulson? Stone-facedly telling Chloe to put her clothes back on? Facing down “Scorch”? Taking out the guards? Melinda May, everybody. Melinda Freaking May.

Louise: I have two – though Frea hit one. Melinda gets my top vote for continuing to take no prisoners and getting STUFF done. My other nominee goes to Austin Nichols’ hacker (who’s name I managed to miss, sorry!), because that stunt at the end with Scorch’s power was pretty impressive to not kill the rest of SHIELD.

Mel: Well, it’s unanimous: I choose Melinda May for all of the reasons stated above. But I’d like to add, she’s freaking awesome.

4. Favorite scene in this episode?

Frea: Probably Skye talking to the other hacker in bed the morning after. It made Skye a lot more interesting as a character. Though I found her a little too idealistic later on in the episode, I enjoyed this scene because it showed a duplicitous nature. I just enjoyed that scene, especially the look on Melinda’s face when she showed up. She knows how terrifying she is, right? Right?

Louise: This is going to sound so wrong, but watching Scorch kill the doctor, if only because I was tired of her games from the Pilot and I’m sort of glad her particular brand of evil-mustache twirling won’t be around. That’s a hair above the end scene with Raina and her immediate supervisor, because I love final reveal on people being more evil than I originally thought.

Mel: I always like the scenes between Skye and Coulson, even though I don’t always trust what she’s saying. There’s a father-daughter dynamic at play, like Buffy-Giles, that provides an emotional touchstone amid all the fireballs and mutant viruses and fancy planes. At least, I hope that’s where they’re going with that relationship.