Tag: Ming-Na Wen

Agents of SHIELD, A Wanted (Inhu)Man starts with Lincoln being tracked by Coulson, after Mack inserts a tracker in the man’s arm,  back in the last season’s finale episode. The shoe then moves to Lance and May meeting with a HYDRA associate who can get Hunter into the Ward run organization.

With everything else that is going on in the small screen Marvel verse, the scene in the pub and its “spot-on” dialogue brought the level of writing and realism up to a new height.  Brit slang, done properly for once, peppered the conversation between Lance and his old mate. Donkey’s, muppet, gutted, “sod off,”  et.al. equal “proper”  slang, although “donkey’s”  is specifically Cockney slang, i.e. “donkey’s ears” equals years and the proper way to used the south/east London term is just “donkey’s” (or one can say donkey’s years). Only tourists and “outsiders” use the whole term…Just saying.

 

This was a cracking way to start the episode, especially when one includes Ming-Na Wen and her response after learning that talk would not commence until after drinking:

“Right. ‘Cause you guys aren’t hard enough to understand as it is.”

A sentiment obviously shared by Bobbi when one hears her exchange with Leo in the gym and he manages to give the American pronunciation to “anti-thesis” and points it out to the exercising agent.  SHIELD has a number of British agents, Fitz, Simmons and Hunter all speak the “Queen’s English” (with regional variations and being a former soldier Lance uses the most slang). That the writers of the show have managed to “get it right” is impressive and thus far a feat only shared by one other program on American television TNT’s The Last Ship in season two.

*Sidenote* It may be the influence of London born Nick Blood who plays Lance Hunter…Whatever the reason, well done for getting it right, there is nothing worse than “Yanks” writing dialogue for “Brit” characters and mucking it up. 

While the Lance (Nick Blood) infiltrating HYDRA works brilliantly at the pub and later at the “last man standing” fight where Hunter kills his old “mate” (who proved to be anything but…) the episode also dealt with Simmons’ return and Leo trying to help her to adjust.  On top of these two storylines, Daisy, Mack and Phil keep trying to bring Lincoln in before ACTU can capture the inhuman electrically powered doctor.

Coulson contacts Rosalind Price (Constance Zimmer), the head of ACTU to talk a deal.  A humorous scene where Phil’s eyes are locked on Price’s ride and she tells him, coldly,  “eyes up here.” “Busted,” Coulson replies and then asks “What’s her name?”  The two spar verbally for a short while as Daisy and Mack try to extract Dr. Campbell from the apartment.

Later, when Lincoln has been offered up in place of Daisy, Coulson trades himself to the new organization when Rosalind tells her troops to take Daisy when Campbell escapes.  Phil explains toward the end of the episode why he made the choice. Coulson says he is tired of fighting and wants to train the new group.

At the Hunter fight, May gets to kick butt. An excellent scene since the agent was clearly frustrated that Lance was getting to fight while she  had to watch.  After she takes out the three thugs, May tells the groaning men, “How about I do you a favor and not tell anyone that a tiny little Asian woman kicked your a**.” A great carry over from her conversation with Lance earlier when she offered to fight in his place.

Daisy shows Lincoln just how much she cares for him just before Rosalind’s thugs break in. Back at the lab, Fitz is busy trying to return the favor that he owes Jemma after she tried so hard to help him recover from Ward’s murder attempt.  Simmons is hiding something, her issues have much more to do with the distractions (cell phones buzzing and other discordant noises appear to hurt her ears) or problems with gravity differential  and at the end of the episode she reveals that she  “needs to go back.”

Presumably in that other world she left something, or someone behind, a person or thing that helped her to survive. Phil’s gone to the “other side” in an attempt at bridging the gulf between ACTU and SHIELD.  Although the way he looked at Rosalind’s car, he may want a chance to get at those wheels.

Lincoln Campbell is in the wind again, but on the plus side, despite Mack not agreeing with Daisy on the way the whole thing was handled, the two are still “buddies” and play a video game together. Hunter wins his fight and goes into the  HYDRA “reception area” and is met by Grant Ward’s associate and Lance may well bump into his target earlier than he wants.

Agents of SHIELD continues to  be addictive viewing, Clark Gregg just gets better and better, as does Wen, Chloe Bennet and Iain De Caestecker. It has to be said, however, that while last week belonged to Iain, this week Elizabeth Henstridge killed at the dinner scene. Those tears her character spilt were heartbreaking to see and Henstridge sold it, 100 percent.

The series airs Tuesdays on ABC, tune in and get caught up in all the subterfuge and spy-stuff or just to watch Ming-Na Wen kick more a**se.