Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episode 3: Making Friends and Influencing People -Review

Good episode. Were a few let downs, but overall a good one. Donnie Gill, aka Blizzard, is an interesting villain. Also a bit scary, though not as much as Creel, or Garrett. His powers were from a suit he wore in the comics. Not sure why they chose to make them biological in the MCU, other than maybe to have him fall under the new tag word "Gifted". Kind of a let down on that word, but I suppose there has to be a word for it...and any word they picked would seem inadequate. But there is talk that the Gifted will be the MCU version of mutants, but that doesn't really work when only a few of them are actually born with their powers. I'm also wondering if only biotic powered people will qualify. If so, then Iron-man would not seem to qualify. Neither would aliens, such as Thor, as the way it is used so far seems to imply humans with some form of special power. Not sure what that would mean for alien-human hybrids' classification.

Simmons is adorable. Even while working for Hydra and stuff. Knew she was undercover as soon as they hinted she was Hydra. I find it interesting that Coulson becomes a father figure to all the females on the team, except for May, but this is not so for the males. He seems more an often annoyed older brother to them. Not sure if this is done on purpose by the writers, or if it just kind of naturally progressed. More cool scenes with the Fitz and Mack buddydom. Fun, and nice to see. Was looking forward to Fitz' first run in with Ward after the incident. It was well done, though I would have thought Ward would be a bit more sad and guilt ridden. Though I suppose he had already had months to hate himself, and already said to a everyone there he was sorry for Fitz, like a thousand times. I still wouldn't have blamed Fitz if he had actually killed him, though.

Hydra is both a wonderful concept of an evil organization, and an annoying, sometimes cartoonish one. They have a ""Hydra Labs" office building? For a secret organization? I think it would be much more likely that most of the people who work for Hydra wouldn't even know they were. I like Whitehall, and Bakshi as evil masterminds, but so far the rest of Hydra are throw away at best, or they're interesting people who've been "brainwashed". Brainwashing is indeed possible, even in the real world, let alone a comic one, but it's not accurately depicted here. It happens way to quickly in this, real brainwashing can take years. It is also an impossibility for someone who has been brainwashed to function at full capacity. They're never quite as sharp, or quick, or skilled as they are when they're acting of free will. Especially when they're being ordered to do things they really don't want to. Yet, all the people done so by Hydra seem not to have this problem. Brainwashing has become a plot device, to fill the ranks of Hydra with otherwise not evil people.

This is a very good display of Blizzard's power, and personality. Though I was let down by the way he is taken down. Even knowing he will be back, sooner or later. Again, good episode, just with a few defects. Good acting, and pacing. Marvel has much better long term plotting and build-up than other current comic based shows, but they still need to get things together in many action scenes. Some in this series have been great, but most are barely there, or kind of stale. Unless it's actually a hand to hand fight. Which with people having guns isn't often. The action is good, but truthfully, holds nothing on the intense action scenes found in Arrow.

Plot: 8 Dialog: 7 Acting: 8 Drama: 8 Comdey: 6 Action: 6 Overall: 7