Marvel's Agents of SHIELD: "Uprising" Review

"A team divided is a team defeated."

Full spoilers for Marvel's Agents of SHIELD continue below.

SHIELD is once again an organization in the public eye, thought it went through a convoluted process to get there.

Agents of SHIELD has done a great job adding a sense of urgency to its storytelling in a way that moves the plot along in a compelling way, even if the plot is as fairly throwaway as the one in "Uprising." The episode focused on a group claiming to be in the Inhuman resistance setting off EMPs that stopped technology in major cities. It was a national crisis put in the hands of a few (albeit capable) off-the-radar agents and managed to turn much of the country against the Inhumans in one fell swoop. Eventually it's revealed the Watch Dogs -- the same group Daisy has been after -- is responsible, and Coulson & co. stop them and restore the situation by the end of the episode.

Through that backdrop, the show was able to tell far more interesting stories. Inhuman-human relations have been a recurring conversation for the past couple of seasons, which is part of why having an Inhuman like Jeffrey Mace run SHIELD is such an interesting choice. The kicker at the end of "Uprising" shows that anti-Inhuman politician Senator Nadeer (guest star Parminder Nagra) is not only the person giving the Watch Dogs a global reach, but also has a personal grudge against Inhumans because her brother died during the Terrigenesis process. Even with Mace trying to clear SHIELD's name in the press, Gabe's reaction to Daisy shows these wounds won't be easily healed.

Gabriel Luna's Robbie Reyes remains the strongest new element in Season 4, and his relationship with Daisy continues to be compelling -- though, with her now on the run per Gabe's demands, we'll see where it goes from here.As theorized, his uncle Elias -- now jailed at Southridge Penitentiary -- was an electrical engineer at Momentum Energy Lab. "He's a good man. He did a bad thing," Robbie rationalized, though we'll likely learn a lot more about good ol' Uncle Elias in the future. Robbie also got into some of the nitty gritty of what makes him Ghost Rider, explaining to Daisy that he thinks his current path is to get vengeance for his uncle. They also got to have another great fight sequence in this episode; Agents of SHIELD has ramped up the action in Season 4 to its benefit.

Each of Agents of SHIELD's three main storylines got pulled just a little bit closer together in this episode as Simmons turned to Radcliffe for help healing May. They ended up stopping her brain activity to rid her of the spirit's lingering effects that were causing other afflicted people to die, though not before "Uprising" threw a wrench in the story by having the power go off in Radcliffe's lab just as he and Simmons were about to revitalize May. Did anyone actually think for a minute that May wouldn't come back to life? It was one of the weaker storytelling tricks in an otherwise solid episode -- and as expected, May came back and is just fine.

The SHIELD team is largely back in working order now, with the exception of Daisy remaining on the run and on her own. Mace's tagline seems to be "a team divided is a team defeated," and he's proved to be a pretty capable leader, even if he does often turn to Coulson for advice. The biggest divide remains between the humans and Inhumans, and between Mack and Yo-Yo as he bristles over her helping Daisy without letting him know. While their sexual tension is a fun addition to SHIELD, the show has been leaning on it a bit too hard in the absence of other dramatic romantic issues. (For all that Fitz is lying to Simmons, they are in a pretty good place.) Hopefully they get past the will-they/won't-they and move on to move interesting topics, like whether Simmons will get around to investigating Radcliffe's green power source that helped revitalize May.

Verdict

Agents of SHIELD moved its storylines ever closer together in "Uprising," using a fairly underwritten plot to accelerate key dramatic points. The stronger ones remain the Daisy/Robbie relationship and the tension between Inhumans and humans, while others like Mack's anger toward Yo-Yo about keeping Daisy's whereabouts a secret fall flat. At least SHIELD is now out in the open, which offers a new world of possibilities for an organization kept in the dark too long.