Knowing that they are getting their own spin-off series, this week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t come as a surprise as the episode gave Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird and Lance Hunter a send-off in an episode that was sadly messy and not easy to follow.
To put it into easy terms: this episode was all over the place and as it became clearer throughout the episode that this would be their departure from the show, it became annoying that there was so many confusing pieces throughout the hour. Maybe it was just a problem for me, but all the cutting back between past and present, took me out of the episode a lot. I’m still not sure how I feel about all of this at this point. Bobbi and Hunter are both great characters that have filled out the S.H.I.E.L.D. team very nicely since they showed up last season. So knowing that this would most likely be their send-off, I just don’t think it was handled very well because of how many issues that were brought up over a very rushed period.
From what I’ve been reading, the pilot for Marvel’s Most Wanted has already been shot so I’m guessing that this episode and this point in the season was the only appropriate time for them to take off so they could go and film the series premiere. Since the airing of this episode last night, more details have now been released about the spin-off, including some new casting announcements and more details about what the show is about. While it has become a little clearer now what they will be up to, I still don’t know if I like that not only did they get shake-y send-offs, but that we may not see them on this show for a long time. The most heartbreaking aspect of the episode was tied with Mack’s reaction to how Coulson and those two had handled the situation as well as the “a spy’s goodbye” moment.
In many ways, it was a bittersweet scene because all of them were there in that bar with Bobbi and Hunter, yet they couldn’t approach them. I mentioned earlier how the flashbacks to what got them in trouble to begin with while cutting back to the present was distracting. Something that would have been preferred, at least by me, is if the troubling factor had come from something in their past. Given the way these two characters have been established, it wouldn’t have surprised me if they do have some big problems from the past that they have been running away from all this time. Because of that, it would have felt more compelling if it had been their past catching up with them and leading them to having to depart S.H.I.E.L.D. in a similar fashion to how it was handled here.
Overall, while a heartbreaking departure, “Parting Shot” was one of the weaker episodes of the second half of season three so far. I look forward to learning more about the spin-off which is most likely going to be picked up to series at this point, otherwise this episode and that “spy’s goodbye” moment will have lost all of its effect.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs on Tuesday nights, 9/8c on ABC.
[Photo: ABC/Kelsey McNeal]
