Plot: Carl Creel (Brian Patrick Wade) has taken the Obelisk and left the bodies of Isabelle Hartley (Lucy Lawless) and Idaho (Wilmer Calderon) in his wake. Now Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) must race against time to get it back before Hydra. Meanwhile, Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) has a very tough decision to make regarding his future.
One of the big complaints people had of the early episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was how it lacked any cohesion. For a lengthy stretch of time, each episode was essentially a self-contained story that started new and ended with a cliffhanger. It wasn’t until halfway through that most of these separate strands got resolved. Thankfully Season 2 is starting off on much better footing. “Heavy is the Head” starts immediately where “Shadows” left off with Lance in a freshly destroyed car now occupied by dead bodies. Really, if ABC wanted to, they could have packed “Shadows” and “Heavy is the Head” as a two-part Season Premiere.
A huge benefit of this immediate follow up was that the episode didn’t need to waste any time explaining most of what was happening. We learned all about Creel, the Obelisk, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s goals, and who these new characters are last week. That means we had all the time in the world to propel this story forward, which “Heavy is the Head” did for most of the episode. Nearly every second is spent focusing on Creel and the Obelisk. You have Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) working with Mac (Henry Simmons) on both the cloaking and how to beat Creel, Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) working the field, and Coulson trying o keep everything together.
It’s during the Creel story where this episode really shined, specifically with Fitz and Mac figuring out how to beat the guy. Mac, after essentially being a one-off new character last week, stepped into the spotlight as he worked with Fitz through his mental issues. Watching Fitz “talk” with Simmons without us actually seeing her was quite unnerving, but it was cool watching Mac work through the forced delusion to reach the man underneath. Really, there is no better way to get to know a new character than by pairing them up with someone we already care for. Fitz-Mac might be my new favorite pairing if the show decides to flesh it out.
The stuff surrounding Creel himself was great too. In what shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone, grabbing the Obelisk really messed with Creel’s ability to absorb matter. He essentially became a walking version of the Obelisk. But instead of making this a typical “in over his head twist,” S.H.I.E.L.D. used it as an excuse to bring back a previous villain: Raina (Ruth Negga). Raina comes to Creel with promises of saving him from himself. Creel refuses though, officially making Raina an entirely different third party that the team must deal with. Raina was a very engaging and mysterious character last season so I’m glad she’s coming back to do more with her secret handler. Speaking of her handler, we finally meet Skye’s father, and he’s played by none other than Kyle McLaughlin. Obviously the show wouldn’t reveal everything about him now, but seeing his face is enough to get me pumped.
Outside of the Creel conflict is where we learned a lot about Lance. This is where my biggest issue of the night came in. Though it was awesome to finally see Lance get officially inducted into S.H.I.E.L.D., the vast majority of his screentime was spent on him talking about Hartley’s death. The show was so intent on playing this up, Skye (Chloe Bennet) was relegated to packing up Hartley’s belongings. From what we can gather, Lance and Hartley were exceptionally close. It’s possible they had a romance. But the truth is, Hartley wasn’t around long enough for us to really feel this. She came and went in the blink of an eye, and now we’re suddenly supposed to feel sad that she’s gone. Could the show be setting us up for a surprise return from the grave? Sure, it’s possible, but I highly doubt it. The upside to all this Hartley focus was it showed how much of an honorable man Lance really is. He even wanted a proper burial for Idaho, a person the show was quick to forget.
We’re going to need to find some balance though for all of these separate conflicts. Along with Creel/Hydra and Raina, we again have Brigadier General Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar). Talbot literally spent the entirety of last night intimidating Coulson by either threatening him or bribing Lance. I hope the show won’t be exploring all of these issues at once because I really can’t imagine all of them coming together (unless they are all Hydra which is just silly). The only reason this worked last night is because “Heavy is the Head” was coming off an episode with a very broad focus. Eventually, this will have to narrow, and the last thing we need is someone popping up for no reason other than screentime. Honestly, the person I can see this being the biggest issue with is Talbot. He has officially declared everyone evil. This leaves the door open for him to pop up wherever, and I don’t want him to become a derivative side character.
Finally, it’s good to see the show is following the “Coulson drawing symbols” angle at a quick pace. We now see that May is fully aware of what Coulson is doing, and that she’s even documenting it all. On top of that, it looks like this is more of an urge for Coulson that he has to consciously fight. Something about the blood in him makes him want to do this. It’s the equivalent to giving in to an addictive habit. What could it mean? I have no clue, but I’m interested.
As far as I’m concerned, “Heavy is the Head” has officially brought us into Season 2. We’re now familiar with the new cast like Mac and Lance, reintroduced Raina and Skye’s father, and are willingly focusing on what is happening with Coulson. It honestly looks like we won’t have to be saddled by long mysteries like last year. But to me, this episode was definitely better than the last. The story flowed better and this season’s focus is more defined. I just wish so much time wasn’t spent focusing on a character we barely got a chance to know. Skye could’ve at least done something in that case.
Rating: 8.5/10
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Luke Kalamar is Pop-Break.com’s television and every Saturday afternoon you can read his retro video game column, Remembering the Classics. He covers Game of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and The Walking Dead (amongst others) every week. As for as his career and literary standing goes — take the best parts of Spider-man, Captain America and Luke Skywalker and you will fully understand his origin story.
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