After the way last episode ended, there was a question of where the show would go next. The team is down a member, but there’s still work to be done. In ‘Stolen,’ Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. decides to follow up the storyline set up in the week before last. It makes sense, though I might have expected a more monumental change after what the team went through.
Nathaniel Malick (Thomas E. Sullivan, Bull) is still causing trouble in 1983, and it goes further than him taking over Afterlife. Nathaniel is recruiting and wouldn’t you know he recruits a young and impressionable S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named John Garrett. It’s been a long, long time since Garrett was on the show, so a little recap is in order. John Garrett was one of the leading Hydra agents imbedded in S.H.I.E.L.D. and a major antagonist in Season 1. He was played by the late Bill Paxton, one of the biggest stars to appear on the show.
What’s really cool is who plays the young Garrett. At first, I thought the casting department just selected an actor that looked like a young Bill Paxton. Turns out the actor playing Garrett is James Paxton (Velvet Buzzsaw), Bill Paxton’s son. While this isn’t the first time a son has played a younger version of his father (Emilio Estevez played a young Martin Sheen in The West Wing), it’s still ingenious casting. It was never going to be a perfect match, but it enhances the performance. James Paxton has the same devious smile his father had as Garrett.
Speaking of previous seasons, Jiaying (Dichen Lachman, Animal Kingdom) is still around. She and the agents have formed an unlikely alliance. Daisy (Chloe Bennet, Abominable) is understandably hesitant to trust her mother, given what happened in the future. Honestly, the events of Season 2 are kind of a blur, even more than Season 1 in some ways. It was just so long ago. But that doesn’t mean that Daisy’s interactions with Jiaying aren’t interesting, because they are. The Jiaying of the 1980s, not yet consumed by hatred, turns out to be the mother that Daisy always wanted. Jiaying effectively redeems herself from her future actions.
Unfortunately, Malick seemingly kills Jiaying when they fight, right after she finds out Daisy is her daughter. This leads Daisy to go berserk. The question is how this affects the timeline. Jiaying has died before, but her powers brought her back the first time. That might happen again. If she does stay dead, that would erase Daisy from the timeline. But Daisy didn’t disappear when Jiaying died. Maybe she will continue to exist as part of the future that no longer does.
It’s become apparent just how close we are to the series finale, so things should escalate even further. Malick and Garrett have taken hostages and Garrett has Inhuman powers now. Our heroes will have to pick themselves if they’re going to save the day.
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