It turns out the mysterious force that took out the 18 wheeler was used to kidnap one Dr. Franklin Hall, who old time fans will remember as the villain Graviton. The addition of such an established and classic Marvel villain is intriguing, but more on that in a bit. First, the first act must be dissected because it was alarmingly weak. Coulson, Ward, and Skye are able to track the kidnapped doctor to Malta, and a facility held by corrupt philanthropist, Ian Quinn. How did SHIELD track down Hall to Quinn? By finding the evil cowboy that sold him a backhoe. Yeah, the excavator used to rip open a truck was instrumental in bringing down Quinn. Now forget that Quinn had access to little anti-gravity pellets that can flip a truck, forget he was a billionaire that could buy a construction company, the dude had to buy a backhoe to commit his crime which led SHIELD to his door. Restraint has been the most impressive part of this show so far. The restraint not to throw every villain and hero on screen in order to get fans in a lather and instead, finding story reasons to bring in some familiar Marvel names. Introducing Dr. Hall, giving him a motivation to turn against SHIELD, and then turning him into Graviton as a logical extension of his character arc will give the character meaning when he pops up again. It’s cool to watch the world of SHIELD slowly transforming into the complex, anything goes setting of the Marvel Universe as more fantastic tech and super beings begin vying for power. The hook of the show is to see what or who pops up next, let’s just hope the writers can come up with better story beats than a questionable backhoe lease. I don’t want to watch SHIELD tracking down Klaw because of a moped rental gone bad. Marvel Moments: A zinger about Coulson’s Cap cards, and the arrival of Graviton
