It's been a long, strange summer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We began with the crashing, walloping Avengers: Age Of Ultron – a bludgeoning battleship of a movie, revealed in the end to be little more than a bridgehead to the Civil War storyline.
Then came Ant Man, a reminder that small can be beautiful too, and finally, Josh Trank's non-MCU Fantastic Four – in retrospect, maybe Ultron wasn't such a clunker after all.
Where does this leave Agents Of SHIELD, the greatly heralded Avengers spinoff which, from modest beginnings, has grown into a thrilling entity in its own right?
After all, much of last year was given over to an Age Of Ultron tie-in that, on the big screen, was tossed off with barely a nod towards Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and company. If Marvel wanted to make the series seem like the runt in its spandex litter, this was precisely the way to go about it.
As a third season commences, SHIELD has decided to continue forging its own destiny and is happy to leave worrying about the bigger picture to others. More than ever, this show is clearly an entity unto itself, rather than a tie-in that exists strictly to bask in the reflected glories of its cinematic siblings.
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Sure, Ultron and its aftermath receive passing mention but with a palpable lack of enthusiasm. For example, a reference to Coulson's sidekick Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) taking a vacation and never returning is equally-blink-and-you'll-miss-it. But SHIELD is master of its own universe now – a state of affairs with which all involved seem perfectly content.
Season two ended on a cliffhanger – or, more accurately, a monolith-hanger, with lab dormouse Simmons (Elisabeth Henstridge) sucked into a presumed alternate dimension by the Kree standing stone.
Predictably, almost-boyfriend Fitz (Iain de Caestecker) has taken her disappearance badly. So badly that he's bunked off to Morocco in pursuit of a mystery MacGuffin that will - or so says his research - lay bare the secrets of the Monolith (and, he hopes, retrieve Simmons so that he can finally, really, non-ironically ask her out).
Back at HQ, the artist formerly known as Skye (Chloe Bennet) - going by Daisy now - has come to terms with life as super-powered Inhuman and is busy tracking down others of her kind. First up: Joey, a sensitive fellow who wakes one morning to discover he can cause metal to shrivel and shriek simply by cocking a brow in its direction.
For his troubles he becomes the centre of a tug of war between SHIELD and shady new agency, the Advanced Threat Containment Unit, headed by Rosalind Price (newcomer Constance Zimmer from House of Cards, Encourage and much, much more). You can tell Rosalind's evil because she has one of those sharply-cropped corporate gal haircuts specific to soulless overachievers.
Luckily, Joe falls into the clutches of the good guys and is sprung, via a lead-lined Wonkavator on rockets, to the Playground. Waiting there are Coulson (favourite new affectation: removing his recently acquired bionic arm for dramatic effect) and Bobbi (so not talking to Hunter after last year's multiple betrayals).
But there's a problem – Joey is in denial about his Inhumanity. He needs someone personable to cajole him into accepting his genetic rebooting. Someone like Lincoln (Luke Mitchell), Daisy's Afterlife frenemy from last season.
Only Lincoln, keen to make a go of it as a normal person, is working as a doctor at a hospital and is not impressed with Daisy's unannounced arrival. It gets worse as he's interrupted a second time - on this occasion by lumbering troll-man Lash, determined to scrub both Daisy and Lincoln out of existence.
Coulson, meanwhile, has arranged a tête-à-tête with sharp-haired Rosalind aboard a Washington DC subway train - turns out she's brought an entire commuter car worth of armed backup. As they trade zingers, it emerges that maybe they're on the same side after all – and that a mystery third party may be behind the violent disappearing of the emerging Inhumans.
In Morocco, Fitz has acquired the ancient text supposedly containing the key to the monolith. When he opens the scroll, though, he is confronted by just one word: "Death". Understandably nonplussed, Fitz has a full-on breakdown, kicking and swearing at said rock (the rock is unmoved).
But while Fitz has abandoned all hope, audiences are left with something to cling to. In the final scene we see Simmons – smudged yet definitely alive! – on an alien planet, seemingly on the run from someone/thing.
It's an intriguing conclusion to an episode that roars off the starter grid at full velocity. We're merely an hour or so in, but already there are grounds for suspecting this may be SHIELD's most spectacular season yet.
