Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Providence

I realise I'm going to start to sound like a stuck record, but I can't believe how much I love this show these days. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has grown into an incredible fusion of comic book adventure and pulpy spy-fi, largely thanks to its tie-in to Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Where the events of last week's Turn, Turn, Turn ran parallel to the movie, Providence takes place in its immediate aftermath with Coulson trying to keep his paranoia-riven team together as S.H.I.E.L.D. is falling apart around them.

Add to this the impending arrival of the military's Colonel Glenn Talbot (Heroes' Adrian Pasdar with a glaringly fake moustache), a comic book sparring partner of the Hulk, at The Hub, and Coulson decides it's time to take his team off the grid. Even as he is making that call, he receives an anonymous communication with a set of co-ordinates, which he is adamant has come from - the believed-to-be-dead - Nick Fury.

Simultaneously, Agent Ward - having been revealed to be a Hydra sleeper agent - is buddying up with his boss, John Garrett (Bill Paxton), for a raid on a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison and storage facility, packed with proto-supervillains, mad science and alien technology.

There is so much to revel in Providence, from the fine character details (especially Ward's explanation of how he infiltrated Coulson's team, that goes a long way towards explaining why he initially came across as quite a bland character) to the re-introduction of various elements and characters from earlier episodes.

In many ways, Providence  could have been a place-holder episode, as pieces were moved into position for the next chapter in the Hydra vs S.H.I.E.L.D. saga (I'm guessing Col. Talbot will actually appear in the flesh in an upcoming episode, rather than just being a cameo on a view screen, for instance), but Brent Fletcher's script kept the action going, serving up an almost Hitchcockian thrill for the audience knowing that Ward is a traitor, while Coulson and the rest of the team are none the wiser.

My only slight gripe is the continued underuse of Lola, Coulson's flying car. The tricky walk through the snow to the rendezvous co-ordinates would have been the perfect time to dust the car off and get it flying (it sits tantalizingly in the cargo bay of Bus every episode, but very rarely gets mentioned and gets used even less).

I'm really hoping Ward meets a sticky end in the finale, rather than being granted some deus ex machina redemption - he's been shown to be a ruthless killer in the name of Hydra and doesn't deserve to get away with it.

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