After a fleeting namecheck in the previous episode, this week we got to meet the new, anti-Inhuman, terrorist group of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the Watchdogs, a hate group led by former S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Felix Blake (Titus Welliver).
Blake has an axe to grind with powered people after he was crippled by Deathlok, back in End Of The Beginning.
While Jemma and May team up to track down Lash, Mack's vacation time with his younger brother, Ruben (Gaius Charles), is interrupted when he's called in to investigate an attack by the Watchdogs on an ATCU facility.
The terrorists are using implosion technology originally created by Howard Stark (as seen in Agent Carter), and it's their modifications to this that leads Coulson to deduce Blake is involved with them.
Daisy takes the whole "anti-Inhumans" hate speech angle quite personally and Fitz is visibly worried when she threatens a Watchdog member to get him to spill the location of their hamgout.
Unfortunately, the S.H.I.E.L.D. attack on the Watchdog base accidentally results in the terrorists believing that Mack has superpowers, and so they launch a counter-attack against him and his brother at their family home.
I wasn't sure about Watchdogs to start with. I'm always slightly wary when previously unmentioned "dependents" are sprung on core characters.
But this actually worked out quite well, with Ruben initially supporting the Watchdogs for their anti-"freaks" stance, but being won round once he finally realises the good his brother does (and that he doesn't work in insurance as Mack had told him).
Daisy's speech to Ruben at the end was the clincher.
The Watchdogs themselves, with their access to dangerous technology and a willingness to use it, as well as a smart and motivated leader, look like they're going to be an interesting obstacle for Coulson and his team to overcome in their on-going fight with Hydra.
The episode also heavily referenced both Avengers movies and also namedropped Damage Control, the post-superhero-conflict clean-up crew, (another future spin-off show) for the first time in the MCU (as far as I'm aware). A second spin-off in two weeks!!!
Next Time:
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