Welcome back to Season 3! And so far, the newest episode did well in kicking things off! “Laws of Nature” picks up from the events of the final shots of Season 2’s finale. If you recall, the Terrigen crystals, known for inducing ordinary people to transform into Inhumans were released into the Ocean and by extension the rest of the Ecosystem from the big final battle last season. Here we witness the consequences of that and what is shaping up to be one the big story arcs of the season. Not only do we have Coulson and Daisy/Skye leading the charge in finding and perhaps even rescuing these people, the show introduces the ATCU (Advanced Threat Containment Unit) with leader Rosalind portrayed by Constance Zimmer (Entourage) along with a monstrous new Inhuman Lash (Matthew Willig) hunting Inhumans down. Elsewhere, Fitz is still currently on a quest to find the whereabouts of Jemma Simmons after the the incident whereby the monolith swallows her whole. We also see further development over the relationship with Hunter and Bobbi since the events of “S.O.S”.
The episode opens with a panning shot starting from the infamous bottle of fish oil capsules and illustrating a wrecked apartment with sounds of
chaos and danger filling the streets all resulting from Terrigenesis. We then meet our first newly born Inhuman Joey (Juan Pablo Raba), a man who just found out about his ability of manipulating and melting melting through metal objects. The visual imagery used to depict his overall sense of confusion as well as Joey’s new powers was rather satisfactory and is not too dissimilar from recent Inhumans comics done by Marvel. Some audiences will also praise that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe by extension has introduced its first openly gay character here and it would be interesting see where his character goes.
Speaking of Inhumans, we see what has become of Lincoln Campbell (Luke Mitchell) after the events of Season 2. He has now become a regular Hospital doctor. However, for people like him, staying out of the action really isn’t an option here as the monstrous Inhuman Lash barges into his life causing a big action scene to play out. Both Daisy and Lincoln show real experience in their powers since the first time we saw them. It’d be interesting to see how Lincoln’s reluctance to return to the fold will play out in future relationships ans stories. As for Lash, unlike most “monsters” on television, the make-up and enhancements were a lot better depicted here. According to the comics, he is a radical Inhuman who gathers other Inhumans up to enforce an Inhuman supremacist agenda.
Since “S.O.S”, we see Coulson adapt to his new life with a bionic hand. Along with that we also see Fitz try to live without Simmons. That scene between the two where they remind each other of what was lost shows how human they are, despite the slight campiness of it. Speaking of Fitz, it was rather interesting to see him perform a solo mission by himself whereby he had to retrieve an artifact supposedly to help him find Jemma. We see him act as a bit of an action her, an interesting turn this episode. At the same time, Hunter and Bobbi look like they’re doing well since Ward captured and nearly killed them both. With the brief scenes between them, it looks like big things are bound to happen to them in the future.
It was also fun to see the fun dynamic between Rosalind and Coulson. Both are calm methodical leaders that always have a trick up their sleeves. The subway scene between the two was rather entertaining to watch. Surprisingly, both aren’t the enemy here in this case with a mysterious third
party with Lash involved might force them to work together maybe? In the final shots for this episode, it is revealed about what happened to Jemma. The show has once again broke boundaries here and Jemma’s predicament will be one thing to watch in the next episodes to come.
Overall “Laws of Nature” was a solid start to a new season with some action and development in characters. The promo’s for next episode show the return of Ward, as well as HYDRA along with May. I can’t wait to catch up with them.
