SPY GENRE CLICHÉ #86 — THE ROGUE AGENT.  A former spy goes rogue and battles the hero who works for the same agency that, in the rogue’s eyes, did him wrong.  Torn between loyalties, hero spy must defeat rogue spy/villain despite personal connections.

Every espionage franchise eventually gets to the rogue agent trope.  Tom Cruise did it in Mission: Impossible II.  James Bond tried it twice in GoldenEye and Skyfall.  It’s been utilized so many times that Archer spoofs it on a regular basis.  Now Marvel trots out the trope in this week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode.  The results may not be the best, but they’re far from the worst.

Rogue agents prefer bottled water.

This episode’s title, Eye Spy, serves as clever allusion to I Spy, the Bill Cosby/Robert Culp series (not to be confused with iSpy, the latest must-have Apple gizmo, or Aye Spy, the voyeuristic catch phrase preferred by pirates everywhere).  It also sums up the catalyst for the plot — a spy eye.  Specifically, a bionic implant that grants X-ray vision to its owner, former Coulson protégé turned one-eyed rogue agent, Amador Akela (Aye, cap’n, she be one-eyed. ARRRGH!).  Another fun feature of the eye is that it lets its mysterious creator blow up Akela should she disobey his orders.

Those orders include major thefts throughout the world that are impossibly premeditated and therefore fit the style of the ex-agent whom Coulson once trained.  He believed her to have died in the field years ago due to disregard for his orders.  Now that she’s alive, he believes her to be incapable of turning on S.H.I.E.L.D. despite buckets of evidence that prove otherwise — evidence that Coulson’s team accepts, especially bad-ass Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) who threatens to go rogue herself and terminate Akela.

The “S” is for Spy Kids.

This is the first episode written solely by a non-Whedon (no Jess, Jed, or Jed’s wife present).  Because of that, it’s less cloying than previous episodes.  Jeffrey Bell’s teleplay strikes a balance between serious and silly that, given the life and death stakes on hand, leans more appropriately toward serious.  The only true silly scene involves Fitz, Simmons and Skye — spy kids that give Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids a run for their money in the maturity department — waiting in a van, complaining about the lack of snacks and bathrooms while the adult agents (Coulson, Ward, May) embark on missions elsewhere.  Having said that, the script could’ve benefited from one specific Whedonism.

Without giving away the outcome of Amador’s robo-eye, she ends up wearing an eye patch (I guess that does give it away), yet no one makes a Nick Fury joke (I’ll stop with the pirate ones, matey).  Both actors are black and each rocks a patch, so it seems unrealistic that nobody would reference the similarity, especially given the team’s penchant for Marvel character name-dropping that felt forced in previous episodes but would feel perfectly natural here.

The episode’s most arresting image is a platoon of sharp dressed men with identical briefcases and red masks.  With their eerie silence and flash mob-like persona, they’re very creepy in a very X-Files sort of way.  Unfortunately they only appear in the prologue.  They’re so unique that one wishes the showrunners dedicated an entire episode to them.

“They were caught red-handed, and now they are red-faced.” — Margaret Thatcher

The mystery of Agent Coulson’s resurrection deepens when Amador asks May why he’s different since the last time she (Amador) saw him.  Her exact words — “What did they do to him?” — raise a red flag (though not a red mask) in May’s mind that is sure to be raised even higher throughout the season.

Speaking of Coulson, Clark Gregg yet again earns the biggest laugh in the show.  Upon learning that Ward nicknamed the team’s van “Short Bus” in relation to the “Bus” — their jumbo jet headquarters — Gregg responds with:

“Next time I’ll decide what we call ourselves, O.K.?”

Not very P.C., but very funny.  This light humor, in conjunction with the script’s dose of drama, bodes well for the future.  I spy with my left eye a series that is beginning to hit its stride.

Let’s see it continue.

NEXT EPISODE: The Girl in the Flower Dress