The name of this week’s episode, Yes Men, is thankfully not a reference to the underwhelming Jim Carrey film of nearly the same name (Yes Man).  Nor is it a Jeopardy answer, as in:

ALEX TREBEK: “What fanboys call the confidantes who read George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel scripts, knew they were bad, and did nothing about them.”

CONTESTANT: “Who are the Yes Men?”

ALEX TREBEK: “You are correct, J.J.”

But I digress.

Yes Men in this case refers to the helpless males who fall under the spell (literally) of guest villainess Lorelei, an Asgardian sorcerer imprisoned for 600 years after enslaving Asgard’s men to her will.  Now she has escaped and is bent on doing the same to midgard.  Or at least to the American southwest where Coulson’s crew confronts her.

Maybe she’ll succeed.  Maybe she won’t.  Either way, I wish she had invaded prior to 1999, specifically Skywalker Ranch, because if anyone could’ve said no to Lucas, it would’ve been Lorelei.

Sif in comic form and live-action.

With Skye’s bullet wounds on the mend at an incredible rate thanks to last episode’s mysterious miracle drug, Coulson and company are now tasked with stopping Lorelei.  Also on her heels is guest heroine Lady Sif from the Thor movies.  Lorelei broke out of her Asgardian prison during the Dark Elf attack shown in last fall’s Thor: The Dark World.  Now Odin has ordered Sif to bring the sorcerer home.  First Loki, now Lorelei — what’s up with Asgardian baddies picking on earth rather than any of the other Nine Realms?

Sif and Team Coulson join forces with the goal of taking down Lorelei before she amasses an unstoppable army of men, including smitten Fitz and Ward. (Smitten with her, not with each other. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

Meanwhile, Simmons keeps testing Skye’s blood to determine any side effects from the drug that saved her and Coulson — an unknown drug extracted from the blood of dissected humanoid blue aliens.  Yup, you read that right.  Humanoid blue aliens that resemble Dr. Manhattan minus the full frontal nudity.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Coulson continues his personal investigation into his resurrection and whether or not Nick Fury was involved.  With the reluctant help of Agent Sitwell, again played by Maximiliano Hernández who has appeared in several Marvel films, Coulson — or “Son of Coul” as Sif calls him — tries to track down Fury who has gone “off the grid,” a storyline to be continued in next month’s Captain America sequel.

It’s great to see Jaimie Alexander on the small screen as Lady Sif.  She imbues the warrior woman with gusto and vulnerability.  She’s particularly good in her stunned reaction to Coulson being alive despite being told by Thor — off-screen between The Avengers and this episode — of his murder at the hands of Loki.  As good as she is though, does she really need all that armor and clothes?  She didn’t in the comic books.  What good did clothes ever do anyone anyway?  I’m just saying.

Lorelei in live-action and comic form.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues its baffling tradition of cheesy and breathtaking special effects in the same show.  This time around, we get a high quality, movie-worthy Bifrost Bridge (Or Einstein-Rosen Bridge, whatever floats your knarr.) that transports Sif to earth. It’s stunning.  A few scenes prior, however, is Lorelei backhanding a man servant across a parking lot, an action that looks cartoony.  Why is the quality of special effects in this series so jarringly uneven?  It’s as if the producers read the script up until the big set-piece, blew their F.X. budget on it, and then continued reading only to find more set-pieces.  Oops.

Another continued tradition is a welcome one — Clark Gregg’s deadpan delivery of jokes that don’t play well on paper (“Thanks for that,” for instance.) but do so on screen due to his performance (“Thanks for that,” for instance.  {Well, of course they’re gonna seem the same in writing.  Duh.})

When Coulson learns that Sif has been world-hopping, he asks if she’s ever encountered any blue aliens — any that would match the decimated one he stumbled upon in T.A.H.I.T.I. (Always investigating, that Coulson is.)

“Of course,” says Sif as if it’s no big deal.  She then rattles off a list of blue-skinned races from the comic books, including the Kree, which bodes well for a possible future appearance by Captain Mar-Vell.  It also ties in nicely with blue-hued aliens glimpsed in the trailer for this summer’s Guardian of the Galaxy.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may be inconsistent at times, and not just in terms of special effects, but one thing that remains consistently impressive is its continuity within the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.  It’s not a slave to it, but it also doesn’t run away from it.  Now if we can just get Thor’s hammer — which has time travel capability — to transport Lorelei back to pre-production for The Phantom Menace, then we’ll be golden.

NEXT UP: More time off (must be nice).  However, you can still get your Marvel fix with their Assembling a Universe special airing next week in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s time slot.  After that comes the… End of the Beginning.