As “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” airs, the character of Phil Coulson will have to be given even more growth.  If the second episode is any indication, we’ll be getting to know a lot more about his past, as in this episode an old flame of his returns while he and his team are searching for a mysterious object, given the codename 0-8-04 (as the episode handily notes, the last object to get that designation was Thor’s hammer).

We don’t exactly get a lot of details about the two characters past, but it at least shows a previously unknown aspect about Coulson that lends him a sense of relatability; showing he isn’t just the guy who helps out Thor and Iron Man, he’s also a man who suffers from emotions we all experience. While Coulson gets some much needed character exploration, the rest of the ensemble cast is given some more room to grow, albeit in ways that force them to use some truly horrendous dialogue.

One area I’m interested in is Fitz and Simmons, the duo who were a highlight of the pilot and now seem to have the most interesting character arc of the show: scientists who are juxtaposed against the more combat ready S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers. Instead of mining that situation for quick cheap laughs, they actually use it as an exploration for how this makes them assess situations much differently from their fellow agents. While everyone winds up working together in the end, the way they get to that resolution is actually interesting, even if it winds up at a predictable conclusion.

It’s genuinely encouraging to see this kind of growth in a show this quickly, and if they can balance the characters with some of the surprisingly well done action seen here, we might just have something special on our hands here. Hopefully though, future episodes can find something interesting for the other characters to do, not to mention getting the writing to the levels of quality we expect from a Joss Whedon program.

Oh, and yes, the Nick Fury cameo at the end was perfect. Hopefully, Samuel L. Jackson will return to the show very soon, as he and Coulsons rapport was easily the funniest thing the show has done yet.