If you remember back to the Fitz left behind episode didn't we see gravatonium from that hydraesc group that was holding Fitz. So this group probably ties back in as is responsible for the event that destroys the world.
I loved the latest episode, it just moved incredibly fast and once it was over you basically said "so soon"
There were two story lines in this one, first of all the Yo Yo, Mack episode where the rebellion starts against Kasius and the Kree.
The second was the rest of shield trying to get the Zephy off of earth and back to the lighthouse.
For Mack and Yo Yo the problem is that Kasius has rigged the station to blow, and because of the situation with earth last survives the humans are too cowed and paranoid to unit.
What was very cool was that Kasius bought Tess back from the dead using the same technology as Shield used to bring Coulson back which was a very well done tie in to earlier seasons.
She's basically sent back as a warning device, Kasius has all the cards, surrender unconditionally and give all the children to Kasius or the whole world burns. But the biggest writing tool is that we can always depend on the miscalculation of the villain, or their ability to be dumb when they need to be dumb. We saw that in discovery and we've seen this here as Kasius plays the insane megalomaniac to a tee. Surrender ba ha ha or die, and when you surrender, I'll brutally torture and kill you, and maybe bring you back. How the hell is that motivating.
But Mack who has been fairly despondent since the end of last year, has nicely become the hero that everyone needs him to be. They blow up the inhuman making stuff, get the now united humans to get rid of the bombs and oh Kasius loses his girlfriend who was the big bad on the Zephyr, but he like the humans has a seer.
Meanwhile on the Zephyr this was still actiony but not as much as the other story as it bends around the concept of getting back to their friends, however the Zephry is old and not functional and the story is a race against time plot device as a gravity storm is approaching. Not to mention that Kasius squeeze is on the ship wanting the old revenge against Daisy. In the midsts of this breakneck plot we learn that Fitz had heavily modified the Zephyr using future tech, so this kind of answers the debate about the eventuality of the time line. Basically they're meant to go back in time and Daisy is meant to destroy the world. So their efforts here might just be futile and they can't stop the end of the world.
Meanwhile May is a mess because of the Robin thing. Deke seethes for revenge over his dead father but doesn't take it and Sinara eats a part of the ship through the chest as Daisy kills her. Then they get the Zephyr up using the forces of science and gravity.
We're now heading towards the end of this storyline and like previous seasons the second part of the show will be a new storyline, this one around preventing the inevitable destruction of the Earth.
This season has been really ambitious and a lot of fun to watch. The writing is strong and this cast really works.
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Great episode to end one story arch and move onto a new one. Agents of Shield always follows the Whedon rule of running two story lines a season.
He did it in Buffy and Angel, and he does it here to great effect because the storylines are related.
This episode was horrifying and viceral and violent, and it needed to be, it also emphasized the theme of the season which is sacrifice. There were also some strong reveals that could shake the foundation of this show.
Spoiler!
The Rebellion in the lighthouse is now in full force, as Mack and Yo Yo work to evacuate humans to get them to safety, meanwhile Coulson, Daisy, May, Flint and Deke work on re-assemling the Portal so that they can return home and save the Earth from destruction and change the timeline.
We also see that Kasius who has a seer of his own is using another Yo Yo who is caught in a time loop and that Kasius has killed her and bought her back over and over again to harvest her blood and DNA to make inhumans. This Yo Yo is beaten and destroyed and tortured physically (Kasius removed her arms) and mentally because she re-affirms to our Yo Yo that they can't change fate no matter what and that the decisions they make will happen no matter how much they fight them and that this is all basically pointless. She also indicates that Mack is probably going to die in front of her, and that Coulson in a fight with the Inhuman trainer is going to die, and the team will make a decision to save even if they know it will doom the world.
Once again Shield uses the plot device of the monster making self sacficing bleed from the eyeballs but makes you a bezerker elixer. Kasius realizes that he's doomed and has slipped a wheel because of the death of his girlfriend.
Meanwhile the team trying to rebuild the portal using Flints powers over rocks are being pursued by the Kree, and we see a bit of the ruthless nasty Fitz from the Frame Work as he creates a decapitation device. He basically feels that there are too many Kree to fight, so they have to make them afraid to follow. Simmons also has a ruthless streak as she uses Flint as a weapon to kill the Kree Imperial Guard.
We see Kasius confronting Mack and he executes the caught in the time loop Yo Yo which sends Mack over the edge because he doesn't know that there are two Yo Yo's. This leads to an over the top almost WWE feel fight between Mack and Kasisu in which Simmons jams one of Kasisus' ear worms into him and then Mack rams the shotgun axe through the villian in a incredibly violent theme.
Meanwhile Deke who has been an all for himself guy, and Enoch try to get the portal going, but they are forced to find power to run it and Enoch realizes that he has to sacrifice himself to use his batteries and the ensuing explosion will kill Deke. This end to both of those characters created a nobility to Deke and closed his character on a strong note.
Meanwhile going back to Coulson and Diasy heading back to the Portal, Daisy decides that she can't go back and doom the world and tries to make the Self Sacrifice move, but Coulson ices her because he knows he's dying and he needs her to lead. May also realizes that Daisy probably won't forgive Coulson for dragging her back to her time.
The Episode ends with the portal opening and the viewer being unsure who made it back.
Then we get a nice moment where Flint and Tess looking a the shattered world and deciding to try to rebuild it.
There's an interesting thing here, depending on what theory of timelines that you want to follow.
The first, if there's a single time line and fate can't be changed as tortured Yo Yo believes then their mission failed and the earth is still destroyed.
The second if there are multiple time lines and Shield succeeded, this still horrible time line exists.
Its an interesting discussion.
So now we know that at least some and probably all of the Shield members are back on earth, and we see a preview of this show when it comes back after the Olympics. We might have forgotten that Shield was a rogue organization that was the most wanted due to the death of General Talbot by the LMD of Daisy.
So basically they have jumped from the frying pan into a hotter frying pan.
Some random thoughts
The fight between Mack and Kasius was fun and over the top, and a lot like a WWE fight, but seeing his rammed through with the shotgun axe was a lot of fun.
Seeing the evolution of Fitz, especially after last year is interesting as he can still be the ruthless murderer that he was in the Frame Work and not blink at it is a big change to the overly nice guy Fitz from before
The tortured Yo Yo was really tragic and welll done with the argument that even if they want to change things they won't be able to. Seeing her murdered by Kasius though was almost a relief as it was her escape from hell.
Coulson knowing that he's going to die and icing Daisy because he needs her to lead follows the comic books where Quake becomes the head of Shield. In terms of the theme of sacrifice and with season 6 still undecided will Coulson let the team save him if it costs them the world?
There were some really nice moments between Yo Yo and Mack
Daisy feeding Kasius his own ear worm was a nice touch.
Deke started out as a I don't give a crap character but nicely evolved, I loved that he was wondering where guns were all his live and Enoch simply responds in the bulk heads on level 3.
Enoch's death became oddly touching and seeing the two sacrificing to save the world was a really appropriate end to their character arcs.
The head of Disney is cautiously optimistic that Shield will be renewed. To me its one of the more strongly written and acted main cable shows and I hope it sticks around, but my feeling is that this season ends with the earth saved and Coulson sacrifice and Daisy in charge of shield.
4 week break to the Olympics.
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Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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First of all, Welcome back Shield. I know that I sometimes came across as overly critical of shows like Discovery, but after watching this episode, it made me realize how much of a difference strong writing can make to a show when combined with exceptional acting.
Episode thoughts in spoiler
Spoiler!
Jesus Christ, I feel like I got a bit fooled on this one, an episode that started with a lot of lighthearted welcome back to earth moments turned incredibly dark and grim in the snap of a finger, and a lot of assumptions that we made turned out to be wrong.
There are words to describe this episode. Shocking, crushing, devastating.
The funny thing was that up until a point you thought that the team was going to return to earth and avert the end of the world, but it might not be possible, or if it is the cost of doing it may mean the end of everything.
The episode starts with the whole team returning to the Lighthouse from the future, and they decide to explore it thanks to the handy aid of a hologram of General Rick Stoner played by the awesome Patrick Warburton. Stoner was the predecessor of Nick Flury and it shows as he was wearing the cheesy 70's era canvas white suit that was popular in the 70's and he talks about the advanced gear waiting for them there that will make them think that they're in the 80's and that they'll be able to communicate through the mysteries of Electronic Mail.
The hero's through monitoring see a beacon in St Louis and see that its a similar wave length to the one that Hive used to call to the Kree and since the light in the sky is mentioned in the end of the world prophesy, Shield with the exception of Daisy and another Chronicom named Noah decide to stay behind.
We also see General Hale who is entrusted with ending shield having a conversation with her daughter Ruby who seems to be a dis-interested Quake fan who doesn't want to go to class.
Meanwhile the Shield team leaves and we get some genuinely nice and funny moments as they stop to breath and take in the fact that they're home, and then they steal a van and there's a nice moment where they reflected on the horrible things that have happened to them. Hive, a killer robot, a depressing future a evil virtual reality world and then Ming bitterly says "Dancing".
At the same time we find out that Deke survived the explosion and was transported to earth and they had some really funny moments of him trying a beer in a bar and cringing and asking for something that's delicious and the bar tender gives him a Zima. Deke then gets drunk and eats cheese burgers and then is arrested when he can't pay and Daisy ends up bailing him out.
Meanwhile the team reaches the beacon and find Piper who is genuinely happy to see them. But it goes bad as it turns out that the beacon was a prop used by General Hale to draw in Shield.
This is the moment where things went incredibly wrong. Piper sells out the team because she was told by Hale that she wasn't going to harm shield, at that point we see a mysterious cloaked figure entering the room with armed soldiers and the cloaked figure gives a kill order.
A massive fight ensues and we find out that the soldiers are robots. We also find a strong indication that the assassin is an inhuman as during the fight Yo-Yo leaps forwards and the assassin uses a throwing blade to chop off her arms.
Remember when I said that we made some wrong assumptions. Well I assumed in the future that Kassius had cut off future Yo-Yo's arms, but it happened here which means that the future might not be changeable. As Yo-Yo said its all happening again.
The scene with Yo-Yo standing there bleeding from her stumps was visceral and brutal and the cold efficiency of the assassin was frightening, and I have to add that the costume is Froot (Please read the Chris Jericho books to understand that term).
Shield makes their escape and return to the lighthouse. While Simmons struggles to save Yo-Yo, and poor Mack endures another emotional kick to the nards. Noah goes to put the beacon in storage but instead the beacon explodes and might have killed the latest Chromicon.
The end of the episode shows General Hale confronting the assassin and being angry about the mission going off the rails and the assassin being revealed as her daughter Ruby who seems to be all about confronting and maybe killing Quake. Hale then tells Rudy that she's a dissapointment and locks her in her room which is a cell which brings into question if Ruby is her biological daughter.
The final scene shows Hale recruiting Talbot's former body guard the absorbing man as she is assembling a team.
Some random thoughts
There were more hints around Coulson's fatal condition, they hinted that this might be the price to pay for making a deal with ghost rider last year a couple of episodes back.
Yo-Yo is armless, which indicates that she's destined to die
Is Hale forming the Thunderbolts, her own team of super powered operatives?
What is Ruby's end game with Quake?
The effects were really good and the final fight scene was rivating and brutal. The image of the Zephyr doing the batman landing at the light house looked amazing.
Is Deke the replacement for the wise cracking hunter. The shows been pretty dour and brutal this season.
Mack with another chud reference when he see's the hidden tunnels, I must watch that movie again.
You get a sense that they're setting things up in case the show isn't renewed next year with Coulson possibly dying.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
At first I doubted the move to Friday, and the budget cuts, but somehow the show just feels like its better, I loved last year, and the move to make the villain Aida sympathetic. Her death scene was off the charts. But this year, has been really good even with some of the cheese from the villains.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
I though it was done for the season so exited for it to be back.
One beef with this episode of the show
Spoiler!
How about future Yo-Yo tells current Yo-Yo don't go after the Kree transponder or Piper will betray you or something about that mission as it happens right away. Why hasn't yo-yo told the team about what future Yo-to told them.
There is a way this works as if the mechanism for yo-to to lose her arms is different in each loop but the end consequences are always the same. That would be a neat take on time travel determinism.
Agents of Shield continues to benefit from strong writing as it hurdles towards an uncertain future, both in our reality and in theirs.
first of all, what I really liked about this episode was that it wasn't over crowded with action, this was simply story telling about defeating a simple problem.
After last weeks episode we found out that the beacon explosion had blown up the monoliths in storage and this ripped open an inter-dimensional rift to a fear dimension which allowed for the manifestation of the teams greatest fears.
Because of that we saw the return of Lash (May's fear), Hive (everyone's fear), the life model decoy of Gemma.
The question was, is this the event that ends the world? In order to counter it, the team has to use gravitonium to seal the rift, but the person that does the sealing is probably sacrificing their life.
With that we get to the heart of everything in terms of this season of shield as Coulson makes the unilateral decision that he's going to do it because he's dying anyways, and he finally admits to the team that his deal with the Ghost Rider is killing him.
We then get a really emotional heartfelt scene where Daisy is being told that she's going to have to take the mantle of leadership. May is hurt because Phil didn't tell them, and they all realized that the chance to save Coulson was probably on the world that they left behind.
This is where it gets interesting, however a bit recycled. In season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she's poisoned by a demon and the question is raised. Is this reality actually real, of is Buffy a mental ill institutionalized girl who has made all of this up. In the end, Buffy makes the choice to stay in her catatonic state with her friends.
The scene where Coulson goes to the basement to seal the rift is the same concept as he runs into Mike/Deathlock who tells Coulson that he's dying on the operating table after the events of the Avengers, and his mind has made up this reality to both allow him to cope with what's happening around him, and to do the things that he wanted to do. Travel, mentor, have a team, have a family, have a daughter (Daisy). But Mike is there to help him get ready to walk into the light (The rift).
Coulson makes the choice to stay and the real Deathlok shows up to help him close the rift. The final scene of the episode is a very touching scene where Gemma and Fitz get married, and we also find out that Deke is the grandson of Fitz and Gemma.
All in all this was a powerful episode built on emotion more then action. It also begs the question, is what we've seen over the last few years, reality, or the actions of a damaged and dying man.
In a way I think that this is the key heading to the end as Phil continues to move closer to death due to his condition. As I mentioned at the start, there are questions about the renewal of this show, which is sad because its quality has been amazing over the last few years, and it tells a great story. So now the path leads clearly to the end of Phil Coulson at the end, even if the show is renewed next year, do we follow what happened in the Shield Mythology where Quack becomes the leader of Shield.
I loved the writing and the dialogue in this episode.
The awkward typical wedding conversation between Deathlok (Who I was happy to see back) and Deke made me snicker. The emotional scene where Coulson finally tells the team that he's dying was heart wrenching for a lot of different reasons. The scene between the debilitated Yo-Yo and Mack was touching and perfect.
I will admit that the pacing in this episode was a bit wobbly, maybe because of the lack of action in it. I also think that the whole disclosure of the concept of the greatest fears could have been more of a mystery and been left til after Coulson closed the risk, because it made the whole Coulson dying and this reality being a figment of a damaged mind slightly less believable.
On a side note, Deke was a character that was needed, they haven't had a smart arse on the team since Hunter and his obsession with Zima is pretty funny to me.
Good episode, and really well written, Chloe Bennett was originally the weak link acting wise in this series, but she's really shone over the last two years and she was right on track tonight.
The Mack Yo-Yo scene where he offers to carry her out and never look back was incredibly powerful, especially since Mack just continually suffers losses in this series.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Just when you think you have Shield figured out they flip gears on you. Last week, I talked about the episode having a really wobbly pacing to it as they tried to squeeze a lot of emotional moments into it, however that was almost by design when I think about it as the previous few episodes had a break neck pace.
However this episode harkens back to year one or year two in more ways then one when they almost made this a simple episode where the team is going on a stand along mission, this time to find gravitonium to seal the rift to the fear dimension.
There were a lot of things that went back to season one, the discovery that shield had enacted their own version of operation paperclip to recuit Hydra soldiers, in doing so they grabbed scientists that worked on Ian Quinn's gravitonium projects. We also got re-introduced to Wolfgang Von Strucker who we last saw in the first season when Shield basically tortured him then used Lincoln's power to zap him out of a coma. Its unfortunately given Wolfgang who calls himself Alex now the power of a perfect memory.
He's also the latest recruit to General Hales new team of gifted people joining Ruby and the Absorbing man.
Hale showed a ruthless streak as she wants Alex's memories so she sends her daughter to basically recruit seduce him, but she basically lays out a plot where they are going to take over this team, Ruby is plotting against Hale.
Meanwhile we see the interaction between Deke and Fitz and poor Deke is like that puppy in a new world to the point where he drives Fitz crazy. But just as Deke discovers the pure joy of Twinkies he see's a vision of his mother who reminds him of a saying that he used to use. Towards the end of the episode he hears Simmons using that same staying and he puts the pieces together and realize that Fitz and Simmons are his grandparents.
The Yo Yo story continues and its had to watch because Cordova-Buckley has done such a great job of playing this character. She's come to the realization that they won't be able to change the future, and faced with her current injuries and that realization she has a real and true breakdown. Like I said it was tough to watch. Later when she see's Mack when he returns from the mission she seems better, even throwing out a truly cringworthy pun about her lack of arms. Somehow it made me laugh though because it was such a human thing to do.
Ok, this was really a Mack episode, as they find that the agent that used to recruit the Hydra scientists is Mack's old room mate, and he spills that Mack used to be obsessed with MC Hammer and he was nicknamed Mack Hammer. By the way that agent was played gleefully by Gary Busy.
This revelation lead to a great line by Coulson when they were collecting Gravitonium from a ship 25000 feet in the air. Just as Mack was about to collect it in a box, Coulson let him have a great zinger
"Hey MC Hammer, you can't touch this"
The team it turns out is also after Deathlok technology to give Yo-Yo new arms. But that seems to be a dead end, instead Mack took one of those creepy robots back with him so that Yo Yo can have robot arms.
The other nice moment is that the team was banking on finding a way to save Colson, but he's refusing any help, he doesn't want another life extension, I believe this is going to lead to a really depressing series/season finale.
Stray observations
Busey watches the team fight the robots on the ship through the teams cameras, so his comment on leaving "I got to see a ship 25,000 feet in the air and a robot fight, best day ever" kind of reflects this episode. Because it was better paced, and had lots of light moments it felt like the episode ever.
Zeke's puppy dog approach to everything new is kind of cool to watch, especially when he has that field of dreams moment when he finds a baseball glove and ball and wants to play catch with Fitz. When he eats a twinkie and his exclamation of "Oh my god". And after seeing his fake mother killed wants a Zima is a lot of fun to watch.
Ruby is completely evil, you can just see the betrayals coming and Wolfgang wanting to be like his father.
Great great episode, you get a feeling that this team is slowly rebuilding itself after a lot of strife and tragedy.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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We found out that the gravitonium needed to be compressed to seal the rift to the fear dimension and a sleep deprived Fitz couldn't figure out how to do it.
Meanwhile General Hale is kidnapped by Shield and we find out that the Absorbing man was there with bombs strapped to his chest, and we also see the return of last yeas villain Ivanov who we find out works for Hale because she has his head in a jar. She convinces Coulson to go with her and they vanish.
Meanwhile Deke goes to reasure Fitz but Fitz knocks him out, however its not Fitz, its the Doctor, the evil Fitz from the frame work and he enacts a plan to reporgram robots, wound Mac, isolate Daisy all in the name of doing as he said to Fitz "The thing that Fitz didn't want to do"
That thing, is the doctor removing Daisy's inhibitor so she can compress the Gravitonium and seal the risk. Fitz then confronts the Doctor during a particularly grotesque scene where he cuts into a still concious Daisy.
That's when Simmon's runs in during the surgery and we realize that the Doctor wasn't some fear of Fitz, that Fitz was actually the doctor, and went about solving his problem in the most Machiavellian way possible. And he proceeded to have a android soldier hold Simmons at bay while Fitz finished removing the chip. I have to say, that was the most graphic and grotesque scene in the show so far. Fitz pulling wires out of Sky's neck while she cried on the operating table was emotionally wracking and clearly Sky has been mentally wrecked by Fitz's actions.
After that Fitz surrenders and we get a tough scene where Simmons tries to convince him that it was a psychotic break like he used to see her after his injury. But Fitz informed her that the Doctor and his ruthlessness was part of him and needed.
Then we get the scene where Deke tries to confort Simmons and tell her that they will be all right and reveals that he's her grandson. Her reaction was actually un expected and pretty hilarious, which was needed because of what happened next.
We see Hale talking to her superior who states that the Confederacy was displeased with her results and hands her the bezerker medicine that we saw Kassius take, and tells her to take it if things look dire, then her superior who is clearly a Kree leaves with the familiar "Hail Hydra".
With about 7 episodes left, we are clearly heading towards a final confrontation with whatever destroys the planet, and they're still trying to figure out how to break the time loop and prevent the earth's destruction. We also saw a stunning change in message. This show is always about team and perseverance, but Fitz's actions basically run counter to that, and the scene where May basically lets Coulson go with Hale shows that desperation trumps team and family.
Once again the writing has become really strong in this series, and they've become really adept at emotionally tuning the audience and giving you the feel that nothing here is going to end the way that we want them to.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Wait, so is the guy Hale is talking to Kasius's father? Odium was used by Kasius before he went nutzo berserker, Kasius referred to his father's Kree empire as the Confederacy and with there is Kree writing in that last scene with Hale. So that guy is some Kree member of Hydra?
Or is Hale Hydra? lol. Lots of twists here. Maybe the Kree are prepping to invade Earth or are the Kree and Hale allied to fight someone else? The Skrulls?
Last edited by FlameOn; 03-23-2018 at 11:37 PM.
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Wait, so is the guy Hale is talking to Kasius's father? Odium was used by Kasius before he went nutzo berserker, Kasius referred to his father's Kree empire as the Confederacy and with there is Kree writing in that last scene with Hale. So that guy is some Kree member of Hydra?
Or is Hale Hydra? lol. Lots of twists here. Maybe the Kree are prepping to invade Earth or are the Kree and Hale allied to fight someone else? The Skrulls?
Spoiler!
Here's my feeling, Kassius said his father had wanted earth. I believe that this is him, and that the Kree want the earth destroyed and the human's enslaved, so this is part of a plot to achieve both.
I think that Hale is Hydra, destroying Hydra was too good to be true, remember how effectively they went underground after the death of the Red Skull. Garrett couldn't have been the only underground agent recruited.
I still can't buy that Hydra wants anything but a "Better future" for mankind, and that they are being deceived by a lie.
Overall though they're really building things up to the end.
I think we're going to see a pure version of Quake, she was destroyed by Fitz.
I also see Hale being betrayed by her daughter.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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