So I've been rewatching shield on Crave, its amazing how many things I don't remember.
But I was watching a episode in season 2, and if you remember I talk about the fight choreography and how great I think it is. So I came across the infamous one shot fight scene, shot in one take using a mini-cam, and it exemplifies how good this show can be.
As an add on Chloe Bennett actually suffered a couple of fractures to her arm, and shot another fight scene right after.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 04-22-2018 at 09:25 PM.
For anyone who was curious I saw a tweet that tonight's episode does NOT spoil anything in infinity war. They did not mention next weeks episode..
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With three episodes left in this season, we've now moved from hectic to breakneck speed, and episode 19th named option 2 certainly threw the Shield engine into over drive.
Basically I still love the crazier aspects of the show, starting the episode by talking about preparing the Zehphyr for space travel so that they can fling the Gravitonium into the sun thus breaking the loop was such a strong start and it almost takes you off of your guard, but we all know and I keep saying this that this season is about the inevitable and destiny and the Shield team is hurdling towards their destiny now.
In order to get people to relax this episode started like a character building episode as the team has now pretty much broken down as they argued about Daisy's leadership and Yo Yo's decision to kill Ruby, then they moved on to a heart breaking breakup of Yo Yo and Mack. I will say that Mack's stance that Shield is there to protect and turn the other cheek is strange consider his whole "I'm the guy who kills Gordon" stance at the end of season two. However he is kind of right that Yo Yo is so obsessed with breaking the loop that she's doing more harm then good.
Meanwhile Daisy is off to find a cure for Coulson and the conflict of what Robyn has told the team members has come into sharp focus. On one hand members of the team believe that Coulson will bring together the pieces while Yo Yo believes that Coulson has to die.
Meanwhile we continue to see the dynamic between Deke and Fitz Simmons develop as Deke firmly believes in the multiverse theory while Fitz believes there is one time line and Deke is the canary in the coalmine which means that if the loop does change Deke never exists. Its funny with Fitz about how heartless he has really become, there was always a pragmatic edge to him, but the combination of our Fitz and the Hydra fits has made it difficult for him to be anything but blunt and straight forward.
Its at this point though where the switch is flipped and we lose our breath as we see a massive ship appear over the lighthouse and the Aliens now called Mauraders demand the Gravitonium.
But Shield is never shield without some humor as Patrick Warburtan's recorded message appears and lets them know that there are options, of course in a wink to wargames Coulson selects the defense against Nuclear War and the Lighthouse seals itself for 15 years and Coulson realizes that he should have read the whole menu and picked "Alien invasion"
As a break in the review Clark Gregg is so brilliant at dead pan humor. His speech to the Aliens was hysterical, and his other quips like "Light em up, I always wanted to say that" are so well delivered and so in character with the run of this character that you can't help but hope that he survives this and we get more Coulson going forward. However May wins the line of the year with "You always listen to the whole menu, always"
Anyways, the Alien mauraders were brilliant as they have a personal EMP that darkens everything around them and they use 10 inch claws to kill. It gave the episode a real horror moviesque feel and a real sense of claustrophobia.
As things get desperate they flash to Daisy who meets with the Candy man and gets the centipede device to save Coulson but she's informed that she needs an extra healing component that John Garrett had found for it to work and is given information on where to find it.
Meanwhile at the lighthouse the team is desparately fighting for their life and moving into their last stance when Talbot knocks poor Gemma out and steps into the infusion device and uses all the Graviton, and thus unless there are more swerves we see the creation of Graviton, in this case a super powered being made up of the broken psyche's of Talbot, Hall and Ian Quinn who has the ability to control and create gravitation fields.
I know, I konw, what can possibly go wrong when you get a crazed scientist, a malignant psychopath and Talbot's lack of impulse control in one mind controlling the most powerful force in this world.
Well at first you'd thing, nothing, you've got a gosh darned hero right? And at first you'd think so as Graviton gruesomely crushes the invaders and breaks the light house containment with Coulson, but you just know, and the previews gave it away that nothing good is going to come from this and Talbot might be the guy that destroys the world in a confrontation with Daisy.
Its funny as this show is going to come down to a battle of a natural inhuman and the beneficiary of Hydra tech.
Anyways with the Maurader threat wiped out Coulson and Graviton are going after the Mauraders. Meanwhile Daisy is doing some grave digging.
Overall a solid episode with great action and acting and a twisted development that I kind of knew was coming, but I expected Ruby to be Graviton.
Random thoughts
We got a hint of the Avengers link as Candy Man mentions the weird stuff in New York and Daisy snorts "I don't have time for that"
The May Yo yo interaction was really great after Mack broke things off. Basically its not about Yo Yo's killing of Ruby its how other people are perceiving her now.
The grave that Daisy's digging up is her mothers. Remember that she had the power of not only healing but siphoning life from other living creatures.
Deke just kills me, but at the same time you feel so bad for him because he desparately wants to survive, but he just takes a beating from Fitz all the time. But the don't call me granps line was only superceded with the Let me be clear, Deke is never right and the debate about the multiverse vs the unbreakable loop where Fitz brutally cuts him off with a "You don't know what multiverse means.
3 episodes, a crazy possible new Big Bad, Coulson's possible death and the breakdown of the team. Could be a ride and a half.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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I hate to keep preaching on inevitability in this story line, but it looks almost like everything is coming together for the end of everything, and its all linked
Thanos and his attack on earth
The destroyer of worlds
Kassius taking over the human race for the Kree
Coulson's death.
We're grinding towards the inevitability of the seasons end of Shield and one thing is certain, even if they do manage to stop the destruction of earth, one thing is becoming clear, that this team is completely broken.
The character dynamics have completely shifted to resentment at each other and a strong lack of trust. Simmons and Fitz aren't trusting each other. Mack, YoYo and Daisy have had a real falling out, in fact the only two people that seem to be on the same page are Daisy and Deke as witnessed by the pile of lemons on her bunk.
It was fascinating to see Talbot who has been excellent in this season going fro genuinely wanting to fix everything to a madman in the span of an hour, but its clear that Talbot's damaged mind, combined with the damaged minds of Dr Hall and Ian Quinn and possibly the alien that he absorbed have made him incredibly powerful and unbalanced and a little gullible as Kassius basically made him a deal to get more Gravitonium from beneath the earths surface to increase his power.
One thing that's clear is that Talbot or Graviton is now one of the most powerful individuals on the planet as he shrugged off Daisy's power and crushed people into small balls (RIP General Hale) with the wave of a hand. Its doubtful that he could stand up to Thanos and sadly we'll never see that confrontation, but right now he's more of then a match for anyone on this show, and they're angling that Talbot will ultimately be the destroyer of worlds.
As for General Hale, she in the end was another broken and bitter character mourning over the death of her daughter, but still maybe over secure in her grasp of the situation, but Talbot saw right through her deception and killed her in an incredibly gruesome and bloody way.
Meanwhile Simmons is trying to pull the DNA from Daisy's mom to combine with the Caterpillar device (Remember that) to save Coulson's life, but it might be all for not, remember inevitability.
At the same time poor Yo Yo is now the social outcast of the family, getting into a drag out fight with Daisy, and basically being told by May to get with the program or get to stepping.
Now things look incredibly grim.
Daisy with Kassius
Talbot right off the reservation
The team on earth pretty much splintered.
Thanos attacking the world
And Talbot wanting all the Gravitonium.
Yup, its pretty clear that the writers of Shield have hedged their bets in terms of cancellation, because I don't know how there's any way that more then one member of this team won't die. I'm looking at you Yo Yo, Mack and Deke.
Even if the show is renewed, there's no way next season starts with this team together, this season has been too traumatic and too disruptive for it to survive.
Random notes
- The awkward high five attempt between Fitz and Deke and Deke's retort "Come on man, you're better then that"
- Talbot declaring himself as Earth's mightiest hero
- Lemon's on the bed, great track of a running joke
- Deke - "What's in the bag"
Daisy - "My mom"
- I love the dialogue on this show
- Coulson liking Talbot's new look reminded me of him talking to Captain America about his uniform in the Avengers.
- Mack telling Fitz that he needs to fix himself. Its a reverse of when they first started working together and Mack tried to fix Fitz after his injuries
- The Shield space shot effect was cool especially when they hit orbit and banked over the earth.
- Two episodes left.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
with this time line linked to Infinity War, and the Thanos attack happening. In the last episode of the year, if they save the planet. Who disintegrates? With the next Infinity Wars movie next May, who comes back after missing pretty much the whole season?
Yo Yo and Mack and one of Fitz or Simmons is my candidate. Then next season Shield is down to Daisy and one of Fitz or Simmons and May.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Movie Geek has stated that Agents of Shield has been renewed for next year and is moving back to Tuesday Nights.
Sweet merciful crap if that's true!
I mean I would have been perfectly happy with AoS ending it's run on such a high note, but now with the show tying itself to IW, I would love to see the fallout.
Also, it's gonna be fun if Coulson gives a nod to AoS in Captain Marvel, even if it's a totally obscure Easter egg.
That's awesome that they are getting renewed! And put back into a decent timeslot should help. Hopefully the writing maintains it's quality and they get a little extra into the sfx so they can do more.
I like how they've used IW as a plot point in AoS. The idea that Talbot sees himself a hero to stop Thanos and that probably leads to him trying to suck all of the gravitonium out of the Earth which cracks it apart. Total mistake in his attempt to be Earth's Greatest Hero.
I am not convinced that the timeline in AoS will match the MCU as a whole. In addition to the concept of inevitability, Deke has been harping on his Multiverse theory so maybe the stones didn't just transfer them through time, but also through dimensions where IW plays out differently.
IW Spoiler
Spoiler!
Also with the concept of inevitability, I appreciate the juxtaposition of the human scientist in Fitz understanding time as linear and inevitable. But Dr. Strange, using the Time Stone is able to see 14 million different timelines proving that time is anything but inevitable. An Agent vs a Super Hero perception.
Maybe Strange saw the Earth crack in 13 million of the possibilities and the timeloop the team is in, isn't a loop at all but the next timeline until they finally land in the winning one. Would give them an out for next season.
Even though my theories/crazy ideas are normally wrong, how funny would it be that Graviton simply disintegrates from "the snap" before cracking the Earth and that is what saves them.
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Before I start this whole review, I want to throw this out in the open. Joss and Jed Whedon are clearly the same type of person. they really love twisting the heart strings, they also like giving their characters choices that make things impossible.
This episode change gears dramatically, over the past few weeks the show has actively shown that under pressure relationships break. Yoyo and Mack, Daisy and the team, Mack and Fitz, May and Coulson. they've all show strife and the team seemed to be breaking down.
However under the threat of inevitability and unwinnable odds, this team gravitated (no pun intended) back towards each other.
Lets face it this team and to an extend earth are under attack from all sides. We have Thanos attacking the world and we have Talbot on the lunatic fringe and the Shield team is caught in the middle of it.
There are multiple storylines interspersed into this season, and they're all coming to a head, lead by the inevitable fact according to Daisy and YoYo that the time line cannot be altered and we're heading towards an earth splitting moment. In terms of the storylines, we're following the probable death of Coulson. Talbots descent to madness, Daisy and the Kassius clan leader and yes, even the relationship between May and Coulson.
What I liked about this episode is that after a few weeks of fairly humorless TV the team dealt with bad situations Like they always do, with a form of gallows humor.
The biggest gorilla in the room though is Talbot who feels that he's the hero, but needs more Gravatinium to get it, and he's leaving a major body count to get it. Right to the point where he kills and absorbs Carl Creel who went from villain to tortured good guy to fuel. What's becoming clear is that while Talbot's power is vast its limited as he seems to need to refuel himself and that's why he's after more Gravitonium. With Talbot he might think he's the hero but clearly its thinly veiled as he returned to a family reunion and promptly scared the ever loving crap out of his son and I believe killed his wife. There's clearly a large part of ego and power madness on Talbots part and that makes a pretty unsympathetic monster. We spent years learning to like and feel sorry for Talbot for what he's gone through, but at this point we're hoping that he dies because the alternative that he's the destroyer of worlds is tough to bear.
Meanwhile Daisy has a run in with Kassius who keeps her unconcious to control her, but she breaks the spell and escapes. At the same time Coulson and May escape from the ships brig with the help of the absolutely clueless Deke, and in a hilarious moment an argument breaks out between Deke and the rest of the team when they learn after 20 years with the Kree he learned to count to 5, including zero.
To escape the Maurader ship the team breaks up with Coulson and Daisy returning to Earth while Deke and May go to deactivate missiles aimed at the lighthouse.
During one fight Coulson and May finally kiss as Phil deflects bullets with his arm shield and Daisy's reactions and gentle prods afterwords were nice and well acted, but I have to wonder, if a guy that your shooting at is holding up a shield to block your bullets, why not shoot out his legs.
A couple of things about this. First of all, again the fight choreography is so top notch on this show, and second, we're rapidly approaching that jerk moment we're talking about.
Anyways we get another great moment as May re-aims the missiles and Deke uses his Kree language skills to activate the transporter to take him and May back to the light house
Meanwhile on Earth Fitzsimmons are working on a cure for Coulson using the caterpillar formula and Daisy's mothers DNA, at the same time they need to find a terminal solution to Talbot in case he can't be reasoned with and it uses, you guessed it the Caterpillar formula.
Here's where the heartbreaks starts. Just when you think things are starting to go the right way, Coulson collapses as his illness is now rapidly killing him, and we find out that we have run into the typical hero's choice. There's only enough Caterpillar formula to either try to save Coulson or stop Talbot. Do you sacrifice millions to save one, or sacrifice one to save millions. If only Spock was a shield agent.
Now, I've heard that the show is going to be renewed and the rumors are strong to that effect, so the question is, will they kill Coulson? No you say, Coulson is the heart of Shield, even Fury said that. However its also logical to think that after 5 years on the air that Phils hero journey is going to end, that after 5 years of being the guy that its time to like in the comics hand the leadership off to Daisy and if the show goes to a season 6 adjust the formula.
That would be the shocking final episode of the season.
Anyways we have one more Talbot moment in the episode as Talbot has taken Robyn and her mother because Robyn knows where Talbot needs to go to harvest the Gravitonium from beneath the earth core.
So now the question goes back to, can they stop him, while the inevitability that Yoyo talked about all year where she states that Coulson has to be allowed to die for the Earth to be saved. There's also the question bought up by Fitz and Daisy that Coulson wasn't on the lighthouse in the future, so does saving his life break the time loop.
They've also tied the Infinity movies tightly to the series mythos as we see the events of the movie happening not only on the news, but in the preview to next week
Random thoughts
1) The return of the popculture reference, when Daisy and Coulson return to the Zephyr and hear Mauraders and Daisy cracks "They're heeeere"
2) Deke was great in this episode, but they saved the best for last, as the missiles streaked towards the alien ship and the Alien commander asked how he did it, Deke completely deadpanned "I know zero"
3) Daisy's reaction to the kiss between Coulson and May was really well done
4) The fight choreography and the direction continue to be a high light of the show.
5) Adrian Pasdar's portrayal thought the years has been amazing through multiple characters.
6) Coulson's collapsing, I turned to my girl and said "Aw crap", they've faked it so many times this season, but this felt like the beginning of the end.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 05-11-2018 at 10:50 PM.
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I can't imagine this show without Phil Coulson. Clark Gregg is the anchor for everything.
Spoiler!
Ok, I can't either because Clark Gregg is so good in the role and so comfortable, but I was reading some reviews on the latest episode, and the question came up in terms of what else can Phil do or achieve in his hero's journey? He's beaten Hydra, a god like inhuman, a even godier like inhuman, a artificial universe, and another betrayal. At some point he has to pay the price on the deal that he made with Ghostrider.
Now a couple of things make me think that they need to end the hero's journey. Daisy is being pushed into the leadership role, and even in the real world look at it Daisy's become the alpha character this year, and she needs to lose something in order to complete her journey, and Lincoln wasn't a big enough loss.
The loss of Coulson would be hugely meaningful, they've killed team members in the past and other people around them, the death toll is pretty frightening. So losing a huge part of the team seems like a logical next step.
On a side note they can do this one of two ways.
1) Coulson sacrifices himself and maybe even becomes the one that delivers the serum to Talbot, thus cementing the end of his journey.
2) They find another way to kill Talbot, and they lose a lot (I don't believe that the world is going to end again. But the cost is too much for Coulson and he blames himself. So they re-Tahiti him and send him off to Seattle to live with the Cello player. That way at some point they can bring him back. It was hinted at in the Frame Work where Coulson was given the life that he secretly wanted as a teacher.
Oh or third
Coulson and the team find a way to break the loop, and Coulson seemingly makes the sacrifice, but before he can die on his sickness he and a few other key members of the team (Maybe May, one of Fitz or Simmons and maybe YoYo turn to dust, and then can get bought back later on next year if the talk of renewals is accurate, and because Phil is bought back from death, his deal with Ghost rider is paid off and he gets his health back.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
My theory is using the centipede on Talbot is what causes the world to shatter. Simmons description of what the centipede did sounded like it would lead to it being out of control.
And that would have Yoyo's advice of don't "try" to save Coulson meaning don't look for the centipede syrum would be true. Along with Colson being the one to put everything back together from the seer.
