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Mostly long and rambling AoS thoughts with a brief side-trip to JtV. Also I’m getting ready to start things back up at tori_reviews so for more rambling thoughts you can check that out.
Agents of SHIELD 6x02
Let’s get the Fitz plot out of the way first. It’s actually probably where more of my MCU continuity and timeline concerns come in this time. Building so much of this plot around Xandarian snail would have given them a fine opportunity to say how much Xandar is still a thing after Thanos’ attack and then the Snap. At some point they really need to commit to what is and isn’t canon for the events we’re watching; unless the ambiguity and audience aggravation is part of the plan. If this does all turn out to be some simulation that doesn’t need to follow events, then fine, but after two episodes it’s even harder to see that being a great story-telling choice.
As exploration of Fitz’s character...part of me feels it’s an overcorrection from him in the latter half of last season, and that that doesn’t entirely make sense considering this Fitz actually has more experiences at this point than that one did when he died. Unless all this did happen to Fitz first time around and we were just never told about it, but it makes far more sense to me to have happened because they changed the timeline. If all these things did happen before, then why didn’t Fitz mention them (I would easily believe Enoch didn’t, but Fitz not so much), or does he get his memory erased at some point, maybe like Coulson? And while I can believe that the original destruction of Earth didn’t matter a ton in the galactic events so this wouldn’t necessarily be changed (ignoring the Thanos events), at some point events are going to be changed by having certain people who survived when they originally didn’t.
My last review went on long enough so I didn’t get into this, but I do have something bugging me about the Space arc. How much do humans matter on that scale? Are there other groups of humans out there that space cultures encounter more often? I know in Guardians they do identify the species as Terran, but it never really stood out to me as something to question the way it does here. Mostly because I feel like in Guardians it’s referenced by people who would have experience or records to identify Terrans on some basis; while I don’t think that about what we’re seeing on the Agents’ adventure. If humans do matter, then the destruction of Earth vs not happening makes a difference; if the galaxy doesn’t care about Earth then sure it can pass unnoticed. Post Endgame I’m pretty sure humans have left a mark on the galaxy/universe, but we’re not supposed to be post Endgame here. Again, stuff that niggles at me.
The plot was fine, if a little generic in places, but my attention was of course on the Earth plot. And I just want to say, I may have been wrong about most of my specific guesses what was going on, but I’m glad people are finally getting my side that this is somehow Coulson and not some parallel version of him. I remember seeing a short interview with Clark Gregg around the time the teaser trailer dropped where he was talking about Coulson always turning back up, the interviewer then asking what it was like to be playing a different character and I really got the impression the rest of the time that he was taking the piss out of her by talking about this ‘new character’ he was playing, because it was always going to end up being Coulson in my book.
It’s been a long time since I watched it, and I don’t have it anywhere handy (I’m sure it’s on YouTube, I guess I don’t care enough), but I feel like there’s a decent amount of ‘Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer’ callbacks in the opening scene, with Coulson now in the role of the bad guy. It certainly makes me think I should go back and watch it again to check, just not enough to do it.
There might a reincarnation element here, since Snowflake (I may not have caught the other names, but I got hers) keeps going on about it and there’s that reference to Sarge’s ‘past life,’ but I’m not fully committed to that idea. Also, I am looking hard to see if he’s got the artificial arm or not; while they may not be as detailed with how he acts like the left arm is different, in terms of costuming they tend to keep it in mind. Not having it wouldn’t be proof that it isn’t our Coulson, as if he’s been somehow regrown he could have his arm back (he’d have to be healed of the other stuff anyway); but having it would be hard proof it is.
Some of the scenes as HQ were hysterical to me for a possibly intentional idea I got. For one, I find myself thinking that Mack didn’t rush to say anything about Coulson because he had to entertain to possibility that May was seeing things if she was the only one who did see him. It doesn’t seem that the newer agents really know much about Coulson so saying that there was someone who might look a bit like Coulson wouldn’t have had much effect on the rest of the group; that would be more a general description instead a to-some-extent still exposed wound being poked at like it is for the big three here. I also got it in my head that reason we never see May on her own until close to the end of the episode, is that Mack and Yoyo are not leaving an opening for her to go off and do something reckless or stupid; they are not particularly inclined to have another Odium incident (or, for that matter, another opportunity for her to hand an evil book over to a mad scientist and a robot; look, she’s got priors doing reckless things to protect Coulson).
But oh, May; this is so much more what I expected her to be than we got in ep 1. There’s a mix of loud and quiet angst; and she’s clearly not fine. Yes a lot of that is because of what’s going on, but I can’t imagine it had to dig deep to find her pain. I wonder quite how I’ll feel on rewatch, if ep 1 feels progressively more out of step or if we’re still working towards something. Since there isn’t some big reveal this episode of last episode being a lie I’m less suspicious of it, but I’m not completely letting it go either.
The first few scenes with SHIELD and May, seem to bridging the gap between the composed May we had in the premier and the much more...fragile one we get for the bulk of the episode. Once she goes off on Benson (that’s what’s in my head now for professor man), her poor broken heart is much more obvious That scene ripped my heart out, as many times as I’ve started writing it, the idea of her watching him die is just a lot. And Mack and Yoyo’s occasional comments but mostly staying out of it is pretty powerful too. It’s also our only real evidence that Coulson is supposed to be dead; not that I think May is making it up (for a spy she’s not a great liar, certainly not enough to fake all of this reaction to the loss of the love of her life) my instinct is that whoever took him and the ability to change his memories also could modify hers ever so slightly.
In the more recent trailer when it showed more of Sarge being a baddie, I kind of kept thinking if it’s not Coulson, then every word out of his mouth is just going to make everything worse. Both as daggers in May’s heart to watch someone who looks like but isn’t Coulson acting this way; and that him doing it is signing his death warrant as far as she’s concerned. And we got a little of that, at first she doesn’t think it’s Coulson and is damned determined to put a stop to a monster disgracing his memory. But then they look at the DNA evidence and she does start acting more like it could be Coulson. Also, I caught at the end Benson saying the thing they got off the wall-guy was some form of biological storage, which to me screams Coulson has one with his real memories (or it got left with May, which is what I would have done)
For like the first time ever we get someone commenting on May and Coulson’s relationship to people who aren’t them. And while I think that scene is sweet, again it makes ep 1 a bit weird, because that episode didn’t treat May’s pain like it ran that deeply. Ever since s4 it’s kind of seemed to me that Mack may be the only one who actually gets May; maybe even better than Coulson in some ways (Coulson has more experience and knows her better and certainly loves her more, but Mack gets her, especially when it comes to Coulson), although his response to Benson may be a little more poetic than it needs to be, it definitely paints a picture. And I like that we have a new person who can notice and comment on these things and cares about May, May needs more people who care about her.
As much as I’m not super pro love triangles (I’m too much an OTP shipper to really enjoy it most times); I’m kind of okay with the Mack-Elena-Keller thing going on. Partly because, while they are probably around my fourth choice of AoS ships, I wouldn’t call Mack/Elena an OTP. It’s still a bit of an odd writing choice to drop us into the middle of this, but they’re also being adults about it; even if opinions may change day to day. I’m more here for May’s changed feelings on the subject; but I’m not entirely sure it’s fully rational, after all the same potential mess existed between Mack and Elena, and May’s feelings with Coulson were complicated long before they actually became a thing. But I notice Elena has no comeback when May is like ‘do I really have to explain why I’m feeling different about this today?’
As great as it is to see May just unload on Sarge’s crew and beat down everyone, there’s so much about that sequence that’s rough for me. To start with, she betrays that at least a little bit of her wants this to be Coulson; when she talks about how no version of Coulson would go in without an escape plan, she’s thinking of this as something of Coulson, and while I believe that, I think it’s dangerous ground for her to think that, especially already. And while it doesn’t necessarily mean anything that she would run off because she has an idea on dealing with the situation, it is a thing she does, that this situation involves some version of Coulson makes her going off on her own to find he backdoor a bigger deal (also I think Yoyo should have known not to let May try and do this alone). May’s focus has already shifted to the Coulson part of the question; they’re fighting against that crew so there’s no conflict (yet) but she doesn’t go in trying to figure out what’s going, she goes demanding where Coulson is.
And then, somehow, against all reason, including the fact that she watched him die (as far as we know) he’s there. Sarge may freeze a little to some combination of her and his real name, but May really freezes. He doesn’t seem to know all the reasons this is weird, but she does (far more of them at least). It hurts, but for me, this is the kind of angst I love to watch. Since I’m pretty sure this is Coulson and we’re in a Captain Marvel situation, I am going to be on this like white on rice.
I don’t really feel like anyone besides May got a lot of character work in this plot, plus the beginning establishment of the Sarge crew, and obviously mostly just Fitz in the other one; but those are characters I really like, I’m positively inclined towards this story. You know how much I can’t hate a basically Daisy-less episode.
Agents of SHIELD 6x03
Full disclosure, I had people in for Memorial Day weekend, so while I was able to watch the show Friday, I didn’t much chance to write up my thoughts about it. And since this episode didn’t appeal to my interests as much as the first couple have , this should be a reasonable length review (we’ll see if I’m right).
I am kind of back to where I was in the premier in thinking there’s just something off with what we’re seeing. The space plot just doesn’t seem like the MCU space side of things. It feels like it’s trying to be, this episode had a lot of ‘trying to be Guardians’ to it, but it doesn’t seem very well thought out. And Guardians gets away with it because it’s on a very specific scale where it doesn’t really matter that nothing makes sense, But this is a small, intimate adventure into space; and because it’s a TV show it has to be done as a tight story, but tight stories really need to hold together better than this. There’s a certain level on which I think this could have worked as a Farscape episode, this is just the kind of planet Moya totally could have ended up at, but I feel like the writers on Farscape knew they’re universe better than these ones do; anything could happen in Farscape, but the writers did have rules they had to stick to and they thought them out. I felt last year like the AoS writers hadn’t put a lot of thought into time travel and now I don’t think they have a strong backing in space sci-fi.
All of that is not to say I didn’t enjoy the episode as I was watching it. It was largely fun, and if some say they really liked I can’t really say that’s a bad feeling. But for me, I don’t understand how people in space know what humans are; there haven’t been that many people abducted off Earth; they might have some record of what Terrans are, but they wouldn’t have attitudes about them. Why does space look so much like Earth, the cards, the game, the architecture? If this was the far future, more Firefly that Farscape, then yes things would grow from how they exist for humans, but that’s not what we have here. It bothers me that they’re not even trying to make smaller parts and background people seem anything but human. So to me this looks like something dreamed up by someone without an imagination; and if that’s intentional, like they’re in the Framework and it had to quickly programmed, then the lack of imagination has a story point rather than just being the writers not knowing what they’re doing. But I’ll admit, this show has often struggled when it tried to tackle high concept sci-fi, so I can’t dismiss the idea that’re not good at it.
And it really bothers me that there’s no language barrier. Say there’s a universal translator that they found before they went on this trip or something (they managed to figure out interstellar travel with no problem); and either give Fitz one or say he only speaks enough of this other language to get buy. I don’t believe Fitz or Simmons have so quickly learned “alien” when they don’t appear to speak any other Earth languages (speaking of, why would the Terran language be English by default?). And I definitely don’t buy that anyone else on the plane speaks the local language so how do they know anything going on at the casino? Either give us a reason this works, or don’t acknowledge language issues at all and let us assume there’s an unspoken reason. Again this is too poorly thought through for me to be immersed in and not have nagging doubts about it even being real.
There were some good character beats. I almost liked Daisy enough to call her Skye this episode, because they kind of let her be an actual character rather than forcing her to be super awesome in ways I don’t buy that she is. If I shipped her and Simmons I think there would be a fair amount in this episode to at least support her having a crush on Simmons; Jemma is very much about Fitz, but that’s always been the bigger factor. They continue to utterly fail to write Daisy as a leader, which I thought we’d gotten past last season by admitting she’s not one, but now they’re back to trying to push the idea that she could be but failing to write her as one. Jemma is 100x the commander Daisy is, even drugged; Daisy’s a fighter, but not a leader.
So there isn’t going to be fallout for Jemma hijacking their trip like this? A little bit of frustration at the beginning but then forget about it? And this episode is just going to be about slightly exploring character through comic drug use? Amusing, but not the sort of thing I want from this story. And not something I think they really have time for in a 13 episode season; and even in a normal length season, I would find it wrong footed in the third episode, this is a downtime between big events type story not for when you’re still setting up the drama of you shortened season.
As much as I did enjoy the fun parts of this episode, my favorite parts were the more dramatic bits. The line “You and your friends are out of time” even in the trailer made me think this was going to in part be fallout from last season; and I’m glad the Hunters are shaping up to be that. Fallout and having one plotline build to the next is something I like and a lot of modern TV just doesn’t do so well; season long arcs may have become the norm, but you can often jump into the next arc without seeing what came before. I should watch Farscape and B5 again.
Also, I like Enoch more and more every episode we get with him. Since I have a bit of a hard time taking much of this episode seriously, I’m not sure how much of it to incorporate into my read of the character, but I like having him around. And I’m sure he’s going to be part of their next step in finding Fitz, so we get more of him.
I see what they’re doing with this divided plot of the season; the first episode was Space crew and Earth, second was Earth and Fitz, this was Space and Fitz, so next episode is probably back to Earth and Space. The trailer only seemed to show Earth stuff, and while I’m not a huge fan of Deke, this could be fun. Mostly I’m feeling like there ought to be some connection (again, shortened season, playing into my read here), and the end of this episode and the trailer makes me think Sarge’s crew are also some kind of Hunters. This whole planet has been run through time changes so who knows what attention that draws. Hopefully we’ll start to find out what’s going on, as that is the plot that I’m most interested in.
Jane the Virgin 5x10
I don’t have enough eye for details to see if the spoiler ring is the same as Petra’s, but considering the timing it’s hard not to think it could be. And I don’t know how to feel about the idea that we’re maybe pointed at a Jane/Petra endgame. I don’t think they really have enough time to make it believable, but I can’t say it’s impossible or I completely hate it. I don’t like it, but I don’t hate the idea either. I would take it over Jane/Rafael at this point, but that’s not a ringing endorsement. I have thought a few times this season that if I shipped Jane//Petra there was plenty I could work with, but I don’t ship it. I’m still holding out for Team Michael I suppose.
While obviously Luisa has issues and I’m often too trusting, I find myself assuming she’s getting into this to take down Rose even more, to prove that she isn’t part of this whole thing. We’ll see if I’m right.
It just hit me that this show and AoS are likely going to end at some point, and that will probably be a rough week (baring double episodes or skipped weeks). I don’t necessarily think this show will end with tragedy, but it will almost certainly be emotional. And while I certainly have not usually been super affected by all of AoS’s finales (aside from lots of fic writing effoert), this one has a feeling of something major. Also, at that point I’ll be at a complete loss of what to watch.
Agents of SHIELD 6x04
This may be a quick statement, but easily best episode of the season so far, and not coincidence at all it’s entirely about the happenings on Earth rather than the space adventure. I’m having a hard time remembering what even happened last week, I know there *was* an episode that didn’t give me any of what I care most about, but did it actually happen if I forgot about it?
Also probably not a coincidence that this is the first episode where I don’t feel like the show is lying to us about what’s happening. In spite of the fact that this is probably the strongest evidence yet that this could all be a simulation, I didn’t feel like there was a step that felt out of place.
The only think I might count is Keller’s death being such an easy to call story point. I said it back in the premier that I would not be surprised if he ended up dead, and as soon as he was being so spelled out noble and honorable he had dead man walking writing on him. I don’t really think that points to this being a simulation though as much as it just remains kind of predictable. Sorry to see him go, he was a pretty good guy from what we saw, and I wish we could have known him better.
I would have liked to see May be there to talk to Yoyo after what happened with Keller. I suspect by the time May makes it back the story will have moved on, but not only do I think May is in a good place to be able to be there for Elena in this, it’s also a very Cavalry move that she had to make, which again is very much something May can empathize with. Elena had to prove that they were not emotionally compromised in the worst kind of way, and I think we will get some good stuff with her and Mack in the aftermath, but I feel like it would be good to bookend Elena and May’s previous talks about Keller.
On one hand I feel bad for Benson apparently having to be the entirety of the SHEILD science team for the moment; how were they getting along for the last year without anyone? They have to have a med staff to see to the normal injuries of the job, even if they’re not much help on the weird cases, but that makes them at least as qualified as Benson to be doing this kind of thing. And they’re still not explaining how SHEILD is in the good public standing they apparently have now, which admittedly does seem to allow them to use regular hospitals as needed. On the other I really wish someone could say to him that it’s not as if SHIELD’s science A-team are actually medical doctors either and yet they keep doing this to people. Then again, on that front, May might be the only one around who truly knows that; by the time even Mack came in Simmons was often serving as a doctor even though she wasn’t one; and by the time Yoyo joined up, that Simmons wasn’t a doctor seemed to have been forgotten, I mean, she had to perform brain surgery a couple times.
I have never been a big Deke fan, but I kind of liked him in this episode. Granted, some of that may have benefitted from not being the most annoying person in the episode as his girlfriend was just grating. More though, I think he has grown a bit, and we sort of see him...as the best version of himself. He’s not the scoundrel he was in the future, but the story isn’t trying to force him to be part of a team and story he has no place in. He seems to have a reason to be in the story we’re seeing here, and otherwise our characters seem to have preferred to ignore his existence. Also I totally figured out they were in a simulation by or before when he held up the shotgun-ax, and that was after I started off think he was Davis until we got a clear shot. At that point it became very clear that everything we were seeing was stuff Deke knew about and could have programmed, especially since he had previously reinvented the Framework (and...isn’t that just proving my point about last episode, how everything seems to be derived from something that already exists rather than being inventive...).
The story going on does seem to be implying some kind of parallel world travel, even though I still don’t think AoS is prepared to open that door. Deke finally answers my questions about Sarge’s hand situation, but I still don’t think that proves it isn’t our Coulson somewhere in there. I’m more inclined to thinking we’re touching on alternate dimensions (i.e. Ghostrider world) than alternate realities and that Coulson is sort of Angle in early Buffy s3; he got pulled into this other world, genetically and mentally adapted in some ways, and we don’t know how long he’s been fighting this other war on his time scale. Considering we don’t quite know how Deke came back in time anyway they can retcon that somehow it tapped a little bit into the same stuff as the birds (I would have said bats myself) but obviously not completely. Sarge seems like he wants to figure out this familiar sounding Coulson thing, like it’s something that he not only recognizes, but is something he needs to understand, like maybe the answer to a question he wasn’t able to find before. Look, I’m not getting on board with this not being our Coulson, if I have to I will eventually, but until then I think we’re going to find this is somehow our Phil.
A lot of this is because unless it *is* Coulson, I don’t see how they then keep him on the show past this season. They can make a mess of things that s7 will get to clean up, but they can’t keep a Coulson look-alike around without it being Coulson, that is too cruel and painful to expect of these characters.
Plus he’s still really into May. He’s breaking her heart at every turn, but I feel like something in him is draw to her. Sure they set up last episode (last episode I remember) that he thinks they need to recruit some more people, and May is certainly impressive but I’m going to live in my version for a little longer.
Okay all that covered, I have things to say about May. Just to prove how much stock we should put in my predictions, I would have thought Mack would at least try and pull her off the not-Coulson case; and maybe he did, it does seem to have been a couple days with them trying to track the crew; but hunting someone who looks like Coulson can’t be good for her. But at the same time I also really love that her single-minded focus on hunting this guy down has already made her feelings pretty clear to SHEILD agents who have never seen her with Coulson. Also I really love the way she flinches slightly every time someone slips and calls not-Coulson Coulson. You can tell that as far as she is concerned even calling him that is like sacrilege, which is exactly how I think she would feel.
It’s also pretty telling that as soon as Deke finally twigs that something is wrong with ‘Coulson’ his first avenue of question is about May and why she isn’t here with him. I’m reminded of Ward back in season 2 knowing that something was up because May wasn’t there watching Coulson’s back.
I think it’s also interesting that May decides that she’s going after the girl and Mack sort of looks like that’s not what he expected her to say, but he know why she makes that call. They both know that her first instinct would be to go for Coulson, or not-Coulson, but at the same time that she can’t do it, that’s not a fight she’s ready to have. Mack sure as hell wasn’t going to order her to take that target, I’m not entirely sure he’s ordering her to do anything at this point; May’s more or less always been the director of what May does.
However, this is a thing that once you notice it, you can’t help continuing to notice it happening. May and Snow beat the shit out of each other, and it’s the kind of fight you get in these shows when you can have two women fight each other. It keeps any of the male heroes from being shown fighting the girl villain therefore potentially being read as aggressive to women, and the same kind applies to Team Sarge whose motives we don’t really know so we don’t have to show them fighting May for the same reason if they’re going to turn out not to be the big bads. I especially doubt that we’re going to see much physical violence between May and Sarge; and I’m okay with that because it would break my heart to see it happen, and it allows me my belief that Coulson is in there and that’s why Sarge doesn’t pull the trigger on her. It also keeps the misogynists from getting riled up at showing woman able to fight off men.
Her reaction to him threatening her is also something worth noting. Because of how much she clearly despises him for walking around with Coulson’s face (and don’t think I haven’t noticed that she isn’t calling him Phil when she basically called him nothing else in s5) I kind of read her defiance as ‘go ahead and do it, and prove how much you don’t deserve to be him,’ which feeds back into my assumption that by not doing it there might be something of him (and yes I know logic doesn’t work that way). But I also can’t shake a slightly darker reading that maybe a little bit of her would be okay if he did take her down and at least he would be the last thing she saw. I don’t actually think that’s what they’re going for, but the possibility is in my head. And she can’t fight him any more than he can seem to fight her (probably less). Where that leaves us, I guess we’ll see next time. Because this is the plot I’ve been eagerly waiting for since the trailer showed him capturing her.
Agents of SHIELD 6x02
Let’s get the Fitz plot out of the way first. It’s actually probably where more of my MCU continuity and timeline concerns come in this time. Building so much of this plot around Xandarian snail would have given them a fine opportunity to say how much Xandar is still a thing after Thanos’ attack and then the Snap. At some point they really need to commit to what is and isn’t canon for the events we’re watching; unless the ambiguity and audience aggravation is part of the plan. If this does all turn out to be some simulation that doesn’t need to follow events, then fine, but after two episodes it’s even harder to see that being a great story-telling choice.
As exploration of Fitz’s character...part of me feels it’s an overcorrection from him in the latter half of last season, and that that doesn’t entirely make sense considering this Fitz actually has more experiences at this point than that one did when he died. Unless all this did happen to Fitz first time around and we were just never told about it, but it makes far more sense to me to have happened because they changed the timeline. If all these things did happen before, then why didn’t Fitz mention them (I would easily believe Enoch didn’t, but Fitz not so much), or does he get his memory erased at some point, maybe like Coulson? And while I can believe that the original destruction of Earth didn’t matter a ton in the galactic events so this wouldn’t necessarily be changed (ignoring the Thanos events), at some point events are going to be changed by having certain people who survived when they originally didn’t.
My last review went on long enough so I didn’t get into this, but I do have something bugging me about the Space arc. How much do humans matter on that scale? Are there other groups of humans out there that space cultures encounter more often? I know in Guardians they do identify the species as Terran, but it never really stood out to me as something to question the way it does here. Mostly because I feel like in Guardians it’s referenced by people who would have experience or records to identify Terrans on some basis; while I don’t think that about what we’re seeing on the Agents’ adventure. If humans do matter, then the destruction of Earth vs not happening makes a difference; if the galaxy doesn’t care about Earth then sure it can pass unnoticed. Post Endgame I’m pretty sure humans have left a mark on the galaxy/universe, but we’re not supposed to be post Endgame here. Again, stuff that niggles at me.
The plot was fine, if a little generic in places, but my attention was of course on the Earth plot. And I just want to say, I may have been wrong about most of my specific guesses what was going on, but I’m glad people are finally getting my side that this is somehow Coulson and not some parallel version of him. I remember seeing a short interview with Clark Gregg around the time the teaser trailer dropped where he was talking about Coulson always turning back up, the interviewer then asking what it was like to be playing a different character and I really got the impression the rest of the time that he was taking the piss out of her by talking about this ‘new character’ he was playing, because it was always going to end up being Coulson in my book.
It’s been a long time since I watched it, and I don’t have it anywhere handy (I’m sure it’s on YouTube, I guess I don’t care enough), but I feel like there’s a decent amount of ‘Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer’ callbacks in the opening scene, with Coulson now in the role of the bad guy. It certainly makes me think I should go back and watch it again to check, just not enough to do it.
There might a reincarnation element here, since Snowflake (I may not have caught the other names, but I got hers) keeps going on about it and there’s that reference to Sarge’s ‘past life,’ but I’m not fully committed to that idea. Also, I am looking hard to see if he’s got the artificial arm or not; while they may not be as detailed with how he acts like the left arm is different, in terms of costuming they tend to keep it in mind. Not having it wouldn’t be proof that it isn’t our Coulson, as if he’s been somehow regrown he could have his arm back (he’d have to be healed of the other stuff anyway); but having it would be hard proof it is.
Some of the scenes as HQ were hysterical to me for a possibly intentional idea I got. For one, I find myself thinking that Mack didn’t rush to say anything about Coulson because he had to entertain to possibility that May was seeing things if she was the only one who did see him. It doesn’t seem that the newer agents really know much about Coulson so saying that there was someone who might look a bit like Coulson wouldn’t have had much effect on the rest of the group; that would be more a general description instead a to-some-extent still exposed wound being poked at like it is for the big three here. I also got it in my head that reason we never see May on her own until close to the end of the episode, is that Mack and Yoyo are not leaving an opening for her to go off and do something reckless or stupid; they are not particularly inclined to have another Odium incident (or, for that matter, another opportunity for her to hand an evil book over to a mad scientist and a robot; look, she’s got priors doing reckless things to protect Coulson).
But oh, May; this is so much more what I expected her to be than we got in ep 1. There’s a mix of loud and quiet angst; and she’s clearly not fine. Yes a lot of that is because of what’s going on, but I can’t imagine it had to dig deep to find her pain. I wonder quite how I’ll feel on rewatch, if ep 1 feels progressively more out of step or if we’re still working towards something. Since there isn’t some big reveal this episode of last episode being a lie I’m less suspicious of it, but I’m not completely letting it go either.
The first few scenes with SHIELD and May, seem to bridging the gap between the composed May we had in the premier and the much more...fragile one we get for the bulk of the episode. Once she goes off on Benson (that’s what’s in my head now for professor man), her poor broken heart is much more obvious That scene ripped my heart out, as many times as I’ve started writing it, the idea of her watching him die is just a lot. And Mack and Yoyo’s occasional comments but mostly staying out of it is pretty powerful too. It’s also our only real evidence that Coulson is supposed to be dead; not that I think May is making it up (for a spy she’s not a great liar, certainly not enough to fake all of this reaction to the loss of the love of her life) my instinct is that whoever took him and the ability to change his memories also could modify hers ever so slightly.
In the more recent trailer when it showed more of Sarge being a baddie, I kind of kept thinking if it’s not Coulson, then every word out of his mouth is just going to make everything worse. Both as daggers in May’s heart to watch someone who looks like but isn’t Coulson acting this way; and that him doing it is signing his death warrant as far as she’s concerned. And we got a little of that, at first she doesn’t think it’s Coulson and is damned determined to put a stop to a monster disgracing his memory. But then they look at the DNA evidence and she does start acting more like it could be Coulson. Also, I caught at the end Benson saying the thing they got off the wall-guy was some form of biological storage, which to me screams Coulson has one with his real memories (or it got left with May, which is what I would have done)
For like the first time ever we get someone commenting on May and Coulson’s relationship to people who aren’t them. And while I think that scene is sweet, again it makes ep 1 a bit weird, because that episode didn’t treat May’s pain like it ran that deeply. Ever since s4 it’s kind of seemed to me that Mack may be the only one who actually gets May; maybe even better than Coulson in some ways (Coulson has more experience and knows her better and certainly loves her more, but Mack gets her, especially when it comes to Coulson), although his response to Benson may be a little more poetic than it needs to be, it definitely paints a picture. And I like that we have a new person who can notice and comment on these things and cares about May, May needs more people who care about her.
As much as I’m not super pro love triangles (I’m too much an OTP shipper to really enjoy it most times); I’m kind of okay with the Mack-Elena-Keller thing going on. Partly because, while they are probably around my fourth choice of AoS ships, I wouldn’t call Mack/Elena an OTP. It’s still a bit of an odd writing choice to drop us into the middle of this, but they’re also being adults about it; even if opinions may change day to day. I’m more here for May’s changed feelings on the subject; but I’m not entirely sure it’s fully rational, after all the same potential mess existed between Mack and Elena, and May’s feelings with Coulson were complicated long before they actually became a thing. But I notice Elena has no comeback when May is like ‘do I really have to explain why I’m feeling different about this today?’
As great as it is to see May just unload on Sarge’s crew and beat down everyone, there’s so much about that sequence that’s rough for me. To start with, she betrays that at least a little bit of her wants this to be Coulson; when she talks about how no version of Coulson would go in without an escape plan, she’s thinking of this as something of Coulson, and while I believe that, I think it’s dangerous ground for her to think that, especially already. And while it doesn’t necessarily mean anything that she would run off because she has an idea on dealing with the situation, it is a thing she does, that this situation involves some version of Coulson makes her going off on her own to find he backdoor a bigger deal (also I think Yoyo should have known not to let May try and do this alone). May’s focus has already shifted to the Coulson part of the question; they’re fighting against that crew so there’s no conflict (yet) but she doesn’t go in trying to figure out what’s going, she goes demanding where Coulson is.
And then, somehow, against all reason, including the fact that she watched him die (as far as we know) he’s there. Sarge may freeze a little to some combination of her and his real name, but May really freezes. He doesn’t seem to know all the reasons this is weird, but she does (far more of them at least). It hurts, but for me, this is the kind of angst I love to watch. Since I’m pretty sure this is Coulson and we’re in a Captain Marvel situation, I am going to be on this like white on rice.
I don’t really feel like anyone besides May got a lot of character work in this plot, plus the beginning establishment of the Sarge crew, and obviously mostly just Fitz in the other one; but those are characters I really like, I’m positively inclined towards this story. You know how much I can’t hate a basically Daisy-less episode.
Agents of SHIELD 6x03
Full disclosure, I had people in for Memorial Day weekend, so while I was able to watch the show Friday, I didn’t much chance to write up my thoughts about it. And since this episode didn’t appeal to my interests as much as the first couple have , this should be a reasonable length review (we’ll see if I’m right).
I am kind of back to where I was in the premier in thinking there’s just something off with what we’re seeing. The space plot just doesn’t seem like the MCU space side of things. It feels like it’s trying to be, this episode had a lot of ‘trying to be Guardians’ to it, but it doesn’t seem very well thought out. And Guardians gets away with it because it’s on a very specific scale where it doesn’t really matter that nothing makes sense, But this is a small, intimate adventure into space; and because it’s a TV show it has to be done as a tight story, but tight stories really need to hold together better than this. There’s a certain level on which I think this could have worked as a Farscape episode, this is just the kind of planet Moya totally could have ended up at, but I feel like the writers on Farscape knew they’re universe better than these ones do; anything could happen in Farscape, but the writers did have rules they had to stick to and they thought them out. I felt last year like the AoS writers hadn’t put a lot of thought into time travel and now I don’t think they have a strong backing in space sci-fi.
All of that is not to say I didn’t enjoy the episode as I was watching it. It was largely fun, and if some say they really liked I can’t really say that’s a bad feeling. But for me, I don’t understand how people in space know what humans are; there haven’t been that many people abducted off Earth; they might have some record of what Terrans are, but they wouldn’t have attitudes about them. Why does space look so much like Earth, the cards, the game, the architecture? If this was the far future, more Firefly that Farscape, then yes things would grow from how they exist for humans, but that’s not what we have here. It bothers me that they’re not even trying to make smaller parts and background people seem anything but human. So to me this looks like something dreamed up by someone without an imagination; and if that’s intentional, like they’re in the Framework and it had to quickly programmed, then the lack of imagination has a story point rather than just being the writers not knowing what they’re doing. But I’ll admit, this show has often struggled when it tried to tackle high concept sci-fi, so I can’t dismiss the idea that’re not good at it.
And it really bothers me that there’s no language barrier. Say there’s a universal translator that they found before they went on this trip or something (they managed to figure out interstellar travel with no problem); and either give Fitz one or say he only speaks enough of this other language to get buy. I don’t believe Fitz or Simmons have so quickly learned “alien” when they don’t appear to speak any other Earth languages (speaking of, why would the Terran language be English by default?). And I definitely don’t buy that anyone else on the plane speaks the local language so how do they know anything going on at the casino? Either give us a reason this works, or don’t acknowledge language issues at all and let us assume there’s an unspoken reason. Again this is too poorly thought through for me to be immersed in and not have nagging doubts about it even being real.
There were some good character beats. I almost liked Daisy enough to call her Skye this episode, because they kind of let her be an actual character rather than forcing her to be super awesome in ways I don’t buy that she is. If I shipped her and Simmons I think there would be a fair amount in this episode to at least support her having a crush on Simmons; Jemma is very much about Fitz, but that’s always been the bigger factor. They continue to utterly fail to write Daisy as a leader, which I thought we’d gotten past last season by admitting she’s not one, but now they’re back to trying to push the idea that she could be but failing to write her as one. Jemma is 100x the commander Daisy is, even drugged; Daisy’s a fighter, but not a leader.
So there isn’t going to be fallout for Jemma hijacking their trip like this? A little bit of frustration at the beginning but then forget about it? And this episode is just going to be about slightly exploring character through comic drug use? Amusing, but not the sort of thing I want from this story. And not something I think they really have time for in a 13 episode season; and even in a normal length season, I would find it wrong footed in the third episode, this is a downtime between big events type story not for when you’re still setting up the drama of you shortened season.
As much as I did enjoy the fun parts of this episode, my favorite parts were the more dramatic bits. The line “You and your friends are out of time” even in the trailer made me think this was going to in part be fallout from last season; and I’m glad the Hunters are shaping up to be that. Fallout and having one plotline build to the next is something I like and a lot of modern TV just doesn’t do so well; season long arcs may have become the norm, but you can often jump into the next arc without seeing what came before. I should watch Farscape and B5 again.
Also, I like Enoch more and more every episode we get with him. Since I have a bit of a hard time taking much of this episode seriously, I’m not sure how much of it to incorporate into my read of the character, but I like having him around. And I’m sure he’s going to be part of their next step in finding Fitz, so we get more of him.
I see what they’re doing with this divided plot of the season; the first episode was Space crew and Earth, second was Earth and Fitz, this was Space and Fitz, so next episode is probably back to Earth and Space. The trailer only seemed to show Earth stuff, and while I’m not a huge fan of Deke, this could be fun. Mostly I’m feeling like there ought to be some connection (again, shortened season, playing into my read here), and the end of this episode and the trailer makes me think Sarge’s crew are also some kind of Hunters. This whole planet has been run through time changes so who knows what attention that draws. Hopefully we’ll start to find out what’s going on, as that is the plot that I’m most interested in.
Jane the Virgin 5x10
I don’t have enough eye for details to see if the spoiler ring is the same as Petra’s, but considering the timing it’s hard not to think it could be. And I don’t know how to feel about the idea that we’re maybe pointed at a Jane/Petra endgame. I don’t think they really have enough time to make it believable, but I can’t say it’s impossible or I completely hate it. I don’t like it, but I don’t hate the idea either. I would take it over Jane/Rafael at this point, but that’s not a ringing endorsement. I have thought a few times this season that if I shipped Jane//Petra there was plenty I could work with, but I don’t ship it. I’m still holding out for Team Michael I suppose.
While obviously Luisa has issues and I’m often too trusting, I find myself assuming she’s getting into this to take down Rose even more, to prove that she isn’t part of this whole thing. We’ll see if I’m right.
It just hit me that this show and AoS are likely going to end at some point, and that will probably be a rough week (baring double episodes or skipped weeks). I don’t necessarily think this show will end with tragedy, but it will almost certainly be emotional. And while I certainly have not usually been super affected by all of AoS’s finales (aside from lots of fic writing effoert), this one has a feeling of something major. Also, at that point I’ll be at a complete loss of what to watch.
Agents of SHIELD 6x04
This may be a quick statement, but easily best episode of the season so far, and not coincidence at all it’s entirely about the happenings on Earth rather than the space adventure. I’m having a hard time remembering what even happened last week, I know there *was* an episode that didn’t give me any of what I care most about, but did it actually happen if I forgot about it?
Also probably not a coincidence that this is the first episode where I don’t feel like the show is lying to us about what’s happening. In spite of the fact that this is probably the strongest evidence yet that this could all be a simulation, I didn’t feel like there was a step that felt out of place.
The only think I might count is Keller’s death being such an easy to call story point. I said it back in the premier that I would not be surprised if he ended up dead, and as soon as he was being so spelled out noble and honorable he had dead man walking writing on him. I don’t really think that points to this being a simulation though as much as it just remains kind of predictable. Sorry to see him go, he was a pretty good guy from what we saw, and I wish we could have known him better.
I would have liked to see May be there to talk to Yoyo after what happened with Keller. I suspect by the time May makes it back the story will have moved on, but not only do I think May is in a good place to be able to be there for Elena in this, it’s also a very Cavalry move that she had to make, which again is very much something May can empathize with. Elena had to prove that they were not emotionally compromised in the worst kind of way, and I think we will get some good stuff with her and Mack in the aftermath, but I feel like it would be good to bookend Elena and May’s previous talks about Keller.
On one hand I feel bad for Benson apparently having to be the entirety of the SHEILD science team for the moment; how were they getting along for the last year without anyone? They have to have a med staff to see to the normal injuries of the job, even if they’re not much help on the weird cases, but that makes them at least as qualified as Benson to be doing this kind of thing. And they’re still not explaining how SHEILD is in the good public standing they apparently have now, which admittedly does seem to allow them to use regular hospitals as needed. On the other I really wish someone could say to him that it’s not as if SHIELD’s science A-team are actually medical doctors either and yet they keep doing this to people. Then again, on that front, May might be the only one around who truly knows that; by the time even Mack came in Simmons was often serving as a doctor even though she wasn’t one; and by the time Yoyo joined up, that Simmons wasn’t a doctor seemed to have been forgotten, I mean, she had to perform brain surgery a couple times.
I have never been a big Deke fan, but I kind of liked him in this episode. Granted, some of that may have benefitted from not being the most annoying person in the episode as his girlfriend was just grating. More though, I think he has grown a bit, and we sort of see him...as the best version of himself. He’s not the scoundrel he was in the future, but the story isn’t trying to force him to be part of a team and story he has no place in. He seems to have a reason to be in the story we’re seeing here, and otherwise our characters seem to have preferred to ignore his existence. Also I totally figured out they were in a simulation by or before when he held up the shotgun-ax, and that was after I started off think he was Davis until we got a clear shot. At that point it became very clear that everything we were seeing was stuff Deke knew about and could have programmed, especially since he had previously reinvented the Framework (and...isn’t that just proving my point about last episode, how everything seems to be derived from something that already exists rather than being inventive...).
The story going on does seem to be implying some kind of parallel world travel, even though I still don’t think AoS is prepared to open that door. Deke finally answers my questions about Sarge’s hand situation, but I still don’t think that proves it isn’t our Coulson somewhere in there. I’m more inclined to thinking we’re touching on alternate dimensions (i.e. Ghostrider world) than alternate realities and that Coulson is sort of Angle in early Buffy s3; he got pulled into this other world, genetically and mentally adapted in some ways, and we don’t know how long he’s been fighting this other war on his time scale. Considering we don’t quite know how Deke came back in time anyway they can retcon that somehow it tapped a little bit into the same stuff as the birds (I would have said bats myself) but obviously not completely. Sarge seems like he wants to figure out this familiar sounding Coulson thing, like it’s something that he not only recognizes, but is something he needs to understand, like maybe the answer to a question he wasn’t able to find before. Look, I’m not getting on board with this not being our Coulson, if I have to I will eventually, but until then I think we’re going to find this is somehow our Phil.
A lot of this is because unless it *is* Coulson, I don’t see how they then keep him on the show past this season. They can make a mess of things that s7 will get to clean up, but they can’t keep a Coulson look-alike around without it being Coulson, that is too cruel and painful to expect of these characters.
Plus he’s still really into May. He’s breaking her heart at every turn, but I feel like something in him is draw to her. Sure they set up last episode (last episode I remember) that he thinks they need to recruit some more people, and May is certainly impressive but I’m going to live in my version for a little longer.
Okay all that covered, I have things to say about May. Just to prove how much stock we should put in my predictions, I would have thought Mack would at least try and pull her off the not-Coulson case; and maybe he did, it does seem to have been a couple days with them trying to track the crew; but hunting someone who looks like Coulson can’t be good for her. But at the same time I also really love that her single-minded focus on hunting this guy down has already made her feelings pretty clear to SHEILD agents who have never seen her with Coulson. Also I really love the way she flinches slightly every time someone slips and calls not-Coulson Coulson. You can tell that as far as she is concerned even calling him that is like sacrilege, which is exactly how I think she would feel.
It’s also pretty telling that as soon as Deke finally twigs that something is wrong with ‘Coulson’ his first avenue of question is about May and why she isn’t here with him. I’m reminded of Ward back in season 2 knowing that something was up because May wasn’t there watching Coulson’s back.
I think it’s also interesting that May decides that she’s going after the girl and Mack sort of looks like that’s not what he expected her to say, but he know why she makes that call. They both know that her first instinct would be to go for Coulson, or not-Coulson, but at the same time that she can’t do it, that’s not a fight she’s ready to have. Mack sure as hell wasn’t going to order her to take that target, I’m not entirely sure he’s ordering her to do anything at this point; May’s more or less always been the director of what May does.
However, this is a thing that once you notice it, you can’t help continuing to notice it happening. May and Snow beat the shit out of each other, and it’s the kind of fight you get in these shows when you can have two women fight each other. It keeps any of the male heroes from being shown fighting the girl villain therefore potentially being read as aggressive to women, and the same kind applies to Team Sarge whose motives we don’t really know so we don’t have to show them fighting May for the same reason if they’re going to turn out not to be the big bads. I especially doubt that we’re going to see much physical violence between May and Sarge; and I’m okay with that because it would break my heart to see it happen, and it allows me my belief that Coulson is in there and that’s why Sarge doesn’t pull the trigger on her. It also keeps the misogynists from getting riled up at showing woman able to fight off men.
Her reaction to him threatening her is also something worth noting. Because of how much she clearly despises him for walking around with Coulson’s face (and don’t think I haven’t noticed that she isn’t calling him Phil when she basically called him nothing else in s5) I kind of read her defiance as ‘go ahead and do it, and prove how much you don’t deserve to be him,’ which feeds back into my assumption that by not doing it there might be something of him (and yes I know logic doesn’t work that way). But I also can’t shake a slightly darker reading that maybe a little bit of her would be okay if he did take her down and at least he would be the last thing she saw. I don’t actually think that’s what they’re going for, but the possibility is in my head. And she can’t fight him any more than he can seem to fight her (probably less). Where that leaves us, I guess we’ll see next time. Because this is the plot I’ve been eagerly waiting for since the trailer showed him capturing her.