AoS roundup
Agents of SHIELD 6x07
My first instinct is to say that this episode was fine, but that isn’t quite fair to this one. It was better than fine or solid, but it was those things; above all I would say it feels like a necessary part of a bigger story rather than a particularly great episode itself. This was basically all about moving pieces around the board, and it does that okay, but it is a lot less character driven than the last few.
The only character beats that I would have to count involve characters that frustrate me. We got an extended scene with Daisy and Deke, that in the future I will probably fast forward through because it was really a time sink as far as I’m concerned. The discussion between Daisy and Mack was a bit less annoying, but Daisy is wrong and I have the same feeling I do so often with her that the writers don’t know she’s wrong. Granted they surprised me last year by finally realizing that she’s a crap leader, but the vibe remains. Mack and Yoyo are broken up for reasons that I bet Daisy doesn’t understand because she hasn’t been there; and there is no way Daisy can give Mack any Coulson related advice that May probably hasn’t a dozen times by now; in fact May was much more Coulson’s confidant than Daisy.
Also, these people were idiots to put the two Shrike in the same containment pod; I wasn’t even sure it was a good idea to put them on the same plane and they put them in a smaller box. Doyalist logic, yes they need to establish that there’s even more danger to these things than they knew before; but Watsonian says it was an obviously terrible idea to do this/
So this name thing with Sarge is clearly a thing; I had just assumed it was his name. Yes Snow called him Sargent last episode, and I raised the question of where that comes from if they aren’t really humans (why does know one ask what race they are?) who speak English, but even then it could have been an assumed name and he has no other. So this ends up feeling like another Doyalist vs. Watsonian reasoning issue; Doyalist it’s pretty obvious setup for a future payoff, but Watsonian...the best I can do is that they, consciously or subconsciously, still think it’s Coulson and they’re trying to find Phil in there. But if that’s what’s going on, that’s a complex character motivation that deserves more exploration. This episode is competent at getting the pieces lined up, but it doesn’t really get into the characters.
I had to give this some thought, but I ultimately think it’s a symptom of the lack of character focus in this one, rather than something that I’m complaining about on its own. Because as soon as Sarge is out of the room I feel like someone should be asking May if she’s doing okay; or, if not opting to do it in front of the newbie agents (I’m really confused how so many of them have huge reaction to seeing ‘Coulson’), then when she and Mack talk later, but no one ever does. The woman has just spent a few days being held hostage by a man with the face of the love of her life; and then she turns around and tells Mack to use Coulson as a way to get at Sarge, you should really check on her. I can make sense of this in the fact that they all know she isn’t okay but they also know she’s going to lie and say she is, so they don’t even start the conversation But Mack is worrying about Daisy and no one mentions how this has to be killing May.
They go back to Kitson, where again I don’ buy this as reality and certainly not as a well thought out idea. Farscape could have pulled this off, but you are not Farscape/
I think the writing on this one is flawed, at least in focus, but I don’t really have a ton to say about it. It didn’t make me angry or even give me bad vibes (at least non-Daisy ones, but I often have those), in story progression it does fine, it’s just not giving me any character work to pull apart. So maybe this time I will actually keep it short.
Agents of SHIELD 6x08
This is full on part-one of a two-parter, so I don’t know how to judge it until I see how it all plays out. It was a fairly good episode, a bit slow but it’s all setup so I’m not that surprised.
But the logic of this story doesn’t make any sense, but it has reached a point where I’m finding it a bit harder to think we’re meant to say that it makes no sense and expect some late grand reveal that turns that lack of sense into a clue to this not being real. Over the halfway mark of the season it may be time to admit these writers just don’t think things through or keep consistent about the rules they set up. This was a problem with them doing time travel last season (and has been in other arcs), and came near to driving me away from the series again for part of last season.
I don’t think it’s any accident that the best scenes of the episode are just two people talking and not really even talking about the plot. I’m glad we get Fitz being awkward about Simmons having already had these experiences without him there; that scene was exactly as awkward as it should have been, and it needed to exist in my opinion. I even liked the scene between Daisy and Sarge because as much as I may not care about her and Coulson’s relationship, I’m glad it’s been incorporated. Stuff between Mack and Deke was kind of fun, stuff between Deke and Snow was...well we’ll see where it goes, they kind of deserve each other. Hell, as much as I’m still preparing to smack Daisy around when we get to the line in the trailer that pissed me off (and even here I wish she would talk a little less like May doesn’t know how much being around Sarge hurts), I’m glad someone is paying attention to the fact that May’s judgement may be a bit clouded on the subject of Sarge (of course we haven’t let her have a real character moment that wasn’t with Sarge in a while, so there’s that).
The characters are fine; the plot is bullshit and the setting details are crap. Let’s start with the minor quibbles and work to the major ones.
-Can the people possessed by the Shrike talk or not? Keller was able to talk right up until the end, but everyone this episode doesn’t. That was a slightly odd situation, since the Shrike was already dying from the blade before it even took Keller over, so I’m more inclined to believe the normal state is not talking since no one else does. In which case, how did the one in 6x04 buy a bus ticket? If the Shrike just get in the way of the vocal cords, then they could write or use some form of sign language, but in that case they shouldn’t be walking around as suspiciously as they are on the ship.
-This is almost a Space complaint, but why the fuck is the writing on things in the truck written in English? There is no way alien components would be written in English; and if Sarge has been able to read how to work this thing, how come he couldn’t read Dana’s name back in 6x02? Of course there’s even a contradiction in that episode as he’s able to read the newspaper ad; but in this case the very existence of this thing is weird. And if Sarge built the controls for this thing, then that just means he’s Coulson who would label things in English. And no one in the text asks this question. It’s so lazy by the writers if I’m supposed to take this as just the state of things.
-I’m sorry, but the fact that I still don’t know when this happens in the MCU timeline still bothers me. Marvel, get your shit together; don’t bank on something being the biggest movie of the year if not all time and then not address it at all in your extended universe. (eta. or see my new theory on this subject.)
-This show has made space travel far too safe and easy. Even the premier which started us with this understanding that SHIELD (even without Fitz) could just whip up a jump drive by savaging parts they had around, at least kept some feeling of danger and living on the edge of things that can be known. Now it’s like the characters know they have main character shields and 50/50 odds of survival are as good as a sure thing (for you and the person you’ve been desperate to get back to). All technology can interface with other technology (never mind that I need four different sizes of charge cords to make devices made on the same planet work), everyone has the right fuel on hand, all people speak English, don’t worry about disease or poisoning the worst that will happen is you’ll get high, don’t worry about your own planet (with Avengers on it) shooting an unknown alien craft out of the sky (at least that one they seem a little worried about, but not overly worried when they start landing anyway).
-I don’t even begin to understand Izel’s history She’s been to Earth before? But didn’t destroy it then? Where were the monoliths if they weren’t on Earth? If she stored them here for safe-keeping, why didn’t she come back here more directly? If the fact that they’ve been destroyed is somehow important why hasn’t it been mentioned (admittedly the Space rock has been destroyed twice and no one mentioned that either)? If the Inca were somehow connected to her previous appearance, why is all this now going down in the Midwest? This is so poorly thought out I wish I could go back to thinking this is just video game logic like I’ve been considering all season, but I get the bad feeling I’m supposed to just accept all this and I don’t know that I can without a lot more explanation that they’re not providing.
You know, with everything else going on, I don’t even want to run through my current thoughts on Sarge’s relationship to Coulson, or speculate on how this specific crisis ends. I’m feeling way too many character shields to think this is going to go too badly and beyond that I think the writing may continue to fall apart.
I had so many thoughts going into this two-parter of dramatic and important things they could do; now at the halfway point I’m just feeling bleh about it. It could still work out, but I’m hardly on the edge of my seat for next time. Of course all my good thoughts were much more May focused than the episode was, things are worse when there isn’t May focus. That seems like a good lesson to take from this.
Agents of SHIELD 6x09
Let’s set aside the last couple scenes for a moment, I definitely have things to say about them but I want to tackle the plot first.
I sort of had a feeling going into this two-parter that this was basically going to be the end of the Shrike plot and the rest of the season would be figuring out what was up with Sarge. And that feeling only got more pronounced last week, that this big two-parter was the major action climax. I doubt in the end that this really was the end of the Shrike plot as it seems pretty likely Izel is still out there (they didn’t find her, they left the quinjet behind, it definitely felt like they were celebrating prematurely without doing the correct due diligence, plus they hung a semi-magic sword on the wall and it hasn’t come into play yet) and while we’ve now established Daisy can just destroy them, I doubt she got all of them. But I still kind of think the rest of the season is going to have a different structure.
On the whole I liked this episode better than the last one, it didn’t actually resolve any of my complaints from last time, but it wasn’t as distractingly nonsensical. Kind of lucky that all our leads pulled through, but at least they didn’t seem to know they have character shields. Some of them even felt like they were in danger, and the rest at least had to work to pull through. And I don’t think it added any new Space annoyances.
One thing I would say though, is that I don’t quite understand why they’re so much more bothered by Sarge in the end than they were. They always knew he was an ends justify the means kind of guy, so why are they acting like they didn’t know who he was? I get that that’s heartbreaking, because they want him to be Coulson; and I get why his team is so bothered, because somehow they’ve never realized that he would sacrifice them that easily (even though his reaction to Tanker’s death should have been telling if nothing else), and yeah the scope of his plan might have been surprising, but the kind of motivation he has shouldn’t have surprised them.
I also have some problems with Mack’s attitude; it’s good and noble, but it’s naïve for the head of SHIELD to think the way he does. Yes, saving lives should be a priority, and sure you should fully assess the situation before going in guns blazing, but his own people clearly don’t actually agree with how much he wants to capture instead of kill. Davis took about three seconds to decide that yeah they need to kill the beast instead of capture it. Mack’s heart is in the right place, it usually is, but he needs a little more backbone to go with it.
Okay, so how is there not a lot of discussion about Sarge’s breakdown to Izel? (I mean in character, I’m sure fandom is discussing it at length.) Because...that’s Coulson; I’ve been saying all season that it was going to be Coulson, and even I’m surprised to have such a spotlight on the fact that it’s Coulson. And Coulson baby, figure it out; your family, the woman you love, they’re right there beside you. And enough of the characters heard that breakdown that once the crisis passed they should probably be asking themselves what to make of it. At the bare minimum Mack should be like ‘May, we need to talk about Sarge,’ and let her know; because whatever they’re going to do with Sarge, she has to be okay with it. Are they going to keep him locked up in the basement like he’s Ward? Set him loose? Send him out into space somewhere? Obviously they haven’t decided what to do with Snow either, but I think one follows from the other.
There are a few things to say about the party scene. For one, I think Davis is already acting wrong, they try to pass it off as a sleepy joke, but it doesn’t feel right. And considering my opinion of the final scene, it’s like he conveniently passes out right as he would need to do more to act in character. And again, I love the dynamic between May and Elena; Yoyo being the only person who actually asks how May’s doing with all this (I’m sure Mack would, but he’s getting to it, possibly because it’s a bigger discussion they need to have about what comes next), and May being honest about how hard this is. I do wish there was a mention of Keller, but the writing seems to be avoiding that so that we don’t side-eye the Mack/Elena end too much.
And yeah, I have definite opinions on the scene. This is a problem that has plagued AoS for a while, and this season has been especially bad: the time scale. Keller died maybe a week ago, two at a stretch and Elena has not had time to process that. Just him dying should take more time before moving on, that she had to kill him should make it even harder. And there’s not even a mention of that as a concern; Keller’s been mentioned as recently as two episode ago, it’s not like it’s some long forgotten past event. And even ignoring the Keller part of it, I have issues with them getting back together that quickly. Mack’s speech wasn’t bad, apologizing and taking the blame for what wrong between them, opening the door that had been closed for around a year now, that was all fine. And it has been established as far back as s4 that Elena isn’t a take it slow type of person (and thinks 30 year slow burns are ridiculous), but I still think she forgives him too quickly. Accepting his apology, and the open door and maybe a hint of a kiss would have been fine; but this doesn’t work for me.
Timing has always been a problem with this relationship. Back in season 3 they got very interested in each other very quickly, and it was cute but it was also rushed. I like a lot of their stuff n s4, but her decision in the finale to stay and possibly die in the Framework with him was way beyond the buildup we had of their relationship. S5 wasn’t too bad either, except for the fact that it followed right on the heels of s4 so there wasn’t time to add any more to their relationship than we had before, so any time either of them would say something about being devoted to each other or plans for their future it felt awkward and forced. I sometimes think the writers forgot that this relationship was new and so is at a different place than the other relationships on the show; they write it as if it already has the same depth and devotion when they should have been building their connection. And the kicker is that this presented a different dynamic than the other ships on the show, that we could see it develop over time where otherwise we’re mostly thrown into it already established. With FitzSimmons we’re seeing them years into their relationship; with Philinda it’s decades; even Hunting Bird (hell even May/Andrew) had been married and divorced before we even met them. I guess you could bring up some of Skye’s relationships, but I find them so forgettable I don’t quite count them.
As for the last scene; there’s clearly something more going on. Yeah, May is heartbroken and pissed off because of Sarge’s presence, but this isn’t May. She’s either possessed or this is a Skrull or something. First Davis was acting weird at the party and then May just walks in and shoots Sarge; and May was talking earlier, so she didn’t have a bat in her throat then (they seem to have settled on people can’t talk with Shrike in them, so what was up with Keller?). She’s not even acting like May if she decided to take matters into her own hands regarding Sarge; maybe if it was somebody else (though May isn’t exactly keen on executing prisoners), but not him. Even if she’s fully convinced herself that there’s nothing of Phil in there (which has not been the case before), she would at least say something, if not to him about why he has to die, then remarking on the irony to herself, at the barest minimum her hands would shake enough to tell us she’s thinking that and we’d see a lot more emotion behind it. Historically perhaps May has been a little cold emotionally, but when it comes to Sarge she has never been closed off; she’s been furious with his existence, fighting against showing how much hurt and pain she feels being around him, grieving the loss of Phil all over again, but not cold and detached for a second.
I also suspect Sarge isn’t dead, or he’s one of many Coulson clones that mean we now can go and find the original.
Let’s cover the main options to explain the final scene then: possession, shape-shifting, and duplicate May.
I’m not actually sure is it’s May in the scene where she’s looking at Coulson’s badge; first instinct said yes because it’s just the kind of pain I live for, but on reflection it could be whatever version of not-May we have, looking to see why SHIELD knows Sarge/Coulson. Why would May go hang out in Mack’s office, and go for the badge? May should have her own pictures and I would think she has access to the tool box (as much as I think she’s avoided watching holo-Coulson for the past year unless she happens to walk in on Mack watching it; and he quickly turned it off when she was coming in. My read has always been that she might be okay with him watching Coulson videos, but it was still too much for her).
Possession/mind control would account for a lot. Davis probably picked up whatever spirit is involved when he was on his own on the ship, brought it back to base, acted like he was asleep when unable to play the part correctly, then at some point jumped over to May and went to kill Sarge. It would also be utterly heartbreaking that May’s own hands pulled the trigger, especially now that we can be pretty sure that’s Coulson (at least Coulson enough) and May would never shoot Coulson; she’s beat the shit out of Sarge, but never shot him. I can’t tell from the trailer if they catch her in the act or if they see her do it on surveillance after the fact, but if they catch her and she doesn’t remember doing it, we’re clearly in possession territory.
Shape-shifting presents some problems in that it probably means real-Davis died after being replaced on the ship. But aside from that it covers a lot of the same ground as possession; being able to fake being the real deal until conversation gets personal and then just not playing any more. Shape-shifting (but perhaps having a natural shape) does cover one problem with the possession angle in that I wonder how Sarge would be able to ID Izel when he heard her as she could have switched bodies a number of times since they last encountered each other. But they’d better not kill of Davis before actually giving us the supposedly amazing story of how he survived s4; I definitely wanted to hear it. But Izel also seems like a gloater, so I’m not sure she would have shot Sarge without letting him know who beat him.
Duplicate May is pretty flimsy, but I still want to include it. My only real support for it is the season trailer (which had bits of Sarge we haven’t seen happen yet, so I should keep that in mind) where it was pointed out that it seemed like May was fighting herself at some point. I didn’t pick up on it and thought it might have just been edited weird (and after I’ve always kind of assumed it was a mental landscape and they were fighting over Coulson’s mind somehow), but why would Izel necessarily shape-shift back into May for that fight? (Though if we’re using that ‘evidence’ there’s no way it’s possession, since there isn’t actually two potential Mays.) And the idea of a duplicate May for me would be that the duplicate was either made from the same-ish process as Sarge (memory-less clone, that he’s broken out of) or made from Coulson’s memories of May. I’m not sure why duplicate May might exist, and that’s the least of the reasons this doesn’t make sense (how would they get on base being at the other end), but somehow it makes sense to me. This one I’m not expecting to pan out, but I wanted to be honest about where my mind went.
Also, just to say it, I need Phil back. For reasons, I’ve been watching a few bits of Philinda s4 stuff and just going “I miss them so much.” And then I realize I’m sometimes saying that about Maylon, but it was still cute and a different kind of heartbreaking than now. Now it’s just pain, and until we know that it’s in service of a happy ending, *all* it is is pain; hopefully at the end of the season I’ll look back and accept the means to get the end, but for now it hurts. As much as I read a lot into the fact that May isn’t referring to ‘Phil’ anywhere this season (it’s always ‘Coulson’ because ‘Phil’ hurts too much), I find I miss hearing her say it. I feel very sure now that the first time we’ll hear her say it is when it’s Phil that she’s talking to, and that will have a lot of power in it, so as a writing choice I get it, and it just makes me want them back even more.
My first instinct is to say that this episode was fine, but that isn’t quite fair to this one. It was better than fine or solid, but it was those things; above all I would say it feels like a necessary part of a bigger story rather than a particularly great episode itself. This was basically all about moving pieces around the board, and it does that okay, but it is a lot less character driven than the last few.
The only character beats that I would have to count involve characters that frustrate me. We got an extended scene with Daisy and Deke, that in the future I will probably fast forward through because it was really a time sink as far as I’m concerned. The discussion between Daisy and Mack was a bit less annoying, but Daisy is wrong and I have the same feeling I do so often with her that the writers don’t know she’s wrong. Granted they surprised me last year by finally realizing that she’s a crap leader, but the vibe remains. Mack and Yoyo are broken up for reasons that I bet Daisy doesn’t understand because she hasn’t been there; and there is no way Daisy can give Mack any Coulson related advice that May probably hasn’t a dozen times by now; in fact May was much more Coulson’s confidant than Daisy.
Also, these people were idiots to put the two Shrike in the same containment pod; I wasn’t even sure it was a good idea to put them on the same plane and they put them in a smaller box. Doyalist logic, yes they need to establish that there’s even more danger to these things than they knew before; but Watsonian says it was an obviously terrible idea to do this/
So this name thing with Sarge is clearly a thing; I had just assumed it was his name. Yes Snow called him Sargent last episode, and I raised the question of where that comes from if they aren’t really humans (why does know one ask what race they are?) who speak English, but even then it could have been an assumed name and he has no other. So this ends up feeling like another Doyalist vs. Watsonian reasoning issue; Doyalist it’s pretty obvious setup for a future payoff, but Watsonian...the best I can do is that they, consciously or subconsciously, still think it’s Coulson and they’re trying to find Phil in there. But if that’s what’s going on, that’s a complex character motivation that deserves more exploration. This episode is competent at getting the pieces lined up, but it doesn’t really get into the characters.
I had to give this some thought, but I ultimately think it’s a symptom of the lack of character focus in this one, rather than something that I’m complaining about on its own. Because as soon as Sarge is out of the room I feel like someone should be asking May if she’s doing okay; or, if not opting to do it in front of the newbie agents (I’m really confused how so many of them have huge reaction to seeing ‘Coulson’), then when she and Mack talk later, but no one ever does. The woman has just spent a few days being held hostage by a man with the face of the love of her life; and then she turns around and tells Mack to use Coulson as a way to get at Sarge, you should really check on her. I can make sense of this in the fact that they all know she isn’t okay but they also know she’s going to lie and say she is, so they don’t even start the conversation But Mack is worrying about Daisy and no one mentions how this has to be killing May.
They go back to Kitson, where again I don’ buy this as reality and certainly not as a well thought out idea. Farscape could have pulled this off, but you are not Farscape/
I think the writing on this one is flawed, at least in focus, but I don’t really have a ton to say about it. It didn’t make me angry or even give me bad vibes (at least non-Daisy ones, but I often have those), in story progression it does fine, it’s just not giving me any character work to pull apart. So maybe this time I will actually keep it short.
Agents of SHIELD 6x08
This is full on part-one of a two-parter, so I don’t know how to judge it until I see how it all plays out. It was a fairly good episode, a bit slow but it’s all setup so I’m not that surprised.
But the logic of this story doesn’t make any sense, but it has reached a point where I’m finding it a bit harder to think we’re meant to say that it makes no sense and expect some late grand reveal that turns that lack of sense into a clue to this not being real. Over the halfway mark of the season it may be time to admit these writers just don’t think things through or keep consistent about the rules they set up. This was a problem with them doing time travel last season (and has been in other arcs), and came near to driving me away from the series again for part of last season.
I don’t think it’s any accident that the best scenes of the episode are just two people talking and not really even talking about the plot. I’m glad we get Fitz being awkward about Simmons having already had these experiences without him there; that scene was exactly as awkward as it should have been, and it needed to exist in my opinion. I even liked the scene between Daisy and Sarge because as much as I may not care about her and Coulson’s relationship, I’m glad it’s been incorporated. Stuff between Mack and Deke was kind of fun, stuff between Deke and Snow was...well we’ll see where it goes, they kind of deserve each other. Hell, as much as I’m still preparing to smack Daisy around when we get to the line in the trailer that pissed me off (and even here I wish she would talk a little less like May doesn’t know how much being around Sarge hurts), I’m glad someone is paying attention to the fact that May’s judgement may be a bit clouded on the subject of Sarge (of course we haven’t let her have a real character moment that wasn’t with Sarge in a while, so there’s that).
The characters are fine; the plot is bullshit and the setting details are crap. Let’s start with the minor quibbles and work to the major ones.
-Can the people possessed by the Shrike talk or not? Keller was able to talk right up until the end, but everyone this episode doesn’t. That was a slightly odd situation, since the Shrike was already dying from the blade before it even took Keller over, so I’m more inclined to believe the normal state is not talking since no one else does. In which case, how did the one in 6x04 buy a bus ticket? If the Shrike just get in the way of the vocal cords, then they could write or use some form of sign language, but in that case they shouldn’t be walking around as suspiciously as they are on the ship.
-This is almost a Space complaint, but why the fuck is the writing on things in the truck written in English? There is no way alien components would be written in English; and if Sarge has been able to read how to work this thing, how come he couldn’t read Dana’s name back in 6x02? Of course there’s even a contradiction in that episode as he’s able to read the newspaper ad; but in this case the very existence of this thing is weird. And if Sarge built the controls for this thing, then that just means he’s Coulson who would label things in English. And no one in the text asks this question. It’s so lazy by the writers if I’m supposed to take this as just the state of things.
-I’m sorry, but the fact that I still don’t know when this happens in the MCU timeline still bothers me. Marvel, get your shit together; don’t bank on something being the biggest movie of the year if not all time and then not address it at all in your extended universe. (eta. or see my new theory on this subject.)
-This show has made space travel far too safe and easy. Even the premier which started us with this understanding that SHIELD (even without Fitz) could just whip up a jump drive by savaging parts they had around, at least kept some feeling of danger and living on the edge of things that can be known. Now it’s like the characters know they have main character shields and 50/50 odds of survival are as good as a sure thing (for you and the person you’ve been desperate to get back to). All technology can interface with other technology (never mind that I need four different sizes of charge cords to make devices made on the same planet work), everyone has the right fuel on hand, all people speak English, don’t worry about disease or poisoning the worst that will happen is you’ll get high, don’t worry about your own planet (with Avengers on it) shooting an unknown alien craft out of the sky (at least that one they seem a little worried about, but not overly worried when they start landing anyway).
-I don’t even begin to understand Izel’s history She’s been to Earth before? But didn’t destroy it then? Where were the monoliths if they weren’t on Earth? If she stored them here for safe-keeping, why didn’t she come back here more directly? If the fact that they’ve been destroyed is somehow important why hasn’t it been mentioned (admittedly the Space rock has been destroyed twice and no one mentioned that either)? If the Inca were somehow connected to her previous appearance, why is all this now going down in the Midwest? This is so poorly thought out I wish I could go back to thinking this is just video game logic like I’ve been considering all season, but I get the bad feeling I’m supposed to just accept all this and I don’t know that I can without a lot more explanation that they’re not providing.
You know, with everything else going on, I don’t even want to run through my current thoughts on Sarge’s relationship to Coulson, or speculate on how this specific crisis ends. I’m feeling way too many character shields to think this is going to go too badly and beyond that I think the writing may continue to fall apart.
I had so many thoughts going into this two-parter of dramatic and important things they could do; now at the halfway point I’m just feeling bleh about it. It could still work out, but I’m hardly on the edge of my seat for next time. Of course all my good thoughts were much more May focused than the episode was, things are worse when there isn’t May focus. That seems like a good lesson to take from this.
Agents of SHIELD 6x09
Let’s set aside the last couple scenes for a moment, I definitely have things to say about them but I want to tackle the plot first.
I sort of had a feeling going into this two-parter that this was basically going to be the end of the Shrike plot and the rest of the season would be figuring out what was up with Sarge. And that feeling only got more pronounced last week, that this big two-parter was the major action climax. I doubt in the end that this really was the end of the Shrike plot as it seems pretty likely Izel is still out there (they didn’t find her, they left the quinjet behind, it definitely felt like they were celebrating prematurely without doing the correct due diligence, plus they hung a semi-magic sword on the wall and it hasn’t come into play yet) and while we’ve now established Daisy can just destroy them, I doubt she got all of them. But I still kind of think the rest of the season is going to have a different structure.
On the whole I liked this episode better than the last one, it didn’t actually resolve any of my complaints from last time, but it wasn’t as distractingly nonsensical. Kind of lucky that all our leads pulled through, but at least they didn’t seem to know they have character shields. Some of them even felt like they were in danger, and the rest at least had to work to pull through. And I don’t think it added any new Space annoyances.
One thing I would say though, is that I don’t quite understand why they’re so much more bothered by Sarge in the end than they were. They always knew he was an ends justify the means kind of guy, so why are they acting like they didn’t know who he was? I get that that’s heartbreaking, because they want him to be Coulson; and I get why his team is so bothered, because somehow they’ve never realized that he would sacrifice them that easily (even though his reaction to Tanker’s death should have been telling if nothing else), and yeah the scope of his plan might have been surprising, but the kind of motivation he has shouldn’t have surprised them.
I also have some problems with Mack’s attitude; it’s good and noble, but it’s naïve for the head of SHIELD to think the way he does. Yes, saving lives should be a priority, and sure you should fully assess the situation before going in guns blazing, but his own people clearly don’t actually agree with how much he wants to capture instead of kill. Davis took about three seconds to decide that yeah they need to kill the beast instead of capture it. Mack’s heart is in the right place, it usually is, but he needs a little more backbone to go with it.
Okay, so how is there not a lot of discussion about Sarge’s breakdown to Izel? (I mean in character, I’m sure fandom is discussing it at length.) Because...that’s Coulson; I’ve been saying all season that it was going to be Coulson, and even I’m surprised to have such a spotlight on the fact that it’s Coulson. And Coulson baby, figure it out; your family, the woman you love, they’re right there beside you. And enough of the characters heard that breakdown that once the crisis passed they should probably be asking themselves what to make of it. At the bare minimum Mack should be like ‘May, we need to talk about Sarge,’ and let her know; because whatever they’re going to do with Sarge, she has to be okay with it. Are they going to keep him locked up in the basement like he’s Ward? Set him loose? Send him out into space somewhere? Obviously they haven’t decided what to do with Snow either, but I think one follows from the other.
There are a few things to say about the party scene. For one, I think Davis is already acting wrong, they try to pass it off as a sleepy joke, but it doesn’t feel right. And considering my opinion of the final scene, it’s like he conveniently passes out right as he would need to do more to act in character. And again, I love the dynamic between May and Elena; Yoyo being the only person who actually asks how May’s doing with all this (I’m sure Mack would, but he’s getting to it, possibly because it’s a bigger discussion they need to have about what comes next), and May being honest about how hard this is. I do wish there was a mention of Keller, but the writing seems to be avoiding that so that we don’t side-eye the Mack/Elena end too much.
And yeah, I have definite opinions on the scene. This is a problem that has plagued AoS for a while, and this season has been especially bad: the time scale. Keller died maybe a week ago, two at a stretch and Elena has not had time to process that. Just him dying should take more time before moving on, that she had to kill him should make it even harder. And there’s not even a mention of that as a concern; Keller’s been mentioned as recently as two episode ago, it’s not like it’s some long forgotten past event. And even ignoring the Keller part of it, I have issues with them getting back together that quickly. Mack’s speech wasn’t bad, apologizing and taking the blame for what wrong between them, opening the door that had been closed for around a year now, that was all fine. And it has been established as far back as s4 that Elena isn’t a take it slow type of person (and thinks 30 year slow burns are ridiculous), but I still think she forgives him too quickly. Accepting his apology, and the open door and maybe a hint of a kiss would have been fine; but this doesn’t work for me.
Timing has always been a problem with this relationship. Back in season 3 they got very interested in each other very quickly, and it was cute but it was also rushed. I like a lot of their stuff n s4, but her decision in the finale to stay and possibly die in the Framework with him was way beyond the buildup we had of their relationship. S5 wasn’t too bad either, except for the fact that it followed right on the heels of s4 so there wasn’t time to add any more to their relationship than we had before, so any time either of them would say something about being devoted to each other or plans for their future it felt awkward and forced. I sometimes think the writers forgot that this relationship was new and so is at a different place than the other relationships on the show; they write it as if it already has the same depth and devotion when they should have been building their connection. And the kicker is that this presented a different dynamic than the other ships on the show, that we could see it develop over time where otherwise we’re mostly thrown into it already established. With FitzSimmons we’re seeing them years into their relationship; with Philinda it’s decades; even Hunting Bird (hell even May/Andrew) had been married and divorced before we even met them. I guess you could bring up some of Skye’s relationships, but I find them so forgettable I don’t quite count them.
As for the last scene; there’s clearly something more going on. Yeah, May is heartbroken and pissed off because of Sarge’s presence, but this isn’t May. She’s either possessed or this is a Skrull or something. First Davis was acting weird at the party and then May just walks in and shoots Sarge; and May was talking earlier, so she didn’t have a bat in her throat then (they seem to have settled on people can’t talk with Shrike in them, so what was up with Keller?). She’s not even acting like May if she decided to take matters into her own hands regarding Sarge; maybe if it was somebody else (though May isn’t exactly keen on executing prisoners), but not him. Even if she’s fully convinced herself that there’s nothing of Phil in there (which has not been the case before), she would at least say something, if not to him about why he has to die, then remarking on the irony to herself, at the barest minimum her hands would shake enough to tell us she’s thinking that and we’d see a lot more emotion behind it. Historically perhaps May has been a little cold emotionally, but when it comes to Sarge she has never been closed off; she’s been furious with his existence, fighting against showing how much hurt and pain she feels being around him, grieving the loss of Phil all over again, but not cold and detached for a second.
I also suspect Sarge isn’t dead, or he’s one of many Coulson clones that mean we now can go and find the original.
Let’s cover the main options to explain the final scene then: possession, shape-shifting, and duplicate May.
I’m not actually sure is it’s May in the scene where she’s looking at Coulson’s badge; first instinct said yes because it’s just the kind of pain I live for, but on reflection it could be whatever version of not-May we have, looking to see why SHIELD knows Sarge/Coulson. Why would May go hang out in Mack’s office, and go for the badge? May should have her own pictures and I would think she has access to the tool box (as much as I think she’s avoided watching holo-Coulson for the past year unless she happens to walk in on Mack watching it; and he quickly turned it off when she was coming in. My read has always been that she might be okay with him watching Coulson videos, but it was still too much for her).
Possession/mind control would account for a lot. Davis probably picked up whatever spirit is involved when he was on his own on the ship, brought it back to base, acted like he was asleep when unable to play the part correctly, then at some point jumped over to May and went to kill Sarge. It would also be utterly heartbreaking that May’s own hands pulled the trigger, especially now that we can be pretty sure that’s Coulson (at least Coulson enough) and May would never shoot Coulson; she’s beat the shit out of Sarge, but never shot him. I can’t tell from the trailer if they catch her in the act or if they see her do it on surveillance after the fact, but if they catch her and she doesn’t remember doing it, we’re clearly in possession territory.
Shape-shifting presents some problems in that it probably means real-Davis died after being replaced on the ship. But aside from that it covers a lot of the same ground as possession; being able to fake being the real deal until conversation gets personal and then just not playing any more. Shape-shifting (but perhaps having a natural shape) does cover one problem with the possession angle in that I wonder how Sarge would be able to ID Izel when he heard her as she could have switched bodies a number of times since they last encountered each other. But they’d better not kill of Davis before actually giving us the supposedly amazing story of how he survived s4; I definitely wanted to hear it. But Izel also seems like a gloater, so I’m not sure she would have shot Sarge without letting him know who beat him.
Duplicate May is pretty flimsy, but I still want to include it. My only real support for it is the season trailer (which had bits of Sarge we haven’t seen happen yet, so I should keep that in mind) where it was pointed out that it seemed like May was fighting herself at some point. I didn’t pick up on it and thought it might have just been edited weird (and after I’ve always kind of assumed it was a mental landscape and they were fighting over Coulson’s mind somehow), but why would Izel necessarily shape-shift back into May for that fight? (Though if we’re using that ‘evidence’ there’s no way it’s possession, since there isn’t actually two potential Mays.) And the idea of a duplicate May for me would be that the duplicate was either made from the same-ish process as Sarge (memory-less clone, that he’s broken out of) or made from Coulson’s memories of May. I’m not sure why duplicate May might exist, and that’s the least of the reasons this doesn’t make sense (how would they get on base being at the other end), but somehow it makes sense to me. This one I’m not expecting to pan out, but I wanted to be honest about where my mind went.
Also, just to say it, I need Phil back. For reasons, I’ve been watching a few bits of Philinda s4 stuff and just going “I miss them so much.” And then I realize I’m sometimes saying that about Maylon, but it was still cute and a different kind of heartbreaking than now. Now it’s just pain, and until we know that it’s in service of a happy ending, *all* it is is pain; hopefully at the end of the season I’ll look back and accept the means to get the end, but for now it hurts. As much as I read a lot into the fact that May isn’t referring to ‘Phil’ anywhere this season (it’s always ‘Coulson’ because ‘Phil’ hurts too much), I find I miss hearing her say it. I feel very sure now that the first time we’ll hear her say it is when it’s Phil that she’s talking to, and that will have a lot of power in it, so as a writing choice I get it, and it just makes me want them back even more.