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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: T.A.H.I.T.I.

“We’re her family.”

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. came back from its month long hiatus almost as strong as when we last saw it. ‘T.A.H.I.T.I.’ wasn’t as much fun as 'T.R.A.C.K.S.' was, with Skye’s life hanging by a thread there wasn’t much room for levity, but it compensated for that with a serious amount of Bill Paxton. Who doesn’t love a bit of Bill Paxton? Game over, man! Game over!

As well as shedding some (more) light on Coulson’s resurrection, this episode introduced two new recurring characters: Paxton’s Agent John Garrett and B.J. Britt’s Agent Antoine Triplett. Thanks to the Paxton factor, Garrett was instantly likeable. Rather than being some by the book foot soldier, he was sort of like a less cocky, more professional version of Hudson. Which is most definitely a good thing. Agent Triplett, whose brief punch up with Ward was completely pointless (macho men being macho for no reason whatsoever), was a little more on the bland and seems to have “Potential Simmons Love Interest” stamped across his forehead. Which is odd, because the way he talked about Simmons’ feeling for Skye (“But you can’t imagine a life without her”) made it sound like he saw them as a couple. Is he secretly a Skimmons shipper?

The team manage to get Skye to a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital, but it is too late, there is nothing the doctors can do. Coulson, a man who has come back to life, won’t accept that. Which is exactly what the Clairvoyant is counting on. Whoever this puppet master is, they are cunning. They couldn’t get the information they wanted out of Coulson himself, so they’ve manipulated him into investigating it himself by having Quinn shoot Skye. That explains why Quinn shot her twice in the stomach. He wasn’t being cruel, he was being precise. All of this has got me wondering if Quinn himself has one of those eye implants himself? And did May break it when she delivered that much deserved beat-down? If I were Coulson, I would’ve just left her be.

Turns out the “truth” Coulson was told about what was done to resurrect him wasn’t exactly the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is just nothing but secrets wrapped in riddles. Not that I’m complaining. I’m glad there was more to Coulson’s resurrection than what we’d previously been told. That explanation was too mundane. Far better to involve aliens. Aliens make things better. That’s assuming the corpse was an extra-terrestrial. It could’ve easily been the result of another super-soldier program gone wrong. Perhaps S.H.I.E.L.D.’s attempt to create their own, more controllable, Hulk using Smurf DNA? Whatever it was, S.H.I.E.L.D. used it to resurrect Coulson and now he’s used it to save Skye.

This will not be without consequences, for both Skye (will the wonder serum trigger her dormant powers?) and Coulson (will he... start to turn blue?). Not professional consequences, mind you. The team’s cavalier actions will likely continue to be overlooked by their so-called superiors. I am still amazed by the autonomy Coulson and his team are allowed. S.H.I.E.L.D. just doesn’t seem like the sort of organisation to allow an agent and his team to run around the globe doing whatever they want with next to no supervision. In this episode alone they broke into a top secret facility, killed two people – not bad guys, just a pair of guards doing their job – and then let that facility get blown to kingdom come. All without so much as an angry phone call from the man with the eyepatch.


Intel and Assets

--If Doctor Manhattan is an alien then he will likely be a member of the Kree, a major race from the comics who have blue skin.


--Fitz and Simmons are truly masters of holographic interfaces.

--Is Nick Fury deliberately dodging Coulson’s calls or is really busy with other stuff?

--When the ginger Asgardian said her name was Lorelei I bet the first thing that popped into a lot of people’s heads (including mine) was Gilmore Girls.

Coulson: “They scratch my plane, I’m gonna be pissed,”

Coulson: "What the hell are you doing here?"
Garrett: “Well, as opposed to the Leven 8 jackass I'm staring at, I still follow orders.”

Lorelei: “Is all of Midgard this desolate?”

Three out of four Smurf Hulks.

7 comments:

  1. Noticed you used gender neutral pronouns to refer to the Clairvoyant. Do you think it might be a woman?

    Absolutely with you on the Gilmore Girls thing.

    Still left wondering what kind of couple honeymoons in a crappy motel in Death Valley.

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  2. I'm covering all bases just in case it turns out to be another Derevko sister

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  3. Well, that wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, they made us quite aware of that. And I'm pretty certain there is something in S.H.I.E.L.D. regulations that allow Coulson to shoot his way in if the other guys don't comply after he introduced himself.

    From the previews it looks like lady Sif is going to have some action. That's long due.

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  4. I was also thinking "Dr. Manhattan" for the reveal. Atlantean was my (actually a Marvel comics thing) guess, as I didn't realise Kree tend to be blue.

    Also, I don't think this is the first time the agents on the Bus have killed someone "just doing their job". When Ward infiltrated that factory earlier in the season, with Skye guiding him using the modified eye implant glasses, he got into a gunfight with a bunch of guards who were probably "just doing their job". In this case, Coulson clearly stated they were seeking medical attention and still came under fire, so they seem fairly within rights to defend themselves (though of course you could argue that they maybe shouldn't have barged into a secure facility they didn't have clearance for - it's like saying "Well, they had to defend themselves, once they broke into the police station"). I have to assume the facility wasn't SHIELD, but if it isn't, I don't know who would be operating it. The US government (if it was in the US?)? Hydra? AIM?

    Liked Bill Paxton's Garrett. I'm hoping for some mild Aliens references further down the line.

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  5. Can't tell you how pleased I was that Garrett was willing to bend the rules rather than being a hard-nosed stickler for them. Bill Paxton doesn't really do "by the book" all that well. :)

    I may not be totally thrilled with the pace at which we've learned the secret to Coulson's resurrection, but I definitely like the direction they're taking. After we found out a couple of episodes ago about the procedures done to him, I was less concerned about what they did than I was about why Coulson is so important. The why is still a big question, but now HOLY $@&% WHAT IS THAT THING? And going along with it, who owns the lab they busted into where they found it? I think it's safe to assume it's not one of Centipede's, or the Clairvoyant would already know about it. My gut says it won't be a reborn HYDRA, since I'm guessing they'd want to save something like that for a future movie. They did name-drop AIM in a previous episode("Seeds", I think). But I gotta think the answer's gonna be more interesting than "faceless bad guys we just haven't met yet".

    I was amused by Agent Triplett flirting with Simmons, and I'm glad Garrett commented on it at the end of the episode. Asking us to believe high-level super-spies like Coulson or Garrett wouldn't notice is just silly. Though I wonder if Simmons herself actually noticed. On the one hand, she's quite beautiful and you'd think she'd have attracted attention before, but on the other hand she's a super-nerd who gets wrapped up in her work, and might be a tad oblivious to such things. A romance storyline with Simmons would be adorable, both for her reactions and to see how Fitz would handle it :)

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  6. Just caught bits and pieces of this episode on TV last night, and I'm not sure if having already seen Captain America makes this easier to follow or more difficult... though I was a little bit bothered by the protagonist-centred morality that had our guys killing two innocent agents to save their own friend.

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  7. I don't want to spoil anything for people who have only gotten this far, but if you go back and watch this episode after seeing the rest of the season with its big twists and reveals, there's some moments and lines that play quite differently. One in particular really stood out. :)

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