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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: A Wanted (Inhu)Man

“I know what you are.”
“You have no idea.”

It was not a thrilling episode. But it was solid. Bits of development in several story lines, a lot of character beats, time spent laying valuable framework for later plot developments. It was the sort of episode that is critical for a well-written serialized drama but not a huge amount of fun to write about.

Let’s start with Lincoln, who is in the process of discovering that it is a lot harder to travel under the radar without an eyeless friend capable of teleportation (RIP Gordon). Daisy has made rescuing Lincoln from the ATCU/Rosalind/himself her mission. After all, Lincoln was the one who convinced her that she wasn’t a monster back at Afterlife. Not to mention her general obsession with finding every Inhuman a home and a purpose and a puppy, probably. We did finally get Skye/Lincoln smoochies. If you didn’t see that one coming, you should see your optometrist. Or just rewatch the back half of season two.

They keep teasing Lincoln’s Dark Past™ but I would be shocked (pun intended) if he turns out to be a bad guy in any way. He’s just too pretty to be evil. He seriously looks like the lost Hemsworth. I am intrigued to find out what he’s hiding. I thought we knew more about Lincoln but I rewatched all of his season two scenes for this review and all Lincoln told Skye about his life pre-Terragenesis is that he’s from Cincinnati and was in medical school. A scene I’d completely forgotten from the finale reveals something more: Gordon was talking to Lincoln about his past in a foreboding manner and reminds him that Jiaying “went far to save” Lincoln. So who knows? I’d put money on him not being a bad guy. Although I’m not quite so confident about my theory that he’s Thor’s long lost baby brother.

Coulson selling out Lincoln to protect Daisy was terrible, but so in character for Coulson. He’d do anything for her. He’s her Giles. Of course, that doesn’t make what he did okay. And Daisy had just managed to agree to get Lincoln to come in. How can he ever trust Coulson or S.H.I.E.L.D. after that?

Simmons is dealing with the emotional fallout of spending several months trapped in space. Which... yeah, there’s going to be some emotional fallout from that. Not to mention physical fallout. According to Fitz, “every system in her body’s out of whack.” Thankfully, she managed to maintain her insanely beautiful eyebrows. Maybe she carved a pair of tweezers out of a space rock?

I liked the parallel that last season it was Simmons helping Fitz through the trauma caused by an end of season cliffhanger and now it’s the other way around. I’m torn on his attempt to take her out for a romantic dinner, though. On the one hand, his maintaining the reservation showed that he never for a second gave up on her (awww), and the fact that he presumably had to pay a lot of money to empty out an entire restaurant shows that he was thinking about her and was cognizant of her emotional needs. But on the other hand, it seems like a lot of emotional pressure to put on her. Hopefully after she broke down in tears, they went home, put on their matching pajamas (you just know they have matching pajamas), ordered a pizza, and caught up on all the Doctor Who Jemma had missed.

I think the way they’re presenting Jemma’s PTSD is very respectful. She’s not crazy and being alone on Planet Whatever for months on end didn’t diminish her intelligence or innate Jemma-ness. Which seems like an obvious statement, but primetime television + mental health issues does not always a winning combination make.

Our big tease for the rest of the season/half-season on the FitzSimmons front is that Simmons needs to go back to the mysterious planet. Perhaps she forgot her space rock tweezers there. This was one of those big gasp moments that everyone should’ve known was coming. The show wasn’t going to dramatically strand Simmons just so Fitz could rescue her after one episode. Obviously, this is going to play out in a bigger way. I’m just glad that Simmons is the one instigating the action here instead of being made a victim again.

Hunter continues on his plan to kill Ward. Am I the only one really, really worried about this plan? Ward knows who Hunter is and what he looks like. Hunter thinks that if Ward’s close enough to recognize Hunter, Hunter will be close enough to kill Ward. That seems beyond risky. If he didn’t have a spinoff, I’d be extremely concerned about his chances of surviving the season.

He did manage to survive the fight with Spud. Here’s where I’d put in the mashed potato joke if I wasn’t so grossed out by that scene. It belongs in the AoS yuck hall of fame right next to that time Melinda May literally nailed Ward. It was too much blood for me. And it leads me to serious thoughts about what it’s going to take for Hunter to climb the HYDRA ladder. If you have to kill a guy just to get a meeting, I can see this getting out of control quickly.

Intel and Assets

--Daisy brought Jemma a bouquet of daisies. Squee!

--I laughed out loud when the subtitles appeared under “Richy” and Spud’s conversation.

--Hunter’s sole objection to May fighting for him is that she might get recognized. One of the things I love about this show is that none of the men on the team make a big deal over the fact their most badass team members are all women.

--I really, really enjoyed the stuff between Bobbi and Fitz.

--Did the way Jemma said “I have to go back” remind anyone else of Lost?

Coulson: “This just went from bad to really, really bad.”

May: “You lied to her.”
Hunter: “Barely. Besides, she knows I’m lying so it’s not even really a lie.”

Coulson: “Does she have a name?”
Rosalind: “I love my car, but it’s just a car. And it’s a him.”

Three out of four mashed potatoes
---
sunbunny, who is not Mark Greig

1 comment:

  1. Great review! I also laughed really hard when the subtitles showed up. All in all I thought it was a really good episode if not the most exciting.

    ReplyDelete

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