Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Spacetime

Timey wimey what?

"Yeah, day got weirder."

As every time travel story ever written has taught us nothing good ever comes from knowing the future.

Stories like this, where characters are given terrifying visions of the future, always play out one of two ways. Either said character is able to change the terrible future they saw – they are always terrible, aren't they? No one ever has nice visions where they go to Disneyland or score Hamilton tickets – or everything they saw inevitably comes to pass, just not in the way they were expecting. This is especially true if they see something (like Coulson shooting Daisy) that you know will never, ever happen. Not in a mid-season episode, anyway. If this was a mid-season or season finale, then Coulson would definitely shoot Daisy.

By their very nature, fictional characters have no inherent free will. All their actions and decisions are determined by a higher power (the writers). But seeing that concept realised within the narrative of the story itself can be somewhat frustrating. The futures that Charles showed everyone were classic examples of the self-fulfilling prophecy. None of the events that transpired would've happened if the characters hadn't been been shown them in advance. But there was no consistency to how Charles' abilities worked. Everyone who touched him saw something different. Edwin was given a clear and detailed picture of the events leading to his death. Daisy was shown a random collection of moments that made no sense without context. And the executive was shown what would happen within the next five minutes. At first this seems random until you realise that all the visions were driven by the necessity of the plot. These characters saw what the writers needed them to see and in the way they needed to see them.

As frustrating as some aspects of this episode were for me, I did actually enjoy it. Many of my favourite AoS episodes are the ones that have the majority of the team (Mack was sadly MIA this week) working together to save the day and this one was no different. I enjoyed watching them try to kick destiny in the balls by rehearsing the episode's big fight sequence in advance. Special mention has to go to Chloe Bennet. Not only did she hit all the emotional beats, she absolutely killed it when it came to that one-take fight scene. Bennet has been this series' MVP for a while now and it doesn't look like that is going to change any time soon.

Andrew showing up unexpectedly was certainly... unexpected. Is Andrew truly gone now? Is Lash all that's left? Poor May. As emotional as that goodbye scene was, it was just so jarring to have Andrew suddenly show up out of the blue to say goodbye to May. This was something that deserved to be the focus of an entire episode, not shoved into this one at the last minute. Was Blair Underwood's time limited or something?

After washing all that messy human goo out of his hair, Hive was looking rather dapper this week. Untold millennia on a desert planet doesn't seem to have cramped his style much. He sure does have that whole evil Gap model thing working for him. At this point it is clear that Hive is simply toying with Malick. Is he testing his commitment to the cause or is he simply bored after running out of stuff to watch on Netflix? Either way, I don't think Malick is long for this world. Whatever he saw when Charles touched him I'd be willing to bet it was his own death, and Hive, or maybe Giyera, will be the one responsible for it.

Walk walk fashion baby work it.

Intel and Assets

--Hive seems to be sporting Keanu's leftover costumes from the Matrix trilogy.

--Does anyone else think of the aliens from Toy Story whenever HYDRA scoops up an Inhuman with their claw of doom?

--Was the Wisconsin primary so important that ABC News had to interrupt this episode mid-scene to report on the results? Isn't that what commercial breaks are for?

--Is there some ban on S.H.I.E.L.D. agents wearing primary colours? They all look like they are going through a collective Emo phase.

--Random thought, whatever happened to H.U.F.F.L.E.P.U.F.F.? They haven’t been mentioned at all this season. It’s almost as if that entire annoying subplot never happened.

--This season is going to end with a Lash/Hive fight, isn't it?

Daisy: "With Mack on bed rest we could use the extra muscle."
Phil: "He's the only one with extra muscles."

Lincoln: "I never saw the original Terminator."
Phil: "You're off the team."

Three out of four mathematical models in physics that combines space and time into a single interwoven continuum.
--
Mark Greig is a firestarter, twisted firestarter More Mark Greig

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