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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Brand New Day

Coulson: "Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. going rogue..."
May: "Yeah, I've seen that happen before."

It's the episode before the two-part finale, and all hell breaks loose in the 1980s. Can our heroes fix this? I mean, how will they make people stop calling Nathaniel "sir"?

This episode had a "hell yeah" moment (Daisy saying that she already had a sister to save) and a "holy sh*t" one (Jemma's ominous question "Fitz? Who is Fitz?"). It also tried to give us a bombastic ending with nearly all S.H.I.E.L.D. bases being destroyed around the world, but I think that that one was cut short by the lack of budget. Sure, we saw the Triskelion being destroyed, but all the other ones were blips on a computer screen. It lacked oomph. Or maybe it has nothing to do with the budget or oomph, I just don't care about Nathaniel carrying on the Chronicoms' plans.

Nathaniel killed a man who called him "sir." He is very annoyed by hierarchy, so he reinforces his position as the most powerful one by killing someone who upset him. Let's take a moment of silence to mourn coherence's early retirement from the series.

We are taking a moment.

And we are done.

Ugh, I cannot with this guy. Jesus Christ, whoever kills him will be my favorite character. I know contradiction is part of human nature, but I cannot stand his temper tantrums over hierarchy or over anything, really. I was so happy that he couldn't bypass Simmons' inhibitor. How dare he hit Simmons? Bastard! At least she had the last laugh, though she won't remember what she is laughing about nor that she is having the last laugh. That was such a great moment, by the way. Seven years of relationship development and, puff, Fitz has been erased from Simmons' brain. She did warn Nathaniel, though, that the more he tried to find Fitz inside her brain, the deeper he would hide. How deep is it? Can Simmons recover her memories of him? Oh, who am I kidding, of course she will recover her memories... Unless this show wants to pull a Chuck on us, in which case I say: no, this couple has went through too much already.


Poor Nathaniel is really upset that he can't find Fitz. He is a spoiled brat who is used to having things his way, not even destroying S.H.I.E.L.D. makes him happy. It's all or nothing. You know, whenever Daisy kicks his ass, I hope she first quakes him for killing her mother and then quakes him again for collectively annoying all the fans of the series. Anyway, he is happy to see Kora again, who spent the episode stuck in this ridiculous subplot where she tries to convince the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that she wants to become an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Say what? Worst of all, it seems like they kind of believe her.

Except for Daisy. Daisy rules. Until she decides to abandon the team because, hey, let's be unpredictable! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Daisy rules. As soon as Kora arrives, she is ready to put that biatch in the ground. Or on the wall, to be more specific. It's awesome.

Daisy greets Kora
Daisy cools down and later on has a private moment with her sister. Dear Kora insists on the crazy talk of becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, but inadvertently tips Daisy off to go rescue Simmons in outer space. So Daisy leaves Kora behind. You know, Kora, who has the same power level that she does and could destroy the Lighthouse in a heartbeat. Why didn't Daisy knock her out and drug her? Sousa joins Daisy on her crazy mission because he is the cutest, and I just remembered that I used to ship Daisy and Robbie Reyes, but I have come to love Daisy and Sousa, and Sousa makes more sense for her now that she is over her emo phase, anyway. So, Sousa joins her because he won't let her do something stupid on her own, and Mack joins them because... reasons! He doesn't even tell anyone else he is doing it, which makes no sense. No time to waste, let's just get things in place for the finale. So Daisy, the Inhuman who could take Kora down, and Mack, the director responsible for the entire operation, leave the rest of the team to fend for themselves. Because apparently acting crazy is the secret to defeat Sybil. The plot contrivance thickens.

But, you know, I really liked Daisy, Sousa and Mack's scenes together. Sousa is the best, he is all emotional when he sees Earth from space. Mack gets to act as Daisy's big brother, which is honestly Mack at his best. Daisy is heartbroken about the possibility that the team will fracture after this mission. "I don't know who I am without you guys," she says, and I loved that Mack corrected her right away. Of course she knows who she is. But Daisy's pain makes a lot of sense. She didn't have a family growing up and S.H.I.E.L.D. gave her a close group of people she could call her own. Going on a different path from your family is par the course for many of us, and Mack, more experienced than Daisy and more used to saying goodbye to families he formed through S.H.I.E.L.D., explains to her that it's okay for things to change. Mack rocks. And he rocks again when he, picking up on the growing bond between Daisy and Sousa, tells him that she's been hurt a lot and they, the team, won't let her be hurt again. Mack is the best, Sousa is the best, and they both agree that Sousa won't hurt Daisy.

Back in the Lighthouse, May decides to take a shot and talk to Kora, who loses her temper and takes the Lighthouse power down in a burst of energy. Except that it wasn't a matter of temper at all, it was her goal all along so that Sybil could hack into the system. And yet, even after that, May insists on trying to turn Kora to the side of the angels. Just put her to sleep with a cooler, for crying out loud. May doesn't listen to me and takes Kora to see Jiaying's body, which backfires. When Kora sees that a quake caused her mom's neck to snap, she first associates it with Daisy, not Nathaniel. I mean, girl... I can't, I have no words. May tells her that, obviously, that wasn't Daisy's doing, it was Nathaniel's. What is Kora's reaction? "He must have had a reason." Are you kidding me? She was ready to be angry at Daisy, but makes up excuses for Nathaniel? How gullible is this young woman?

I get it. She is the wild card. When she meets Nathaniel in the end, she is conflicted. The actress is not doing a bad job, she was quite good in the scene where Kora saw Jiaying's body and tried to ressurrect her. But Kora's story is way too rushed and we know her way too little. Her arc story is not bad per se, it just needs more time to breathe. As it is, when she doesn't say she knows he killed her mother and Nathaniel kisses her, I think we are supposed to be engaged. But all I know is that I simply don't care about either of them.

Intel and Assets

- Mack regarding Daisy having feelings for Sousa: "Yo-Yo owes me 20 dollars."

- Sousa makes fun of Quake's superhero alias. It sounds funny, he argues, and as he repeats it, Mack hears the funny in it too. It's a cute little joke that runs through the second half of the episode.

- Coulson can "read computer" now. He tries to slow Sybil down, but isn't able to.

- I loved Coulson's deadpan delivery of "Yes" to Yo-Yo's "Are you a computer genius now?"

- Speaking of Yo-Yo, they upgraded her speedster power so much that we barely see her in the episodes anymore.

- In the first (new) flashback, Fitz says to Simmons that May and Coulson taught them they should take the time that they have. That hurt, what a painful reminder that real Coulson died.

- Nathaniel speaking for the fanbase:

"WHERE ARE YOU?"
- Simmons' "I don't want to forget" moment with Fitz was very reminiscent of Buffy's "I'll never forget" with Angel. By the way, Iain is a great actor, but he seemed somewhat off during that scene, almost as if Thomas E. Sullivan's presence as Nathaniel was distracting him.

- Grant Ward is mentioned one final time. He is on Kora's list of people who should be killed to make the world a better place (Kora, hint: start with Nathaniel), though he is only a child. It would have been cool to have an episode with the team saving Ward from the Chronicoms. This season really could have used a longer episode order.

Quotes

Kora: "Every child loves her mother."
Daisy: "Not every mother loves her back."
Kora: "I'm sorry you didn't get that."
Daisy: "I'm sorry you threw it away."

Sousa: "I learned a long time ago to not let someone do something stupid on their own."

Daisy: "I already have a sister to save, her name is Jemma Simmons."
Hell yeah.

Sousa: "It's a hundred thousand mile Hail Mary."

Sousa: "You have flown this thing before, right? A few times? A time?"

Mack: "We may be predictable, but so is the enemy, 'cause they are always planning to ruin our day."


Even with all the shortcuts this episode took to get us to the final destination, I mostly liked it. Two and a half out of four destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. bases.
--
Lamounier

1 comment:

  1. The Daisy, Sousa and Mack scenes were so much fun -- they made this episode for me.

    It sounds an awful lot like Fitz died of some sort of illness or condition. I've been assuming for awhile that he's dead. I'll be happy if I'm wrong.

    I am also uninterested in Nathaniel and Kora. All I really want is to spend time with these characters I've grown to love. That said, I'm pretty sure May telling Kora the truth about what happened to Jiaying will save the day in the series finale. Or at least I hope it will.

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