Agents of SHIELD: Season 3 - Discussion (SPOILERS LIKELY)

[Sci]

Pretty solid opening. Things have ramped up to a new level. More superpower action, new threats, new status quo for various characters. And a passel of movie references -- nods to the alien attacks on New York, London, and Sokovia (though Ultron was kind of indirectly alien), an appearance by President Ellis, even a nod to "the Pym Technologies disaster."

The appearance by President Ellis was intriguing. Not only is it only the second appearance of the United States President in the MCU -- in spite of what really ought to be quite a few events of national import over the years -- but it raises the question of just who's calling the shots in Washington. Coulson's reference to the ATCU leader having powerful people answer to her implies that she has something over the President -- and given that it's not entirely clear that she's actually an American or what her national loyalties are, that leaves open the question of whether or not someone might finally have gotten control of the Ellis administration after two prior attempted coups d'etat.

I hope he ends up defeating this woman's team before the end of the season, having a third season of SHIELD vs Other Group is getting a bit ridiculous.

It's a spy-fi show set in a superhero universe, and its title organization is no longer a public international agency with vast resources to draw upon. It will always be "SHIELD vs. Other Group" -- just like Chuck was always "Chuck's Team vs. Fulcrum/The Ring" and Alias was always "CIA vs. SD-6" and Get Smart was always "CONTROL vs. KAOS." It's intrinsic to the genre.

Now waiting for K5 to come in and rant about Bobby.

Well, since you asked...

Why was Bobbi basically doing Simmons' job? She really has no qualifications to be doing that. Its like if Hunter starting doing Fitz job, it makes no sense. SHIELD must not have any more geniuses focused on biological stuff, so they're using whoever isn't busy at the moment? Saying she has some kind of vague "biology degree" does not justify her working in the lab.

Actually, I agree here. It was kind of a reach to have Bobbi be the person espousing bio exposition.

So, what are Shield's assets now? Does it still have the sea going carrier from last season? The helicarrier from the recent movie? Have the two divergent "Shields" fully reintegrated?

Coulson!SHIELD and Gonzales!SHIELD had already fully reintegrated before the end of Season Two.

I see no reason to think that SHIELD no longer has use of the Illiad. No idea about Hellicarrier 64, though -- it's possible that Coulson handed control over that one to I Can't Believe It's Not SHIELD (aka, the Avengers Initiative in upstate New York that Fury seems to be semi-openly running).

So, what are Shield's assets now? Does it still have the sea going carrier from last season? The helicarrier from the recent movie? Have the two divergent "Shields" fully reintegrated?


Oh and hey! Coulson not wearing a suit!

Fake!Shield is gone, the Nimitz carrier is probably in refit at whatever facility Coulson could find to keep it safe while repairs were made.

Coulson!Shield has The Playground and Theta facility that we know of, using both to produce the new Bus and collect all the remaining pre-Winter Soldier and Fake!Shield materiale they come across. Which is now about 5 Quinjets and a fleet of Shield ground vehicles.

Excellent hypothesis. Though I still wonder how the hell Coulson is keeping all this off the U.S. government's radar while also paying for it.

I noticed that Ward's reference to Hydra being fractured into countless pieces handily explains the Hydra operatives in Ant-Man who had no evident connection to Ward-Hydra. As I figured, it had split into multiple isolated cells pursuing their own agendas.

That makes sense, yeah.

The whole thing with Werner von Strucker is interesting. Wolfgang was criminally under-used in the films -- seriously, how can you not love Captain America fighting evil Germans? -- so it's nice to see someone trying to do something with the idea of how Hydra's leaders (who apparently included a great many of the rich and powerful in the West) interacted with the rest of society through his son. I'm also really surprised to see that Werner apparently was allowed to retain any of the Strucker family wealth after Strucker was publicly revealed to be a leader of Hydra (let alone that he'd not be a social pariah). I'm trying to picture someone like the Kardashians or Paris Hilton being able to retain their position in society after it turned out that their parents led a fascist terrorist organization that almost overthrew the world's governments, and I'm not quite seeing it...

(But there again, maybe Werner was using an alias the whole time? I guess we'll find out as the season progresses.)

ETA:

My only complaint in the season so far: I cannot quite imagine why Fitz didn't kiss Jemma the instant he got her back.

 

[Star Wolf]

Fake!Shield is gone, the Nimitz carrier is probably in refit at whatever facility Coulson could find to keep it safe while repairs were made.

Coulson!Shield has The Playground and Theta facility that we know of, using both to produce the new Bus and collect all the remaining pre-Winter Soldier and Fake!Shield materiale they come across. Which is now about 5 Quinjets and a fleet of Shield ground vehicles.

Excellent hypothesis. Though I still wonder how the hell Coulson is keeping all this off the U.S. government's radar while also paying for it.

I thought that Senator Ward all but said that the US Government was no longer hunting SHIELD after Grant Ward was turned over. I propose that they are on the governments's radar but they are not trusting or depending upon SHIELD to protect America

 

[Sci]

Fake!Shield is gone, the Nimitz carrier is probably in refit at whatever facility Coulson could find to keep it safe while repairs were made.

Coulson!Shield has The Playground and Theta facility that we know of, using both to produce the new Bus and collect all the remaining pre-Winter Soldier and Fake!Shield materiale they come across. Which is now about 5 Quinjets and a fleet of Shield ground vehicles.

Excellent hypothesis. Though I still wonder how the hell Coulson is keeping all this off the U.S. government's radar while also paying for it.

I thought that Senator Ward all but said that the US Government was no longer hunting SHIELD after Grant Ward was turned over. I propose that they are on the governments's radar but they are not trusting or depending upon SHIELD to protect America

The fact that the feds are not actively hunting SHIELD doesn't mean that SHIELD is not still, in the eyes of the law, an illegal conspiracy and a potential threat to the legitimate democratic government. After all, this is now a group of people who have as much or more firepower than the entire U.S. government (save nukes), and yet answers to no one for their actions. So obviously SHIELD still needs to hide itself from the feds if they want to keep operating.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

How long has President Ellis been in office?

 

[Christopher]

How long has President Ellis been in office?

Well, the earliest documented event in his presidency was welcoming Captain America back after his revival, as mentioned in the museum film in The Winter Soldier. That would've been sometime between April 16 and May 4 of 2012. So he'd have to be in his second term now.

 

[JD]

This was a pretty good episode. I did like meeting May's father, and their scenes gave us nice character stuff for her.
I got kick out of seeing Peter McNicol again, I became a big fan after seeing him in Numbers years ago.
It was really surprising to see so much of the episode devoted to the Monolith and the search for Simmons. I was even more shocked they actually got her back. I had assumed that was going to be a B arc running through at least several more episodes as we followed her trying to survive and Fitz trying to save her.
Ward is starting to feel a little unnecessary at this point. There is so much going on right now that isn't really related to him or Hydra, that I just don't see where it's necessary to give him his own arc like they were setting up here. I starting to wonder if it might be better to just knock him down to a recurring role and only have him pop up a handful of times a season.
The introduction Von Strucker's son was kind of interesting, but it didn't really save the whole Wardra thing.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Piffle. Spike was redeemed (twice-ish), and Ward hasn't even tried to rape Daisy yet.

I guess that's another reason not to bother with Buffy and Angel.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Because a character without a soul, a literal monster, did something rash to a woman he had an invested relationship with, and then she beat him... Half to death? More Dead? She beat him more dead.

 

[kitik]

Please let Jemma be a Skrull.
Please let Jemma be a Skrull.
Please let Jemma be a Skrull.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I hope not.

Well, it looks like SHIELD has really good carbon-dating equipment.

I don't think we've heard the last of Simmons' adventure, though I'm surprised that the monolith was destroyed. Maybe a pulverized monolith is still usable. But that whole sequence has to be leading up to something. We still don't even know who or what was chasing her, or how long she was there from her perspective-- if it was months, what was she eating and drinking?

But I'm glad she's back and I'm hoping this will mean that she and Fitz will be getting together. The actor who plays Fitz certainly gave quite a performance over the past couple of episodes. And I also loved Hunter's reaction to the news that Simmons was back.

The expatriate Asgardian is always funny. "To the plane!"

I'm extremely tired of Ward, though. I wish he and HYDRA would just disappear.

Calling someone an Amazon doesn't mean they were thinking about Wonder Woman.

No but calling someone who's played Wonder Woman an Amazon does.

Well, possibly.

 

[kitik]

Great episode, even though I was a bit disappointed (?) they got Simmons back so easily.

So I think I'm liking this show more and more all the time, because I like the characters more and more all the time. Hunter and Mockingbird are awesome. May's dad is awesome. Daisy is finally earning the star status that was dumped on her character. And I think we all agree on how awesome Fitz is.

Heck, even the guest characters feel more awesome. I liked Dr Randolph a lot more than when we saw him in season 1. Maybe he was funnier this episode or something.

This show is doing something right.


Now, as for Simmons... I won't believe she's not a skrull until this show actually ends and we never see her character again and she was never revealed to be a skrull. Just kidding. Or am I? Great little scene there at the end with her resting her head on Fitz's leg. It'll be interesting to see what type of traumas she brought back with her. And it'll be great to see Fitz try to support her every step of the way.

 

[Reverend]

Anyone else think it strange just how quickly Fitz was able to find Simmons? I mean she's been there for months, in what appears to be a fairly featureless barren landscape. We saw in the last episode she was on the run so staying put isn't an option and finding her way back seems damn near impossible. Sure, they fired a flare through the portal but Fitz went in less than 60 seconds later. We saw the dust storm was blowing so hard Simmons could barely stand, let alone walk or run so she had to have been right there already.
Plus as others have pointed out, what has she been eating and drinking all this time?

Time dilation seems like the best way to account for all of this except her reaction on waking. If it's only been a few hours or days from her POV, she shouldn't be anywhere near that jumpy. That's clearly a reflex learned the hard way.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

It wasn't 60 seconds later. I'd guess it was probably a couple of hours. The flare was during the first time before the machine shook apart and they had to spend some time rebuilding it (before Quake figured she could recreate it).

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Mac gave Daisy the nichname Tremors... if they are already giving her a nickname, why not actually Quake. "Tremors" seems redundant.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Please let Jemma be a Skrull.
Please let Jemma be a Skrull.
Please let Jemma be a Skrull.

Skrulls first appeared in Fantastic Four.

Therefore the Skulls are owned by Fox.

(Which is why I suggested Space Phantoms.)

 

[Reverend]

It wasn't 60 seconds later. I'd guess it was probably a couple of hours. The flare was during the first time before the machine shook apart and they had to spend some time rebuilding it (before Quake figured she could recreate it).

So much for my short-term recollection.

Still, even a few hours in that weather means she couldn't have been far. Even if the portal is what caused the storm on that side and it only got difficult to walk in the last minute or so, Simmons would still have to have been within a few miles at most, which means she either stayed in the area this whole time or was already on her way back from wherever she might have been.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I cannot quite imagine why Fitz didn't kiss Jemma the instant he got her back.

Three months without showering or brushing her teeth...?

 

[BigFoot]

Honestly, I think Fitz kissing Simmons after what she's been through would be in poor taste. It'd be ok if she kissed him though.

 

[Richard Baker]

Honestly, I think Fitz kissing Simmons after what she's been through would be in poor taste. It'd be ok if she kissed him though.

It was a nice touch when after she awoke she went back to sleep resting her head on his leg.

'Tremors' is a good starting point for a nickname/title- she is still learning her powers and tremors precede the big quake.

I liked how when Coulson was talking about removing the Shield logos from their equipment he was reminded of how there was a giant eagle on Zephyr One. The way he smiled and said he couldn't resist was wonderful.

Even though I hate the character, there was one good Ward moment when he was assaulting the pleasure boat. He was manly fighting all the security guards in hand to hand until one really laid a good one on him. He paused, then pulled out his gun and shot in an Indiana Jones fashion...

I am really liking this new season- I have to wait a day for Hulu streaming so it is hard avoiding spoilers

 

[Admiral2]

Speaking of Ward, I guess the majority want him dead and gone (I agree), but we gotta ask if the main actors from the first season had multiyear contracts. It could just be that they can't kill off Ward because they don't want to pay the actor a kill fee or something...