The problem with Ward being bland before the big twist is that he was still bland after the big twist.
According to Jed Whedon, the LMD arc will not run for the rest of the season. After AIDA's story plays out, there will be yet another hiatus, followed by a third and final arc. Presumably all tied together through the Darkhold. And they held off on doing an LMD storyline because of Age of Ultron.
Clone puppies! Fitz invents a cloning machine, and Mack's corgi accidently falls in....Instant clone corgis!
Now that we know the LMD arc is going to be brief that rules out my suggestion for Deathlok, but I'll toss it out anyway. If Coulson had Deathlok off the books and hidden away I'd say Aida somehow reprograms him and forces him to do some dirty work before he's "rebooted" and saves the day.
Nothing is confirmed, but the president of ABC is very "bullish" over AoS and its chances for renewal. I have to admit, this is the first season where I've taken any of the cancellation rumors seriously. I think 5 seasons would be a good run for this show.
I have a friend who likes to track ratings and make network schedule predictions and she's pretty much written of AoS at this point (and she has an excellent track record)-- although she does modify her predictions as the situation changes. But the ratings are not good for a network show.
The ratings aren't good, but how do they compare to the 10pm Tuesday timeslot the last few years on ABC? As I recall, they've cancelled the shows they've had there the past year or two due to horrendous ratings. If Shield shows an improvement over those, and then you factor in the relatively large non-live viewings (3-day and 7-day), I could see ABC being tempted to keep it in that slot.
So who wants to talk about last night's episode? About a third of the way in, I was thinking to myself that this feels like a major downgrade from the Ghost Rider storyline. Mack helped save it a lot with all his robot talk though. At first I rolled my eyes, but then they took it to extremes and I loved it. If you're going to go for it, go all the way I guess. (And yes, I'm a big fan of Chopping Mall, and it's non-robot sister movie Night Of The Comet.) So. Aida. Nice little twist there at the end. We'll see if she's actually pulling one over on him. Vijay. What? Did his Inhuman powers turn him into the biggest idiot on the planet? Did he seriously get on a helicopter with someone (the watchdog guy) who just tried to kill him? I guess luckily for him he'll magically survive somehow, and now it's my hope that he comes back and dies in every single episode due to sheer stupidity.
Well, remember, he and Senator Nadeer made a pact to kill whichever one of them fell prey to the Inhuman "infection" (an ignorant interpretation, since of course only people who have Inhuman DNA in them already will be affected by Terrigen). Vijay protested because he was convinced that he'd fought it off and emerged still human. Once he discovered that he actually was Inhuman now, he was probably conflicted -- he instinctively fought for survival, but once the reality of his "infection" began to sink in, he might've been more ambivalent, or at least confused enough to go with his sister no matter what. And remember, it wasn't the Watchdog leader who killed Vijay -- it was Senator Nadeer who murdered her own brother. You could tell in the close-up of the gun firing that the shooter was directly across from him (Watchdog guy was beside him), and the sleeve matched the senator's outfit.
hmmm, I know they both have Kelli Maroney but I'm curious how they're sister movies. I haven't seen the former in quite a while.
Anyone wanting to take a bet that Coulson already knows he's being played? The location of the Darkhold was only known to him and he told Agent May (the LMD) while they were locked up. Moments later Aida tries to walk out of it.. a simple feat of logic would reveal that something is not right with May. I really hope the writers put that in intentionally and will exploit it later on as a "twist" when Coulson puts the wrench in Aida's plans at the best possible moment.
It should get at least a short 5th season especially as next season could tie into Avengers 3. I presume the brother will return?
I thought during the first attempt on his life that Vijay's power was going to be a healing factor, so I was a bit disappointed when it turned out to be a "generic" fast speed power (no different from Yo-Yo's, just presented differently). When they dumped his body in the water, I thought again maybe he would have a healing factor as an additional power. I wonder if instead of a healing factor, he'll always re-cocoon and perhaps further he'll get another power with each cocooning? That being said, I agree Vijay was being stupid about the Watchdogs, regardless to the fact that his sister actually shot him. I'm disappointed that Radcliffe is actually behind the whole situation with AIDA. I found the situation far more compelling that the Darkhold affected her and caused operate with free will from Radcliffe's programing. Instead, we have Radcliffe acting like yet another scientist driven passionately towards an insane prospect towards power and knowledge. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but the writing comes off rather generic despite John Hannah's performance. And perhaps the Darkhold did actually affect AIDA and she was the one to actually make copies of herself, but that seems unlikely to me. I loved Mack's ranting about 80's robot films and the coming of the robot apocalypse. However, I was bummed out that he and Yo-Yo called out Salvation as the weakest film of the Terminator series. While I know I'm in the minority about the film, I still think Genisys is a far, far worse film. I certainly think that's case, especially considering the look on his face when he picked up the book. Did you see the tag at the end of the episode where it shows Vijay re-cocooning in the water?
Umm..you missed the point. The bearded guy who reminds me of Tex on The Last Ship ACTIVEY attacked Vijay along with his goons. WHy in the world would Vijay get on a chopper with HIM , and IMMEDIATELY after that incident? with his sister -- she stopped them from killing Vijay previously, and could have played they subsequent assassination as out of her control...and that her call to leave ASAP would make sense. Yeah, we all know she killed him...but up until that point, Vijay believed she loved him enough to not kill him. Pseudo-tex, on the other hand...
Especially when in response to YoYo's comment about a child robot, Mack muttered "small wonder". This was an obscure 80's TV show about a chold robot. Don't know if Vijay will re-cocoon, but I definitely think he survives the gunshot and bottom of the ocean. I was a bit disappointed that the Darkhold had nothing to do with Aida's actions, as well. But I like surprises, and it surprised me that she was still having her strings pulled, so that was a good thing, overall, IMO. So, wonder if Aida's programming of May is leading Melinda to get so extra chummy with Coulson. Sparks were flying. It's sort of funny to me watching the show these days. I follow Ming-na on Twitter and she always tweets comments and pictures of the other actor's on the show that let you know she views them simply as friends and co-workers. It's kind of cute.
Yo-Yo/Elena/Slingshot's power is distinct from a typical speedster power in that it only operates in short bursts and, for some reason, requires her to return to her starting point afterward (like a yo-yo). Vijay had, as you say, a more generic speedster ability, at least in terms of having increased reaction time and dodging speed. Again, as I said, he and his sister both wanted to be killed if turned into an Inhuman. Vijay's survival instincts kicked in at first, but once it sank in that he really was "infected," he might not have been that concerned about self-preservation anymore. It would be stupid if he wanted to live, but he may have been ambivalent about that. Well, that would've been a bit too similar to Ultron, I think. And having it turn out that Radcliffe is the real mastermind after all is a nice subversion of Mac and Elena's warnings about how the machines always gain autonomy and take over. That's such a cliche that they spent the whole episode having those two talk about what a cliche it was (to the point of excess, I felt), so that made it pretty inevitable that they'd subvert our expectations and reveal that what was actually happening was something different. Which is pretty much in character, given that he was introduced as a collaborator with Hive last season. He's always been morally gray at best. We were just too quick to believe that a villain's erstwhile accomplice was actually a nice guy after all because he was funny and charismatic and had the same accent as Fitz. I haven't seen Genisys, but Salvation was definitely terrible. Its only saving grace was Anton Yelchin, although he was so good as Reese that it just called attention to how disappointing Christian Bale was as Connor.