Agents of SHIELD: Season 6

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by OCD Geek, Jul 18, 2018.

  1. USS Firefly

    USS Firefly Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2013
    Me too, now my weekend is ruined ;)
     
  2. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2003
    Location:
    RJDiogenes of Boston
    Eh, I like the little fuzzy guy. :rommie:
     
  3. Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs

    Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2017
    Location:
    Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs
    I liked him when he was fawning over Fitz and Simmons...him on his own was a lot less fun.
     
  4. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2000
    Location:
    Lost in a temporal and spatial anomaly
    Great season opener.

    So they've jumped a year and during that time, Quake, Simmons, Piper, and Davis have searched the ends of the galaxy for Fitz, while Mack, May, and Yo-Yo have done their best to rebuild SHIELD while dealing with a new mysterious threat. But...as expected, absolutely no reference to the Snap and looks like life as usual.

    I liked that not only did they not find Fitz right away, there's fighting among our heroes about what to do next, even when Simmons finds an admittedly thin and desperate lead (I knew she would find something in the coffin, even though I expected it to be a message). Ultimately, Simmons takes advantage of an ambush and overrides the group decision to go back home. Davis is going to be pissed.

    I also liked the team's mode of transportation: Using chunks of the Monolith to make jumps across the galaxy. I was worried the show would handwave their means of traveling so I'm relieved to see this quick explanation.

    Earthside, the episode did just enough to make the new mysterious threat interesting before bringing out the big reveal: Sarge looks just like Coulson.

    I feel like this episode confirms my theory that they're from an alternative universe but I admit there's just enough wiggle room for another explanation.

    So...any guesses what exactly Fitz was up to in the stinger? Something to do with an arena maybe?

    It was great to see Enoch again, but I fear he died during the attack. Pity if his appearance was a glorified cameo.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2019
  5. OCD Geek

    OCD Geek Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Location:
    New Jersey
    I love Piper and Davis having expanded roles with more to do. And I'm really liking
    Yo-Yo's new boyfriend
    and the scientist guy. Season 4 on they've really been doing a great job of fleshing out new characters.

    Here's hoping Enoch's just in hiding or something and stays a recurring ally for the team. At the very, very least I'd want him to find out he succeeded in saving humanity before they kill him off.
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2019
  6. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Well, half of people are still around, and the distribution of the disappearances seemed pretty irregular. Maybe there are parts of the country where most people are still around, or maybe the remaining population just consolidated in certain areas to be closer together. So there could be areas where life superficially seems to have returned to roughly normal. I know, it's a stretch, but it's conceivable.

    Heck, since it's only a year or so after Infinity War instead of 5 years, maybe the people are still kind of in the denial phase, trying not to talk or think about it and pretend life is carrying on normally. By year 5, they've come around to acceptance. (shrug)

    I kinda wish they'd just done the whole season in space and dodged the issue of what happened on Earth. Of course, the Snap happened everywhere else too, but we wouldn't know any of the people or places out in space, so we wouldn't know what was and wasn't normal.


    Oh, so that's what they were doing.


    The episode descriptions for 6x02 and 6x03 both mention "Fitz and Enoch."
     
    OCD Geek likes this.
  7. OCD Geek

    OCD Geek Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Location:
    New Jersey
    Episode 3 sounds weird. I'm in.
     
  8. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Location:
    Florida
    I loved Bear McCreary's little musical nod to "Alien" right at the beginning during the close-up on Fitz's pod.
     
  9. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2000
    Location:
    Lost in a temporal and spatial anomaly
    For those of us who don't have good ears (or didnt have the close captioning on, here's what the guy died in the concrete wall said to Benson, as per A.V. Club's review:

    Benson gets an appropriate welcome to the team when the seemingly dead man animates just long enough to warn the team, “Can’t stop it; it’s coming. Pachakutik. Wave goodbye.” Pachakutik is a Quechua or Kichwa concept that refers to a massive, global change and is connected with creation myths, and more recently has been tied to indigenous rights movements in South America. What it means for our heroes is a set of inter-dimensional travelers, seemingly headed by the grizzled doppelganger of the late, lamented Phil Coulson, who drives a truck through an exploded natural history museum to cross into our reality.
    I wonder how many people picked up on the Pachakutik bit and what it means (I certainly didn't). It's probably intended as just as a neat Easter Egg of what's to come for those who are paying attention.

    Yeah, that mental gymnastics works for this episode but I wonder hoe well it'll hold for the whole season, especially considering the showrunners have already said they're not addressing it at all.

    As the A.V. Club review notes, it's good that they split up the crew to give the season more steam in the long run, but I agree that it is unfortunate that by doing this, the whole issue isn't sidestepped.
     
  10. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2003
    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    The captioning I saw spelled "Pachakutiq"...but close enough. Seems to be almost akin to Christian apocalyptic concepts.
     
  11. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2003
    Location:
    Norfolk, VA
    I hate to keep harping on the Endgame thing, so I'll just say this. I think it's not entirely fair to evaluate until the season is done. I'll wait and see what they have planned for this season and then try to see how it fits. They're obviously not going to address it, but the question is whether it's possible for it to exist in a post-snap world. I will say that five years after the snap would have been difficult event if everyone had been dusted and come back. The hunt for Fitz sort of needs that urgency that wouldn't quite be the same if the characters didn't know if Fitz was missing for five years or five minutes.

    On other thoughts: I hope the season has some more clear Marvel comics connections. There's a reference to The Controller. The neck injection makes me wonder if it's the Iron Man villain. But it could also just be something generic.

    The implication for the Earth-based badguys is that they're from some kind of afterlife where they transformed after death. It could also just be travelers from another universe. I'd love to see some kind of connection here rather than original creation.
     
  12. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2003
    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Real-world thought: I wonder when the existence of Marcus Benson will be invoked as a cause for complaint about the series by various authoritarian regimes across the planet.

    In-universe thought: did Dr. Benson lose his husband to the Snap or to something else to be revealed later?
     
  13. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2000
    Location:
    Lost in a temporal and spatial anomaly
    According to Wikipedia, ending with a "q" is the Quecha spelling and ending with a "k" is the Kichwa spelling, so they're both right.
     
  14. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2004
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    This was a premiere with some interesting set up for what's to come this season.
    I loved Mack watching the hologram of Coulson.
    It's nice to see some of the smaller supporting characters, like Piper, get some attention.
    I'm definitely getting an alternate universe vibe from everything happening Sarge and his people. At first I thought maybe the mention of ley lines was going to mean they were from some kind of fantasy world, but the truck and other technology makes that seem unlikely. Either way, the way they're using portals definitely makes me think it's more just regular interplanetary travel.
    It still kind of amazes me how much the show has changed since it started. We've gone from barely even having people with simple superpowers, to have multiple main characters with powers, space travel, aliens, time travel, and now possibly alternate universes.
    The effects for the people coming through the cement wall was pretty cool. They really have some of the best special effects on TV right now.
    Sarge and Co. seem like they'll be pretty good villains for at least this first part of the season.
    Sarge recognizing the Coulson's name in the preview for next week is our first real hint there might be some kind of connection between the two of them.
    I wondered about that too, it was vague enough I could see it going either way.
     
  15. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Location:
    Florida
    Having seen the first episode, the situation does seem ripe for a re-contextualizing retcon. I'm blanking on specific examples, but I know there have been other shows that have filled-in backstory in later episodes which shored up the earlier ones upon re-watch, even if that hadn't necessarily been the case. Talking about the decimation later in the season as a fact of life could be enough to add shading to the earlier episodes where they hadn't intentionally been using it.

    Not that there aren't other solutions. Alternate reality (blech, why not just say the whole series was a dream, they're equally terrible as quick-fixes), or kicking the timeline back as I described earlier (which gets you the greatest thing about tying in with IW, having people start dissolving away at the worst possible time), for instance.
     
  16. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Same as the Arrowverse. Arrow started out as a grounded, street-level show about vigilantes, but then we got a superpower serum, then the Flash and metahumans, time travel and parallel Earths, magic, aliens, etc. And before that, Smallville started out trying very hard to strip away all the comic-book elements and rework the Superman origin story to appeal to non-comics fans who'd just see it as a teen drama with a supernatural/SF element, but by the last few seasons it had a bunch of costumed heroes and a Justice League and Doomsday and Darkseid and so forth.

    These days, thanks to the MCU's success, comic-book wackiness is accepted. But it used to be that you had to ease the general public and the network suits into it by starting out with a more sedate, toned-down version and only gradually folding in more fanciful elements.


    Anyway, what amazes me is how Daisy has been holed up on the Zephyr for months, combing the disreputable backwaters of the galaxy, yet somehow manages to have supermodel-gorgeous hair and makeup. I wonder both "How?" -- was Davis or Piper a professional stylist in their pre-SHIELD life? -- and "Why?" -- how does looking that sultry play into creating a scary reputation for Quake?
     
  17. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2011
    Location:
    astral plane
    I think it would be a shame for AoS not to address Endgame events.

    Includes Endgame spoilers:

    As of Endgame, there are, IIRC, three mechanisms of time travel in the MCU. By chronological order of introduction:

    1. The Eye of Agamotto/Time Stone in Doctor Strange (2016).
    2. The White Monolith in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 (2017-2018).
    3. The quantum method discovered by Ant-Man and perfected by Iron Man in Endgame (2019).

    Since the limitations of Fitz's understanding of time travel was such a prominent plot point in AoS S5, IMO it would be a shame/wasted opportunity if the subject of the nature of time travel in all its forms weren't revisited in AoS S6, in light of Endgame events.
     
  18. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2004
    Location:
    Lancaster, PA
    It's not lying. It's acting. :)
     
  19. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2002
    Location:
    UK
    There's a very practical set of reasons why the showrunners are flat-out ignoring 'Endgame', mostly rooted in the simple reality that they had about as much inside knowledge about the post-snap world as we did back when the season was written and shot last year.

    For now I'm taking the "squint real hard and try not to think about it" approach, since theorising would be a waste of time. I mean sure this could be the timeline where Thor went for the head before the snap, but since they're never going to address it one way or the other, what difference does it really make?
     
    The Nth Doctor likes this.
  20. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Location:
    Florida
    Wow, flashback! I remember a vocal contingent who thought AoS was terrible schlock back when it started because Skye had such expensive-looking hair while she was a computer hacker living in an old van, utterly destroying the verisimilitude we'd come to expect from the MCU. I guess the one thing that hasn't changed about the show since it began is Daisy's inhumanly manageable hair. Reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes and "the most common superpower."