Agents of SHIELD: Season 6

[JD]

It would be a waste, a cheat, and a disservice to Clark Gregg if they just reset him to the old familiar Coulson rather than letting him and the writers continue to develop this new character and discover new facets to him.

Yeah, I think it would be a lot more interesting to keep him around as Sarge, espcially if he actually ended up on the team. Seeing them have to continue to deal with someone who likes Coulson but isn't, and seeing him have work under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s rules after about a century of doing his own thing, would be a lot more interesting than just reseting things back to how they were before this season.
If Sarge sticks around, I wonder if we might see at least one or two members of his team stick around too. I wouldn't mind if Snowflake and/or the big guy stuck around, I'm rather indifferent to Pax, so if someone were to go, he would be my choice.

 

[Jayson1]

I think it would be neat if Sarge stuck around and has to pretend to be Coulson. While pretending he learns more and more about his connection to real Coulson. Jason

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, things are starting to come together-- literally, in some respects. The Shrike Ubers have all converged to spawn their crystalline entity and Sarge is ready to take it out in a very un-subtle way. Meanwhile, Punk Girl From Beyond The Stars has arrived on Earth to find her missing monoliths, with FitzSimmons in tow. Somebody should play Also Sprach Zarathustra.

It's kind of odd that Punk Girl fed Shrikes to the whole crew, but not Fitz and Simmons. What's so special about them? And we still don't know why she brings the Shrike infestation to world after world-- unless she's just Queen Shrike, spreading her babies around the universe so they'll have a nice life and be happy.

And how is it that Sarge speaks perfect English and drives an Earth truck, but doesn't know about things like miles or DNA? I wonder if Coulson was duplicated and thrown into the past and lost his memory, which will be restored by the end of the story, effectively bringing back the real Coulson but with the added baggage of a hundred years worth of guilty conscience for all the killing. Sigh.

And Enoch is still around! He has his own plans for finding a new homeland for the Chronocomonites-- but the evil Chronocomonites are still around and apparently backed up FitzSimmons' brains. You'd think people with "Chrono" in their name would already know everything about time travel.....

 

[The Old Mixer]

And that's twice now that Sarge has avoided answering a direct question about his age.

 

[Christopher]

I get the sense that Sarge isn't evading, he just doesn't know or care. I think when the truth comes out, it might be as much a surprise to him as to the SHIELD gang.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Evading is the action. Why he's evading is the motivation for the action. He is evading, but in this case instead of answering with trash talk about having experienced relativistic time, he just got defensive. Why he's evading probably does have something to do with his not knowing and either being very sensitive about that issue or having some sort of instinct / mental block that causes him to want to avoid looking into it. Or he knows perfectly well and it involves something he's deliberately hiding.

 

[Christopher]

Why he's evading probably does have something to do with his not knowing

I think that's a contradiction in terms. Evasion is hiding from a question, avoiding an honest answer. If the honest answer is "I don't know," then evasion would be pretending you do know.

I think Sarge honestly doesn't know or care about his connection to this Coulson guy. I think he only cares about his fight, and the fact that there's some dead guy who was his twin doesn't help him with his fight, so it's irrelevant to him (except insofar as he can use it to manipulate the SHIELD team).

 

[The Old Mixer]

But if he really doesn't know, he's avoiding just saying so...and that's evasion.

 

[Christopher]

But if he really doesn't know, he's avoiding just saying so....

Is he? I think he's made it pretty clear that he simply has nothing to say on the subject and no interest in pursuing it. That's not active avoidance, just disinterest (in its correct sense of having no stake or investment in a matter). Avoidance is playing dodge ball; disinterest is walking past the gym because you have better things to do. He's not dodging the question, he's just refusing to engage with the question in the first place because it's irrelevant to him.

Remember, in his second episode there was that scene where Sarge and Pax (I think) were alone in the cab of the truck, and Pax asked him if he understood the word "Coulson" that had been directed at him a couple of times, and and he said "No, but it rings a bell." So he did say he doesn't know, in a context where he had no reason to lie, since he was alone with a member of his crew.

 

[David cgc]

It's kind of odd that Punk Girl fed Shrikes to the whole crew, but not Fitz and Simmons. What's so special about them?

They're the Local Knowledge. My impression from what happened to Yo-Yo's boyfriend is that when a Shrike takes over a person (sometime after actually getting inside of them), they more-or-less kill the host and puppet the corpse around. Fitz and Simmons aren't useful as meat puppets, they're useful because they know about Earth Stuff.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Is he? I think he's made it pretty clear that he simply has nothing to say on the subject and no interest in pursuing it. That's not active avoidance, just disinterest (in its correct sense of having no stake or investment in a matter). Avoidance is playing dodge ball; disinterest is walking past the gym because you have better things to do. He's not dodging the question, he's just refusing to engage with the question in the first place because it's irrelevant to him.

That's why it's noteworthy to me that he's evaded the question twice, in two different ways. The first time was more casual and might have been written off as disinterest. The second time he seemed much more defensive about it, which indicates that there's something more going on with his refusal to directly address his actual age.

 

[Christopher]

That's why it's noteworthy to me that he's evaded the question twice, in two different ways. The first time was more casual and might have been written off as disinterest. The second time he seemed much more defensive about it, which indicates that there's something more going on with his refusal to directly address his actual age.

We're not going to agree on this. As I said, what you see as evasion, I see as just not caring. He's not the audience. Phil Coulson is not someone he knows or cares about. He cares about finding Izel and killing her. Period. He's not invested enough in the Coulson question to bother evading it. He's just not on the same page to begin with. You saw defensiveness, I saw a guy getting sick of Daisy bringing up irrelevant distractions from his life-or-death mission.

And when did he refuse to address his age? He came right out and said that he's probably over a hundred. He doesn't seem to know more specifically than that, because his whole life is hunting Izel and he probably doesn't keep track of birthdays. It's not evasion if he honestly doesn't know and couldn't care less. He's just sick of people wasting his time with these useless questions. He's on the clock and they're just slowing him down with their warped priorities and useless sentiment for some dead guy.

What we need here are exact quotes. What did he actually say, word for word, when these questions were raised? If we had that, maybe we could settle this.

 

[The Old Mixer]

He indicated that the was over 100 because of relativistic-speed travel, which doesn't address his subjective age. It was a non-answer the first time he was asked.

 

[Christopher]

He indicated that the was over 100 because of relativistic-speed travel, which doesn't address his subjective age.

Of course it does, for our purposes. Relativistic travel only slows time, it doesn't speed it up or reverse it. The question is, was he born before or after Phil Coulson? If more than 100 years have passed on Earth since he was born, then that means he was born before Coulson, period. It doesn't matter what his exact subjective age is, only which one came first.

It was a non-answer the first time he was asked.

A non-answer isn't evasion if you genuinely don't have a more specific answer. I mean, if he's lived much of his life under relativistic time dilation, then it makes perfect sense that he wouldn't know exactly how much "objective" time passed on Earth in the meantime, that he'd only have a rough idea at best. Not knowing the answer does not equal hiding the answer.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Of course it does, for our purposes. Relativistic travel only slows time, it doesn't speed it up or reverse it. The question is, was he born before or after Phil Coulson? If more than 100 years have passed on Earth since he was born, then that means he was born before Coulson, period. It doesn't matter what his exact subjective age is, only which one came first.

Whatever forces may be behind Sarge being an exact match for Coulson may have a time travel element or other supernatural element that defies chronology. What Sarge's answer doesn't address is whether he even remembers having a full life of his own from chidhood on up. From his own perspective, his background and origins might still be a mystery.

 

[Christopher]

From his own perspective, his background and origins might still be a mystery.

Th... That's what I've been trying to convince you of this whole time!!! That he wasn't "evading" the question, he just honestly didn't know the answer! So are we actually in agreement???

 

[The Old Mixer]

Maybe...wouldn't count on it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

So to be clear, whatever universe AOS is taking place in, it's not one with The Avengers or any other superheroes in it. Real world reasons aside, they had 17 hours to get help from when Sarge set out and clearly don't have anyone to call.

All their calls went to voicemail.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Maybe...wouldn't count on it.

I dunno, that sounds evasive to me.

 

[DEWLine]

I get the sense that Sarge isn't evading, he just doesn't know or care. I think when the truth comes out, it might be as much a surprise to him as to the SHIELD gang.

Hoping for and expecting this at the moment.