Agents of SHIELD. Season 1 Discussion Thread

Or maybe they didn't have the keys.

 

Can Lola fly? Or is it just a hover car?

 

Wow, this was really good. Our first Fitz/Simmons focus -- mainly Simmons -- and a good Coulson episode dealing with what he went through. The scene with Coulson and the doomed firefighter was very powerful, and the stuff with Jemma when everyone thought she was going to die was strong too. And wow, that act-break cliffhanger... or hatch-faller-out-of... shocking. Plus the skydiving scene was really cool. Oh, and the music was really good too.

And I think we can safely rule out the Life Model Decoy theory for Coulson. With a few exceptions, LMDs are robotic and can't pass as human on a medical exam. Now we know that Coulson has normal human vitals, he has blood, and he has scars.

What if we've been misled? What if Coulson really did survive exactly the way he said -- by getting medical treatment in the nick of time -- and the secret that "he can never know" is about something else, something that happened during his recuperation? Maybe he witnessed something so traumatic, or caused something so awful to happen, that he had to have his memory of it erased.

A car is much heavier than a parachute and thus would take more time to accelerate off the ramp, not to mention the time to warm up its flying engines. Not to mention that its larger cross-section would create more drag and make it harder to catch up with Simmons (which was implausible enough as it was given Simmons's headstart and the fact that she wasn't trying to slow her descent). The parachute was undoubtedly the better option there.

Or Jeffrey Bell's?

I didn't catch that. And from context, was it a reference to the Marvel Comics character of that name, the fighter and pyrokinetic, or to the real-life historical figure of that name, the plague carrier?

They're colleagues, fellow scientists. It's a close relationship, but it's a work relationship, a professional partnership.

That happened with Buffy in the pilot and in Angel somewhat later (and reluctantly in that case), but it did not happen with any of the main characters in Firefly and Dollhouse. So of Whedon's four previous TV series, it only happened in the first two, and happened differently each time. I don't think that really qualifies as a tendency.

 

^ Given that this is a Marvel TV show, my first thought was that she was referencing the comic book character. I thought... Does S.H.I.E.L.D. have a file on the character from Elektra? Or is she simply a comic book character in this universe? But now that you mention it, it sounds like the historical figure.

 

I was initially wondering if it would be Zzaxx. Well, my first thought was Electro, but then I remembered he's a Spider-Man villain (indeed, I used him in my Spidey novel, so I'd better remember that), so they couldn't use him.

 

I think this was the best episode yet.

 

They need to hire this writer again. More characterization in this one than the previous five.

 

Indeed, also the best use yet of Fitzsimmons.

 

Terrific episode, the best one to date. A lot of strong character work, especially from FitzSimmons.

 

I was thinking the same thing about Zzaxx.

It was cool seeing Titus Welliver pop up again as Agent Blake from the Item 47 one-shot.

 

I thought it was a pretty good episode that was focused more on Fitzsimmons, their very close relationship, and their interaction with other team members, in particular, Agent Ward. I've always noticed that Fitz is attracted to Skye, but his relationship with Simmons hasn't always been very clear to me. It appears to be platonic. I mean, why would he flirt with Skye if he and Jemma were an item? Unless, of course, they're polyamorous.

 

Well, I'm conflicted about this episode. Its main plot was beyond predictable once the virus was mentioned. I knew immediately that one of them would get the virus, and get cured in the nick of time. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the two tech people. I don't find them annoying, like Skye and Ward, but they are basically just the plot required tech babblers. They think up the needed tech/science solution to the problems the group faces. This episode gave them character development, I guess, but it was nothing unexpected. She was willing to nobly sacrifice herself, and they may be attracted to each other. That wasn't anything I didn't expect.

On the other hand, the Coulson stuff was cool, and the episode wasn't focused on Skye/Ward, so it definately had some positives. I don't think it was the strongest episode by far, but it was better than The Asset, and it wasn't bad. It was just fairly predictable, and its character stuff was just fairly standard. The next episode looks like a fairly average story, but I'm hoping it isn't just another generic adventure.

 

It played out to me that Fitz was somewhat oblivious to Simmons until the moment of his "right beside me" speech to her. It appeared to open his eyes a bit to the possibility.

 

Wait. Simmons was the one talking to Fitz at the end. She sounded very sentimental.

 

He still thinks that she is a man, but she's keeping him in her back pocket until he's properly formed.

 

I adore FitzSimmons so much.

Really good episode, loved all the character work. Everybody got something - absolutely everybody. Ward's willingness to play along with FitzSimmons jokes, May's being a sounding board for Coulsen and that tiniest little hint more about what happened to her, Coulsen's scene with the firefighter and his continuing struggle with what happened to him, Skye's real attachment to these people, and of course FitzSimmons got the focus.

Maybe it's just me, but does anybody think the episode title "FZZT" is also kind of a play on who gets the focus (well, half of the combined name, but you get my drift)?

Nice to see some reasonable followup from Avengers and get a sense of how Coulson's a bit rogueish these days unlike before. I'm off the LMD bandwagon now too, and if they focus instead on the aftereffects of what happened to him I'll be happy - thought there is still the lingering "He must never know" mystery.

Agreed. Their connection has always been more than just professional or friendly, he's just never really been aware of it as such. They're Xander and Willow... but even closer.

 

Here's what I find absolutely unforgivable.

An episode about floating corpses, almost on top of that Thor Movie coming out where there's all sorts of floating stuff.

I thought a crossover was upon me.

Bastards!