Agents of SHIELD: Season 6

[DEWLine]

And SHIELD went from absurd to funny to scary to gruesome and back to funny again tonight.

(Seriously, they can have a TV series last over half a decade, but they won't let a comics series last more than a year? Yes, I'm going to be scolded for ignoring realities of entertainment commerce...again.)

 

[Christopher]

So apparently Sarge's team is after those alien bird-bat parasite things, so maybe they're the good guys after all in a hard-edged, take-no-prisoners kind of way. Yet they also still seem to be hunting people not native to this world or time. Could it be that Deke's and the SHIELD team's extratemporal signatures are giving false positives and Sarge's team thinks they have the bird things inside them?

That's probably the largest on-camera role I've ever seen Maurissa Tancharoen have, and I'm surprised it took this long for her to give herself one on her own show. The tag scene was really self-indulgent.

Why didn't Yo-Yo use her superspeed to catch the superspeed bird thing? She just stood there dumbly for maybe a minute, then said later on "I'm ready this time." Hello? Why wasn't she ready the first time? Also, why doesn't the SHIELD medical lab have some kind of automatic quarantine/lockdown system in place?

 

[The Scottish Nightmare]

Is that alien bird-bat thing from the comics? Doesn’t ring a bell with me.

 

[JD]

The stuff with Deke was pretty fun, that was definitely not what I expected him to be doing. Seqoia was pretty funny.
The reveal of the parasite things was interesting. They were calling it a bird, but it looks more like a bat me me.
So I wonder if the bat things are actually responsible for the planet being we saw in the video a couple weeks ago being destroyed, not Sarge and Co. and they're actually trying to stop them. Maybe the team members are all refugees from planets destroyed by the bat things.
The reference to cordyceps reminded me of how much those fucking things freak me out. I saw a clip on a nature show years ago where they actually showed an ant that had been infected by cordyceps, and they took control of it's body, made it climb a blade of grass, and then once it made it to the top it's head burst open and spread the spores. As you can probably imagine that's left a very strong, long lasting negative impression. The Last of Us also didn't help in that regard.

 

[The Nightmare Doctor]

Oh, boy. A Deke-centric episode that focuses on him as the head of one of those obnoxious tech start-ups full of shallow people.

The only good thing to come out of that entire plot was May fighting Jason Bourne-style against Snowflake. I'm intrigued to see how May and Not-Coulson interact next episode.

The parasitic alien bird/bat plotline was far more interesting, if only for the science-fiction weirdness. We haven't had enough time to really get to know Keller that well, so I didn't really care that he was infected, but I did feel for Yo-Yo when she didn't hesitate to kill him when she had to, showing that she wasn't compromised in their relationship.

The stinger was the absolute worst.

Why didn't Yo-Yo use her superspeed to catch the superspeed bird thing? She just stood there dumbly for maybe a minute, then said later on "I'm ready this time." Hello? Why wasn't she ready the first time? Also, why doesn't the SHIELD medical lab have some kind of automatic quarantine/lockdown system in place?

Yeah, that bugged the hell out of me. Even worse was Keller trying to shoot at it.

 

[Christopher]

but I did feel for Yo-Yo when she didn't hesitate to kill him when she had to, showing that she wasn't compromised in their relationship.

I think he was already effectively dead at that point. All that crystal tearing apart his body from the inside would've killed him pretty much instantly. At most, she was putting him out of his misery, if he wasn't already gone.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Why didn't Yo-Yo use her superspeed to catch the superspeed bird thing? She just stood there dumbly for maybe a minute, then said later on "I'm ready this time." Hello? Why wasn't she ready the first time?

She was trying to remember where she put the broom.

 

[The Nightmare Doctor]

I think he was already effectively dead at that point. All that crystal tearing apart his body from the inside would've killed him pretty much instantly. At most, she was putting him out of his misery, if he wasn't already gone.

Certainly, but we've seen plenty of times in other shows, films, books, etc. where a person is unable to kill a significant who is otherwise lost to put them out of their misery because of the emotional connection. My point is Yo-Yo demonstrated she wasn't compromised in such a manner as Mack highlighted in an earlier scene.

 

[Christopher]

Certainly, but we've seen plenty of times in other shows, films, books, etc. where a person is unable to kill a significant who is otherwise lost to put them out of their misery because of the emotional connection. My point is Yo-Yo demonstrated she wasn't compromised in such a manner as Mack highlighted in an earlier scene.

My point is, I don't think Yo-Yo did kill him, because the erupting crystals had already done that. All she killed was the creature. (Or more likely she rendered it dormant again, because it came back to life the first time that knife was removed from it.)

 

[The Nightmare Doctor]

My point is, I don't think Yo-Yo did kill him, because the erupting crystals had already done that. All she killed was the creature. (Or more likely she rendered it dormant again, because it came back to life the first time that knife was removed from it.)

Yes, but that's irrelevant to my point or the scene. Just look at the expression on her face. She's mournful and not just because he's dead.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I have to admit, that while I expected Keller to either be a bad guy, ala Ward, or to die in order to clear the way for Mack and Yo-yo to get back together, I just didn't expect it to be this soon.

Mack, being Mack, will probably feel more responsibility for this than he should. Hell, if he'd just let Keller tell him about him and Elena, and separated them as per protocol, Keller would still be alive. Why didn't he let Keller tell him? Was he being considerate of Elena moving on, or was it that he just didn't want to acknowledge that he had lost her? I'm sure Mack will be revisiting his motivations in the days to come.

 

[Christopher]

I just didn't expect it to be this soon.

Well, it's only a 13-episode season, and so far it's split between two independent storylines. Which means that each one is going to develop pretty quickly.

Hell, if he'd just let Keller tell him about him and Elena, and separated them as per protocol, Keller would still be alive.

Or Yo-Yo would be dead.

 

[Marc]

didn't finish last weeks episode (Daisy and Gemma getting blasted didn't appeal) and it sounds like this week's episode is a candidate for being dumped from the pvr without having been watched.

 

[JD]

If you plan on continuing to watch the season past this point, I'd watch it, there are some pretty significant development's you'd miss out on if you don't.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I have to admit, that while I expected Keller to either be a bad guy, ala Ward, or to die in order to clear the way for Mack and Yo-yo to get back together, I just didn't expect it to be this soon.

Funny thing is, in his first scene this week I was getting a strong "yeah, this guy's gonna die sooner rather than later" vibe. When the bat-thing flew into his mouth: "Yep!"

 

[JD]

More often than not in these kinds of shows when they emphasis how well things are going for someone, they'll end up dead by the end of the episode.

 

[Jayson Poorknees]

I actually didn't see him dying. I felt he was going to be around in part because you got more than a handful of your characters flying around in space and they would want another character on the team to use. Of course I can see in retrospect they in essence switching him out for Deke who hadn't been in any of the episodes as of yet.


Jason

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, Fuzzy Guy is finally back, and using his future survival skills to thrive in the world of big business. It's kind of weird that he's had no contact with SHIELD for a year, and that they let his little startup get so far, even though they've had an undercover agent palling around with him. But I guess they've been busy. And while he's still the same boy he used to be, it's notable that he went unarmed into the danger zone to rescue his annoying Millennial girlfriend. Her little adventure video on Instagram, or whatever, cracked me up. That brush with death really made her think deep thoughts.

But it's interesting that he's a target of Mirror Coulson and his Biker Gang. That one guy they killed had an alien bird bat living in his chest, so does that mean he's got one, too, or are they just misreading his origin in an alternate timeline? In any case, it looks like that alien parasite is what we saw flocking up that alternate dimension on the video. But there were also those weird crystalline structures, so is the threat an invasive species or some kind of nano plague? Or both? And what exactly is Mirror Coulson's involvement?

Looks like YoYo's boyfriend should have stayed in Haven-- he should have known that few survive a romance with a main cast member. It's a shame, because I like that guy, but it does clear the way for Mack and YoYo to hopefully get back together. Poor YoYo deserves a break.

The new professor character is working out quite well, I think. His grumpiness is amusing, and he's fascinated by everything in spite of himself.

 

[The Old Mixer]

his annoying Millennial girlfriend

The actress is a Gen Xer (born in '75).

 

[Reverend]

ETA: I'm not very well up on my Marvel lore, but does anyone have any clue what this world-eating-parasite-bat-crystal thing is supposed to be?
For a moment I thought maybe this could be something to do with the Technarchy/Phalanx from the X-Men comics, but then I realised to Fox deal hadn't even been finalised when they wrote and shot all this last year.
Is there any other plague type of thing that might foot the bill? is it possible they're just dropping adapting comics and going with something original?

I have to admit, that while I expected Keller to either be a bad guy, ala Ward, or to die in order to clear the way for Mack and Yo-yo to get back together, I just didn't expect it to be this soon.

Mack, being Mack, will probably feel more responsibility for this than he should. Hell, if he'd just let Keller tell him about him and Elena, and separated them as per protocol, Keller would still be alive. Why didn't he let Keller tell him? Was he being considerate of Elena moving on, or was it that he just didn't want to acknowledge that he had lost her? I'm sure Mack will be revisiting his motivations in the days to come.

Honestly, I'd really rather they not just have Mack and Elena get back together again. I think it'd feel like contrived drama especially since their break-up was off-screen after what seemed like (despite some conflict) a fairly secure relationship at the end of season 5.

If nothing else, it'd be nice to have Elena have a reason for being around that doesn't somehow orbit around Mack being there. She was introduced as a crusader for justice and has sort of been reduced to "Mack's love interest". I think they can do better with this cast.