No one said it WAS a SHIELD allusion-- rather, it SHOULD have been. The writers have been great about allusions to the DC universe/previous incarnations in various fashions (whether namedrops or the 90's actors).....they seem to be fanboys (and girls) enough, that they might even be willing to drop a MARVEL Easter Egg (especially as SHIELD follows Flash, albeit on a different network. No DOubt, there would be MANY crossover viewers who would blow this up on Twitter & Facebook)
"Should" have been? Really? Easter eggs can be an entertaining indulgence from time to time, but when you get to the point that you think they "should" be the driving force behind storytelling, that they're some kind of necessity for the quality of the story, then you've gone far too deep into self-referentialism for its own sake. Honestly, last week's
Flash episode had far too many Easter eggs as it was. They should stop trying so hard to show how many references they can cram into the story and focus more on just plain telling a story.
I don't think
Morpheus is saying that Easter eggs should be the driving force behind storytelling; just that in this particular case, given that the creators of the show are admitted fans of comic properties from both DC and Marvel, that the mention of Tahiti was a reference to Agents of SHIELD. Maybe that's presumptuous, since -- as you previously pointed out -- Tahiti doesn't always mean "T.A.H.I.T.I." but I think that it's a valid interpretation of the creator's intentions here.
As for last week's episode cramming in too many Easter eggs to the point of distraction, that wasn't my experience but I can definitely see your point. If a viewer is focusing on the Easter eggs instead of the story, then the show's producers aren't doing their jobs well. The story should be strong and engaging enough that we miss many of the Easter eggs on our first time through.
That's what makes threads like this so much fun: I may catch one Easter egg, you may catch another, and someone else may spot one that we both missed. If
all of us notice
all of the Easter eggs, then either 1) they were too obvious and/or not concealed well, or 2) no one was paying any attention to the narrative.
As the situation stands right now, I'm enjoying the level of Easter eggs being doled out to us on Arrow, the Flash, and SHIELD. Maybe it's memories of the not-so-distant past, of being so starved for references to comic's shared universes that I totally flipped out when Robin mentioned Metropolis in
Batman Forever. Someone once said, "a poor man will never be too rich, a starving man will never have too much food." I think this applies to long-time comic book fans and Easter eggs, as well.
