Anomalies from the fear dimension are still leaking >>>
Sunday, April 05
Southern Comfort and Sin City actor Powers Boothe dies aged 68
Passes away in his sleep >>>
SPECULATION CORNER: What Does SHIELD Casting Mean For Fear The Walking Dead?
Is Chris long for this post-apocalyptic world? >>>
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD S03E21 “Absolution” REVIEW
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD S03E21 “Absolution” REVIEW
Airing in the UK on E4, Sundays, 9pm
Writers: Chris Dingess, Drew Z. Greenberg
Director: Billy Gierhart
Essential Plot Points:
- On Planet Craphole, the containment cell is sitting in the middle of a plain. Daisy is frantically hotwiring it as, nearby, a badly injured Phil talks to her. She explains that she’s intent on piloting the module back to Earth but he explains this is Earth and then…
- Daisy wakes up from her nightmare.
- Simmons comes to see Daisy. Daisy’s under lockdown and Simmons, while clearly concerned for her friend, is all business.
- Simmons explains that they’ve found a missile silo they’re confident fits Hive’s needs. Daisy warns her he’ll be there ahead of them and she explains that she knows and the staff went dark five hours ago.
- We see Hive take control of the silo as May, proving her astounding levels of badassery flies a Quinjet OUT OF THE OCEAN and deploys a strike team.
- Elsewhere, Talbot is pleading for the launch code to the silo as Fitz, just off shot, is quietly hacking the call. They get what they need and pass the details to…
- Phil! who tears over to the building the codes are held in as…
- In the silo May, Mack, Linc and YoYo tool up while…
- Back at SHIELD Fitz and Talbot are standing front of a green screen talking to the Under Secretary they need to obtain the override from. Fitz is in this frankly amazing motion cap outfit that turns him into the General they were just talking to. But he needs a box to stand on, because he’s adorable.
- At the silo, Hive prepares to launch his missile as Phil speeds up, flashes his ID and gets what he needs.
- Which is a massive code string with only 20 seconds to input it. Type, tiny Scottish man! TYPE LIKE THE WIND!
- Fitz speed types for his life as the countdown begins and… stops. They did it.
- In the silo, Hive and his team realise SHIELD have to be in the building. Hive orders Radcliffe to unlock the code and heads out to go to war with the strike team.
- Nearby Linc tries to reassure May that Andrew’s death meant something. She shuts him down. Nearby Mack and YoYo bicker, adorably, about how slow he works. He tries to give her back THE CRUCIFIX OF DEATH but she turns him down.
- Back at HQ Phil and Fitzsimmons are discussing how it’s going. Phil is worried that the team isn’t just facing Hive but everyone he’s absorbed.
- At the silo, Radcliffe and two of his primitives are reading the instruction booklets for how to turn the missile back on. It’s not going super well.
- At the control room, May makes her way inside while Hive confronts Lincoln. He goads the young inhuman into a fight, pressing the Daisy button over and over. It doesn’t work until Hive suggests Linc join him to find Daisy. Linc confronts him, then runs.
- At SHIELD, Phil goes to see Daisy to tell her how it’s going. They talk around the situation but when Phil tries to comfort Daisy she blows up. She tells him she’s a criminal, she deserves everything that’s coming to her and she should stay in the box forever.
- Phil pushes back, telling her vengeance isn’t the answer and that time and distance is what she needs. She retorts that she should be put in the memory machine and made to live in there as punishment. He replies that while they did bring it out of storage it’s not for her…
- Linc leads Hive to the boobytrap that Mack and YoYo were building. He uses his powers to trigger it (after YoYo – magnificently – finishes it in seconds having watched Captain Slow dawdle). The trap floods Hive with the memories of all his personalities, knocking him out. The SHIELD agents flee as the other Inhumans arrive to rescue Hive. But, as Hive constantly flashes back through old lives they realise it may be too late. He babbles but pulls it together just enough to tell the others to disconnect the warhead.
- Radcliffe and his two lackeys are making… well… some progress when May stops them. She’s jumped by the primitives and proceeds to beat seven shades of Terrigen out of them with typical, aggressive ease.
- Nearby, YoYo whose cranky speedster schtick is wonderful, rescues the silo staff.
- May is almost overrun when Radcliffe saves her. Yay – John Hannah face turn! But it’s too late…
- Hive steals the warhead.
- As they evacuate the silo, Hive confronts them. He’s mid-monolog when they drop a containment cell over his big stupid multi-life head and fill it with goo. Not so much as Han in carbonite as Hive in Gelatine.
- SHIELD just… won?
- Talbot congratulates Phil as he heads out. Phil points out the mission isn’t done until they’ve found the warhead. May arrives with Radcliffe to brief them. He tells them the process that created the primitives is irreversible and Talbot, proving he’s a career military man, essentially shouts him into working on a solution.
- Phil debriefs Linc and Mack and tells Linc he’d be a great agent. Linc reminds him Phil told him he had to want it and… he doesn’t. He doesn’t quite say that he’s going to settle down and open a pub once the war’s over but it’s pretty close.
- Mack, because he’s grumpily sweet, is disgusted that they haven’t told Daisy they’ve arrested Hive. He walks straight into the cell, tells her and has a long overdue heart to heart with Tremors. She reminds him what happened the last time they were in the same room and Mack does that thing he does where he’s huge and immovable and sweet. Daisy pushes him and pushes him and then just collapses, sobbing as the horror of the last few weeks slowly begins to come out.
- In the lab, Fitz discovers something dispiriting: Radcliffe, an engineer, was using biotech he could barely understand. It’ll take a decade to find a cure. Which, given his full-bore Scottish grimness, means sometime around season six.
- Simmons is a terrible liar so she reveals that she’s planning a romantic getaway. They, again, manage to be adorable while doing relationship stuff other shows would be awful at. On the way out to check Hive’s gel cell, Fitz picks up the CRUCIFIX OF DEATH which has fallen from Mack’s jacket pocket. Noooooooo!
- Back in the cell, Daisy and Mack talk about whether Hive is the devil. Mack, a man of faith, isn’t too sure. Daisy is. She advocates for him to be destroyed and Mack reassures her he isn’t getting out.
- So that’ll be about five minutes then.
- In the hangar, Fitz is checking over the gel cell. All seems well. Until Fitz notices something amiss and… a Terrigen bomb detonates! A SHIELD tech instantly turns into a primitive and, with the room locked down, Fitz and another are trapped.
- In a really very clever touch, the only thing that saves Fitz’s life is that the hangar is too damn big for the gas to fill. The primitives drag agents into the cloud as Fitz comes up with a workaround that can’t possibly work. Gemma remembers a workaround Fitz developed and gets the door open in time to save him and one other agent. When Phil demands to know what the hell she just did her answer is basically “SCIENCE”.
- In the hangar, the Protos tear the gel cell apart to get Hive out.
- In the containment cell, Daisy watches in horror. She realises that they’ve just handed Hive his delivery system for the warhead: the Zephyr, which is parked in the hangar. Daisy hacks the containment cell and deploys it into the Zephyr as Hive tries to remember how to fly it. She confronts him in the cargo bay and slowly kneels, begging him to take her back.
Review:
One episode to go and SHIELD has put a brick on the accelerator. From the breathless, Mission: Impossible-esque opening to the tiny, personal horror of the final scene this is an episode crammed full of the precision writing and direction that’s become the show’s trademark this season especially.
So much of that, yet again, rests on Chloe Bennet’s shoulders and, yet again, she carries it effortlessly. This is Daisy as we’ve never seen her before and it’s not at all what you’d expect. There’s real awkwardness and discomfort in her scenes with Simmons that perfectly communicates just how alien the situation is. Even Phil, the coolest TV dad who isn’t Joe West, can’t get through to her. Daisy’s put up a blockade, not just between the friends she hurt and herself but between her emotions and her needs. She’s an addict in withdrawal, a victim of something as unprecedented as it horrific and she will, genuinely, never be the same. Her arc this season is becoming one of the most careful, sensitive explorations of long term trauma genre TV has tried in a long time. There’s nothing easy or simple here; just a clever, brave, good-hearted young woman who has had nothing but trauma for years and can’t shake it off anymore. She genuinely believes she needs to be held in custody and there’s a tiny little beat in her scene with Mack that tells just how deeply she feels that. He says something kind and Daisy’s face just collapses, the tears starting even as she flat out refuses to accept the emotion behind them is there. It’s an uncomfortably honest and painfully accurate watch. Outstanding work from all involved.
The rest of the episode impresses too, with Fitz, Simmons, Talbot and Linc all getting surprising moments. It’s interesting how Talbot, though no an ally now, is still pretty much a bigot. Pleasant surprise of the episode, though, is Linc deciding not to go full time with SHIELD. We’re pretty sure he’s doomed as a result but it was a welcome moment of personal control for a character who hasn’t been that well served this season.
The entire episode impressed in fact, especially Gierhart’s breathless direction of the opening sequence. There’s a smart note in Greenberg and Dingess’s script too that sees the team more in lockstep than they’ve been for a long time. The scale of what Hive is attempting, as well as the countless losses and injuries they’ve suffered have tempered this version of SHIELD into the sort of unit Phil has always wanted: people who are fiercely protective of one another and embody the dutiful compassion of the director himself. That’s why so many people are pulling for Fitz in the hangar attack, why it’s newest team member YoYo who takes Hive down at the silo. Most of all, it’s why so many people come to see Daisy. Because they’re a family as well as a team and family don’t leave people behind.
Unless of course, those people leave them behind…
One week to go. LOTS of SHIELD jackets and the CRUCIFIX OF DEATH still in play. Who will fall? Who will live? And will Fitz and Simmons get to go on holiday? Not long to wait now.
The Good:
- “He is very lucky he is handsome.” YoYo is great fun all episode but her needling Mack for being slow is especially cute.
- “Memory is the scribe of the soul.” Alphonzo Mackenzie! Scholar! Man of letters! Mechanic! Giant!
- “I can tell by your moustache that you’re a man of importance and not to be trifled with.” God, we hope Radcliffe sticks around. He’s great.
- Yet again, it’s kudos time for Chloe Bennet. She’s been the anchor of this show all damn season and finds yet more extra gears this episode with a hollowed-out, bitter, horrified Daisy we’ve never seen before. The scenes between her and Phil are especially powerful but it’s the final scene, and her confrontation with Mack, that kill you. The moment he says something even a little kind and you see her defences crumble is some of the finest acting this show has ever seen. Likewise the awful moment where what you think is her redemptive fight with Hive becomes her begging for another fix. (OR DOES IT? See Random.)
- Also top marks to Brett Dalton for nailing every version of Ward as well as Hive all in the same episode.
- Also also top marks to Henry Simmons. Mack’s had a glacially slow character arc at times but the fact his first instinct is to go help his people out and damn the torpedoes is lovely. Also, notice he and Daisy are both still carrying scars. This season has been ROUGH.
- The CRUCIFIX OF DEATH hot potato game played all episode is great fun. Who will live? Who will die? Has there ever been an episode where more people have been wearing SHIELD jackets simultaneously?
- GREAT fight choreography this week. Especially May palm striking/straight up slapping a primitive off a gantry.
- Great direction from Billy Gierhart, especially in the opening multi-location sequence.
- MAY FLIES A QUINJET UNDERWATER BECAUSE IT’S TOO SCARED OF HER TO TELL HER IT CAN’T REALLY DO THAT!
The Bad:
- Remember when Giyera did something other than carry things relevant to the plot?
- Remember when James’s arc across an episode wasn’t endless variations of the plot being explained to him?
And The Random:
- So Daisy’s begging Hive to take her back. OR IS SHE? Did Lash make her immune? Is she doing this to prove to Hive that he isn’t all powerful? Either option works, either option is powerful and character driven. Can’t wait to see which it is.
- Shot of the week is Daisy and Hive facing off. Perhaps for the last time?
Review by Alasdair Stuart
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD S03E19 “Failed Experiments” REVIEW
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD S03E19 “Failed Experiments” REVIEW
Airing in the UK on E4, Sundays, 9pm
Writer: Brett Fletcher
Director: Wendy Stanzler
Essential Plot Points:
- A tribesman is hunting. He brings down a boar and is disturbed by something. He flees in terror but is brought down by two… Kree! We listen as Hive narrates his surgical mutilation at the hands of the Kree.
- We see him in the present day with the three last surviving heads of Hydra. He tells them their reward for loyalty: becoming the first subjects of the new experiment.
- At SHIELD, during the increasingly traditional walk and talk (or in May’s case stalk and glower), she shoots down Lincoln for wanting to help. The last time he helped, he tortured someone. That’s not something the Cavalry forgets in a hurry.
- Fitz and Simmons are working on an antitoxin, one with massive side effects. They bicker, adorably, about who had the worst time last episode and, of course, Simmons wins. Lincoln volunteers to be a test subject for the antitoxin despite the massive damage it could do and they turn him down.
- In a really nicely done time lapse, Phil obsessively watches the feeds from the image recognition satellites they have looking for Daisy. They find her, in an abandoned mining town. Mack is convinced she wants them to save her and revealed her whereabouts on purpose. Phil shoots him down, hard but not unkindly. He tells Mack they’re going in not to rescue Daisy but to kill Hive.
- In Hiveville, USA Daisy and Hive are talking. Hive is contemptuous of SHIELD, decrying them as nothing but soldiers, no better than the Kree Reapers that maimed him. Daisy, again, pushes back a little.
- They check in with Radcliffe who has worked out how to industrialise and speed up the process. Hive, intriguingly, makes it clear that he’s actually (kind of) a socialist. Where only billionaires can build armoured suits, anyone could be an Inhuman.
- His point is ever-so-slightly diminished when the Hydra test subjects melt.
- Mack and May brief and equip their strike team. Mack is convinced Daisy’s fall is his fault, and May, who really is everyone’s grumpy asskicking mama bear this episode, sets him straight.
- In the lab, Fitz and Simmons have called on dad, or in this case director, to help make the call about Lincoln and the antitoxin. Linc is adamant it won’t be that bad. Simmons is adamant he’s being a lovesick fool. Fitz agrees with both of them. Phil makes the call; it’s a no.
- Back in Hiveville, the Inhumans are hanging out. Which means Elisha is serving beer to… herself, while Daisy and James bond. Kind of. When James flirts with Daisy, she shoots him down and again she pushes back a little. He calls her on being overly fond of Lincoln and points out that there’s no way SHIELD can be reasoned with. She gets an idea…
- Radcliffe and Hive discuss the dead test subjects. This discussion mostly involves Radcliffe persuading Hive not to kill him. It turns out he needs blood from a live Kree subject, not a dead, if handsome, one.
- Back on the Z1 a quite remarkably well-dressed analyst briefs the team. Phil makes the call: get in, kill Hive, leave.
- Fitz and Simmons discuss the fact they disagreed. This mostly involves Fitz asking if they’re good and Simmons owning him in a wide variety of charming ways. As they head back to the lab, they see Linc inject the antitoxin. His powers flare massively and he collapses, refusing a counter injection.
- At Hiveville, the Strike Team arrives and May, because she’s amazing, talks intel out of James effortlessly by pretending to be Hydra. James shows off, May “apologises” and basically listens as James’ inadvertently monologues like asupervillain. He tells her where Hive is, at the old mine at the edge of town and Mack and the Strike Team roll in.
- Elsewhere Hive calls Daisy on her need to “save” SHIELD. He talks her into agreeing to kill them if Radcliffe’s process can’t be used on them and seems more than a little pleased.
- Back at HQ, its Fitz and Simmons’s turn on Kick Lincoln’ Ass Day. This involves complaining that he fried their servers and taking a cell sample. From his brain.
Using a drill. - The Strike Team hits the mine and discovers a Kree artefact triggered in the middle of the room. The Z1 detects an incoming projectile and Mack and the team flee.
- Just in time for two Kree to deploy into the town, invited by Hive.
- Hive explains to Daisy that the artefacts were a doomsday signal meant to be triggered if the experiment to create Inhumans ever went wild. The Kree Hive signalled are Reapers designed only to hunt, who were being held in stasis in the solar system. When Daisy asks why he sent for them he reveals that it’s because they need blood from a living Kree, and to prove her loyalty, Daisy must get it.
- In town, the Reapers and Hive’s Inhumans go to war. Elisha takes one on and is brutally taken down. Nearby, SHIELD watches the other Kree make its way in and are ordered to watch but not engage. When a tremor runs through the town Mack realises Daisy’s engaged them and he goes off-mission to save her.
- Not that it’s needed. At Radcliffe’s lab Daisy goes toe-to-toe with a Reaper. At first she’s in serious trouble. Then, in the nastiest use of seismic powers EVER, she shatters its limbs one by one and orders Radcliffe to drain its spine.
- At the church nearby, the other Reaper faces off with Hive as SHIELD observes. Hive tries to reason with it but it attacks him.
- Mack arrives at the garage and tries to reason with Daisy. She pushes back, emphasising that she’s tired of being “saved”. She points out that they used to be a mechanic and a hacker and now they’re soldiers, misfit toys of Director Coulson.
- Daisy tries to scare him off but he just refuses to leave. He points out the image they saw and how he feels that wasn’t an accident. Daisy claims that she slipped up because she isn’t thinking like a spy anymore.
- They reach an impasse. Mack makes his peace with not being able to save her and destroys the Kree body. Daisy beats the hell out of him as, in the Church, Hive confronts his fears. Largely by melting its face off. SHIELD is ordered to engage.
- Have a guess how well that goes.
- In the street, Daisy is still in the process of beating Mack to death. He pleads with her to listen, she starts shattering every bone in his body and May shoots her. SHIELD evacuates as Hive cradles a badly injured Daisy.
- Back at HQ, a severely messed-up Mack is being treated as the truth sinks in; Hive is nearly invincible and there is nothing they have that can stop it.
- In the isolation ward, Simmons visits a clearly ill Lincoln. She briefs him, he cooks off and Simmons yells at him, pointing out his immune system is completely shut down and until (or it’s implied if) he recovers, he’s effectively her prisoner. To make matters even worse, the antitoxin didn’t work.
- Back at Hiveville, Hive is extremely unhappy. He accuses Daisy of having ties that are stronger to SHIELD than she wants to admit. Daisy points out that she has pure Kree blood after Coulson gave her a transfusion. She volunteers to be drained
Review:
We’re officially on the home strait now and this episode, yet again, shows just how confident this show is these days. In the space of one episode we get a nice meta nod to Daisy’s retooling as a character, Mack and Lincoln both doing something very stupid and paying the price for it and Hive being terrifying.
Also, Kree! And adorable redshirt agents!
Seriously I hope the redshirts show up again as they were charming. Plus Mack obviously needs some new people to play with. Bless him, the big fella seems lonely.
And with good reason given just how far gone Daisy is. This episode managed to do the near impossible and continue the idea that she’s fighting the influence of Hive, not give us an answer either way and still be really very good. The final confrontation with Mack is electric and Chloe Bennet, again, throws just enough doubt in there to make us wonder. Hive too, given the end of the episode.
Everyone’s favourite immortal balloon animal has a good week too. The discussion of SHIELD as little better than the Kree Reapers who changed him is brilliant and speaks, indirectly, to the unending narrative of superhero comics. There’s always a new battle, always new soldiers needed and the idea that Hive wants that to stop is fascinating. In his mind(s) he’s a hero. He has a point. It’s just he gets to that point by destroying the free will of everyone around him, the exact thing he berates the Reapers for.
He also gets a majorly gutsy play this week, summoning the Kree Reapers he fears the most to get their blood for the experiments. This does three very smart things all at once: takes the MacGuffin hidden under James’ old “house” off the table; gives Hive weaknesses; and then eradicates them. It’s a good week to be a terrifying bad guy, that’s for sure.
And a bad week to be a SHIELD agent. Not only does Mack get beaten half to death but Lincoln’s understandable, if very stupid, decision causes him serious, possibly permanent harm. Lincoln is starting to look like a fifth wheel and I can’t help but wonder if he’s the much touted death that’s coming. He’s certainly being set up as hitting his lowest ebb and nothing, short of Phil dying, would mess Daisy up more.
We’ve got three episodes to go and this show is on a roll. So much so that next week’s Civil War tie-in is looking less like a necessity and more like an obstacle. Here’s hoping that isn’t the case and the show keeps this momentum all the way to the end of the season, and one agent’s life…
The Good:
- May’s rep as the Cavalry still being in place is a nice touch. As is the evolution on her, “If I need a gun I’ll take one” line.
- “Why is everyone making this about themselves?” May as heartily-pissed-off-not-even-remotely-interested agony aunt to the team is our new favourite thing.
- “And worst case scenario? If Hive can’t be killed.”
“I suggest running. Very fast. Away.” It’s always nice when Phil Coulson, relentless pragmatist, comes out to play. - “Safeties off.”
“They were never on, sir.” Good job, Piper - “Bobbi was your partner once. How’d that work out for you?” TOO SOON.
- Piper, O’Brien and Anderson are big fun. I hope we see more of them.
- Excellent fight choreography in multiple spots this episode. The Reapers fighting like angry tanks; Hive using avoidance as much as strikes; and Daisy’s horrifically nasty takedown of the Reaper and Mack both are really smart ways to use action to express character.
- Some lovely call backs to early continuity here. Especially Daisy clearly carrying some guilt, and irritation, at her old status as victim/prize of the week.
The Bad:
- Honestly? Nothing. You could be churlish and say the Kree looked a tad cheap I suppose but they didn’t look awful. And any perceived fault in their costuming was balanced by the real threat they presented.
- Lincoln. He means well, bless him.
And The Random:
- SHIELD really do have the best-dressed analysts in the world.
- Shot of the week is this. The depth-of-field and the intent and drama in how the characters are positioned is great. Wendy Stanzler’s got a great directorial eye. More from her please.
Review by Alasdair Stuart
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD S03E18 “The Singularity” REVIEW
Daisy finds a new family while Fitz and Simmons become even more loveable than ever >>>
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD S03E15 “Spacetime” REVIEW
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD S03E15 “Spacetime” REVIEW
Airing in the UK on: E4, Sundays, 9pm
Writers: Melissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon
Director: Kevin Tancharoen
Essential Plot Points:
- The episode opens with a store owner, Edwin, politely but firmly running a homeless man out of his backyard. He touches the man as he gives him some money for breakfast and has a seizure…
- Minutes later he places an emergency call mentioning Daisy by name. SHIELD arrives to find Edwin three steps ahead of them. He’s never met Daisy before but he knows her face, knows when Hydra is about to attack and as he says, “This is where I die,” he’s gunned down. In the alley, the homeless man is snatched up by Hydra, who then quickly flee the scene.
- As he’s taken, Daisy touches his hand and sees:
- A woman crying.
- Lincoln with blood covering his face.
- Daisy fighting a room full of guards.
- Coulson shooting her.
- Fitz and Simmons holding hands in the snow
- The homeless man standing near a helicopter
- Daisy lying on a roof next to the homeless man, both apparently dying.
- The she passes out.
- Elsewhere, Not-Grant, newly dressed and “fed” arrives for dinner with Malick. He asks the Hydra leader want he wants and, in a deeply unsettling scene leads Malick to the realisation that what he really wants is power. Even more disturbing, Not-Grant still has Coulson’s hand… (And we bloody wish someone would call Not-Grant by the name he’s known as in the comics so we could start calling him something other than Not-Grant –ed.)
- Back at HQ, SHIELD talk about if the future can be changed. After a brilliant demonstration of why the answer is “NO!” from Fitz, Coulson ignores him makes the call: they find the building where the future-seeing inhuman is being held, May makes the extraction and Daisy’s on the bench.
- Unhappy but going with it, Daisy has all the SHIELD servers retasked as she gives Fitz and Simmons all the info she can about what she saw. Running that through their image recognition systems they think they should be able to find where the events will take place.
- May is incensed when she finds out about this as she and Simmons were using some servers for her their search for Andrew. Fitz and Daisy agree not to hog all the servers.
- In his office, Coulson and Lincoln discuss causality and just how much of what’s going on is free will as they search for the homeless man.
- They get a hit and find out the homeless man was married. His wife is brought in and Daisy recognises her instantly. In the interview, it’s confirmed that Charles is an inhuman and his power is to show you how you die. He fled the house because he could never hold his daughter again. The wife begins to cry, and the first image Daisy saw that morning drops into place. She also reveals their daughter’s name was Robin after Daisy mentions that Charles was carving robins.
- Gideon and Malick bring Charles to Transia, the company that built Coulson’s hand. At a meeting of the board, Malick makes a takeover offer and the CEO knocks it back. Not-Grant uses Charles to show the CEO a vision of the entire board being slaughtered horrifically by Not-Grant in the near future, after which he signs the agreement. Not-Grant kills them anyway.
- Not-Grant gives Malick one of the exo suits that Transia has been developing for the military and Malick exalts in the property damage he can cause with it. Not-Grant pushes him to do what he really wants: kill someone. Malick crushes the CEO’s skull.
- In the single smartest spin on the “glimpsing the future” idea we’ve ever seen, May uses Daisy as a living set of study notes for the infiltration. They lay the room out exactly how Daisy saw it and position people in the exact places they’re going to be. May drills her way through the routine over and over, slowly getting it right. She nails it just as SHIELD locate the building and they get ready to roll out…
- Just as Andrew gives himself up.
- Because Lash is about to take over again and this time, Andrew won’t be coming back.
- This changes everything. Daisy gets the mission and, in one of the most touching moments this show has done, Coulson accidentally calls her Skye as she rolls out.
- Meanwhile in the containment cell, May and Andrew have their last conversation. The argument that always needed to happen happens and May finally admits she thinks none of this would have happened if she hadn’t been in Andrew’s life. He comforts her saying he’s right where he needs to be. As SHIELD start their assault, Lash takes over one last time. Andrew’s final action is to flee into the containment chamber. May touches the glass as the love of her life disappears one last time.
- SHIELD hacks into the Transia building’s cameras and gets Daisy some intel. And a face full of Ward. They roll out to back her up.
- Daisy starts her run, kicks absolute ass and it’s just like her vision. Then she realises the room has a one way mirror at one end and she’s about to be killed by the man behind it. Coulson storms in, shoots him and locks the third image from her vision into place.
- SHIELD spreads out through the building. Daisy heads for the roof, as Coulson and Lincoln help clear the building. Giyera nails Lincoln with a fire extinguisher opening a nasty cut on his forehead and covering his face in blood. Fourth image locked.
- On the ground, the “snow”-fall is revealed to be ashes from a burning advertising awning on the roof. Realising they can change nothing, Simmons gently suggests they should hold hands. Fifth image locked.
- On the roof, Daisy is attacked by Malick in the exo suit. He beats the living hell out of her and is only stopped when Charles, breaks free from the guards trying to bundle him onto a helicopter (fifth image locked).
- Charles shows Malick a vision of his own death (which we don’t see). Malick mortally wounds Charles and the doomed inhuman collapses next to Daisy. Sixth and final image locked. She gives him his wooden Robin back and he asks her to look after his daughter. She agrees and as he dies, he touches her. Daises sees:
- …A quinjet in orbit, out of control and damaged. Blood spattering on the cockpit as a body wearing a SHIELD insigna floats into view then fire engulfs the cabin…
- Elsewhere, Not-Grant sends Giyera on a mission to retrieve some technology. Malick calls demanding to know where his head of security is. Giyera tells him he works for Not-Grant now and hangs up. He remarks to Not-Grant that Malick sounds frightened…
Review:
There’s a very strong case for this being the best episode the show has produced to date. It’s definitely in the top three at the very least.
“Spacetime” works because it takes a single, very simple idea and uses it to tie together a half dozen plotlines. Some are big, some are small, but all are based around the idea of what happens when we try and change our future and whether or not that’s even desirable, let alone possible. In doing so, the episode manages to shine a very different light on many of the show’s now depleted, but still great cast.
The main plot focuses on Daisy and her desperate need to save Charles, the psychic inhuman whose powers allow him to show other people their deaths. Predestination is a two-edged sword here; Daisy weaponising her vision to win the fight before she even gets there but then being blindsided by the fact that Charles’ version of the future is the trailer rather than the main feature.
It’s a particularly interesting plot because season one Daisy would have reacted very, very badly to being benched as she is for most of this episode. Season three Daisy keeps working the angles, keeps herself ready and throws herself into getting May ready. She’s convinced she’s meant to go, and ultimately does, but she doesn’t get in anybody else’s way. That’s massive, welcome character growth and, along with the rest of this season in particular, shows just how much of an asset Daisy is to the team. Chloe Bennet’s on top form throughout, whether in conversation or throwing herself into one of the show’s occasional single-take fight scenes. This is her journey and you’re with her every step of the way.
It’s a major May and Andrew episode too, and again, Ming Na in particular is given a chance to show us just how broken May is and just what a phenomenal talent she is. Their final scenes together spark with recrimination and guilt but not in the way you might expect. May is, much like Elliot Spencer on the thematically similar Leverage, convinced she’s been damned by what she’s done. She’s made her peace with that but not with the guilt of dragging Andrew into her world. His final moments, where he assures her that he wouldn’t have had it any other way, are amongst Underwood’s best work on the show. He, and Andrew, will be missed. And now, with Lash in containment, SHIELD have another monster in the basement…
And speaking of monsters, Not-Granty gets lots to do this week. Brett Dalton seems to be relishing his new role and the Hydra God’s combination of tremendous stillness and constant, seething intellect and rage makes him deeply disturbing. His almost offhand manipulation of Malick into getting his hands dirty is horrifying and gives a welcome extra dimension to the former World Council member. Particularly interesting is the fact that Malick gets to fight and… hates it. He’s not even a bully, rather a man who fetishises martial power and physical violence. When handed the opportunity to dive into that world he can’t handle losing, let alone the vision Charles shows him. Or perhaps, the fact one of the people who beats him is a woman.
Daisy tries to change the future and finds that all she can do is understand it better. May and Andrew confront the fact that their future really is written in stone. Malick finds out his glorious future is going to involve a lot less distance between him and the blood he spills. And Not-Grant? He’s waited thousands of years to arrive at this moment. He knows exactly what it’s doing. But we don’t.
Yet.
This is a brilliant hour of TV. It folds a puzzle box story into a discussion on destiny and moves every major and most minor plots forward. Agents Of SHIELD has continually impressed us this season but this episode is the best yet. And judging by Daisy’s vision, the best, or perhaps worst, is still to come…
The Good:
- “Together we are supposed to take over the world.”
“And what does that look like to you?” Brett Dalton is doing amazing work as the Hydra God. There’s such considered, calm intelligence to him and more than a little rage. - “I never saw the original Terminator.”
“…You’re off the team!” Oh come on, Phil! Genisys wasn’t that bad! Put the kid in front of Sarah Conner Chronicles, he’ll be fine! - “Oh, you touched him didn’t you?” Such a great line because it tells you so much in so small a space.
- “…And buy the little girl something nice.” Phil Coulson, still the nicest man in espionage.
- “Fall down.”
“Sorry.” Jemma Simmons! Politest henchwoman ever! - “Every terrible thing that’s happened to you could have been avoided if you’d never met me.” This show excels at minimal length maximum impact dialogue and May remains one of its best elements.
- “Yeah. Day got weirder.” HELL yes it did.
- The direction. Kevin Tancharoen, brother of showrunner Melissa, is a dancer and choreographer and it shows. There’s a poise and focus to the direction here that’s frankly brilliant and the action scenes on this show have rarely looked better.
- The worldbuilding. The fact Daisy introduces herself as an ATCU officer is an interesting callback to SHIELD still being persona non grata. Likewise the entire opening sequence. This show is at its best when it’s grounded and the combination of high action and human cost that opens the episode shows that.
- Coulson calling Daisy “Skye”. Oh, the feels! Plus a wonderful, subtle nod to their pseudo familial relationship and “dad” maybe not quite being able to accept just how badass Daisy is.
- The rehearsal sequence is great. Who knew SHIELD agents would be rubbish at being henchmen?
- The constant, gradual progression of the Fitz and Simmons relationship. The show’s done a great job of making it complicated, untidy, real and very sweet. Their little moment here is no exception.
- Powers Boothe. Boothe’s great but Malick has always been a little bit “Evil Suit” for us. Giving him a shot at the main event, and having him HATE IT, makes him way more interesting.
- Not-Grants’s all-new, apparently Neo-inspired wardrobe. Wow! Evil has never looked so suave!
- Fitz’s explanation of time and our perception of it. If only Rust had had a block of paper and a sharpie in True Detective season one…
The Bad:
- It’s not entirely clear Coulson is supposed to be gunning down Daisy in her vision.
- No Mack. Get well soon, big man.
- No Bobbi and Hunter…sniff…sob…
- No full-scale Mark DaCascos throwdown.
- That’s it. Seriously. This episode is fantastic.
The Random:
- We love the visual contrast between SHIELD and Hydra’s Inhuman extraction techniques. SHIELD give you what’s either a REALLY nice public toilet or a surprisingly good coffin hotel to sleep in and Hydra have a big evil claw. TV should have more evil claws.
- Fitz and Simmons mention Minkowski space at one point. Minkowski’s work, built on that of his compatriot Henri Poincaré, laid out the idea of four dimensional space. In 1909. Which makes it even more impressive.
- Shot of the week is this. May’s final moments with her husband even as he starts to change…
Review by Alasdair Stuart
Read our other reviews of Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD
Agents Of SHIELD 3.14 Photo Gallery – UK Pace Spoiler Warning
Inhumans watch out as there’s a new grizzly group of killers on their way to wipe you out, in an upcoming episode of Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD called “Watchdogs”. Which reminds us – will we ever get to see the Inhumans’ dog, Lockjaw, in the show? Or will they save him for the movie? Or just ignore him and leave him in his kennel with a juicy bone?
The official synopsis for “Watchdogs” reveals, “When a radical group called The Watchdogs emerges with plans to eliminate the Inhumans, Agent Mack and his brother become caught in the crossfire. Meanwhile, Simmons discovers a powerful chemical compound that could alter the future for Inhumans.”
Lost’s Man In Black Titus Welliver is part of the guest cast, though we can’t spot him in this gallery. We can see Grey’s Anatomy’s Gaius Charles, though. He’s the guy on the motorbike. Wonder if he’s a new Inhuman?
Click on all images for larger versions.
Related Stories:
-
Agents Of SHIELD 3.13 Clip – UK Pace Spoiler Warning
-
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD 3.12 Clip – UK Pace Spoiler Warning
-
Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD S03E10 “Maveth” REVIEW