All the Agents of SHIELD Squee!
In which I wrote a surprisingly long post about how much I loved this week's episode. If you hated it, you might want to skip!
I'm so pleased at how the quality of the show is improving every week! I said at some point in the last month that I thought it was going to start getting really interesting and taking off between episodes 5-10, and clearly I was totally right! So, some random thoughts in more-or-less no particular order, but divided into sections:
The Plot/Season Arc Stuff
Character Stuff (OMG TEEEEEAAAAAMMMMM, ILU <333333)
I'm so pleased at how the quality of the show is improving every week! I said at some point in the last month that I thought it was going to start getting really interesting and taking off between episodes 5-10, and clearly I was totally right! So, some random thoughts in more-or-less no particular order, but divided into sections:
The Plot/Season Arc Stuff
- I love how this deepened the Centipede mystery! Bringing back the doctor from the pilot was a great reveal, and I thought Raina was a super interesting character, and will love if she continues to have as much power and agency as she seemed to have this week. I really need to know what they're up to, and who that dude at the end was, and who this Clairvoyant is, too -- is this someone with actual mental powers, something that SHIELD says hasn't been proven to exist, or is that a goofy "superhero" name like Scorch? Or both?
- nerdwegian brought up the interesting point last night that Centipede could be working with AIM, which I think makes a lot of sense. In IM3, Killian was clearly the head of a very successful company, which I'd assume was way larger than what we saw, so Centipede could be one part of that. Plus, Centipede is experimenting with a serum that contains Extremis, so having AIM be involved somehow would totally make sense. If AIM continues to be a player in the MCU maybe they'll go closer to their comics roots, with MODOK and the Scientist Supreme and stuff like that (though hopefully not those silly yellow beekeeper-esque outfits!).
- I love that they're continuing to remind us that SHIELD is kind of creepy and not all knights in shining armor on the side of good and right or whatever. They're such a shady organization, and it's super great that they're showing us that and not just going "oh, well, these people are the main characters, so they're totes good and only good. HEROES!!! etc.". The fact that they just left Miles with no way to get back to the US (no passport, no access to electronics, etc.) is not the kind of thing your average TV government organization would do if they're supposed to be the heroes; I like that they don't make a huge deal of how terribly they really screwed him up, but also how it's just there in the background, all "SHIELD makes terrible life choices sometimes, so maybe you shouldn't believe everything they say." I guess what I'm saying is that I love shades of grey, so I'm glad they haven't just made SHIELD black and white for a family audience.
- The nod to that scene in Iron Man where Phil, Pepper, and the SHIELD extras break into the lab with that explosive device was perfect. That is how you do a motherfucking callback. I'm especially pleased because that's one of my favorite bits of IM (it's the scene where we first realize that mild-mannered, terrible suit-wearing Agent Coulson is actually a badass!), and I love that they had this shout-out for obsessive fans like me! :D
- I like that Skye's reason for infiltrating SHIELD is something so normal. She wants to know who her parents were, and why they abandoned her (and why the information was all redacted--what does it mean?!?!), which is a nicely normal desire. I feel like too many fantastical plot elements would be overkill, so I like the average-personness of this.
Character Stuff (OMG TEEEEEAAAAAMMMMM, ILU <333333)
- I am really loving the team development! I loooooved Ward and Skye being all bros and Skye kicking the crap out of him at Battleship, and May and Ward and their solidarity over drinks at the end, and every single thing about all the scenes between May and Coulson! I do feel like Fitz and Simmons didn't have much to do this week, since the show seems to still be at that place where they try to shoehorn every character into the plot and someone inevatibly gets shafted (*coughClint's12minutesofscreentimeintheAvengerscough*). Hopefully they're figure out a better balance soon, and go for some character-centric episodes, and give us more of an opportunity to show FitzSimmons and those skills that they were recruited for. They're super adorable and excited about absolutely everything, which I love, but now I want more character development, and more SCIENCE! and stuff. Also, I want to know something about them, other than that they're super smart, and that Fitz really wants a monkey lab assistant. :P
- I don't know if they're going to continue in the possible-romance vein with the Ward-Skye relationship, but I just want them being bros and having a wonderful mentor/mentee relationship, so I hope it's more like this week in the future. The bit at the end of the episode where he told Skye she was on her own with Coulson, because he was "off duty" made me super sad, because Ward's supposed to be her SO, and he's supposed to have her back and be her support system as she learns the ropes, but instead he just leaves her to face the boss alone and TURNS HIS BACK ON HER AND ABANDONS HER AND ;ASLKDFJASD I CANNOT EVEN. Yes, she did betray all of them by keeping things from them, but it still broke my heart a little.
- Melinda May continues to be great, and I still want to know more about her. She continues to be badass, but she has feelings and a past that isn't just terrible things causing her to leave fieldwork, and I love all those layers. <33333 There was almost enough Melinda in this episode. :D
- Everything about all of the interaction between Phil and Melinda! I love that they clearly have a foundation of mutual respect, otherwise May would have never agreed to join the team in the beginning, but as we see in this episode, there's clearly a history between them as well. I need all of the flashbacks to "old times" ASAP. Also, a million words of Phil/Melinda, because when she offered to put down mats so they could "go a few rounds"? I wasn't thinking about sparring, ijs.
- I know this isn't where they're going (because they're better than that, dammit!), but did anyone else have the idea that Phil and Melinda could be Skye's mysterious parents? They're the right age to have had a child super young and have to give her up because of SHIELD, and having badass SHIELD agent parents would totally be a reason for that file to be redacted. But I like the idea that she's somehow connected to someone with powers, or some shady organization, better, mostly because I feel like "random hacker chick who infiltrates Coulson's team just happens to be his long-lost daughter" is waaay too coincidental (though, still, I'd read 100,000 words of that fic). I feel like this is a half-second red herring, much like the Phil-is-an-LMD theory, which is too obvious, so it can't be true (DAMMIT).
- As my tumblr tag suggests, Agent Coulson continues to be the best one. Also, how does he keep getting hotter to me every single week. The "stop talking" finger he gave Skye was just asldfjk;aslkfjasklfj and the Iron Man callback, and all of the scenes in the lab, and basically he is my favorite, though the rest of the team are growing on me more and more each week!
- Phil's "and then I got stabbed" line, coupled with the reveal in an earlier episode that Phil is much softer than he used to be pre-Loki makes me think that he was way different than how fandom typically think he was. I need all of the flashbacks ASAP. I just want to know more about the ways in which he's changed (and not changed) since then!
- The whole conversation about not being able to change people once they go bad, except how you can if you get to them early enough (or whatever, I don't have the episode in front of me to check for quotes) basically gave me all of the Clint (and Natasha) feels. He got to both of them early enough to be a positive influence on their lives, sob.
- Also, brb sobbing over Phil and his disappointed face. ;_____; He went to bat for Skye and she disappointed him, and HOW DID SHE EVEN DEAL WITH BEING IN THE SAME ROOM WITH DISAPPOINTED!PHIL? D: D: I loved the confrontation between the two of them, because he seemed genuinely hurt that she lied to him, especially after he stuck his neck out for her in the pilot. I love the relationship they're building between the two of them, and hope they can eventually come back from Skye's lies coming out. ALSO, I MAY HAVE A HUGE THING FOR FOUND FAMILIES, AND THIS IS HITTING ALL OF THOSE BUTTONS.