Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 Episodes 4-8 review

We're back looking at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as it continues through it's 5th season

A life earned

Well, episode 4 is a marked improvement over episode 3, although that’s not exactly saying much. Watching Deke get punched by May is extremely satisfying though. Then Coulson does the same and I’m grinning ear to ear. What has this show made me?

So, there are 3 plotlines that run through the majority of this episode. Unlike Gotham, the plot-lines bear some kind of weight and don’t feel completely isolated from one-another. First off we have Daisy, taken to Kasius who has implants that can shut off inhuman abilities, and is about to have her fight. Daisy isn’t having any of it but her hands are tied thanks to Simmons being used as collateral.

Next new character on our list is… I have no idea what his name, they don’t seem to want to tell us, but he’s a telepath of sorts, he can hear thoughts and doesn’t have a lot of control over thoughts he can hear. He seems remarkably calm about it. He befriends Daisy to an extent and has some idea of what’s going on, but he’s involved in my favourite scene of the episode

“Is the truth a relative term?” YES! Yes, it is, everything is open to interpretation, your version of the truth may not have 100% of the information that’s actually there

Anyway, the mind scene between Daisy and Simmons, where the ear worm thing prevents them from talking aside from mind-to-mind via this new inhuman. He quickly discovers some dire information that leads him to lie to Kasius.

Second subplot involves the aforementioned punching of Deke. He gives a backstory that I actually believe even though Coulson and Mack are less inclined. May and whatever her name is have a pretty good fight, May’s not at her strongest but she holds her own to the bitter end, I presume we’ll find out more about that soon. Little more to say other than come on, you didn’t notice how obviously he was lying?

The third subplot is interesting and revolves around Mack and Yo-Yo. Mack is sent to scare one of the people who owes Grill money and… Mack’s non-violent demeanour combined with his frame makes for an interesting character arc, one which goes into more depth about Mack feels, the framework is still fresh in their minds, particularly for Mack who had to leave his daughter behind. I hope we see more of this as the series goes on.

The final twist with Fitz showing up is interesting, I think the delivery of his only line could’ve been better but hey, it’s great to see him back.

Finally, an episode a liked where the plot gathers momentum and the character work doesn’t feel forced as hell.

Rating 8/10

Rewind

OK, How is ‘abducted by aliens’ not a plausible theory in the f*cking Marvel Universe.

So, we’ve got an episode centred solely around Fitz and Lance Hunter is back! Anyway, Fitz has been good, he got arrested and spent 6 months in some military prison. He past the time with calculations, push-ups and writing letters to magazine columns to get someone’s attention.

Yeah, in case you forgot AIDA had an LMD Daisy shoot Talbot at the end of the last season, and they’re still questions related to the death of former Director Mace also. Fitz takes responsibility for the death of Mace, despite the Framework basically altering his personality to do so, and has to struggle with the knowledge that he has a darker side for most of running time of the episode.

To counterbalance that we have Hunter, far more willing to do shady things if it gets the job, such as impersonating a lawyer and breaking Fitz out of prison. I like Hunter and his presence has been sorely missed this last season and a bit, he provides a bit of levity through the episode, and also helps Fitz on a character level. It’s also nice to hear them catching up.

Time to talk some other references this season has. Remember the guy from season 3 who when he touched someone he and the person he touches would see a death that would soon happen. And you remember how he had a daughter who Daisy was watching over for a bit? NO? Thankfully this episode brings you up to speed on all that. Anyway, the daughter, who’s gone through terrigenesis at a stunningly young age, has the gift of prophecy through drawing. She is the one who foresaw the monolith allowing the agents through into the future.

That alien dude from the first episode, he’s in this episode and he’s one of the good guys, he’s a not-watcher who’s been on Earth for 300,000 years, seriously, and he’s been permitted to intervene in only one circumstance, to prevent an extinction level event. So yeah, things are serious and the only way to save the world, or what’s left of it is for Fitz to go to the future, via cryogenic freezing. It’s refreshing to have the alien character not be the bad guy, especially since we’ve spent most of the season on a station full of them

It’s not quite Simmons’ standout episode, but it’s a strong one which helps develop Fitz’s character further, and I can’t wait to see him in the future

Rating 8.5/10

Fun and Games

This episode is directed by Clark Gregg, the actor who played Coulson, let’s begin this little show.

So, we’re back in the future and a plan is afoot. Fitz has infiltrated the station under the guise of one of the most notorious bounty hunters the galaxy has ever known, he must reunite with Simmons and save Daisy whilst avoiding the attention of Kasius.

We find out in this episode that for whatever reason, Kasius was ‘exiled’ to this station, hence his hatred for it and his desire to destroy it. Kasius is becoming more interesting but still leaving a bit to be desired, especially since we find he’s gullible enough to let Simmons get a knife close to him and for Fitz to trick him into turning off the stupid hearing worm Simmons had in her.

But we do see once good moment for Kasius. His public execution of the telepath, we find out his name is Ben and I must admit I liked him enough and wanted to see him in more episodes, he does get a good fight with May before he goes. Speaking of deaths, after being absent the last episode, the jig is up for Tess. It’s a frankly tragic ending of the subplot in this episode, revolving round an inhuman who Yo-yo rescues after terrigenesis with her super-speed.

This thankfully puts an end to the Grill subplot, which, whilst interesting at first had begun to try my patience by this point. Seeing the kid, Flint, controlling stones or something to flatten his head in was a nice visual.

Compounding Fitz’s issues is the arrival of Kasius’ brother, the one person who could outbid him on Daisy. They needed to change the plan and fast, and it leads to a decently choreographed fight between Daisy and Sinara, Kasius’ right hand woman. It’s ended when Fitz puts his backup plan into motion and manages to escape. We see later on that Enoch, the not-watcher, has disguised himself as a kree and is I presume off to rescue the others.

The direction is good, and the fights impressive. I hope the villains can step it up a notch because they’re beginning to bore.

Rating 7.5/10

Together or Not at all

I actually really like Sinara after this episode.

She’s not the most talkative of villains, but she’s by far the most interesting, and this episode is really about exploring who she is and her character history and motivations. Sure, the framing of it is the brotherly squabble between the Kasius brothers, but one of them is dead and the other… I’m still not sure what to make of him. Oh and Faulnak… he kills a guy and then is killed, I barely remember him.

So, with the death of Tess, Flint, upon hearing the news feels guilty and Mack is able to relate, telling her he’d be there if he’s needed, something that will come to play later on. Flint is a kid and it’s hard to reconcile this guilt and take action on it, but surprisingly he does possibly the best option he had to avoid more death and destruction. He pretends to surrender but uses it as cover to kill one of the guards and attract their attention. Still, it’s a good thing they intervenes

Oh, and Deke is back. Oh joy… Look, all the good will I had towards Deke from the first episode is gone because now he’s taken on the more generic ‘I look out for myself’ routine which I’ve seen played out before. He claims that getting Daisy caught was part of his plan, stopping her rash actions resulting in others being punished and leading her to Simmons. It seems they’ve resolved the deafness issue, Fitz managed to remove her bug implant. I was suspecting this would have wider consequences for her but I’m glad it didn’t, since I totally want to FitzSimmons together.

But yeah, like the others I find his approach rather annoying. We’ll see whether or not his loyalties hold later. May bumps into Enoch, and she works out pretty quickly he was involved in sending her to the future. As for her injuries, it’s clear they’re quite extensive and we may end up seeing long term consequences for her.

Thanks to Fitz’s efforts the gang, minus May are able to reunite but circumstances aren’t great and they decide to make a retreat into the crawler and to wherever the signal was coming from. But in a good twist, Mack, Yo-Yo and Flint elect to stay behind, knowing now that there are weapons on level 3 that Fitz left in the last episode.

I guess a good chunk of the episode is dedicated to the family squabbles between the Kree brothers, unfortunately I just didn’t care about any of it except how affect Sinara, but the backstory of Kasius and how he really isn’t a fighter and Sinara killed his generals allowing him to flee when the base was about to be overrun does help us understand Kasius and his motivations a little more, which is appreciated

As for the end, I won’t spoil, it’s a good one.

Rating 7.5/10

The Last Day

Spoiler alert: It’s not the last day

There is a good amount of character work in this episode, even if there is very little in terms of plot or plot progression. I can summarise relatively easily what the plot is… The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents find the survivors, in the Zephyr of all places, and begin to accustom themselves. Robin is one of the survivors and they try and get more answers out of her, but she’s not all herself, her mind can’t distinguish time anymore. Meanwhile Kasius has sent the beasts from the first episode to attack the humans as revenge for their disobedience.

May is absolutely the star of this episode and it shows a side to her beyond her ass-kicking. Which, with her current injuries is also limited. But we flash back to what Robin remembers about May. May was kind, May was compassionate, May wasn’t afraid of her dark predictions, May stood by her as one by one everyone else left, May listened to her when everyone else was too afraid to, and convinced others to help.

You could put this down to Bahrain, and her failure to help the inhuman both in real life and how she handled it in the Framework. Robin’s powers aren’t destructive in the same way but they can have equally destructive consequences, as you can tell from how it affects the team morale, particularly with Fitz. The one person we don’t see during the apocalypse section is Coulson himself, is that foreshadowing something? Who knows

It’s fitting that the titular ‘last day’ is in fact Robin’s. And it’s May that sits with her as she passes away. But there are other characters in this episode, so let’s talk about Daisy for a bit, as her reputation as a destroyer of worlds comes to a head in this episode. Pretty much everyone aboard the Zephyr knows who she is, and even though right now, she’s restrained and unable to use her powers, people are afraid of her, and angry.

Very little is known about exactly how she destroys the world, as far as Daisy believes she’s incapable and there’s no documented evidence that shows what happened concretely. We see a bit of her connection with Robin but it’s doused rather quickly as the others try and attack her and Robin’s death happens in the process… Seriously, the guys on the Zephyr are assholes, all of them, wish they’d maybe kept this reveal another episode, but then there isn’t a lot of plot in this episode as is so maybe it’s for the best

Fitz and Simmons find a machine that could be the key to their way home and how they got here. That is all. Mack, Yo-Yo and Flint are still aboard the station, the Lighthouse, it’s not long before we get the ‘this is all your fault’ guilt trip that’s inevitable with this type of story. Thankfully, it doesn’t last too long as they soon find their weapons. Now Mack has a shotgun axe back he seems happier about killing things than he was 2 episodes ago.

But overall this was an episode for everyone to take a breather, but I guarantee it won’t last long as we continue into the season.

Rating 8/10