Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 Episodes 1-3 review - Orientation (parts 1 and 2)/A life Spent

Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. has entered its 5^th season. And rather than starting in January when it’s convenient for me, it’s decided to run right in through Christmas, meaning there’s likely to be a long list of episodes I’m covering next time. Let’s start with the 2-parter Orientation.

Orientation

Ladies and gentlemen, Krusty the Crown giving my initial reaction to these episodes

Straight out of the Framework, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are going into space. Well, all except Fitz because they need to make us pine for Fitz-Simmons again. So, we’re introduced to Virgil, who somehow is responsible for their situation and knew about aliens and the white monolith or something, don’t bother getting used to him, he’s killed off less than 10 minutes in.

The show has taken much of the framework’s concepts when it comes to world building, the problem is the environment. I suspect this is down to the shows infamously lower budget this season, but it’s clear we’re going to be on this exceptionally dreary space station for a while, did I mention it being very dreary and not interesting to look at it?

So, the thing that’s heavily foreshadowed but we find out at the end of the episode they’re in the future. No telling how far but at least 90 years, not only in the future but in a post-apocalyptic one. The Earth has been destroyed and we’ll get back to that. The problem is this removes a lot of tension, they could tie the destruction of Earth to Infinity War but we all know Infinity War will not end with Earth blowing up, and we know that they’ll eventually get back to the past with this knowledge, this removes a lot of tension and makes some of the inevitable story beats all the more predictable. Sure, during this there is plenty of opportunity for character growth, change and reflection but we saw this during the Framework arc, this is a very similar arc to be shown back-to-back with it.

So, they’re on board a space station, housing the last survivors of humanity, but the station is now run by the Kree, who have cast a shadow over Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. since the first season, their blood was the blood that healed Daisy and Coulson in TAHITI, their experiments lead to the creation of inhumans and their monolith which sent Simmons into space. Kree are also cheap to have around, only requiring a bit of blue makeup to complement their human-like posture.

The Kree Motto seems to be ‘to take a life is to live a life’ and it’s a struggle for the humans to survive under the Kree, who force them into death conflicts among other things which we’ve not really seen much of yet. It’s clear the Kree are not compassionate hosts for the humans. Their leader, Kasius kills one of his elite for having a scar on his face. We haven’t seen enough of Kasius yet for me to judge his worth as a villain, I’m not that impressed thus far.

The first of our new characters for the arc is Deek, clearly with some Star Lord based traits, specifically with regards to the mask. He’s cowardly, conniving, and has some shady stuff going on as Daisy quickly finds out. He wants to save his own skin and his operation and is really interested in being a hero. I like Deek, he can be annoying but he’s a perfect fit for the situation without being the one that sells them out.

And some are already finding the consequences of not blending in. Simmons’ medical know-how and compassion leaves her in quite a situation, not sure what Kasius has done to her and whether its reversible but it could be another rocky road for her character to get back where she belongs

The final revelation, that Daisy destroys the world unfortunately has some consequences, it further reduces the tension since she’s immediately safe as for her to have done this, she’d have to have gone back to the past at some point, meaning the agents must somehow escape their current predicaments.

Whilst the opening does do some great world-building the uninteresting and cheap-looking environments combined with this being very similar to the Framework arc from last year do work against it.

Rating 7/10

A life spent

“Gotta learn to play the long game” – let’s hope they don’t expect that of the audience too

There are 3 different plot-lines that overview this episode. The first is Coulson, May, Mack and Tess trying to find out more information about why the team were brought here, whilst trying to outwit their ‘owner’ Grill and his sidekick Flint. OK, this is probably the most important part of the episode, since their big discovery is here but I want to talk about another element that is pretty biggest issue everyone who is talking about this episode seems to be talking about.

That being, since when has Mack been this stupid? This isn’t some playboy Superhero convention, this is f*cking S.H.I.E.L.D., a super-spy agency. Back in s2 Mack said and I quote

“I’m the guy who kills Gordon”

So what’s with this ‘I don’t kill’ Bullsh*t that they’re spewing now. Killing is a part of the spy code, for protection of cover, for self-defence and particularly if them being alive puts all of you at risk. But beyond that, did no-one try to restrain Flint in ANY way? Or leave him guarded or something that would prevent him sabotaging the mission upon being awoken. Mack’s had some pretty bad sh*t happen of late, and he’s always had more of a moral high ground over the others but never to this extend.

Next up we have the best plot of the episode, and it’s with Simmons, it seems the device they put in her allows her to hear when they want her to, and that comes in handy as they have someone for her. Abby, an inhuman with density shifting abilities, she can become hard as a rock or completely intangible but like many inhumans, she struggles to control her powers. It was great seeing Simmons handle this situation with empathy and compassion, which is ultimately why she was chosen for this in the first place.

Unfortunately, what she doesn’t know is what the purpose of it all is, Inhumans seems to be a form of slave labour from this area. Abby is forced into combat and despite spending most of the fight having her ass handed to her. In universe she’s 17, in reality the actor’s 20 but she looks a lot younger, this fight got uncomfortable to watch… but she ultimately succeeds thanks to Simmons advice, and the prize was her enslavement. I want to see Simmons kill Kasius now, I can tell she’s waiting for her moment.

The third plot is with Daisy and Yo-Yo kinda, also Deke but we’ll get to him. Daisy wants to rescue Simmons but forgive me if I also think she’s a bit of an idiot in this one. Although it doesn’t help that Deke has gone from an interesting character to an insufferable one constantly reminding Daisy what she’s gonna do to Earth, or possibly an alternate version of her… Great, by introducing parallel universe we have even less reason to care.

But yeah, did she really think she was going to rescue Simmons with a full-frontal assault. It’s not surprised she got captured but unfortunately, yeah, Deke. You know what I said in the last episode about him not selling them out. Well, in this episode he sells them out, actually quite literally. *SIGH*

The episode is largely good, but it has some really stupid moments which kinda ruin it for me

Rating 6/10