Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Things We Bury

November 19, 2014 8:54 AM - Season 2, Episode 8

Coulson and the team face off against Hydra as they try to uncover an ancient secret.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (72 comments total)

Another solid episode, another snarky recap!

The show is still firing on all cylinders, moving with the confidence and speed of Marvel fan on the opening night of a movie. A bit less character development this time around, as things forward plot wise, but it's all good. Bit surprising to see Fitz being put out in the field in a critical situation, sort of like we're just gonna let that brain injury thing fade away.

But we're getting answers to long simmering questions and the new questions raised are intriguing. Yes, the blue skinned angels all put confirms it's the alien Kree, but it's still not clear why some people can touch the Obelisk (heh heh) and others die (come on, bring back Lucy Lawless!) and what's special about the Touchers (hen). It sounds like we're going find out really soon though.

Looking forward to what goes down with Whitehall, Grant and SkyeDad. That sounds like they're all going to doublecross each other in some epic blowout. Still curious about Fitz and Simmons and whether they'll resolve their relationship in some way. And what's up with Simmons or Bobbi possibly being brainwashed? My money's on Bobbi!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:05 AM on November 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm so happy that Ward is irredeemably evil.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:12 AM on November 19, 2014 [17 favorites]

I'm really intrigued at the connection between Whitehall and Skye now, and wonder if during the rest of the way it will become clear to both Whitehall and Skye that the woman he dissected to gain extended life was Skye's mom.

I'm so happy that Ward is irredeemably evil.

I think Ward believes he is still playing some kind of long game - only now he's positioning himself as a SHIELD sleeper inside Hydra. Doesn't change his level of evil, but he might be the guy who is willing to do what is needed to get where he can really do some damage to Hydra.

Bit surprising to see Fitz being put out in the field in a critical situation, sort of like we're just gonna let that brain injury thing fade away.

I don't think they let it fade away; they showed him struggling, until Coulson told him the plan and why he was needed; and then he figured out how to do the work with both hands. Fitz is purpose driven; once he realized that this was a serious mission and he had a serious role in it, he found a way to move forward.

And the Grant/Whitehall/Skyedad moment is great - because I think everyone in that room is playing a different game than the others, and everyone there is smart enough to know it. I'll be looking for double, triple, and quadruple crosses as that gets going.

And what's up with Simmons or Bobbi possibly being brainwashed? My money's on Bobbi!

That was a nice little throwaway moment, wasn't it? Part of me thinks it's a red herring to keep the audience on edge - we had our sleeper Hydra agent last year already; part of me thinks it would be a neat thing to do with Simmons...she gets activated, fights through it, has to be reprogrammed and goes through a lot of what Fitz has been dealing with in terms of relearning things and not feeling like a full member of the team. The FitzSimmons reunion!

And I like that Mack still has reservations about Coulson.
posted by nubs at 11:00 AM on November 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

Great episode.

I was worried that Kyle Maclachlan wouldn't be able to pull off the Twin Peaks coda, but after this episode I have no doubts about his chops at all.
posted by Catblack at 11:15 AM on November 19, 2014

I think Ward believes he is still playing some kind of long game - only now he's positioning himself as a SHIELD sleeper inside Hydra. Doesn't change his level of evil, but he might be the guy who is willing to do what is needed to get where he can really do some damage to Hydra.

Oh I'm positive he is going to help Skye reunite with Dad somehow, so he's not all bad. He'll continue to help SHIELD, while still being ruthless at times, so he'll stick around.

And the Grant/Whitehall/Skyedad moment is great

Yeah, I've been thinking about that more and described it as six way cross, 'cause each of them is probably going to screw the other two in a way and they all know it. It's just a matter of who goes first, who has backup plans and how it all goes down.

Very interesting that Whitehall was able to steal the woman's longevity. And regressed to the age she remained at from the 1940s. Hmm, I wonder if that longevity could be stolen from him and given to oh, I dunno, AGENT CARTER?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:20 AM on November 19, 2014 [3 favorites]

Also, in case you missed it, Whitehall was released on the orders of Alexander Pierce, the big bad guy from The Winter Soldier.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:58 AM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hmm, I wonder if that longevity could be stolen from him and given to oh, I dunno, AGENT CARTER?

Dammit, Brandon Blatcher, why did you just drop-ship a crate of chopped onions to my work cube? That really would be the absolute happiest ending that could happen for MCU Cap, and I want to see it.

Even though he's prolly gonna die in the next one. *sniff*
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:06 PM on November 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty much betting that's he's not going to DIE die, but people will think he's dead and he'll be able to disappear a de-aged Peggy. It's the perfect ending for him, as either Bucky or Sam step up to take his place.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:13 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

OK, taking bets on who gets to use the mind-altering machine... Fitz at 2-1, Ward at 10-1, HydraSimmons/HydraMorse at 20-1, Skye Daddy at 50-1.... c'mon, you know that's a Chekhov's gun.

Quite impressed they've been able to use so many characters so briefly but still progress each one. Still haven't had a big Mack episode, but Tripp got a bit more time this week than he's had this season. Obviously there's a big Skye episode coming up.

They really are moving this season quickly, though. Concerned there won't be a third season, or racing to get a bunch of exposition in that sets up Ultron/Ant-Man?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 12:28 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

They really are moving this season quickly, though.

It's more like two half-seasons, really. There is a mid-season finale on December 9, then we get Agent Carter starting on January 6 for I think 8 episodes, then Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts up again.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 12:33 PM on November 19, 2014

Yeah, that's what I mean. Only one more episode, in which we find out about the city. Then there's (I think) 13 episodes more this season. If they move those 13 at the same rate as these, how much story will they be covering?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 12:38 PM on November 19, 2014

That's not actually a bad way to go for a 22-episode season, really. Instead of doing a single season-long story with inevitable filler episodes, keep things moving by doing two cable-sized "seasons" of 11 episodes, each with their own story arc. That would be very smart of AoS or anyone else who wants to try it.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:40 PM on November 19, 2014

Has Coulson ever been held by Hydra? His team was ambushed at the Australian station, supposedly 'cause SkyeDad was there with a Hydra team to execute a plan similar to Coulson's. What if Coulson's been brainwashed?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:42 PM on November 19, 2014

I love that Kyle Maclachlan is playing his character as a shabby salesman at a barely-open department store over at the "old mall".
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:10 PM on November 19, 2014 [7 favorites]

while still being ruthless at times

Ward STRAIGHT UP MURDERED his brother and parents and framed his brother for it and burned down the house (again, apparently). Man, I know they had a messed up family, but I'm comfortably in the "Ward is irredeemably evil" camp (and like him so much more as a character that way). I want to see what havoc him teaming up w/ Skye's dad will cause.
posted by leesh at 7:24 PM on November 19, 2014 [5 favorites]

Yeah, but his brother and parents sort of earned it with their abuse of him, so that act doesn't necessarily make him evil.

Seriously, have none of your heard of show called Buffy and a character called Spike? He straight murdered people for food, killed two Slayers and still got redemption. Ward's no where even close to the level of crap Spike did.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:35 PM on November 19, 2014

Ah, but the thing of it is, with a few exceptions (Like S05's "The Body"), human life was always a pretty cheap commodity on Buffy. Vampires quickly become a less dangerous adversary if the writers don't let them snack on people (mostly nameless teen/20something extras) with a certain regularity. There's also a decent body count on AoS, but only a few that could be called "murder" in the typical sense; As a villain group, HYDRA is more focused on infiltration and control than just killing people. So when Ward slaughtered his family, and the guys in the prisoner transport, and the guys in the Quinjet at the end of S01, and Victoria Hand (anybody I'm leaving out here?), all of those deaths had a weight that made them stand out dramatically from others on the show. Whatever damage Ward carries from his childhood and upbringing, he's most definitely manifesting pure, murderous evil right now. And unless AoS is doing a quadruple-backflip-fakeout on us and Ward faked the whole thing, there is no coming back from the evil that he's done. He's bad now, and thank the drama gods for it.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:14 PM on November 19, 2014 [4 favorites]

Oh, and did anybody notice who played Skye's mother? Another Dollhouse alum, Dichen Lachman! I pay attention to casting news, but AFAICT the producers managed to keep it under wraps until I queued up the episode on Hulu tonight. I'll buy Chloe Bennet as the product of superior McLachlan/Lachman genes, even though in real life that kid would have cheekbones that could cut diamonds (no offense to Ms. Bennet).

Speaking of McLachlan, I'll second the props for his performance tonight. He's doing line readings and things with tone that would completely flummox a lesser actor, stuff that occasionally borders on ridiculous, but he's making it work to sell the intensity and desperation of the character. It's been a long time since I saw McLachlan really bring the weird on TV (granted, I haven't watched Portlandia yet.), and now I'm doubly excited for the Twin Peaks revival.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:40 PM on November 19, 2014 [4 favorites]

Ah, but the thing of it is, with a few exceptions (Like S05's "The Body"), human life was always a pretty cheap commodity on Buffy

Also, Spike is technically off the hook for acts performed while he did not have a human soul. He wasn't 'home' for any of that.

He's bad now, and thank the drama gods for it.

This is the most important element of the whole deal, IMO: Evil!Ward is just plain more interesting than any hypothetical redemptive Angst!Ward. I want to see him unfettered, cut loose, be a deadly frenemy to the team. He's way more fun that way.

(I was also not a fan of Spike's redemption, frankly. He made it worthwhile on Angel, but it felt out of place and draggy on Buffy, to me.)

Upon preview:
Oh, and did anybody notice who played Skye's mother? Another Dollhouse alum, Dichen Lachman!

Yep! That was a nice surprise.
posted by mordax at 8:45 PM on November 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

Oh, and did anybody notice who played Skye's mother? Another Dollhouse alum, Dichen Lachman!

I am probably one of the handful of people who actually liked Dollhouse, and also liked Lachman, but she was the least believable part of that show.

I'm really liking Evil!Ward, and hope to see more of Mack. Also, we called the McLachlan look after the line about it being good to look your enemies in the eye.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:17 PM on November 19, 2014

This was one of the best episodes yet.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:16 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Considering the last few years has been a succession of shows* making me think "give it time there's so much potential here...", it's great to finally see one which is fulfilling it.

*eg. Halt And Catch Fire Just Sort Of Get A Bit Warm.
posted by fullerine at 1:21 AM on November 20, 2014

Holy crap, Dichen Lachman does not age.

(Solid episode. MacLachlan is knocking it out of the park, I want EvilWard to remain evil, and even non-union Henry Cavill is doing all right for me.)
posted by Kitteh at 7:04 AM on November 20, 2014

I really liked the Wards playing off each other because I couldn't tell who was the bigger liar (and whether the biggest lie was being told to the other brother or to himself). Great scene between a pair of complete assholes. And having Grant kill his entire goddamn family gives me hope that he won't be brought back into the fold at the end of this arc. My only regret is no more Tim DeKay.

(Also, I thought "Look your enemies in the eye" was tantamount to an open declaration of war. Although the following scene was so damn dark that I didn't realize his dead wife was Dichen Lachman until this morning.)
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:50 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

So when Ward slaughtered his family, and the guys in the prisoner transport, and the guys in the Quinjet at the end of S01, and Victoria Hand (anybody I'm leaving out here?)

I just realized that I left out poor, poor Eric Koenig.

*pours out a KFC Famous Bowl in memoriam*
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:10 AM on November 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

all of those deaths had a weight that made them stand out dramatically from others on the show. And unless AoS is doing a quadruple-backflip-fakeout on us and Ward faked the whole thing, there is no coming back from the evil that he's done.

Agreed, those deaths do appear more meaningful and dramatic to audience, leading weight to how utterly he betrayed the team. But the scale of things that Spike gleefully did and bragged dwarfs anything Grant will do. It's not an exact comparison, my only point here is that Grant isn't irredeemably evil.

He also doesn't have to "come back" from all that. Whitehall is evil. Grant is a highly skilled, highly motivated son of bitch who has reasons for the various terrible things he's done. He's nuanced, which makes him a vastly more interesting character than before.


And having Grant kill his entire goddamn family...

I'm not totally convinced that's what happened. I'll give a 50-50 shot. Grant certainly is capable of doing that, but there's just a news report of a house fire and video/audio of Christian admitting to do that, which Grant parlays into "hey Whitehall, I want to work with you and have these skills see".

I'm pretty sure Grant is working angles here to get close to Whitehall and SkyDad with the intent of betraying the former and reuniting the latter with Skye. That's about as close as he'll get to redemption.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:32 AM on November 20, 2014

The fact that we don't actually see the murders happen might be meaningful, so maybe the Wards are in some unknown safehouse somewhere. But if Christian is still alive, leaving that tape behind was kind of a dick move, since it'll totally deep-six his political career. So I'm not sure how that would redeem Ward, but I'll keep the theory in mind as we go.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:52 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd be surprised to find out that they weren't actually dead because if Grant was going to fake that, I feel like he wouldn't have had to selectively edit Christian's words about the death of their brother into a confession for arson and patri/matricide.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:55 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Dear Mr. Showrunner,
There's too many cast members nowadays. Please eliminate three. P.S. I am not a crackpot.
posted by entropicamericana at 9:15 AM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

P.P.S.: Please ensure that none of the three is Kyle MacLachlan.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:22 AM on November 20, 2014 [6 favorites]

In fact, please replace three people with additional Kyle MacLachlans.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:22 AM on November 20, 2014 [17 favorites]

I say we go with a small three-man strike force of Dune Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks Kyle MacLachlan, and Flintstones Kyle MacLachlan.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:23 AM on November 20, 2014 [7 favorites]

Ugh, I'm enjoying Agents of SHIELD so can we just stop talking about Spike? Because thinking about him ruins *everything.*
posted by Squeak Attack at 10:25 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Talking about Spike doesn't ruin peanut butter, so there's that!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:30 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

This episode has me torn. On the one hand, it's good for all the reasons everybody has already laid out. On the other hand, from the beginning, this is a show that I've watched with my daughter (who is now 9), it's appointment TV for us every week. It's a big deal in our house, to the extent that everybody else knows to go away for an hour because this is "our show." It's got bad-ass female characters and lots of action and it's fun and it has great heart, and she absolutely loves it.

But this week, we have a fairly graphic torture/murder of a woman, as well as the implied murder of two parents by their son. And a character threatening to throw his brother down a well. It was jarring, just not in keeping with the show's tone up to now. I know there's always been PG-13 stuff, but this week (especially the torture/murder of Skye's mom) ramped it up to a degree that I wasn't expecting.

Not a prude, and I watch horror movies all the time so this stuff doesn't bother me. But until now, this had been a "safe" show for my daughter and I to watch together, and I'm kinda sad that that appears to be changing.
posted by jbickers at 12:13 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Re: Ward, this is my smug face.

I just realized that I left out poor, poor Eric Koenig.

Quite a sadness pile on your part.
posted by phearlez at 12:32 PM on November 20, 2014

And a failure bowl.

With a five-head-a-lettuce HE-MAN salad and twenty-nine of our potato bacon bombs.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:47 PM on November 20, 2014

Bit surprising to see Fitz being put out in the field in a critical situation, sort of like we're just gonna let that brain injury thing fade away.

Meant to comment on this - yeah, that was curious. Did something hit the cutting room floor? After last week's all-brains-have-backups moment I assumed that we were going to see Fitz take a ride in the glowy chair after he gets frustrated at not being able to hit his time. But instead he just does some off-screen practice after that setup and haha it's 7 minutes with his BAD hand?

Or are we setting up that having happened and we'll talk about it later, when people notice Fitz making more rapid improvements? It just seemed weird.
posted by phearlez at 12:54 PM on November 20, 2014

I disagree that Fitz's brain injury is being ignored or fading away. Instead what we've seen is Fitz slowly recovering*.

He's improved a little bit and been more comfortable talking and working with the others in each episode. Coulson deciding to take him on a mission and giving him a small project with some extra time to practice doesn't seem at all far-fetched for episode 8.

*People can recover from brain injuries. My dad had a brain bleed that almost killed him and he worked like the dickens on speech, occupational, and physical therapy to recover as much as he could from the damage.
posted by Squeak Attack at 1:17 PM on November 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

Or are we setting up that having happened and we'll talk about it later, when people notice Fitz making more rapid improvements? It just seemed weird.

Pretty much. Fitz was essentially benched 'cause he couldn't perform, now he's just magically out in the field for an extremely intense job that is major linchpin of a scheme working. No stuttering or anything. Has his bad hand been mentioned much before? Seemed to come out of nowhere after maybe a vague mention many episodes ago.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:23 PM on November 20, 2014

The bad hand was mentioned earlier on, but got sort of sidelined in favor of his speech/cognitive difficulties. I get the sense that it's palsied from the nerve damage sustained upstream in his brain, rather than actually damaged in and of itself.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:52 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I thought the slow progress Fitz has been making was shown pretty well, actually - it didn't seem out of the blue to me that he's been making gradual improvements but isn't exactly back to where he was before the brain injury.

I agree that the graphic nature of poor Sierra's dismemberment was way too gory. Other than that, I don't think I have any complaints about the show at all. I like the fact that there are a lot of members of the team running around, and I really like whatever the hell Kyle MacLachlan is doing.
posted by PussKillian at 2:19 PM on November 20, 2014

Thirding the joy of watching Kyle MacLachlan work. I love the actor, but he went to a very bad place a few years ago, somewhere between Showgirls and Desperate Housewives. Good to see him back and in fine form, playing not just bat-shit crazy but with a weird controlled edge that makes it compelling.

I'm still waiting for the third Ward brother to surface.
posted by Nelson at 10:34 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Not going to be surprised if the third Ward brother is the true psychopath. Either way, I think we'll see the Ward family dynamic explored more via flashback. There's more going on there than we've been shown.

I'm enjoying Agent Chin Bulkslab as a character this season (he actually has a character this season so that helps). I really hope the lampshade about Hydra brainwashing isn't for him and we have to endure the whole angsty-former-baddie-tries-to-atone thing that's been well trod and re-trod by Angel and Spike.

MacLachlan is terrific, but I was only half-joking when I said there's too many characters. A lot of the newer SHIELD agents are still paper thin. There's the guy that Fitz might have a crush on and the other guy and then the angry divorced British guy and um, am I forgetting anyone?
posted by entropicamericana at 7:24 AM on November 21, 2014

I can't even remember the names of Mockingbird's Angry Ex or Tall Bald Black Guy Who Seems Pretty Cool But Is Not Trip.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:46 AM on November 21, 2014

Mockingbird's Angry Ex

Lance Hunter.

Tall Bald Black Guy Who Seems Pretty Cool But Is Not Trip

Mack.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:57 AM on November 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

I can't recall anybody actually referring to Mack by name recently, but I'm pretty sure I blocked out "Lance Hunter" because it's so obviously a porn name.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:02 AM on November 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

Funny, I can never remember Trip's name. I always think of him as Toofer, for the metaracist joke from 30 Rock. It's "Trip" because he's a triple threat, right? I sure wish they'd give him some character development, he's a good actor and the initial story was promising. It feels like they added him to the show just because they needed some muscle on the team while Grant was away. I did like the carved beard he's sporting in this episode.

Mack, however, is fantastic and I love how they've built his character. We never actually see him doing anything, just being the gentle-but-tough support for Fitz. I hope they do more with him too.

I agree "Lance Hunter" is a porn star name. But more of a gay porn star thing, you know?
posted by Nelson at 9:07 AM on November 21, 2014

I agree "Lance Hunter" is a porn star name. But more of a gay porn star thing, you know?

Hey, Bobbi vouched for him!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:08 AM on November 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

Triplett is rumoured to be in the Age of Ultron, so he's more than just an add-in for the team. He'd be the first character to go from the show to the movies (Coulson, Fury, Lady Sif, and Hill I think are the only ones from the films to appear in the show, other than the Agent Carter cameos).
posted by GhostintheMachine at 9:18 AM on November 21, 2014

They might as well have let Lance Hunter's actor use his real name.

I hadn't seen any rumors about Triplett and Age of Ultron - any more details on that?
posted by PussKillian at 11:13 AM on November 21, 2014

I've heard the rumor also. It's not a big role, just Trip piloting a jet, maybe filling out a few scenes, etc.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:15 AM on November 21, 2014

It's "Trip" because he's a triple threat, right?

Usually when I hear someone called Trip it's because they're Hurpy Durpy the Third. Given his early backstory including talk of his grandfather I just assumed that was the case for him.
posted by phearlez at 11:17 AM on November 21, 2014

It's "Trip" because his name is Antoine Triplett, just like it's "Mack" because his name is Alphonso Mackenzie.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:39 AM on November 21, 2014

And it's "Nick Fury" because in his downtime he's a furry with an affinity for flying reindeer.
posted by Nelson at 12:35 PM on November 21, 2014

Nick Furry, you say?
posted by Jacqueline at 1:45 PM on November 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

I don't see Ward as unredeemable, basically because I have to believe that people can be redeemed, and it's not my job to decide who is capable of that.

That said, Ward is showing no signs at all of wanting to be redeemed. He's not repentent in any way, clearly has no qualms about all the lives he's taken, including relative innocents like the guards he killed escaping, the bartender he killed when he captured Bakshi, and so forth. So if the show is positioning him for a redemption arc, they're doing pretty poor characterization for that.

And, yeah, killing your entire family and framing your brother for it? Not the sign of someone who is trying to get his soul in order.

I do find the triumvirate of Evil Guys With Conflicting Agendas to be a fascinating setup for things going boom. Next episode ought to be fun.

Also, yay Simmons being a complete Agent Carter fangirl. Way to go.

(I could lose Lance Hunter, though. Seriously, who picked that name, and why should I care about that guy when we have Bobbi and Trip and Mack and May around to do the field work?)
posted by suelac at 10:25 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

My take, though, is that Mack's not really a field-work guy, he's a tech guy & engineer & mechanic (which is, IMO, a nice bit of casting against stereotype - the muscly black dude is more brainiac than ass-kicker), so he's not really a Lance replacement.

And the show needs a loose cannon on the good guys' side just for plot complication purposes, so I think Lance'll be around for a while.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:32 AM on November 22, 2014

Also Lance is hot. Isn't he? I mean hot in a different way. He's not chiseled man-meat like Ward, Trip, or Mack. He's the bad boy, the Han Solo, the naughty puppy you scold for chewing your slippers then hug him and love him and give him treats. Gotta have one of those. (And a nod to the Agent Coulson estrogen brigade, I find him appealing too.)
posted by Nelson at 8:19 AM on November 22, 2014

Lance started questioning Bobbi anout what she did with Hydra. Then she changes subjects and makes it about her feelings for him and they have sex.

I'm betting Bobbi's working for Hydra, somehow.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:36 AM on November 22, 2014

She'd better not be, if only because I'm already ticked enough about Victoria Hand and Isabelle Hartley getting written out so quickly.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:36 AM on November 22, 2014

Yeah, was really disappointed about Hartley, especially after one episode. For weeks, i kept expecting her to pop back up. Or at least hoping.

I'm wondering if Raina's brain machine could undo brainwashing. That way whoever has been brainwashed could be saved. Assuming anyone has been.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:22 PM on November 22, 2014

The first season of Agents of Shield is on Netflix now and I've been watching a few episodes, starting with the last one and going backwards. Couple of interesting notes:

In the next to last episode (21 of 22), Ragtag, Sky says this about Garrett (paraphrasing): "He's injected himself with the GH formula so he can be a real live boy again and create an army of super soldiers". The "real live boy" quote is from Pinnocchio and that story seems to factor into the Avengers Age of Ultron movie. Don't know if there's connection, but interesting.

In episode 20, after the team is reeling from the discovery of Hydra being in SHIELD, Fitz is freaking out and asks, almost pleads, with Simmons to say she's not Hydra. She does and he says "Thank god, 'cause if you were, I don't know what'd I do." She responds with "You'll never have to find out." Again, another interesting tidbit, especially considering the recent question wondering if her or Bobbi have been brainwashed by Hydra.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:48 PM on November 23, 2014

Since there's no new episode this week, let's take a minute to see where everything is and do a little speculation.

The most disappointing thing is Raina not being part of any of the groups that are heading to the mysterious city. Best part is just...everything about this season. It's been on fire from the start on pretty every level you can imagine.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:52 AM on November 26, 2014

Fitz is freaking out and asks, almost pleads, with Simmons to say she's not Hydra. She does and he says "Thank god, 'cause if you were, I don't know what'd I do." She responds with "You'll never have to find out." Again, another interesting tidbit, especially considering the recent question wondering if her or Bobbi have been brainwashed by Hydra.

Rather than being a deeper game that could just be a reference to her upcoming undercover work and how much trouble Fitz has with her going away.
posted by phearlez at 7:28 AM on November 26, 2014

I suppose, but it was never really developed later on. Fitz was mad she went away, not so much about her being undercover for Hydra.

It may come to nothing, just found it interesting in light of what we know now. Is it Tuesday yet?!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:50 AM on November 26, 2014

Sure, but it paid lie to "you'll never have to find out." He did.
posted by phearlez at 2:22 PM on November 26, 2014

Does anyone know if there's a legal way to watch this live (ie: as it airs) without a TV tuner? I've been streaming, but then I get the 8-day delay and miss out on all the conversation! I guess I could dig out my USB SDR dongle and use it for what it's meant for, but that seems obnoxious and I'm not sure I'd get any reception...
posted by Alterscape at 7:35 AM on November 27, 2014

If I miss the live broadcast, I watch it online from CTV.ca. They post the videos next day. Doesn't ABC.go.com do the same for Americans?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:28 AM on November 27, 2014

Only places I've seen (abc.com and hulu.com) are running an 8-day delay, presumably to encourage people to buy cable. I'll have to check abc.go.com and see, after the next episode is out.
posted by Alterscape at 12:43 PM on November 28, 2014

I just came here to say that surgery scene was actually shocking. I get they did it to make you have empathy with Skye's dad at the end but I was having more empathy with anyone watching and being unfixably upset.
posted by bleep at 9:26 PM on November 29, 2014

Oh, and did anybody notice who played Skye's mother? Another Dollhouse alum, Dichen Lachman!

More recently from The 100 (fanfare link). If you feel like seeing her as a badass warrior type, you could always catch up and then come talk about it.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:03 PM on December 2, 2014