Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Afterschocks

March 3, 2015 7:02 PM - Season 2, Episode 11

The agents deal with the aftermath of Trip's death, Skye's issues (though they don't realize she has superpowers), and a vacancy in Hydra upper management. Meanwhile, Raina struggles with her changed appearance and a mysterious man with no eyes puts in an appearance.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (29 comments total)

High Points: Mr. Teleporter, Simmon's fears about a plague (she is the biologist), tricking Hydra into infighting (but guys, the power vacuum), Coulson visiting Trip's grandma and the Inhumans.

Low Points: Damn, Mac and Bobbie really are up to no good.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:11 PM on March 3, 2015

Did Bakshi say "the three heads of HYDRA"?

And Mr. Hyde here is even weirder...

Fitz called it: Inhuman.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:00 PM on March 3, 2015

There's no way Mac and Mockingbird are bad. It's unpossbible.
posted by Justinian at 12:39 AM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm really curious if the writing staff always intended the arc of Fitz and Simmon's trauma to lead to their reaction (or potential reaction) to Skye as they're the most earned character beats in the shows run. I guess we'll see in the coming weeks if they commit to the team splitting along pro/anti inhuman points of view in what I assume is a preview of civil war.
posted by humans are superior! at 1:04 AM on March 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm going to assume that the windows of their quarantine facilities (because this is, what, the third time Skye's been kept under glass? we're getting into Butterfly Collector territory here) can be darkened for privacy, and she's keeping them clear because she's lonely and wants to talk to people.
posted by Mogur at 4:45 AM on March 4, 2015

I guess we'll see in the coming weeks if they commit to the team splitting along pro/anti inhuman points of view in what I assume is a preview of civil war.

Hmm. In that case I'm guessing Bobbi and Mac are working for Tony Stark. He's arrogant enough to beleive he should be running SHIELD and/or that he can save the world.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:57 AM on March 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

It's not that I actually believed the therapy explanation, it's that people in a superhero world going in for and having a positive outcome from therapy might have legitimately been the biggest plot twist of them all.
posted by dinty_moore at 5:53 AM on March 4, 2015 [6 favorites]

Hmm. In that case I'm guessing Bobbi and Mac are working for Tony Stark. He's arrogant enough to beleive he should be running SHIELD and/or that he can save the world.

I'd also believe Romanov with maybe even support from Rogers - not necessarily because they'd want control of SHIELD, but because they'd be understandably suspicious of SHIELD popping up with an undead director only months after they destroyed it, and maybe they'd want to keep an eye on what's happening from afar. And maybe just because Captain America disapproving of Phil Coulson is one of my favorite things.

A lot of this episode just made me angrier about how they treated Trip - I'd feel a lot sadder about his character going if they'd actually bothered to give him something to do in the first half of the season. Between that, giving Mac an anger management problem, and putting another PoC in heavy prosethetics, I'm headdesking.

I did like the Raina and Max the mad scenes, plus the flashback at the beginning. I know it's not likely happen, but I do hope that they find a way to get Skye's mom to be alive again, because Dichen Lachman is awesome. Fitz's scenes with Skye were also really well done, though the logistics of nobody noticing the blown out lights and them not having any sort of surveillance on Skye seemed weird.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:24 AM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

KMcL continues to be a treasure.

"I can't live like this."
"So don't."

Who's inhuman?

I liked that Fitz's secret-keeping was implied not to be meant to be a long-term thing. I am tired of deep secrets and discoveries being the main way to move things forward (I am glaring at you, Arrow) so shorter term fibbing by people trying to avoid consequences is an improvement IMHO.
posted by phearlez at 8:14 AM on March 4, 2015 [3 favorites]

Probably because I caught the Winter Soldier again on the hotel tv yesterday and so it's still fresh, but fwiw re: the Hydra plot, the gentleman who kept referring to Baron Strucker is the same guy assistant/lackey that showed up in the Age of Ultron tag at the end of TWS. So the Ultron buildup has officially started (what with the proper enter stage moment for the Inhumans*)

*credit to Fitz for selling that line introducing the term even though I laughed out of reactionary facepalm at a return of how badly SHIELD personnel handles metahumans. though yes, he did redeem himself!
posted by cendawanita at 9:08 AM on March 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

also ever since someone on tumblr pointed out why does Hydra have an octopus as a logo (tentacles != heads), I can't take them that seriously. Or rather, I am taking them at exactly the comicbook-level serious.

Though to be fair, it's a fairly established attitude for me ever since that double-armed salute from Cap1. (and yes, I can buy tentacles to mean, having a hand in every major affair, but heh.)
posted by cendawanita at 9:10 AM on March 4, 2015

My issue has always been that Hydra insists on putting their logo on everything. That's not how you avoid detection!
posted by dinty_moore at 9:22 AM on March 4, 2015 [4 favorites]

poor hydra, forever caught between existing in secret, or endless self-promotion.
posted by cendawanita at 9:32 AM on March 4, 2015 [10 favorites]

I'm still holding out slim hope that Tripp comes back.
posted by Catblack at 10:14 AM on March 4, 2015

I'm still holding out slim hope that Tripp comes back.

I was too, but didn't Simmons say Tripp was in pieces? I assumed that was because they found those pieces.
posted by Weeping_angel at 10:29 AM on March 4, 2015

Yeah, that was Tripp's petrified face getting carted out in a wheelbarrow just before Simmons gave the order to flood the caverns. They know all right.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:37 AM on March 4, 2015

Yeah, that was Tripp's petrified face getting carted out in a wheelbarrow

Well, technically that could be the chrysalis of Trip's face being carted out - the stone-thing around Skye and Raina was definitely a form-fitting mold that then fell off of them.
posted by restless_nomad at 10:43 AM on March 4, 2015

Is Skye's dad inhuman or something? He didn't seem to have much difficulty body slamming inhuman Raina in the cargo hold. I would be so happy if losing his shit was his super power.
posted by klarck at 10:46 AM on March 4, 2015

Yup, and I think it's definitive that he's the inhuman Mister Hyde from the comics (which is why he keeps calling Skye Daisy, who is Quake). He does seem to have super strength, but it seems to unlock with his rage. I think that's part of why he's so angry at Whitehall killing his wife, though I'm not quite clear if he's not been exiled at some point, because obviously the Inhumans still have some network going, or else Gordon the eyeless teleporter wouldn't have known to rescue Raina.
posted by cendawanita at 10:51 AM on March 4, 2015

Ah, thanks. Makes his comment about checking "the index" again make more sense.
posted by klarck at 11:04 AM on March 4, 2015

Though it's pretty clear he's the equivalent of Mister Hyde, in the episode before the break he seemed to be fairly helpless and human when Whitehall and his men captured him. So it's a little confusing right now whether he actually has super strength.
posted by 2ht at 11:56 AM on March 4, 2015

Isn't the SHIELD list of folks also called the index? I could have sworn that was what they called it when they talked about the various people they tracked, like the firestarter street performer.
posted by phearlez at 1:47 PM on March 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

yes, it is. so i'm not sure how he knows it, though it is possible he now knows more about the extent of shield's breakdown after initially joining forces with ward and whitehall. and his strength really seems to depend on him going into berserker mode and usually ends violently and bloodily -- that was why skye was horrified and kept calling him a monster after seeing the remains in his abandoned clinic. and also, he wanted whitehall to be caught up with him, because that's how he could get closer to his wife's murderer.

he doesn't seem to be particularly mentally stable so uh, good luck with the index plan. helps with that strength issue tho.
posted by cendawanita at 5:08 PM on March 4, 2015

I'm glad the show gave Raina a legitimate reason for hating her new form instead of the "oh no, I look different now! How will I live with the ability to murder anyone I want using razor-sharp death spikes?" agonizing that comes with these plotlines sometimes.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:03 AM on March 6, 2015

This was a really dull episode.

I'm frustrated with the handling of Raina, and I hope she turns around soon. Anyone else notice that she talks a little different with all that prosthetic makeup on?

Everyone at base seemed irrationally angry - Mack, and Simmons especially. I was waiting for some kind of technobabble explanation for it, but it never came. The team has been through similarly traumatic experiences before without reacting this poorly, so it seemed out of place.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:22 AM on March 7, 2015

This is where three months of break doesn't help things. They laid some ground for them already being wound-up before the mission, with Mack questioning the obsession and secrecy. For him to be pissed off that it then went on to the next step and killed a friend made perfect sense to me. It just didn't seem grounded when all that was so far in our personal past.
posted by phearlez at 6:00 AM on March 7, 2015

Everyone at base seemed irrationally angry

Trip died. Mack was taken over by an alien something buried in an ancient alien city. An earthquake occurred. An alien gas was released.

Irrationally angry seems about right.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:06 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was worried they'd go the other way and brush off Trip's death so the show could focus on Skye/Daisy/Quake and her new superpowers, so I'm fine with that.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:05 AM on March 7, 2015

I found all the drama about Trip's death a little overdone, considering that just a few episodes previously they supposedly lost six men in an operation who were apparently just disposable redshirts.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:27 PM on December 3, 2015