Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Deals With Our Devils
December 3, 2016 1:35 PM - Season 4, Episode 7 - Subscribe
The team searches for answers as Ghost Rider's clock counts down.
I thought this episode was great. It felt like a lot happened. I really enjoyed the narrative gimmick and thought the writers did an expert job with the dialog. I might have missed something, but I think they never confirmed that the people in the regular dimension actually heard/sensed Couldon and Fitz. Am I right about that? I think they left it ambiguous, the people (or "people") they were trying to reach might have sensed them or might simply have independently had the same ideas. I appreciate that kind of ambiguity.
MAOS is already such a dark show (literally dark) that it must have been a challenge to make it progressively darker as they were sinking into the other dimension. Not a lot of room to work there, but they pulled it off.
Jason O'Mara is doing great work as Mace. I think it's my favorite of the roles I've seen him in. He's a great situation manager. They're doing a good job of walking the "is he a good guy or not?" tightrope, although from what I've read the character is canonically decent.
Mack as Ghost Rider was amazing. The second time they showed the scene where Daisy caught up with him was very powerful. I'm glad they have Daisy using her fighting skills instead of her powers, she's more interesting that way.
I like Simmons's heightened confidence as she displayed in her scene in the senator's bio tent.
Mallory Jansen (the actor playing Aida - yay Galavant cast!) is wonderful. She brings a lot to that role, and this episode took her to a really intriguing place. I only had a couple of issues with the episode, the main one being that after the action was resolved nobody seemed to think they needed to pay attention to Aida. It seems like they would have at least quarantined her and put her through a battery of tests, perhaps going so far as to disassemble her neural net to see what the effect of reading the Darkhold was, but there wasn't even a nod of awareness from the other characters that there could be undiscovered and/or unintended consequences. She's just off on her own, accessing SHIELD equipment, building a virtual brain, nothing to worry about there.
I'm glad they've moved on from the way she was presented when first introduced which was kind of icky IMO.
The only other point of confusion for me was the whole deal between Robbie and the Rider. I'm not really clear on what Robbie offers that relationship and his promise to help the Rider settle his scores or issues or whatever was pretty vague. It felt kind of handwavy. I wanted a more compelling argument from Robbie, but he just doesn't actually have any leverage.
I live in downtown Los Angeles, so whenever they have location scenes rednikki and I try to pick out where they've shot. A lot of the car chase happened on Main around 5th and 6th. It's the same block they used in the episode last season (I think it was last season) where Fitz had escaped from his abductors and was running through an urban setting (they just shot this the other direction). When Daisy gets stuck behind the stopped traffic when Mack turns right, you can see that they're portraying a two-way street as a one-way street (the double yellow line is clearly visible between lanes of cars going the same direction), and in reality to encounter some of the things they did in the order they did they'd have been driving around the same block a couple times. It's meaningless of course, but it's fun for us to play "Spot the Neighborhhood!"
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 8:06 AM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
MAOS is already such a dark show (literally dark) that it must have been a challenge to make it progressively darker as they were sinking into the other dimension. Not a lot of room to work there, but they pulled it off.
Jason O'Mara is doing great work as Mace. I think it's my favorite of the roles I've seen him in. He's a great situation manager. They're doing a good job of walking the "is he a good guy or not?" tightrope, although from what I've read the character is canonically decent.
Mack as Ghost Rider was amazing. The second time they showed the scene where Daisy caught up with him was very powerful. I'm glad they have Daisy using her fighting skills instead of her powers, she's more interesting that way.
I like Simmons's heightened confidence as she displayed in her scene in the senator's bio tent.
Mallory Jansen (the actor playing Aida - yay Galavant cast!) is wonderful. She brings a lot to that role, and this episode took her to a really intriguing place. I only had a couple of issues with the episode, the main one being that after the action was resolved nobody seemed to think they needed to pay attention to Aida. It seems like they would have at least quarantined her and put her through a battery of tests, perhaps going so far as to disassemble her neural net to see what the effect of reading the Darkhold was, but there wasn't even a nod of awareness from the other characters that there could be undiscovered and/or unintended consequences. She's just off on her own, accessing SHIELD equipment, building a virtual brain, nothing to worry about there.
I'm glad they've moved on from the way she was presented when first introduced which was kind of icky IMO.
The only other point of confusion for me was the whole deal between Robbie and the Rider. I'm not really clear on what Robbie offers that relationship and his promise to help the Rider settle his scores or issues or whatever was pretty vague. It felt kind of handwavy. I wanted a more compelling argument from Robbie, but he just doesn't actually have any leverage.
I live in downtown Los Angeles, so whenever they have location scenes rednikki and I try to pick out where they've shot. A lot of the car chase happened on Main around 5th and 6th. It's the same block they used in the episode last season (I think it was last season) where Fitz had escaped from his abductors and was running through an urban setting (they just shot this the other direction). When Daisy gets stuck behind the stopped traffic when Mack turns right, you can see that they're portraying a two-way street as a one-way street (the double yellow line is clearly visible between lanes of cars going the same direction), and in reality to encounter some of the things they did in the order they did they'd have been driving around the same block a couple times. It's meaningless of course, but it's fun for us to play "Spot the Neighborhhood!"
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 8:06 AM on December 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
the main one being that after the action was resolved nobody seemed to think they needed to pay attention to Aida. It seems like they would have at least quarantined her and put her through a battery of tests, perhaps going so far as to disassemble her neural net to see what the effect of reading the Darkhold was, but there wasn't even a nod of awareness from the other characters that there could be undiscovered and/or unintended consequences. She's just off on her own, accessing SHIELD equipment, building a virtual brain, nothing to worry about there.
It was pretty dumb and pretty unnecessary. Given that they sold it with the "well she's not human" the sensible thing would have been to presume they're gonna wipe and restore from an old backup. Which they could have had a less invested person say hey crazy mad genius, you'll get right on that yes? And he says sure... but doesn't do it, because he's attached. Which would all be consistent with everyone's actions so far and would accomplish the same thing without needing someone to hold the idiot stick.
posted by phearlez at 2:26 PM on December 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
It was pretty dumb and pretty unnecessary. Given that they sold it with the "well she's not human" the sensible thing would have been to presume they're gonna wipe and restore from an old backup. Which they could have had a less invested person say hey crazy mad genius, you'll get right on that yes? And he says sure... but doesn't do it, because he's attached. Which would all be consistent with everyone's actions so far and would accomplish the same thing without needing someone to hold the idiot stick.
posted by phearlez at 2:26 PM on December 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
That's where I know the Aida actress from--Galavant. I kept looking at her trying to figure out why she was so familiar, but I just couldn't narrow down the context. Thanks under-petticoat-rule for that reference.
I'm surprised that they've allowed technology (Aida) to access magic in this part of the Marvel Universe. Mind you, I guess if you've got Vision powered by an Infinity Stone, then that line has already been crossed.
If she's moving into building a human brain for herself, I guess she's moving away from LMD territory and into something else. It will be interesting to watch where they go with that development. And yes, letting her retain the knowledge without testing her or rebooting her was extremely stupid.
I do like the fact the interdimensional gateway was very similar to those shown in Dr. Strange, so a small yeah for internal MCU consistency.
posted by sardonyx at 9:36 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised that they've allowed technology (Aida) to access magic in this part of the Marvel Universe. Mind you, I guess if you've got Vision powered by an Infinity Stone, then that line has already been crossed.
If she's moving into building a human brain for herself, I guess she's moving away from LMD territory and into something else. It will be interesting to watch where they go with that development. And yes, letting her retain the knowledge without testing her or rebooting her was extremely stupid.
I do like the fact the interdimensional gateway was very similar to those shown in Dr. Strange, so a small yeah for internal MCU consistency.
posted by sardonyx at 9:36 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
You're welcome! Galavant himself is on No Tomorrow, with Sabine from Killjoys.
It would be fun to see a crossover with Aida, Lucy from Killjoys and Android from Dark Matter.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:28 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
It would be fun to see a crossover with Aida, Lucy from Killjoys and Android from Dark Matter.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:28 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised that they've allowed technology (Aida) to access magic in this part of the Marvel Universe.
I think it's probably more like The Darkhold has the power to offer its dangerous evil knowledge to any mind it chooses to seduce.
posted by straight at 2:12 PM on April 5, 2019
I think it's probably more like The Darkhold has the power to offer its dangerous evil knowledge to any mind it chooses to seduce.
posted by straight at 2:12 PM on April 5, 2019
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posted by 1970s Antihero at 2:50 PM on December 3, 2016 [4 favorites]