Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Missing pieces
May 12, 2019 5:25 PM - Season 6, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Scattered across the galaxy, the team works to find their footing in the wake of losing Coulson
- 13 episodes only, but a nice budget (at least in this episode). There are space battles in AoS now, short ones but still.
- Mack has been rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D and there are S.H.I.E.L.D-branded cars, S.H.I.E.L.D-branded aircrafts and probably S.H.I.E.L.D-branded USB keys and coffee mugs. And lots of new agents, some of them with names! And lines! Who probably get redshirted once the budget runs out.
- Daisy, Jemma, Agent Piper and Agent Simmons are flying across the Galaxy, looking for Fitz (who was stuck in acar roof box cryosleep pod in S5) and kicking ass. We wish that they'd meet Starlord and the gang along the way, but we know that it's not going to happen, because it's No-Longer-Connected.
- People have been wondering about how AoS would fit in the post-Snap, pre-Endgame world and the non-answer so far is that it's a different timeline or whatever. But who cares, really? Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back and we'll get two seasons.
- 13 episodes only, but a nice budget (at least in this episode). There are space battles in AoS now, short ones but still.
- Mack has been rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D and there are S.H.I.E.L.D-branded cars, S.H.I.E.L.D-branded aircrafts and probably S.H.I.E.L.D-branded USB keys and coffee mugs. And lots of new agents, some of them with names! And lines! Who probably get redshirted once the budget runs out.
- Daisy, Jemma, Agent Piper and Agent Simmons are flying across the Galaxy, looking for Fitz (who was stuck in a
- People have been wondering about how AoS would fit in the post-Snap, pre-Endgame world and the non-answer so far is that it's a different timeline or whatever. But who cares, really? Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back and we'll get two seasons.
I was glad to have these characters back though I have no idea where they're going with this season so far. Nice to have a bunch of new agents, too, so SHIELD feels a little bit more like an actual organization now than it had become. It does make me sad how disconnected they've become from the MCU though. I suppose the intensity of the efforts to prevent Endgame spoilers from leaking meant that they really couldn't do any kind of tie in even if they'd wanted to, but maybe they'll be able to work in at least a few passing lines of dialogue about the rest of the MCU later in the season.
I'm also curious what Mirror-Coulson's name is, since apparently the word "Coulson" means nothing to him. Mirror Universe has got some different naming conventions, or something.
posted by mstokes650 at 9:15 PM on May 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm also curious what Mirror-Coulson's name is, since apparently the word "Coulson" means nothing to him. Mirror Universe has got some different naming conventions, or something.
posted by mstokes650 at 9:15 PM on May 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Coulson didn't recognize "SHIELD," I thought?
posted by Pronoiac at 9:22 PM on May 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Pronoiac at 9:22 PM on May 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
I thought it was SHIELD too, but I may have been mistaken.
And yeah: I hope we get a little bit of MCU stuff here later, but I'm enjoying the return either way, including the thread where they're rebuilding SHIELD from basically ashes.
posted by mordax at 12:17 AM on May 13, 2019
And yeah: I hope we get a little bit of MCU stuff here later, but I'm enjoying the return either way, including the thread where they're rebuilding SHIELD from basically ashes.
posted by mordax at 12:17 AM on May 13, 2019
Sarge did indeed fail to recognize the name, "S.H.I.E.L.D.". Let me point out that the beard is only if the alternate is evil. I have no doubt that Sarge and crew see themselves as the heroes. They probably have a mission that requires sacrifices for the greater good, or maybe just the survival of their world/people/timeline/or some such. Gemma's obsession and response to Fitz's choices will be a plot thread. Quake's actions explain the line last season about how S.H.I.E.L.D is one of the most despised organizations in the galaxy. Daisy may have lost the plot after facing the lies used by the Confederation in the future about her destroying the Earth. Which leads me to think that the Coulson the team let die is not the Coulson that Future-Yo warned them against doing everything they could to save.
posted by Ignorantsavage at 5:29 AM on May 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Ignorantsavage at 5:29 AM on May 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
I legitimately cannot remember how last season ended, a year is a mighty long time in the entertainment industry, especially since it covered both infinity war _and_ endgame and just sorta went "nope" to the larger effects of both of them.
So yeah, I'm mildly confused by where this season is starting from. Ok, I got that Fitz took a Yakima Cartop Carrier into the future to save the guys stuck there, and did, and there was some fussing around back in the lighthouse in our timeline, and then things were ... back to normal-ish, I guess? But then Fitz died and Jemma went "WAIT I KNOW HE'S IN THE CARTOP CARRIER" and it went off the gotdang rails for me.
And yeah, I think they're mildly compromised by not even trying to fit in to the MCU any more, but I'm sure it'll revert to just mildly generic not-quite-superhero stories in the absence of a big giant tie-in storyline.
posted by Kyol at 9:03 AM on May 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
So yeah, I'm mildly confused by where this season is starting from. Ok, I got that Fitz took a Yakima Cartop Carrier into the future to save the guys stuck there, and did, and there was some fussing around back in the lighthouse in our timeline, and then things were ... back to normal-ish, I guess? But then Fitz died and Jemma went "WAIT I KNOW HE'S IN THE CARTOP CARRIER" and it went off the gotdang rails for me.
And yeah, I think they're mildly compromised by not even trying to fit in to the MCU any more, but I'm sure it'll revert to just mildly generic not-quite-superhero stories in the absence of a big giant tie-in storyline.
posted by Kyol at 9:03 AM on May 13, 2019 [2 favorites]
Coulson didn't recognize "SHIELD," I thought?
You guys are correct, I went and re-checked and it turns out my brain had just spliced a thing from the teaser for next episode into a spot in this episode where it definitely did not actually happen, don't mind me.
posted by mstokes650 at 10:30 AM on May 13, 2019
You guys are correct, I went and re-checked and it turns out my brain had just spliced a thing from the teaser for next episode into a spot in this episode where it definitely did not actually happen, don't mind me.
posted by mstokes650 at 10:30 AM on May 13, 2019
Sarge did indeed fail to recognize the name, "S.H.I.E.L.D.". Let me point out that the beard is only if the alternate is evil. I have no doubt that Sarge and crew see themselves as the heroes.
Oh, I'm just funnin' about that. I am mostly pleased to see Clark Gregg back on the show, but not in a way that denies Mack leadership of SHIELD. :)
And yeah, I think they're mildly compromised by not even trying to fit in to the MCU any more, but I'm sure it'll revert to just mildly generic not-quite-superhero stories in the absence of a big giant tie-in storyline.
I figure they have enough internal mythology to carry one final season, even though I'm disappointed in the lack of cross-continuity. (I feel like they should've been affected by the snap.)
posted by mordax at 10:32 AM on May 13, 2019
Oh, I'm just funnin' about that. I am mostly pleased to see Clark Gregg back on the show, but not in a way that denies Mack leadership of SHIELD. :)
And yeah, I think they're mildly compromised by not even trying to fit in to the MCU any more, but I'm sure it'll revert to just mildly generic not-quite-superhero stories in the absence of a big giant tie-in storyline.
I figure they have enough internal mythology to carry one final season, even though I'm disappointed in the lack of cross-continuity. (I feel like they should've been affected by the snap.)
posted by mordax at 10:32 AM on May 13, 2019
I forgot this was coming and was pleasantly surprised to find it on Hulu.
As for MCU continuity, I think maybe some of the crew got snaptured, and this is in the 5-year interim. Although it seems like that would be something that would be informing every second of the story, so I don't know.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:17 PM on May 13, 2019
As for MCU continuity, I think maybe some of the crew got snaptured, and this is in the 5-year interim. Although it seems like that would be something that would be informing every second of the story, so I don't know.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:17 PM on May 13, 2019
And yeah, last year I was sort of willing to accept that the snapture happened while everybody was off in the future, and I expected that Endgame would be a bigger reset button than it was, so no harm, no foul to our dudes off 80 years from now. But now that Endgame has left a 5 year chronology gap in the timeline, I'm not sure I can really resolve that satisfactorily.
That said, AoS always sort of felt like it happened in the not too distant future, like maybe next Sunday, and if IW was actually back in 2014 and we spent 5 years on AoS post-snapture WITHOUT KNOWING IT oh who am I kidding....
But yeah, it stands alone nicely as a general Kree storyline at this point. I'm sort of hoping they lean in to the broader galactic tomfoolery of Ragnarok and the GotGs, y'know? That's been a fun ride.
...what's the intra-club spoiler policy?
posted by Kyol at 7:17 PM on May 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
That said, AoS always sort of felt like it happened in the not too distant future, like maybe next Sunday, and if IW was actually back in 2014 and we spent 5 years on AoS post-snapture WITHOUT KNOWING IT oh who am I kidding....
But yeah, it stands alone nicely as a general Kree storyline at this point. I'm sort of hoping they lean in to the broader galactic tomfoolery of Ragnarok and the GotGs, y'know? That's been a fun ride.
...what's the intra-club spoiler policy?
posted by Kyol at 7:17 PM on May 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
I think Endgame spoilers are universally fair game, if that’s what you’re asking, since Marvel officially declared spoiler warning time over the day they released an Endgame-spoileriffic trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home.
I’m happy to be back in the AoS universe, though sad that its fracture from the MCU is apparently so complete now that it’s a different universe altogether from the MCU. (I forget, wasn’t the Black Order attack on Earth specifically mentioned in last season’s final episode? Maybe as part of the reason Nathan Petrelli decided he had to kill the world to save it?) The most fundamental sign that the two universes have nothing to do with each other is the way that Endgame specifically described time travel as definitely NOT working the way last season of AoS was ENTIRELY BUILT AROUND. I was reminded of this specifically when Gemma said “I almost wish we hadn’t changed this timeline,” a kind of callous wish considering that before the change, the whole Earth blew up and the surviving humans became indentured servants to the Kree.
(Speaking of Gemma: watching this the night after watching Game of Thrones, I was struck how giving her bangs made her look an awful lot like Cersei. It gave the moment Gemma sent them all into deep space despite their wishes a bit more resonant.)
The subplot leading up to Sarge was a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I was not excited about Generic Badass, Off-Brand Junkrat, and Non-Vampire Drusilla and their shenanigans until the semi truck drove out of the portal (I LOL’ed) and Evil Twin Coulson stepped out. But at the same time, when a show becomes a show about multiverses, the implications of multiverses tends to swallow up everything else interesting about the show. I’m a little worried that this is going to happen to both AoS and the MCU now, but I’ll give everyone the benefit of the doubt until shown otherwise.
Otherwise, it was great to see all my imaginary friends again, and I’m very happy they showed that Fitz is alive and up to his science-shenanigans without dragging it out. Looking forward to this season!
posted by ejs at 7:54 PM on May 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
I’m happy to be back in the AoS universe, though sad that its fracture from the MCU is apparently so complete now that it’s a different universe altogether from the MCU. (I forget, wasn’t the Black Order attack on Earth specifically mentioned in last season’s final episode? Maybe as part of the reason Nathan Petrelli decided he had to kill the world to save it?) The most fundamental sign that the two universes have nothing to do with each other is the way that Endgame specifically described time travel as definitely NOT working the way last season of AoS was ENTIRELY BUILT AROUND. I was reminded of this specifically when Gemma said “I almost wish we hadn’t changed this timeline,” a kind of callous wish considering that before the change, the whole Earth blew up and the surviving humans became indentured servants to the Kree.
(Speaking of Gemma: watching this the night after watching Game of Thrones, I was struck how giving her bangs made her look an awful lot like Cersei. It gave the moment Gemma sent them all into deep space despite their wishes a bit more resonant.)
The subplot leading up to Sarge was a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I was not excited about Generic Badass, Off-Brand Junkrat, and Non-Vampire Drusilla and their shenanigans until the semi truck drove out of the portal (I LOL’ed) and Evil Twin Coulson stepped out. But at the same time, when a show becomes a show about multiverses, the implications of multiverses tends to swallow up everything else interesting about the show. I’m a little worried that this is going to happen to both AoS and the MCU now, but I’ll give everyone the benefit of the doubt until shown otherwise.
Otherwise, it was great to see all my imaginary friends again, and I’m very happy they showed that Fitz is alive and up to his science-shenanigans without dragging it out. Looking forward to this season!
posted by ejs at 7:54 PM on May 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
...what's the intra-club spoiler policy?
Generally speaking, you can talk about any part of a franchise that aired prior to the one you are discussing. We could talk about Captain Marvel in Endgame, and we can talk about Endgame here.
I dunno if that's official, but it's how we've been handling it in Star Trek stuff for literally years without incident.
posted by mordax at 8:51 PM on May 13, 2019
Generally speaking, you can talk about any part of a franchise that aired prior to the one you are discussing. We could talk about Captain Marvel in Endgame, and we can talk about Endgame here.
I dunno if that's official, but it's how we've been handling it in Star Trek stuff for literally years without incident.
posted by mordax at 8:51 PM on May 13, 2019
Ah, well. Then that means I check out of these threads about the TV show SHIELD, because I haven't seen an MCU movie since Dr. Strange. One more place I have to avoid. Enjoy the season!
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:30 PM on May 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:30 PM on May 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
Two observations about continuity with the MCU
1. The nature of time travel. In the MCU we already know two different ways time travel works. There's the quantum-realm-based time travel that Bruce explained, and there's whatever the time stone does. QR time travel can not change the travelers past timeline, but can create alternate timelines. TS time travel can change the past of the traveler. So monolith-based time travel changing the past of the user's time line can still fit.
2. Endgame doesn't seem to have happened. Simple. AOS takes place in the alternate timeline created by the Endgame trip to 2014. There's no Thanos in that one, so no Infinity War, no Endgame.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 7:28 AM on May 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
1. The nature of time travel. In the MCU we already know two different ways time travel works. There's the quantum-realm-based time travel that Bruce explained, and there's whatever the time stone does. QR time travel can not change the travelers past timeline, but can create alternate timelines. TS time travel can change the past of the traveler. So monolith-based time travel changing the past of the user's time line can still fit.
2. Endgame doesn't seem to have happened. Simple. AOS takes place in the alternate timeline created by the Endgame trip to 2014. There's no Thanos in that one, so no Infinity War, no Endgame.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 7:28 AM on May 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
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posted by mordax at 6:15 PM on May 12, 2019 [3 favorites]