Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Sign / New Life

August 4, 2019 9:11 PM - Season 6, Episode 12

With time running short, the team has to go to hell to stop the end of everything. (Two-parter in some locations.)
posted by rednikki (16 comments total)

It was exciting. No one carried the idiot ball. And yet I am disappointed.

This is the second show this week that has done the "character tragically dies! Everyone cry! OH WAIT CHARACTER IS NOT REALLY DEAD!" Killing a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives we don't really know, and bringing back two characters that we watch die? It feels like emotional gaslighting and removes the impact of the deaths.

Mind you, I didn't want to lose May or Coulson. And I really didn't want Yo-Yo to die and I'm glad she didn't. But the peril is starting to feel way less perilous.

That fight scene between May and Iselle kicked ass.

under_petticoat_rule predicted that Enoch was wearing the skin of the Hunter. Props to the actor for pulling off Enoch's mannerisms really well.

Simmons' hairstyle is always a tell as to where she is emotionally and whether Big Changes Have Happened.

Unpopular opinion: I like Deke and I really empathized with his monologue about how he started a company because no one liked him, and how hurt he was that no one told him Fitz had died. Fitz and Simmons are so very important to him. They view him as a (kind of annoying) peer; he really does view them as grandma and grandpa.

Really intriguing that they brought Flint back and didn't melt him. I'm intrigued as to what happens with that.

Despite my complaints, I've really enjoyed the intensely ensemble feel of this season.

(Was I the only one who was kinda hoping they'd create a Grant Ward LMD? They've found so many ways to bring him back; I'd love for them to do it one last time next season.)
posted by rednikki at 9:21 PM on August 4, 2019 [5 favorites]

May is going to lose it with it the Coulson chronicom. As far as the living-dead-living goes, Sarge dead, Coulson dead, Coulson synthetic =/= Coulson. As far as May goes, given that next season clearly involves time travel there is no way you let May die with that ending. The plot hole it would create would just piss everyone off. Also this is a Comic Book TV show. Everyone comes back, one way or another. I like this tighter season and I look forward to the next one.
posted by Ignorantsavage at 2:34 AM on August 5, 2019

Lot of name dropping of Robbie Reyes. Really expected him to show up at some point.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:04 AM on August 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yeah, me too. But it feels like this was a mid-season finale - it was free one of the "chapter" breaks from season 4 - so I'm thinking he'll turn up in the "next half" of the season (season 7).

I also felt like there was too much idiot ball this season, it was kind of like watching a Berlanti show at times.

I do like Deke, but I hope they find ways for him to develop better personal character and become less douchy.

I was pretty sure Ignorantsavage's analysis was correct coming into this episode, but now I'm not so sure.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 8:44 AM on August 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

TBH I was not expecting Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Timewar! Though it might allow for the reintegration of the show into the post-Endgame MCU due to all the fricking timelines that are going to be created and destroyed. Then again we have the pillars back and I have no idea where all the gravitonium in the sphere went so I still lean into the theory that we are still in the Broken Earth timeline. Timewar! may change that or it may just lead us into a taste of the What If...? TV series and we get to see a bunch of different S.H.I.E.L.D. timelines to blur the boundaries of what we, 'know,' has happened.
posted by Ignorantsavage at 3:58 PM on August 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Timewar! may also lead us into Legends of Tomorrow territory. I do wonder how S.H.I.E.L.D. would handle Bebo.
posted by rednikki at 4:03 PM on August 5, 2019 [4 favorites]

Probably as a opponent to Fin Fang Foom. Also not as made up of Agents. Possibly as a manifestation created using the Darkhold. Ghost Rider Bebo maybe?
posted by Ignorantsavage at 9:06 PM on August 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Then again we have the pillars back and I have no idea where all the gravitonium in the sphere went so I still lean into the theory that we are still in the Broken Earth timeline.

We don’t tho - the Chronicoms blew them up again. Although I assume they exist in the 1930s.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 11:38 PM on August 5, 2019

Given how hard it was to destroy them the first time I doubt that the missiles were sufficient to destroy the monoliths. I think that they are just buried under the rubble. Plus with Flint around who knows what he might be able to do with enough motivation.
posted by Ignorantsavage at 3:11 AM on August 6, 2019

Timewar! may also lead us into Legends of Tomorrow territory.

Isn't Legends of Tomorrow a DC property ?
posted by Pendragon at 2:49 PM on August 6, 2019

I was a little chuffed by Sarge’s eventual fate. He’d been built up to have enough Coulson in him to want to be a do-gooder, but he was constantly warning everyone about his rage, and whether he could control it. But when he went full Pachutik (sorry, I’m not going to bother googling that now), he didn’t seem at all like rage was taking over. Then he stabbed May—bad!—and threw her through the portal—good? Because he knew May would survive on the other side and kill the hooded folks who were actually going to open the door? But the. It turned out, no, he was just being evil, and it was his stupidity that allowed May to survive long enough to prevent the door from opening and kill Izel. It was kind of confusing with no coherent narrative throughline, and then Coulson came back AGAIN as an LMD?? That’s one resurrection too many.

But anyway, I did love this episode and do love this show. Wasn’t sure why Daisy didn’t disintegrate the Shrike as it crawled down YoYo’s throat. (I would have been fine with a line like, “I couldn’t without turning YoYo’s spine to jelly,” but whatevs.) I enjoyed future Gemma explaining things so quickly and vaguely that I couldn’t keep up, though why do she and Fitz have to be separated again? Been there, done that—if they have a good heartbreaking reason I will forgive all ills, of course.
posted by ejs at 7:35 PM on August 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

I don't get why Yo-yo didn't grab the shrike with her robot hands to prevent it from going down her throat instead of clutching at her jaw.

I mean, I get it from a vfx/compositing/masking standpoint, but I feel like I shouldn't be thinking about that when I'm watching.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:30 AM on August 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

So they've split Fitz and Simmons up again? Here I thought we'd finally get a season where they could be together as a couple. Apparently not.

I'm not sure why they went so far back in time. SHIELD isn't going to be around for another 20 years (give or take a bit). I can understand wanting to go back to a pre-SHIELD place to create enough structure that the eventual SHIELD is one that is created the way you want it to be, with the appropriate people and governance structures in place, but this seems a bit too far back.

So if next season is TimeWar, early SHIELD history season, does that mean we'll get to see Peggy Carter or young Nick Fury?
posted by sardonyx at 8:16 AM on August 7, 2019

Maybe we will see Peggy Carter with her new husband Steve Rogers...
posted by ejs at 10:58 AM on August 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

I watched it and I'm still confused as to what went on.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:51 PM on August 21, 2019

I liked the head-fake with super Coulson being unsaveable and I'm fine with LMD Coulson because I like Gregg and want to keep watching him. I have some vague hope they will actually explore what it means to be a copy of a person after that discontinuity. Who are you to you? To others?
posted by phearlez at 12:26 PM on September 23, 2019