Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 20: Nothing Personal

[The Hungry Samurai]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 20: Nothing Personal

Agent Phil Coulson finally discovers the answer to the mystery he's been chasing for an entire TV season. MovieBob discusses the details.

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Regarding you're poking of holes in this weeks plot:

I don't think he lead with the whole "Ward has Skye" thing, because he didn't want Talbot to know about it. Probably because he didn't want Talbot trying to capture the two of them in a much less discreet manner. (As he probably would have blown the bus out of the air with little hesitation)

Does anyone in Colsons crew know about Lola beig more than just a car? I always assumed it was a classified thing for some reason which he only told Skye (god knows why) because if I look back over the season there have been at least 50 or so moments where a small flying car would have been the PERFECT tool for some of the jobs they've been involved in and Lola did little more than collect dust in the cargo bay.

Keying the encryption of the hard drive which you keep primarily on a flying fortress to altitude......no I can't defend that. That was idiotic.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Really hoping they don't redeem Ward or give him some kind of left field 'triple agent' excuse a la Severus Snape. There are some sacrifices that no amount of banked trust with the baddies could possibly be worth, and HYDRA doesn't seem very trusting of him despite all that.

From the way he was talking on the Bus (I approve of angry Ward, most expressive he's ever been), I feel like he's in a moral gray zone common to spies where he can't see a huge difference between the two agencies except that one of them is winning and has his surrogate father in it. Next episode looks eager to shed further light on this subject with flashbacks, so we'll have to wait and see.

I thought the stinger for this one would be Garrett and Ward accessing the drive and finding Skye's 'surprise', whatever that may be, accompanied by a taunting 'nothing personal'.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

There were a few scenes in this episode that make me think the answer to the big question--"Who eventually gets to kill Ward?"--is Ward himself. Whether it's a last moment act of heroic redemption or him considering himself *beyond* redemption, I'm thinking he's going to eventually off himself. There were a few "Am I really a monster?" looks he gave the camera after a disgusted remark from Skye, or a snide one from Peterson.

 

[faefrost]

OK but that still isn't out of the question. Someone had to be in charge of the actual procedure and perform it. It wasn't Coulson obviously, it wasn't Fury (he's not a doctor), so his memories could still have been tampered with by a Hydra agent. There had to be at least a couple of doctors present (what happened to them anyway?).

If there had been Hydra doctors present, they would have known what TAHITI was and Hydra wouldn't have had to capture Coulson to get answers.

I still wonder why was Coulson so scared when he found that alien corpse. Was it his memories resurfacing or is it just a natural human reaction when they see that species? That I would find interesting. Cthulu-like species which make people mad just by looking at them, yet with healing blood.

I think it was simply the horror of finding out that the drugs were created from an alien species. And from the questions he asks Sif when she's there, an alien species he's never heard of or seen before.
Consider, the only aliens he's come into contact with (that we know about) were either human-looking (Loki/Thor etc) or trying to kill him (Chitauri etc). All other things have been humans that were transformed/changed in one way or another.
Knowing that something used to be human is probably easier to reconcile yourself too than something that is 100% alien.


What was interesting to me was the way the Coulson in the video described TAHITI's purpose. He made it sound as if an Avenger had already been close to death and TAHITI was in response to it. Maybe Iron Man's close encounter with death spurred it? Or maybe I interpreted it wrong...

You know, we really don't know HOW Captain America came back from the deep freeze? We also don't know if the group we currently see in the movies are Fury's first take on the "Avengers Initiative"? We have suspicions that there was one or more cold war era SHIELD super operatives. At least that is part of the implication with Michael Douglas playing an older version of Hank Pym in the upcoming Ant Man movie.

I'm still betting that the Alien is a Kree. Skye is probably at least part Kree or a Kree human experiment ala the Inhumans.

 

[Redd the Sock]

I don't even know what I want from the Ward plot at this point. Any path seems far too cliched to use without pissing me off. Best I hope for is hat he either dies ending the pain I have in the romance angle, or that they do something fun like he's playing hydra, but for his own ends.

Now the TAHITI thing, that was a surprise, but it still leaves a lot of issues and questions. It's safe to say that alien has been on ice for longer than we thought, at least long enough to not only figure out what it's blood could do, but stratagize around it and test long enough to determine poor viability, probably long before Iron Man. It re-opens the question of why it was done in the first place, and puts some really big barriers in the way of it being a good idea beyond the act itself could destabilize what little trust the Avengers had for Fury. Then of course, is as already been said, the ticking time bomb effect: will something happen to him and Skye, and if so, what and when, with it being likely that we don't have time to find out this season. Was that the intent, or was Coulson so important it had to be risked.

My only prediction for the future, is that whatever we end on this season, it's probably going to sting in shock value. The show's just been too fond of last minute surprises to not end on something to make us go Oh Shit.

 

[faefrost]

i'm behind..."normal" UK TV is shit at buying up decent UK shows atm while you guys get all good stuff on HBO or whatever...

but i honestly think this series will be held up as long as it need to be in order to be the vehicle that introduces Quicksilver and the Scarlet-Witch in time for the Avengers 2 because:

A. they are "secondary" (or whatever i should call it) enough to realistically appear on TV...

indeed that might be the whole long term business plan visa vis the stacks of "secondary" heros they have that are never likely to play a major role in one of the movies.

B. i don't think they're gonna come in from any other direction.

C. they're just simply not gonna do "origin stories" inside the Avengers 2...except for the big bad ofc...given the first movie made a very concious and successful decision not do such a thing.

besides Quicksilver and the Scarlet-Witchs wider origins are...problematic...and would be even more so if they had to definitively explain what they were inside the space they would have for two "secondary" character origin storys inside one movie.

D. they are locked in a HYDRA dungeon *cough* *cough* in a sequence filmed by the Joss no less *cough* *cough*

...and if that's not a set up for Coulson and team to bust in and rescue them in light of recent events in the show, and at the same time a set up for Fury, Coulson and reformed SHIELD with two new "secondary" superheros in tow all to turn up for the party in Avengers 2...

...well i dunno what is...

mark my words : "Quicksilver and the Scarlet-Witch are gonna come in via Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

*pushes big pile of chips onto the table*.

Ummm regarding Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch? They are already "in".

Spoiler

They were introduced in the Mid Credit scene in Captain America Winter Soldier. It was a brief scene that pretty much laid out their new MCU origins in a few seconds. They are the "children" of Baron Strucker. basically the only survivors of a series of experiments he did on children in order to create "miracles". It is rather strongly implied that Loki's staff is involved. With the further implication that the blue gem in the staff is one of the Infinity Gems. The Marvel version of Quicksilver looks a lot better than Fox's XMen take on him. And Marvel's isn't even pimping breakfast sandwiches. 9so wish I was joking about that one.) It is almost guaranteed we will not be seeing them in Agents of Shield. The tone between how they were shown and the tone of the AoS show are just much to different. The best we xould hope for in AoS is some throwaway comment regarding them.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Again, I am stating the whole 'Coulson will turn out to be Adam Warlock' thing here, even though it is unlikely to a point.

I knew this show would be bumpy given how this TV show has to contort to not spoil the movies. I think they are going to do the whole 'redemption' thing on Ward, but whether it will work ... shrug. I did like the altitude GPS locking thing, that what's-her-name did.. SKYe, that's right.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Coulson investigates experimental super drugs that can save people from the dead.
Coulson says "bad idea, bad results, dont use this thing. ever."
Coulson is revived by exactly what he told them not to use

Is it really that simple? I feel like there's something missing from this line of events.

It might be. Remember how much of a fan boy Coulson is of the avengers. The fact that it was originally designed to save an Avenger life could mean that while Coulson wouldn't want other's to go through it he might be willing to sacrifice himself on the alter of science if it meant that it would help save an Avenger's life. He probably whispered to fury as much trying to make his death "mean something."

What if his final words were to do with Tahiti...

Ooh, that would be a Whedon-esque twist. Because I am sure that he does have a last words mini-scene, right?

 

[GamerBoy92]

So MovieBob; now that we're nearing the season finale, I just wanted to ask if you were planning to dedicate an episode of "The Big Picture" to looking at this series as a whole and seeing how well it all works in retrospect. I'm sure you were already going to do so for your fans who haven't been reading your recaps or even watching the show itself, but on the off chance you weren't planning an episode, may I suggest it now, and ask that you also quickly discuss which characters or elements from the show should/could/you'd like to play a part in Avengers 2 or somewhere in Phase 3. Thank you and as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

[AliasBot]

So MovieBob; now that we're nearing the season finale, I just wanted to ask if you were planning to dedicate an episode of "The Big Picture" to looking at this series as a whole and seeing how well it all works in retrospect. I'm sure you were already going to do so for your fans who haven't been reading your recaps or even watching the show itself, but on the off chance you weren't planning an episode, may I suggest it now, and ask that you also quickly discuss which characters or elements from the show should/could/you'd like to play a part in Avengers 2 or somewhere in Phase 3. Thank you and as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Seconding this, would love to hear some overarching thoughts/commentary on the series in video form.

(Also, as far as the Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch-on-SHIELD thing: it's unlikely, since Strucker is supposed to be a notable villain himself and- actually, I take that back, I could totally see it. They're supposed to be starting Avengers 2 on the run, so it might actually make sense for them to get sprung from their prison by the remnants of SHIELD. It would just be a ton of stuff going on in the final episode. Still not likely, but possible. At the very least, they've already been name-dropped, I think: Strucker's base is in Africa, and in the big HYDRA reveal episode they mentioned that HYDRA had taken an African SHIELD base. ...either that or the African base being referred to had something to do with Wakanda. Can we have Black Panther in the MCU? Pretty please?)

 

[SilverStuddedSquirre]

So MovieBob; now that we're nearing the season finale, I just wanted to ask if you were planning to dedicate an episode of "The Big Picture" to looking at this series as a whole and seeing how well it all works in retrospect. I'm sure you were already going to do so for your fans who haven't been reading your recaps or even watching the show itself, but on the off chance you weren't planning an episode, may I suggest it now, and ask that you also quickly discuss which characters or elements from the show should/could/you'd like to play a part in Avengers 2 or somewhere in Phase 3. Thank you and as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Seconding this, would love to hear some overarching thoughts/commentary on the series in video form.

(Also, as far as the Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch-on-SHIELD thing: it's unlikely, since Strucker is supposed to be a notable villain himself and- actually, I take that back, I could totally see it. They're supposed to be starting Avengers 2 on the run, so it might actually make sense for them to get sprung from their prison by the remnants of SHIELD. It would just be a ton of stuff going on in the final episode. Still not likely, but possible. At the very least, they've already been name-dropped, I think: Strucker's base is in Africa, and in the big HYDRA reveal episode they mentioned that HYDRA had taken an African SHIELD base. ...either that or the African base being referred to had something to do with Wakanda. Can we have Black Panther in the MCU? Pretty please?)

I'm down. I don't know a whole lot about Black Panther, but what I know is cool. I was disappointed Mike Peterson didn't become Luke Cage, so Black Panther would be cool.

 

[Scars Unseen]

My guess for the season finale stinger: Skye's powers are going to manifest in such a way that either screws the team, saves them or both. Either way, it's going to happen in the last minute or so of the episode, and it won't be entirely clear what happened, leaving the viewers speculating until season 2 starts.

 

[octafish]

Man-Thing huh? That can mean only one thing, Thog the Nether Spawn will be involved...and..and...HOWARD THE DUCK IS COMING TO AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.!

In my mind this is inevitable, and for the best really.

 

[hermes]

Maybe I am confused, but didn't Coulson said the process was dangerous, not just the drug? It would explain why Skye is not that affected, since they did a lot more than injecting some serum in Coulson's case.

 

[thetoddo]

mark my words : "Quicksilver and the Scarlet-Witch are gonna come in via Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

*pushes big pile of chips onto the table*.

I'll happily take that bet. I'm thinking Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are going to be the bad guys for the first 1/3 of Age of Ultron and will be working with Strucker. They'll be captured and the side plot of the rest of the movie will be their deprogramming and first mission with the team. Heck, they might even give Hawkeye something to do by having him push to reform them, I'd honestly LOVE to see Thunderbolts become a thing. AOS is building up a stable of Super Villains for him to recruit.

 

[captainsavvy]

Keying the encryption of the hard drive which you keep primarily on a flying fortress to altitude......no I can't defend that. That was idiotic.

This is how I saw it.
Normally, they live up in the air on the Bus. That is where they're meant to be.
The only reason they backed their data up on the hard drive was because they were being taken in by Hydra and grounded.
Skye probably chose the altitude encryption because she figured that the only time she'd need to access the data again (to transfer it back) was when the whole team had escaped and they were back safely on the Bus, in the air.

That and she has a known history of location encryption.

I dunno. This made it seem at least a little plausible to me.