Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 9: Repairs

[MovieBob]

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 9: Repairs

"Last week's episode" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/10767-Marvels-Agents-of-S-H-I-E-L-D-Review-Episode-8-The-Well] of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was a real winner. Unfortunately, by the laws of episodic television that means it?s likely to be immediately followed by something less than a winner.

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[Impossibilium]

Since the portal they were trying to open was related to the "Thor: The Dark World" portals, which were linked across the "Nine Realms", I was thinking the realm Tobias was phasing in and out of might be Niffleheim or Muspelheim, which would definitely seem like the Christian "Hell" to a Midgardian. And hopefully lay the groundwork for a Hel or Surtur story in Thor 3.

 

[vid87]

The whole "mutants can't exist" thing reminded me that this whole series takes place in what has technically been established as a separate universe. Imagine if Fox finally lost the X-Men license and the concept of mutants could suddenly appear in this universe? What would be the catalyst - an "Earth-X" scenario (a series featuring comments from Whedon on the cover) where EVERYONE spontaneously mutates and that the true origin of super-beings like Cap or Hulk is that they, along with every living human, already has the X-gene, but that's it's triggered by unique events that affect individual biology (ie gamma rays would just kill Steve Rogers but Bruce Banner's genes allowed him to survive and become Hulk, while the Super Soldier Serum would probably not have worked on BB)? What if they mutate FURTHER and Cap becomes psychic or Iron Man develops electric powers that improves his armor, turning them into completely different heroes (most likely not but it's fun to think about)? What if Marvel's version of X-Men appear, then crosses over with the ones played by Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, etc.?

 

[RatherDashing89]

Doesn't Nightcrawler basically teleport to Hell whenever he pops in and out? This may have been a nod to that.

Also--"who teleports to a hostile alien dimension armed only with a wrench" seems like such a clumsy and referential line that I'd be convinced it was a Half-Life joke...if they had made it a crowbar instead of a wrench.

 

[Jeroenr]

Personly, i don't think the episode was that bad.
sure, the prank sub plot was just a setup for the final scene.

But the main story was decent, the villian (if you can call him that) was interesting.
Some of the characters gian a little personality.

I do think that they need to raise the ante a bit thouh, the villians are always easly identified and defeated.
Except for centipede maybe.

perhaps a 2 part episode wil give them a beter pase to flesh it out.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"Back on the plane, Coulson explains to Skye that her empathy and uncanny skill for reading people are among the newest batch of vague reasons why he brought her onto the team."

Indeed, this is a problem. It's too damn vague for my taste, in any case!

Wasn't a bad ep. One thing you didn't speculate on... They ARE spending the night(s) together sneaky style.
This doesn't mean sex must be involved. It could be anything, going so outlandish as maybe plotting for when something goes wrong with/researching Coulson's deal.

 

[Jeroenr]

I think the leader may takes out is most likely female given Coleson was deliberate in saying one civilian girl and because May tells Coleson he said the same thing to him as he did to her.(let her go)I'm actually wondering if the gifted person was a child having to kill a little girl because her powers were out of control would harden someone up pretty quick even if its a tad "easy" as a plot device.

That would be an interesing direction, be it a little dark.

Or she was the one with uncontrollable powers and had to control her emotions to keep them in check.
A bit like Storm.
ok, the berserker staf doesn't fit in this theory wel (if at all).

The episode dit also give me a feeling that they plan to expant on what happent to May.
Not a bad thing, but they need to work on the "skye" and "Coulson" story arc's first.

 

[Mr. Q]

The thing that sucked about this filler episode is that it highlights the problem of not being able to use the term "Mutants" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I feel its gonna get more awkward once Avengers: Age of Ultron rolls into theaters. -_- They need to hammer out a better deal with Fox or go in and take the X-Men rights back. I'm sure whatever "plans" Bryan Singer has for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will be nothing more than a bit role. But that's how I see it.

Also, if your religion makes you feel like a piece of shit because something bad happened to you, find a better religion. Life is too short to be stuck in a permanent guilt trip because of some ancient scripture that needs serious updating that's being run by people who I wouldn't get on board inside an elevator.

Hoping the next episode (is this the season finale or the mid-season finale) will be a step up from this weeks.

 

[Kaihlik]

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review - Episode 9: Repairs

Unfortunately, by the laws of episodic television that means it's likely to be immediately followed by something less than a winner.

Read Full Article

I have not been keeping up with Agents of Shields so I haven't seen this (and I do plan on catching up at some point so I didn't read the article, just the start to get a gist if the episode was good or not) but regression to the mean really should not apply like this. You can absolutely just have multiple good episodes in a row. It kinda sounds like a weak justification for AoS being kinda rubbish. Will need to decide for myself if that's true but it doesn't fill me with hope.

 

[Avalanche91]

Doesn't Nightcrawler basically teleport to Hell whenever he pops in and out? This may have been a nod to that.

Before I remembered FOX still owned his ass, I actually very briefly believed it could have been him. The woman was haunted by 'demons', the teleportation effect was slightly blueish, the whole thing with popping in and out of hell.... But yeah, a reference at best.

The episode as a whole wasn't spectacular but it kept me amused.

 

[hermes]

Does Fox own the TV rights to mutants? because aren't film and TV rights usually treated as separate things? after all Disney does include mutants and Spiderman in it's TV cartoons.

Indeed, Fox owns the right for movie "mutants", however, since this series has been sold and established as being a part of the same universe as the Marvel movies, they have to play by their rules. Introducing mutants in the series would raise a few eyebrows about why they don't exist in the movies.

 

[Towels]

This would've been an OK episode if it didn't have such an inconsistent, unwarranted, manipulative climax but its actually a pretty bad one.

I totally get that the Christian Caricature is supposed to be annoying with her flawed understanding of Life and God, but what I find inconsistent about her character is that she devotes her life to being helpful to others but suddenly chooses to let Tobias literally go to Hell because "Only God Forgives." ... Inconsistent, but sadly believable because yes there are sects of churches out there that believe this to justify their hate, and I guess even a saint like this girl would give into that if she suffered that kind of abuse from the neighbors she loved her whole life. (Also that's not real Christianity, but that's a digression.)

May's words "Let her go" was cruel and unwarranted. I would find this acceptable except for one glaring oversight: Her job is to help people from powers they can't cope with. The situation was defused the moment the girl reasoned with Tobias to stop, because he complied instantly. That is seriously all that needed to happen to begin with. But no, Tobias has to "Go to Hell", because May talks him into accepting this fate of suffering in another dimension (that could literally be Hell) anyways.

The climax was emotionally manipulative. We, the audience are supposed to relate to this judgement of Tobias because he's been acting like an over-protective jackass Lawnmower Man and the girl is clearly a repressed feminine being. Hell you could've have replaced May's haughty speech about "letting go" with "There, she doesn't like you. Now just fucking die already" and got the same effect. It just wouldn't be as necessarily subtle to invoke all those fun anti-sexist outraged emotions.

You know, you could have had it both ways, writers! Try this: "Hey Tobias, I think its sweet that you want to protect me, but I am a strong, independent woman who just found her backbone and needs no help from any man. (Just other women.) Please stop; lets get you some help."

Well after a solid run of brilliant episodes, I'll let this strike slide. But seriously guys, please reel in the Feminism just a tad bit. I can deal with the angry Agnosticism, but I don't watch this show because it wants to be Buffy.

 

[Forktongue]

So here is my crazy fan theory...

When May killed all the cult members, Skye's parents were two of them. Maybe one parent was the leader... maybe May thought one of them was attacking her but it turned out they were trying to protect their baby... one thing is for sure, I think Skye is the surviving member of that cult and the dead woman in the photo is her mother. May, feeling overwhelmed (maybe this was the first time she killed civilians) considers leaving Shield. My guess is that she developed an attachment to the baby as well, maybe even thought she'd take care of her. Coulson's "let her go" speech was his attempt to convince May to stay with Shield and give up Skye, which would make May the agent who dropped her at the orphanage.

It would also explain what May meant when she said "I see it every day" regarding how she dealt with the staff: both her and Coulson know who Skye is. My guess is that Skye will continue to help May out of her shell and slowly become close. Then, at some critical moment (ie: season end) someone will spill the beans and cause a rift between the two that'll be a subplot next season.

Apologies if this was a bit too rambling or poorly structured, I am filled with wine and Thanksgiving goodness!

 

[faefrost]

So here is my crazy fan theory...

When May killed all the cult members, Skye's parents were two of them. Maybe one parent was the leader...

Agreed. And it also plays into the underlying feeling that on of Skye's parents was a named Marvel Supervillain. Someone bad enough that Coulson would feel it better for her not to know. Now who could be considered a dangerous cult leader? (I still lean towards Baron Strucker, since it's a SHIELD show. ). Coulson's description of the cult sounds a bit like the depiction of Thor and his followers over in Marvel's Ultimates book. So maybe something else Asgardian? We haven't met the Enchantress yet? Or Balder? (Remember Coulson had a previous working relationship with Peter McNichols Professor. So just how far back has he encountered Asgardian or suspected Asgardian related issues?

One other thing to keep in the back of ones mind. More and more we get the feeling that Coulson was not simply familiar with SHIELDs "Index" database of those specially gifted. He by all accounts was iFury's lead investigator and primary point man on contact, so he pretty well controlled the database. So there may be far more to his seemingly random and inexperienced team then he is letting on. He placed each person on that plane for a reason. Skye may not be the only one with some dark secrets of her past. (Random guess might be Jemma Simmons might have a grandmother named Peggy and a cousin named Sharon)

Is it just me or did Tobias remind anyone else of any number of classic Marvel stories. The Nth man stuff from Project Pegasus comes to mind.

It's weird. There were an annoyingly low amount of direct Easter eggs in this episode. But it has a lot of stuff that feels like it should be or it might be.

 

[pretzil]

"Let the girl go"

Is what May said to the ghost guy, and told Coulson was what he said to her, so yeah, either she had to abandon a girl they were trying to save, or he begged May not to kill an unnamed gifted girl to save everyone else, either way I suppose it didn't end well for the girl.

 

[K.ur]

Doesn't Nightcrawler basically teleport to Hell whenever he pops in and out? This may have been a nod to that.

Before I remembered FOX still owned his ass, I actually very briefly believed it could have been him. The woman was haunted by 'demons', the teleportation effect was slightly blueish, the whole thing with popping in and out of hell.... But yeah, a reference at best.

The episode as a whole wasn't spectacular but it kept me amused.

Not only that, but the effect was almost exactly like x-man movie nightcrawler. The cartoons and comics have usually a flash of light with it.

The maybe most interesting possibility is if heLL exists then heL too. Which means tom hiddlestons loki could have a daughter.

edit

Does Fox own the TV rights to mutants? because aren't film and TV rights usually treated as separate things? after all Disney does include mutants and Spiderman in it's TV cartoons.

Indeed, Fox owns the right for movie "mutants", however, since this series has been sold and established as being a part of the same universe as the Marvel movies, they have to play by their rules. Introducing mutants in the series would raise a few eyebrows about why they don't exist in the movies.

Well coulson and samuel fury are in the ultimate spiderman cartoon, but that could be the ultimate marvel franchise to which sony doesn't have the movie rights.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Agents of SHIELD hasn't been particularly bad but it hasn't been particularly good either. Without its association to a franchise I enjoy and the presence of Clark Gregg I probably would have dropped it around episode four. I'll admit that the idea of them slowly incorporating a larger cast of characters as the show progresses interests me and there is plenty to actually make me pay attention to it as a series but episode to episode the characters seem more and more stock, rather than actually going anywhere interesting.

Part of the problem, to me, is that we rarely if ever actually see the events that shaped/shape who the characters are happen on screen. I'm aware that we're barely half a season in but they way that the episodes seem to be written and the situations the characters encounter, so far, seem to be following that trend. Even Skye has elements of this.

I'd actually be interested to hear Bob's opinion on another Tuesday night show, Person of Interest, which is now mid-way through its third season. Comparing the initial few episodes of both (as in S1E1 - S1E9 of PoI), and discounting the fact that PoI is a post-cyberpunk crime drama and Agents of SHIELD is an action adventure series in terms of tone, PoI did an outrageously solid job of building an entire world/accompanying mythos and presenting us with a cast of interesting and well defined characters.

EDIT: As an aside PoI rarely if ever has an episode that can be negatively compared with a previous episode. I could say the same about M.A.S.H., so while I understand the idea that "Bad follows good" it seems to more commonly apply to... well... the stuff that was already bad in the first place.

EDIT2: I said this when I watched the episode, and have been saying it since it almost happened, but this show would be far better if Simmons had died. Even if they had left her actual status indeterminate, no body recovered, with the obvious intention of bringing her back. It would have given Fitz far more to work with and would have been fantastic to see the effect of on the rest of the characters. They wouldn't have even needed to dwell on it overly long, just have it happen, have it referenced and then have most of the characters move on.

 

[Rawbeard]

This episode was stupid. A plot was pointless (ghost from the afterlife, or worse "we let that guy be stuck in another dimension, because it's more convenient for this girl here" Fuck off!). I also very much hated the "ghost's" quantum plot state where he was only visible once they knew it was not telekinesis. It would have been useful for him if he could have remained invisible while still being able to affect the material world.

B plot... oh boy... "I went unarmed into a situation where I had to overcome armed, zealous opposition outnumbering me 20 to 1. I did it without negative consequences other than "I am sad now"" Fuck off! Forced drama like this has no place in anything not written by an angsty teen on his webcomic. "My name is May Sue, I have the super power of succeeding at whatever I need to do, but that is sad, so please don't praise me, because that is so insensitive of you" Fuck off!