Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: To Kill a Mockingbird

[Jaxom 1974]

I'm enjoying a lot of what they're doing, but they need to be more realistic about the movies.  Discussing Inhumans and powered folks, but ignoring the existence of the Avengers?  It isn't name dropping if it is 0art of a larger conversation of the world as a whole. 

[Bastard of Boston]

Tonight sort of accomplished a whole lot in regard to people griping about it happening in a vacuum and not mattering. There was some major MCU mythology building happening -- Hydra is actually a group which got its start worshipping an all-powerful Inhuman, sending human sacrifices to it. I'm interested to meet this God-like Inhuman. The funny thing is that, with all the controversy regarding Inhumans being a stand-in for mutants, this almighty Inhuman seems Apocalypse-esque. Ancient, with a cult-like following.

[Corvinus85]

Great episode. I loved the highlights.

The Hydra reveal

Fitz-Simmons! Yay!!!

Hunter dressed as computer geek with that T-shirt. Are you a Red Sox fan? More of a Redcoats. 

And we got a real martial artist, Mark Dagascos. Too bad that fight with Bobby was a bit short. I hope to see more of him.

[Jon AS]

Wow, this show has actually gotten slightly smarter, with everything this season being tied together, even if tying it together means retconning Hydra into an Inhuman cult. Definitely some shades of Apocalypse there, I agree.

The downside is Ward still being around. I guess they feel that having his personal connection to the team helps with emotional investment, but I feel he's simply overstayed his welcome at this point.

[RumHam]

Tonight sort of accomplished a whole lot in regard to people griping about it happening in a vacuum and not mattering. There was some major MCU mythology building happening -- Hydra is actually a group which got its start worshipping an all-powerful Inhuman, sending human sacrifices to it.

Well it depends if it ever connects to the movies (or to a lesser extent the other shows.) I suspect Hydra will be back in Civil War. But if they're not or if they are and none of this Inhumans collecting comes up then that's just another example of how this show seems to take place in an alternate universe.

But I have been enjoying the show. 

[DaveSumm]

Nice Mr. Robot reference thrown in there.

 

Yea, I'm not sure when it happened but I find this is one of my more anticipated shows of the week now. Good job tying everything up this week. I wish we knew more about the Inhumans movie (were there overtones of it possibly being cancelled?) seeing as that seems to be the entire arc of the whole show so far. Now just ANY tie in with Civil War and we'll be somewhere roughly where we thought we'd be when the show first started: good quality for abc, and MCU relevant.

[Vels]

So why were the Inhumans from last season so scared the Shield had the stone? Were they afraid that Shield would bring back this super-inhuman? Daisy's new boyfriend is on the base now so I would expect him to have some sort of reaction when he hears about Simmons' adventures.

Registration of fish-oil Inhumans could be a tie-in to Civil War. However, casual MCU viewers who don't watch the show may not understand the reference.

[Martini Sigil]

Nerd Hunter ruled...lol ... I never realized how scrawny he is.

I loved this episode too... and I guess I'm in the minority who loves Ward as a villain ... I don't know how long Powers Booth is going to stick around... But Hydra is something that should never really go away...  From a Marvel nerd's perspective,  Shield needs to come back strong... it's too vital a part of the universe to remain in a basement... as is Hydra.

[The BlackBear]

Nah I think Ward is good too. I think he works well as one of the heads of HYDRA, the muscle, a bit like Kraken in Secret Warriors. We had his namesake Daniel Whitehall but he was nothing like the comic character. I guess Gorgon and Viper are out of the picture as primarily X-Men villains (Viper was in The Wolverine, and Gorgon is a Wolverine villain.)

 

HYDRA will be in Civil War in some guise as we know Crossbones is in it.

 

If the stone was used to send some Inhuman away in the mists of time, it could well have turned in the Inhuman's mind into a weapon used against them.

[Winterfell is Burning]

. I wish we knew more about the Inhumans movie (were there overtones of it possibly being cancelled?) seeing as that seems to be the entire arc of the whole show so far.

Reports indicate this won't matter at all, since Feige is more interested in the classic Inhumans roster and there's a split between TV and films now.

Anyway, I don't care for HYDRA being revealed as going that far back...unless it means we'll see the secret history of SHIELD and tie Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Newton etc, which would be the coolest thing in the history of the world.

And yes, the villain is obviously poor man's Apocalypse , just like Jia Ying was a Magneto lite, but it could work. 

Also, count me in on those that like Ward, although I wish he was part of something larger rather than just wanting to kill the team for the heck of it . Looks like I might get my wish.

[denstorebog]

Also, count me in on those that like Ward, although I wish he was part of something larger rather than just wanting to kill the team for the heck of it . Looks like I might get my wish.

Nah, there are enough 'larger' enemies in the series. It's good for variation's sake to also have a villain who just shows up time and again to screw with the main characters.

[Bastard of Boston]

Such a good episode tonight. I was sad to see Ros die, but loved seeing how it sent Coulson over the edge. The Ward/SHIELD stuff is primed to finally reach some type of conclusion. The cat/mouse stuff seems to be over, but I can't see them killing Ward. I wonder if the midseason finale will just be an end to Ward as we know him. Maybe whatever is on that planet will use Ward as some type of vessel, elevating Ward's role on the show. That pep talk Ward got to convince him to go on this mission seemed to foreshadow something.

[Corvinus85]

Such a good episode tonight. I was sad to see Ros die, but loved seeing how it sent Coulson over the edge. The Ward/SHIELD stuff is primed to finally reach some type of conclusion. The cat/mouse stuff seems to be over, but I can't see them killing Ward. I wonder if the midseason finale will just be an end to Ward as we know him. Maybe whatever is on that planet will use Ward as some type of vessel, elevating Ward's role on the show. That pep talk Ward got to convince him to go on this mission seemed to foreshadow something.

I agree, a good episode. Didn't see the Ros thing coming. And I was definitely thinking that Ward will come back as that creature... until Coulson went in after him. If Ward becomes possessed, we may never be rid of him. If Coulson is the one, we will, of course, get the old hero-turned-to-villain routine, but hopefully with some interesting twists. I just hope it's not going to be Will. I doubt Fitz will be possessed.

On another note, I have to wonder if SHIELD will tie in with the new Cap movie. So far, SHIELD not only had some ties with each Marvel movie (except Ant-man), but it often resulted in better writing because of the ties. But if this Hydra inhuman becomes the new big bad for SHIELD, not sure how that can be tied to the Civil War.

And really Mark Dagascos needs to put his martial arts skills in play at one point. Enough of this telekinetic shit.

May + Bobbie vs him needs to happen. 

[Red Tiger]

Coulson sure knows how to make accurate leaps.

[Jon AS]

I thought it was very generous of Ward to send in his guys one at a time to take out Coulson in the beginning. Who knows what would have happened if they had actually worked as a team?

 

Decent episode. I hope we get some answers about the evil, immortal Inhuman next week, so we can spend the break wondering what he's going to do instead of who he is.

[HokieStone]

Coulson sure knows how to make accurate leaps.

Yeah, and good thing there's some sort of slowing down when you go through the portal, so he didn't splat into the ground on the other side.

I thought it was very generous of Ward to send in his guys one at a time to take out Coulson in the beginning. Who knows what would have happened if they had actually worked as a team?

Well, that wouldn't be sporting, now would it?

[RumHam]

I thought it was very generous of Ward to send in his guys one at a time to take out Coulson in the beginning. Who knows what would have happened if they had actually worked as a team?

My understanding is that he didn't actually want Coulson dead, in fact Malick admonishes him for sending the guys after Coulson at all. The plan was for Coulson to escape and remember that Ward had said something about a portal, which led Fitz and Simmons into the trap. 

[OnionAhaiReborn]

Ok, what exactly is Fitz and Simmons' secret portal knowledge? It took Fitz a long time to figure out how to open the portal, Hydra already knows how to do that. Fitz' plan after figuring it out was nothing more than 'I'll tie a rope around myself when I go through.' Hydra hasn't tried that over all these centuries?

[Leofric]

Yeah, and good thing there's some sort of slowing down when you go through the portal, so he didn't splat into the ground on the other side.

 

They didn't show the orientation of the portal on the Blue World when Fitz and the Hydra guys went through, I seem to remember it spitting out Gemma when she went through.   If the portal was flat on the ground his velocity going in might shoot him pretty high in the air when he came through, and he was still wearing a parachute.    If the portal was perpendicular to the ground like a doorway,  he'd come out parallel to the ground and probably skip along the surface for a bit like dumping a motorcycle. 

[Leofric]

Ok, what exactly is Fitz and Simmons' secret portal knowledge? It took Fitz a long time to figure out how to open the portal, Hydra already knows how to do that. Fitz' plan after figuring it out was nothing more than 'I'll tie a rope around myself when I go through.' Hydra hasn't tried that over all these centuries?

Simmons figured out how to predict when and where the portal would open on the planet based on the moons, even though in the end she actually didn't use that knowledge to escape, she ended up just following Fitiz' flare.   Hydra could have done the flare bit anytime in the last 200 years.