Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: On the fringes of the MCU [Endgame spoilers pg. 19]

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah well, they've said a lot of things that turned out to just be them lying. Reminds me of Cumberbatch saying he's not playing Khan, over and over and over.

[DaveSumm]

That could easily be referring to them rewinding time with the time stone, which I think would be lame anyway. My money’s still on them living with this for a year and then bringing them back. I see so many people talk about different universes and timelines, it all seems a bit comic-booky for the MCU (well, the movie side of it). I’m pretty confident there’ll only ever be one MCU reality to deal with, they don’t wanna make things that confusing for lay-cinema goers.

[RumHam]

Nice, this got renewed. Really curious to see what they do with it next season. I wonder if the reduced cost from eliminating half the cast was a factor in the decision. Also they've cut it down to just 13 episodes. 

http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/agents-of-shield-season-6-abc-1202803343/

[Corvinus85]

After the news about The Expanse, I'm glad to hear this. I'm guessing it will be the final season (at least on ABC). It might get continued on Disney's streaming service afterwards.

[Darth Richard II]

WOOOOOOOO

[Corvinus85]

haha, season 6 will only premiere summer 2019.

Quote

Dungey told TVLine that the summertime scheduling was strictly ABC’s decision, and not necessarily out of deference to any of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe’s plans. (Avengers 4 — the follow-up to Avengers: Infinity War, the end of which would seem to have significant implications for the characters on TV’s S.H.I.E.L.D. — hits theaters next May.) “Whatever they [at Marvel Studios] have planned, I cannot say,” she hedged.

In the words of Peter Quill: BULLSHIT. I have feeling there was a behind the doors compromise that turned into a win/win for everyone. I fully expect major characters to wink away now. 

Quote

As for speculation that Season 6, being S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s first-ever shortened run, will serve as the show’s swan song, Dungey told me, “I feel like Season 5 was their creatively strongest yet, so I don’t at the moment have any plans to think of Season 6 as the last season.”

In fact, the summertime schedule could extend the show’s life span.

So the timetable allows the showrunners to retain the option to keep dropping MCU references, ABC is happy that they got to relegate the show to their lighter summer time schedule, and seem willing to continue with it in that capacity, and we are happy that show goes on. Win/win

[Darth Richard II]

Phase 3 coda or phase 4 intro.

[RumHam]

5 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Phase 3 coda or phase 4 intro.

Well phase 4 intro would require the MCU people to actually tell them anything, so it won't be that. 

[Darth Richard II]

32 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Well phase 4 intro would require the MCU people to actually tell them anything, so it won't be that. 

Ha true. I was reading no one on the TV end knew how IW ended til the premiere, so, who knows. There are rumors that the film side of the MCU wants to bring the tv side back more tightly into the whole thing but, rumors on the internet. Maybe a truce was called? I know before the Perlmutter outing the show runners for shield actually knew what was going on with the films.

[Corvinus85]

So most of the CGI budget went into the season finale. Pretty good finale, made me forget that this has been renewed. 

More to discuss when other people here watched it, but I shed some tears with this one.

[HokieStone]

So...little hints and references to Infinity War in the last two episodes....and then they decide to completely ignore it. Ok then.

I replayed it a few times, but couldn't undertand what Mack said to Fitz before he died.  Speaking of which...Simmons seemed to get over that real quick.  But I'm not quite sure I followed...are they going to try to retrieve the Fitz that was frozen and put into that capsule?  

[Leofric]

1 hour ago, HokieStone said:

So...little hints and references to Infinity War in the last two episodes....and then they decide to completely ignore it. Ok then.

I replayed it a few times, but couldn't undertand what Mack said to Fitz before he died.  Speaking of which...Simmons seemed to get over that real quick.  But I'm not quite sure I followed...are they going to try to retrieve the Fitz that was frozen and put into that capsule?  

The spot that Talbot landed in Chicago reminded me of the street where we saw Fury and Maria Hill in Infinity War so I was half expecting them to show up, but guess it was my imagination.

Spoiler

When Fitz said he thought his legs were broken, Mack said, "You've made it through worse."

 Yep, younger Fitz is in stasis,  they just need to find where Enoch stashed him.

 

 

[SpaceChampion]

So did Deke just disappear?  I didn't notice him post-Fitz.

[Corvinus85]

Just now, SpaceChampion said:

So did Deke just disappear?  I didn't notice him post-Fitz.

Don't know. They chose to go with ambiguous on that.

[Annara Snow]

11 hours ago, HokieStone said:

So...little hints and references to Infinity War in the last two episodes....and then they decide to completely ignore it. Ok then.

I replayed it a few times, but couldn't undertand what Mack said to Fitz before he died.  Speaking of which...Simmons seemed to get over that real quick.  But I'm not quite sure I followed...are they going to try to retrieve the Fitz that was frozen and put into that capsule?  

Yes. Exactly. I realized that the moment I saw Fitz dying: "Are they really going to kill him off?...Ah, of course, they're going to retrieve Icicle Fitz.How convenient, kill off the one character you can easily replace with the version of the same character". It's going to be Fitz from 5.05 who hasn't been through, done or remembers any of the 5.06 - 5.22 events. Someone on Tumblr already said a couple of days ago that Iain's agency has confirmed he would be in season 6.

Well, I guess I don't have to wait for that apology from him to Daisy anymore that never happened in 8 episodes. Unless it's of the kind that Framework Ward gave - the 'I'm sorry for the things another version of me did' kind.

Though I guess Coulson is also supposed to be dying soon, but they have enough room to bring him back for season 6 and then only have him die in the actual series finale, if season 6 ends up being the last.

I don't like that they didn't really explain the mechanics of time travel. It was just : the timeline is changed now, and that's it. Which was predictable. But  the timeline is changed, does that mean that the multiverse theory is true? O are they keeping this for next season? We don't know what happened to Deke, since he had left already. 

Chloe Bennet said a while ago that she had filmed a super secret scene for the finale with someone. Clearly, whatever it is, it is something that they ended up not including. Maybe that was supposed to be the tag scene, and then they changed their mind. It could be something that they are keeping for season 6, now that they know there will be one - the way they decided in season 1 to hold off he resolution of Ian Quinn's storyline for later, and only included it in this season?

Maybe it was Deke that we were supposed to see in the tag scene to know what happened to him, but now they'll going to resolve it next season.

 

[Darth Richard II]

I wonder if the secret scene was cut when they got renewed.

[DaveSumm]

Yea, that was a really good ending in the context of the show, although I couldn’t help but feel it was a classic ‘we might get cancelled’ job where it acts as both season and series finale. Almost seems a shame to have to undo a good ending for Coulson, if that’s what they end up doing for S6. Totally fell for Fitz’s death, funny to think what they would’ve done if he had survived and there was two. Just leave the iced one? 

I guess they did what they could with Infinity War; reference it but don’t catch up to the end (stretching things there but that’s what must have happened). Wasn’t it nice to see SHIELD acting as SHIELD for a change? Showing up and reassuring and saving lives. 

Also hope Deke is still around. I’ve got no problem with that just being the way it works; the timeline that created you doesn’t exist, but you’re still here.

[Corvinus85]

This is the first time when SHIELD had to face a supervillain, and there is a good excuse for the Avengers not to be there.

[HokieStone]

Not only is season 6 only supposed to be 13 episodes, but I read that it is not expected to air until the summer of 2019.  Conveniently, this will allow them to not start until after IW2 is released.  So, it will be curious how that will affect the show.  I suspect we'll get nothing more than a "Wow, that Thanos stuff was crazy!  It's a shame about <insert post-IW2 dead Avengers>".  Or something to that effect.

But if IW2 does something really crazy with going back in time or something...I suspect that might be a convenient way to "cure" Coulson, somehow...

The only thing that could really screw things up is if the movie side of things decides they're going to resurrect Coulson by time travel hijinks that enable them to stop Loki from stabbing him in Avengers 1.  Would they be as brazen to really just throw the TV side under the bus like that, though?

[Annara Snow]

1 hour ago, HokieStone said:

Not only is season 6 only supposed to be 13 episodes, but I read that it is not expected to air until the summer of 2019.  Conveniently, this will allow them to not start until after IW2 is released.  So, it will be curious how that will affect the show.  I suspect we'll get nothing more than a "Wow, that Thanos stuff was crazy!  It's a shame about <insert post-IW2 dead Avengers>".  Or something to that effect.

But if IW2 does something really crazy with going back in time or something...I suspect that might be a convenient way to "cure" Coulson, somehow...

The only thing that could really screw things up is if the movie side of things decides they're going to resurrect Coulson by time travel hijinks that enable them to stop Loki from stabbing him in Avengers 1.  Would they be as brazen to really just throw the TV side under the bus like that, though?

Please, no more time travel. Most shows don't do it well, and this season was no exception. I hope they reveal that the multiverse theory is true, because that is the only way it can make sense (and it would suck if none of the stuff from the future matters anymore - I guess, whatever Robin thought, Flint wasn't that important, after all..).

But other than actually explaining it, they really shouldn't do any more time travel stories. The ideas above would really ruin the show. I don't want it to become another Flash. And it's also not Legends of Tomorrow to constantly do time travel shenaningans and "fixing' timelines, wtihout taking it seriously. The only reason why LoT kind of works is because it doesn't take itself seriously. That's not the case with AoS. The shows have very different tones.

Once you start the 'let's go back in time to fix X'. the obvious question is: so why don't you do back to fix X, and A, and B, and to save all these other people? And you end up with a mess, or with your protagonists looking selfish and narrow-minded and only concerned with Coulson or another one of their friends but not with so many other people who have died on the show or in the MCU in general.