Agents of Shield S2 E15 discussion thread (spoilers)

[Zontar]

Been a while since I made such a thread, and with Bob no longer making the weekly updates seems it's time to make a comeback. So let's talk about tonight's episode of Shield.

Personally, I felt a little let down given how it was built up as a Shield vs Villains episode which had fight scenes that where more in line with typical mooks vs heroes fights for this show then a fight with super villains. I also wondered why Angar [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angar_the_Screamer] only used his scream once when he could have just knocked out the agents and get it done with.

Overall an ok but not particularly good episode in my opinion.

And then it ended, man what a twist. When he started talking about an organization I was thinking "wait, S.W.O.R.D.? They exist in the MCU even if we've only had one line mention them. S.T.R.I.K.E.? No, they where part of Shield instead of its own organization. Department H? They got name-dropped in season 1." I was expecting something that was benevolent, or at least not evil, but I sure as hell wasn't expecting "the REAL Shield".

This begs a lot of questions, like is Fury in charge of this REAL Shield? How many people are in this REAL Shield? What have they been doing since Uprising? Dame it Shield, so many questions, and right when we finally got the answers to the questions to season 1.

So what did you take away from this episode?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

You know what? I'll jump on board here. I too miss talking, or at least reading about, the weekly SHIELD episodes. I miss Bob explaining all the little things that go completely over my head, and I'm sure he'd have a few interesting things to say about that ending.

I felt like this episode really was just a filler episode. As you said, we were lead to believe this was going to be a throw-down episode, but it ended up just as a "I hit you, you hit me" typical fight. And yeah, I don't get why that guy didn't just shout at Coulson once things went south. Could have ended it right there.
Honestly, if I was a SHIELD Agent there, I would have just shot those people. They had their second chance, a chance to prove they weren't dangerous and the SHIELD was wrong, and instead they go out and kill people and create chaos. Too dangerous to be kept alive now I think.
And where was the little bit about how all the kids are okay? They should have had a throw away line saying that.

I highly doubt Fury is leading the "Real" SHIELD, because that would mean betraying the man he trusts so much that he brought him back to life. Also, did you hear the disgust in Mac's voice when he said Fury's name? No, these are suits who think they know best. Probably like the Board we saw in Avengers and Winter Soldier.
Which is a total face palm moment. They are simply repeating exactly what HYDRA did. Infiltrating SHIELD, planting moles, and when the time comes, they're going to turn on their friends. Now, I don't expect them to execute said friends like HYDRA did, but still...and they know it too. If you recall, Mockingbird (or is it Jay?) and Mac had the conversation about how bad it felt to have their friends turn on them, and yet THEY'RE ABOUT TO DO THE SAME DAMN THING!
At least this means we're finally going to get our throw-down match between Mai and Mockingbird, because you know it's coming.

On a final note, I like how teleport guy just shut down Skye's dad. He knows he's in trouble now, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this group of Inhumans plays into the whole story.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Ditto Sniper Team 4's 1st paragraph.

Seeing the preview I thought it would have been Cal teaming up with teleport guy's friends to get Sky back, introducing several of them (thought the guy with the blocked mouth would be Black Bolt with his powers toned down). Guess he's too unstable to be part of that cause yet, and I doubt we'll see his posse of lunatics return as characters except maybe Ms. Gideon.

Now we have two new factions making themselves known, the Inhumans and the 'real SHIELD', explaining why we had to hit HYDRA hard enough two episodes ago that they won't be a factor for a very long time. I can picture someone on team Coulson quickly becoming confused when referring to both organizations and inventing a different name for them for convenience like SWORD.

 

[Scars Unseen]

At least now we know where the MCU Civil War is coming from. The index is likely going to be the focus of it, and I'd wager that this "real" SHIELD is going to feature in the movie somehow so that we can have SHIELD vs heroes without having to pull Coulson and friends into the movies.

Speculation: Iron Man is funding this new SHIELD, and that's going to be how he and Cap end up on opposite sides of the conflict.

 

[Furbyz]

I thought all the birds falling onto the field after the guy screamed was a really nice touch.

I enjoyed the character moments with May, but other than that, I didn't much care for this episode. There were some good things and it introduced new factions, but I think they could've done better. The entire climax of the episode just felt bland to me. Also, how the hell does grafting razors to your fingers get you on the Index?

Wasn't it announced that Edward James Olmos was going to be in Agents at some point? If so, do you think he'll be with the new SHIELD or possibly whoever Cal was going to see? I can see that going either way.

 

[Zontar]

I can picture someone on team Coulson quickly becoming confused when referring to both organizations and inventing a different name for them for convenience like SWORD.

SWORD already explicitly exists in the MCU however (there was a deleted reference to it in Thor, there was the logo in the reserection project base in season 1, and there was the van that was photographed with a SWORD logo instead of a SHIELD one) so I don't see that happening. It could become HAMMER however, since that's what SHIELD became under Osborn after Dark Reign, and with the Sony deal having him dragged into this is a very real possibility.

 

[LostCrusader]

The fights were a big let down in the episode, mostly because of the really boring villains. Its sad that the only somewhat threatening one of them to the shield agents is Skye's dad and he got pulled out before anything could happen.

I think it may be too early to say much about the "real shield" thing, but their teaser made it look like it might include Ward which would be really stupid.

 

[hermes]

Yeah, I also miss the weekly column by Bob. At least it helped me catch up in the references that I might have missed.

This week episode was not great. The idea of the Doctor forming up his own team of freaks was nice, but they were underused. The nails of Gideon look really cheap, and I still don't understand how they expected to contain her with metal gloves and leaving her in an unguarded apartment (by the way, wasn't another option available? couldn't they just trim her nails?). The one that was presented more interestingly was the Screamer, but I was disappointed when he didn't even tried to speak during the fight.

I don't know how much secrecy Mack needed for "the real SHIELD" or what it is, but I guess we will see. My guess is that it is an underground version of the old SHIELD run by Fury, which would let them include S.L. Jackson and SHIELD in some form during the Avengers movie without the need to refer to the resurrection of Director Coulson (something that the movies-only audience would find confusing).

 

[madwarper]

Dame it Shield,

Spoiler

Introducing the head of the "real" Shield.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Yeah, I miss having someone explain what the possible implications that the references made in Agents had on the larger Marvel cinematic universe.