Jack Shaftoe

That was silly but not quite as silly as Coulson pulling the same stunt when Ward dared kill his girlfriend of two weeks. Hunter's plan was dumb not only for his "I need to get my revenge myself" attitude but because the idea that no one of Ward's minions was going to recognize him was a little risky. They should have let Bobbi kill Ward in the season 2 finale, he had already overstayed his welcome by that point. And then there was Fitz who for a moment seemed to seriously contemplate the idea of getting rid of Will for the unspeakable crime of sleeping with his precious Jemma. Lots of stupidity to go around in the first half of season 3, I have to say.

Unfortunately, the half-season finale wasn't very good. Rosita and Wynonna teaming up was nice, Nedley was funny and helpful as usual, Ghost Nicole giving Morse code signals was smart of her but the way they defeated the bad guys so quickly and easily was rather underwhelming. The Clanton matriarch had potential as a villain but then suddenly her was son was the one with doubts - only he had gotten enough development for me to care much when Wynonna shot him. Wynonna and Doc arguing about honor and the whole "Hey, we suddenly realised that Wyatt Earp was a great big jerk" feels rather contrived. Much better than "Doc becomes a vampire" from last season, of course, but not very exciting. Melanie and Tim are sure bringing their A game to sell that conflict, though. Ah, Jeremy you really do ship WayHaught, don't you? Peacemaker is a gun again! Not sure how or why that happened but I will take it.

The Watcher's Council is a glorified plot device - it does whatever is necessary for the plot to get from point A to point B, often in a rather nonsensical fashion. It wasn't even introduced in the show until season 3, IIRC. So yes, it makes no sense whatsoever to have a ton of "Watchers" twiddling their thumbs while Buffy had to rely on "civilians" like Willow and Xander for help with research and Slaying. Or to put a guy you apparently don't like much in charge of the Slayer, your biggest asset who accidentally has to save the entire world quite regularly indeed.

Peacemaker, you unfaithful sword that used to be gun! You need to go back to Wynonna pronto. I liked that they didn't drag the "Nicole tries to sneakily murder everyone else" storyline for a long time. Not the most effective of curses but pretty nasty nevertheless. I loved the Nicole-Wynonna talk as usual. Though, of course, the chances of Waverly and Nicole not marrying are pretty low, unless of course the show itself is cancelled suddenly (please, no, television gods!). Waverly saying "It's not [the froggies] fault" was very much in character and hilarious. I guess this episode will also be remembered as the episode that launched a 1,000 WayHaught BDSM fanfics. They really need to stop going alone to the creepy Clanton ranch. Wynonna: "Hide your kids, hide your wives! Because we are storming the fucking castle. And by castle, I mean ranch. And by storming, I mean putting the kill back into "Kill 'Lantons. [turns to Doc] Can you not do that during my rousing speech?" - every time I think I can't love Wynonna any more she proves me wrong.

Nicole, that visit to the house of the Big Bad was a really dumb move. The Big Bad, Margo, is a great improvement compared to her daughter Cleo. Wynonna's speech in the end was pretty awesome. "Rachel, respect the privacy of... the kitchen". I am dead, the show killed me with laughter. Also, I like Rachel a lot. Having a crush on someone with a dark secret is like a rite of passage in this kind of show, I suspect Billy will be back somehow. I loved Waverly being all perky and happy to be with Nicole and doing research again. And looking super hot with these pants, I gotta say. Jeremy was rocking that suit but Wynonna wasted his cool weapon.

May could have easily became teacher without this convenient new power. She has never lacked the skills necessary for that. It seemed to me that they reverted her to early season 1 May in order for her to have some character "development" later. She couldn't feel any emotions except for other people's at first, I don't even recall if it was ever explained how and when she regained her own emotions. Maybe I have missed something and that's why I am confused by it all. 😉 I wonder if Daisy/Sousa was so low-key because it finally dawned on the writers (or the network executives) that romance does not have to be 100% angst. I don't ship those two, don't get me wrong, but it was such a relief to have relationship without excessive melodrama and contrived obstacles.

Yet the protagonists acted like the Chronicoms had that exact intention and they should know how time travel works far better than I do. And in any event it's a super lame revenge to destroy SHIELD in another timeline, Coulson and company should have just shrugged and said "Good riddance", instead of bothering to follow them into the past. She didn't say it but the implication was perfectly clear. In my opinion, she was perfectly fine before this silly empathy power so there was no reason to learn anything from the experience. She always has had plenty empathy, merely expressed in more subtle ways.

I knew the protagonists would find a way to return to their own timeline. The finale wasn't too bad but it took basically zero risks. The Chronicoms being beaten by the literal power of empathy was pretty cringe-worthy but then again everything about them has been cringe-worthy for years now. Kora saving the day was kind of silly and predictable too. Not quite as predictable as the FitzSimmons kid, though, those were some "subtle" hints indeed. I am not happy with the implication May needed said power of empathy in order to become a better person. Before she got that power, she was reserved and taciturn, not a robot without feelings, you know. I know I probably shouldn't ask but if you can only get back to your timeline with that quantum machine or whatever, what exactly was the Chronicoms' rationale for time-traveling in the first place? All in all, despite all my grumblings, it's downright miraculous that all the main characters stayed mostly true to themselves to the very end. Almost inevitably, a significant portion of the main cast would be character assassinated or at least flanderized by season six at the very latest. I just wish the writers didn't love time travel so much.

I wonder how many times Nedley is going to be in mortal peril/presumed dead. Don't kill him off, please! I am not a fan of the whole demons in public thing, it doesn't really work in the age of smartphones and internet but the show has never been particularly realistic, so it doesn't bother me too much. The magistrate was way over the top and not in fun way like Mercedes. I didn't expect the return of Chrissy, the last time we saw her was way back in season 1. Maybe Gus will return from the mysterious land of off-screen too some day? 😉 Wynonna noticed it, that was a nice touch. Best friends and all that. Maybe she cut a deal with Black Badge. They are the ultimate plot device organisation, they interfere or do nothing depending on what the plot requires.

The whole thing was just dumb and people would have complained anyway - a super important, super secret facility has a grand total of two guards? Coulson and company don't even entertain the idea of using their non-lethal guns? But yeah, the protagonists going beyond the pale for Skye of all characters sure helped fuel fan anger.

But Coulson did kill two guards who were just doing their job as far as he knew at that time. I read those old TWoP threads when I was binging the show and while people complained a little too much (understatement alert), the show did sweep what Coulson did under the carpet in a way that must have reinforced for many people the idea of Skye as the writers' pet because clearly the show was okay with the protagonists doing anything, murder included, to save her. Yes but that's still Hollywood and the actresses are almost always pretty enough for this to be obvious regardless of whether they are glammed up or not. People didn't like Skye because the show was sold as an ensemble and yet she was obviously more important than everyone else, except for Coulson, and even he often played second fiddle to her and wouldn't stop singing her praises. When this stopped, the fandom warmed up to her.

I think the problem with Daisy early on was not so much her own personality and actions but the way other characters, Coulson in particular, acted like she was the most important person in the universe for no apparent reason. Few things can annoy viewers more than a perceived writers' pet. I still cringe a little when I think of Coulson's many speeches on the subject of Skye. I very much doubt that. Characters like Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Claudia from Warehouse tend to be pretty popular with the fans. Plus, it's not like Elizabeth Henstridge is any less pretty but few fans hated her character.

If we are going to nitpick I gotta wonder how exactly turning off all the electricity leads to instant hacking. Coulson said something about Kora "lowering the firewalls" but I really don't think a momentary lack of electric power in the entire base would turn off just the firewalls and not, you know, all the computers. But why wasn't it Plan A? It's obviously much more likely to succeed than the idiotic schemes we have been seeing all season from the Chronicoms. Especially with the whole "Can't change the past, you can just create an alternate universe" thing.

You know, if the Chronicoms can contact their home planet for a fleet which can erase all SHIELD bases in seconds, you have to wonder why they bothered trying anything else in the past. Or why they couldn't do it in the present, last time I checked SHIELD didn't have any defences against lasers from space or whatever they used. But I guess the answer is the same as it is to most questions about the Chronicoms - they are incredibly stupid. Just me or the actor playing Nathaniel is terrible? Him and Kora are so boring. I want to ask why Kora didn't bother killing May, Coulson and company but I guess the answer would be the same as above. At least the writing has been consistent about that.

I kind of expected Waverly to use her healing powers on Nicole but the timeskip wasn't exactly surprising. And yeah, that sex scene was pretty memorable. And long! I wouldn't mind if we are done with this Garden of Eden thing because it wasn't all that well thought overall, to put it mildly. I got a little confused as to why Waverly and Doc being there led to Eve's escape but I suspect this isn't the last we have seen of her. I loved it when Wynonna called her Wy-clone-a. And I am kind of done with destiny used as a writing crutch in so many stories but I am not sure we are really done with it in this show, no matter what Wynonna says. Waverly's hair remaining perfect no matter what kind of crazy stuff is going on always makes me smile. I am totally in favour of more monster of the week episodes. Let's face it, this show is tons of fun, has amazing characters but the lengthy seasonal arcs are not so great, there are obvious retcons and signs of the writers making stuff up as they go along. Now would be a good time to take a breather before introducing a new Big Bad or the return of Eve.