kennyab

I actually like Skye, but I can't say that thought didn't run through my head on behalf of other posters.

Forbes has a non-spoilery review of the winter finale. Basically, it's huge, a game-changer, and has the pay-offs we've been wanting. If you've been paying attention to press about the greater MCU for the last couple of months (which, if you're reading this thread, I'd say chances are that you have), it may reinforce some speculation, but it doesn't go into any details whatsoever.

My favorite line: "Anna, you're the smartest person I know." Not many Nobel winners hailing from Arendelle, eh?

I doubt it, as they killed Skye's mom, and I can't picture them getting rid of Crystal in such a manner when the movie (which is presumably about the royal family) is three years out and Quicksilver is trapped in a castle currently (and definitely not the Doctor). They'd have to totally rewrite Luna's history, so why bother at that point? There are enough similarities between Skye and Daisy that it won't feel like Marvel is rewriting the character from scratch if that ends up being the case.

I can't take credit for this catch (thanks, Comic Book Resources), but there seems to be a big clue to Skye's real name in the music box song from her dream sequence.

Joss may not actively be involved in the show himself, but that doesn't mean his presence isn't felt. Jed and Maurissa are both part of the "Whedon School," having started their TV careers under Joss on Dollhouse. And yes, that dream sequence borrowed heavily from the Joss playbook (although without the panache of a true Whedon original). Especially the song the played on the music box, which may serve up a huge clue as to Skye's true identity.

There seem to be certain curses that specifically take True Love's Kiss into account, such as the one used by King George to render Snow infertile. Curses that exploit love are presumably immune to TLK, otherwise what's the point of the curse? I agree with the poster who mentioned above that Regina should have taken a sleeping potion, and either Henry or Robin could wake her up after the mess has passed. Heck, it may even protect her from being cursed. In that case, she and Henry could both take a potion. Then Emma could wake up Henry, who in turn could wake up Regina, and they'd have one of their strongest magicians available to help fight Ingrid. Evil Queen vs Unhinged Snow will be more fun, no doubt, and I'm really good at ignoring Fridge Logic, but team Swan needs a good strategist ASAP.

It's official, the blue alien is Kree. I don't know if anyone really thought otherwise at this point, but the matter's now settled.

Ward had a hotel room full gas and matches at the end of the last episode. I think it's immaterial whether he struck the match himself or got Christian in the mindset to do it. His intention was for the place to burn, and that's exactly what happened.

Yep, I kept waiting for Bakshi to trigger Bobbi in the interrogation room. Heck, maybe he and Ward actually did get him in there on purpose so he could activate their sleeper.

That's the thing about big data -- it's great if you're asking the right questions, but it's not really smart enough to tell you that it may have something interesting. And this is big data to which only a few eyes are privy. Think about the interesting things that have been picked out from Google Earth. We've probably only scratched the surface of what can be mined, and that's with free access to anyone who wants to look. SHIELD had a goal, meaning a targeted search. So unless you're specifically looking for a lost city, the lost city isn't going to jump out at if you're not looking for it.

Attilan was originally in the Himalayas. Then they transported the city to the Blue Area because of pollution on earth. I'm not exactly sure of the current location, it's moved a number of times in the comics. Edited because my spellchecker things "Attilan" should be "Italian." Thats-a some good-a Terrigen Mists!

It wasn't said on the show, that's what people (including me) are running with as the most likely possibility. Between the blue alien (Kree), Skye being found in China (Attilan's located -- sometimes -- in the Himalayas), Raina being obsessed with gaining powers, it all points in that direction.

Considering the Sorcerer('s Apprentice) can so easily open a portal to the real world, something that's not supposed to be trivial, I'm guessing he can play around with when to send someone as well. I think he put her there early enough to prepare for Emma's arrival, not necessarily when it synced up with the Enchanted Forest's timeline.

The thing about Hydra is that it's a very loosely coupled organization -- hence the whole "Cut off one head..." thing. The real world example is terrorist organizations in the Middle East, which have cells that work fairly independently from one another. So even when (really, if) Whitehall or Strucker are defeated, Hydra as a whole will keep on churning.

So, my unspoiled spec is that the Sorcerer is Merlin. We've met Lancelot, so we know Arthurian characters exist. Merlin's the most famous wizard ever, and there's quite conveniently a Disney version. He has powers of prophecy, so he'd be able to point Ingrid towards Emma. In the Disney version he can time travel, which is hard to pull off in OnceLand, so would opening a gate to another world be that difficult for him? Apparently Emma still has some savioring to do, and it looks like the Sorcerer has been putting her in the correct places to accomplish that goal. We still don't yet know what she's supposed to be savior of. We assume Storybrooke and its residents. Maybe not, though. What if she's supposed to bring back Camelot? And as a bonus, perhaps the Sorcerer, who authored the book to get Emma to Storybrooke, got in touch with August at some point and let him know about Henry's book, thus explaining how August knew about it when he arrived in town. They could make some sense of all this jankiness yet.

Storybrooke really must be magic. Look how much pregnancy weight Snow lost in a couple of hours (and just to be clear, Goodwin is beautiful either way, being a mother really does make her glow -- it's just very noticeable). So, who exactly is this Sorcerer going to end up being? It seems he's even much more powerful than Rumple, as he has no problem creating a door to our world.

There are many different types of writing systems. Here are Earth, we've developed different ways of representing the spoken word in graphical form, including alphabets and syllabaries. And that's not to mention codified systems for representing numbers, blueprints, wiring diagrams, etc. Based on seeing the symbols elsewhere, I think it'd be fair to say that they're more than just the memory of the city trying to make itself known. They're probably being expressed through a writing system native to the alien. Perhaps the race has developed a writing system that can be used to encode both language and spatial information. I don't think it's that far-fetched. We're accustomed to integrating systems of mathematical representation and language representation in a pretty seamless manner.

To be fair to the Inhumans (whom I love), they've never really shared the same mindspace as mutants -- that's a really recent development that's come about because of the movie rights. Historically, the characters have been used more to explore themes of isolationism and class in a closed society. Most stories about them for their first 40 years were focused squarely on the Royal Family who ruled the society. While the "threat" of mutants was that one could appear anywhere, the Inhumans were a society that stayed in their own little enclave. But now it would seem that Marvel wants a way to create new characters that can appear in the MCU without a complicated origin story, so they've expanded the Inhuman concept because of that. Fun fact, Quicksilver used to be married to Crystal, an Inhuman princess who started out dating Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four when she first appeared. Their closest ties in the comics universe are both Fox properties. And at one point in the comics, Quicksilver tried to use the Terrinen Mist, which activates Inhuman powers, to restart the mutant race after the Scarlet Witch removed the X-gene of most mutants. ETA: Technically, all Inhumans kind of are mutants. In the comic universe, ancient beings called the Celestials tinkered with photo-humans to allow them to develop the capability for superhuman powers. The Kree discovered that and expanded on it a bit. Because of the Kree manipulation, those powers have to be activated by the Terrigen Mists, whereas traditional mutants don't necessarily need an outside trigger. But it's the same base genetic manipulation behind both groups. Cue comments about Coy and Vance Duke.

I'm not really worried about that this time around. The Winter Soldier was about SHIELD. There's no indication that Age of Ultron really has anything to do with SHIELD -- at this point, Nick Fury's working as a free agent. My guess is that the changes have more to do with the inter-team dynamics of the Avengers and the public's view of superheroes. Considering that SHIELD is already mistrusted, I can't envision it having too much of an impact on the show. I think that MAoS is really in its own sandbox now, getting to move forward with its own stories.

Just to further the Attilan speculation -- Marvel's doubling the orders sent to retailers of the new issue of Inhuman next week for free. That type of thing doesn't happen without reason...

My guess is that we'll find out about the Inhumans, but we're not going to meet the Royal Family or anything like that. Perhaps Attilan's been abandoned and there's been an Inhuman diaspora. That would allow the show to introduce the concept and meet some (non-royal) Inhumans along the way, allowing the movie to focus on what Black Bolt and Co have been doing. Or maybe they track down where it's supposed to be only to discover a few traces of the Inhuman civilization, maybe a couple of stragglers to explain their history, but that the city itself has moved (which it does from time to time).

Yeah, Traveller519 points to why the overnights aren't the only number that matters to a show like MAoS. In this case, since it's produced by the same network that airs it, ABC has a much larger stake in the future of the show (the same reason NBC's shown so much more love to Parks and Recreation than to Community). The overnights affect ad rates, but these days shows have much longer lifespans, and the studios/networks have to consider the whole picture. There's revenue from product placement within the show, iTunes/Amazon sales, streaming rights, syndication, and DVD/Blu-Ray sales. And that's why the L3s/L7s matter -- they may not have an effect on ad rates, but they point to how long a lifespan a show might have and future profits they make through these other avenues. Ad rates are now just once piece of a larger puzzle.

This show is time-shifted like crazy. The L3s (which networks do care about) that have leaked are good, and the L7s put it on par with the NCIS franchise in the demo.They'll probably also look at how it does once S1 hits Netflix later this month. It's an example of a show that has a more modern viewership that watches TV on its own terms. That's not going to change, and overnights only tell a part of a story with shows like this.

This is where the show can use the movies to their benefit. Just like showing the TV footage the helicarrier crashing into the Triskelion, something not able on a TV budget, I'd try to convince TPTB to go ahead and get some renderings done of Attilan for the Inhumans movie so that SHIELD can introduce it properly. Besides, Doctor Who made Gallifrey look pretty good, and they didn't have a blockbuster budget. And maybe sharing sets with Agent Carter is helping them save money to use later on some sweeps-worth FX.