S07.E06: Adapt or Die

[Cranberry]

Quote

The team must scramble to rescue Mack's parents, save S.H.I.E.L.D. from a chronicom infestation and fix the ship, all before the next time-jump. Meanwhile, Daisy and Sousa find themselves at a disadvantage against a power hungry Nathaniel Malick and his goons, and Coulson will have to do the thing he does best in order to save the future.

Airdate: July 1, 2020

 

[AnimeMania]

4 hours ago, Cranberry said:

Coulson will have to do the thing he does best in order to save the future.

The thing that Coulson does best is die. I hope that is not what they are alluding to.

[Chicago Redshirt]

Maybe the title should be "Adapt and Die"? Because Coulson's pretty good at both.

[greekmom]

Mack losing his parents pissed me off as it furthers muddles the timeline.  Might as well throw in the towel at this point.

Colsoun dying (again) was predictable. 

Rooting for Daisy and Souza.

Was Diana one of Simmon's alter personalities when she was in that dream like state with Fitz?

Leaving Mack and Deke in the 80s screws up the timeline - again.

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by greekmom

[AimingforYoko]

14 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

The thing that Coulson does best is die. I hope that is not what they are alluding to.

They were. 

Man, we lost Coulson, Mac lost his parents, Daisy almost got vivisected (ol' Nate Malick got exactly what he deserved, though) for this show, it was about as bleak as it gets.

[KittenPokerCheater]

...but next week we get a whole lot of 1982!

But this was an intense episode.  I'm not worried for Coulson (he always comes back), but it seems like all the "let's not make waves" is out the window.  At this point, I think AoS has gone into an alternate universe now.

Poor Mack. That truly felt like a gut punch.

Deke and Souza are such great characters.  And aw, Enoch is a member of the family now.  Officially! 

[thuganomics85]

Well, that certainly got dark at the end!

Poor Mack.  All the talk about how the Chromicons taking faces and learning to "adapt" more as humans made me wonder if the twist about his parents was coming, but it still hurt to watch him realize that, and then have to kill the beings that not only murdered his parents, but wore their faces.  No wonder he needed a minute!  Henry Simmons did great work here.

Meanwhile, it looks like Coulson's time as a LMD is already at an end, as he apparently blew himself up to take out the Chromicons' ship and hunters.  But, as he pretty much said, dying isn't exactly new for him, so I'm sure another variation of Coulson will be back here in no time!

Nathaniel Malick wasn't actually working for Hydra, but kidnapped Daisy (and Sousa), because he wanted to use her blood and marrow to give him powers instead.  But it certainly looks like it backfired on him big time.  Daisy looks the worst for wear now, but at least it has apparently led to Sousa staying with the team.  Is old Daniel Sousa starting to develop feeling for Quake?!

So, Simmons had a chip implanted in her so that she wouldn't know where Fitz was and accidentally give away his location.  But it was starting to mess up and make her not remember how to do her other jobs.  Not sure if they fixed it or ended up taking it out, but either way, Deke knows about this as well now.

Hey, the female Chromicon disguised as an agent was played by the same actress who plays Yolanda on GLOW!

Even after everything, Stoner still tries to get Melinda to have a drink with him.  I guess he really is a big believer in the "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" methodology.  Patrick Warburton is always a delight.

Even though I understand why Deke thought something bad was going down, I still wish I could have a frame photo of Simmons and Enoch's guilt-tripping looks they were throwing at him at the end.  Elizabeth Henstridge and Joel Stoffer nailed those looks!

Thanks to more hijinks, Mack and Deke have been separated from the team and are now apparently stuck in 1982.  And judging from next week's preview, they are going to hit every 80s cliche in the playbook.  I so can't wait for that insanity!

[AnimeMania]

Since almost all of the Chronicoms are flesh colored (I'm talking about you Sybil), I thought Mack Daddy Chronicom said that they had to remove all of the skin, not just the face to make him and the Mack Momma Chronicom. If that was true, why was the dead faceless Agent Ford lying in the pile of dead bodies with his skin still on?

[swanpride]

Well,  I guess it wouldn't be AoS without a "Who can you trust" subplot.

I admit, I had a hard time to stay invested in this episode. For the first time this season, it was just too predictable. I even saw the thing with the parents coming. They were just waaaaay to calm.

Wow, Mack is older than I thought….

Eh, boring title card this time....somehow this was already putting me in a negative mindset I admit. The last ones just created so much excitement all on their own, that this one kind of hit the mood….

Let's hope that they only jumped for a year or two…..

[RachelKM]

4 hours ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

But this was an intense episode.  I'm not worried for Coulson (he always comes back), but it seems like all the "let's not make waves" is out the window.  At this point, I think AoS has gone into an alternate universe now.

I think it was pretty much out the window when they arrived in 1974 and 1) Wilfred and Nathan Malik were still alive and 2) the Chronicoms had accelerated S.H.I.E.L.D. technology more than a decade, maybe two. At this point, shit has gone full multiverse. 

 

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Since almost all of the Chronicoms are flesh colored (I'm talking about you Sybil), I thought Mack Daddy Chronicom said that they had to remove all of the skin, not just the face to make him and the Mack Momma Chronicom.

I don't think it was literal.  The Chronicoms are able to change their faces, eye color, hair, and variations of lighter skin tones.  I don't know why there would be a melanin matching limit on their adaptability.  And they seem to jack the one agent sent to fix the computers well enough.

Why did my heart ache then melt when Deke told Enoch he was part of their family?  This constant drumbeat of horror that is 2020 has got me on the ropes with the feels. 

In a similar vein, I am 100% on the Sousa/Quake ship. I was sorta about Dansy last week. But Sousa talking to Daisy about paying forward what his combat mate did for him absolutely sold me.  Granted, Enver Gjokaj can pretty much get me to fall for any paring he puts 2 sentences of effort into.  Cannot blame that on 2020 Trauma-induced Emotionality.

 

[AnimeMania]

23 minutes ago, RachelKM said:

I don't think it was literal.  The Chronicoms are able to change their faces, eye color, hair, and variations of lighter skin tones.  I don't know why there would be a melanin matching limit on their adaptability.  And they seem to jack the one agent sent to fix the computers well enough.

Oh, I guess that ripping a person's face off and putting it on a robot's body is strictly for horror movie effect.

[RachelKM]

13 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Oh, I guess that ripping a person's face off and putting it on a robot's body is strictly for horror movie effect.

It is horrifying.  No doubt.  It does seem to be a bit unnecessary.  I mean, they acquire the whole physique and yet only remove the face. So, yeah, it seems to be a way of ratcheting up the body horror aspect removing their faces in their entirety. 

Edited July 2, 2020 by RachelKM

[swanpride]

Though a face is way more complex than the rest of the body. All those small movement involved in the mimic.

[Llywela]

3 hours ago, RachelKM said:

I don't think it was literal.  The Chronicoms are able to change their faces, eye color, hair, and variations of lighter skin tones.  I don't know why there would be a melanin matching limit on their adaptability.  And they seem to jack the one agent sent to fix the computers well enough.

Plus we've previously seen Enoch change his skin colour, way back in season 5 when he pretended to be Kree and turned himself blue.

[swanpride]

Well, lot of excitement over the notion of Sousa/Daisy out there….not sure how I feel about that, if for no other reason that Daisy's love interests have this unfortunate habit of dying…..

[Raja]

4 hours ago, swanpride said:

Well,  I guess it wouldn't be AoS without a "Who can you trust" subplot.

I admit, I had a hard time to stay invested in this episode. For the first time this season, it was just too predictable. I even saw the thing with the parents coming. They were just waaaaay to calm.

Wow, Mack is older than I thought….

Eh, boring title card this time....somehow this was already putting me in a negative mindset I admit. The last ones just created so much excitement all on their own, that this one kind of hit the mood….

Let's hope that they only jumped for a year or two…..

I think that they were setting the field for next week and the high camp 80s episode. As for Mack and his childhood memories he remembered details that I can't from when I was 6 years old if Henry Simmons is playing the role as his actual age.

I had forgotten that Dr. Whitehall reversed aging by injecting Jaiying's tissues into his body. It makes you wonder why the Kree didn't do the same in the Lighthouse instead of depending upon the luck of the draw with their slave Inhuman farm. But then Sinara's abilities with the balls was never explained like Yondu's dart on The Guardians of the Galaxy 

[swanpride]

Perhaps the Kree simply didn't know that it was possible, plus, part of the "worth" was that the abilities were fairly unique.

[blueray]

Mack :(. I felt really bad for him and honestly didn't see that coming. Hindsight I should have, why would his parents just be taken prisoner that makes no sense.  Then the ship leaving Deke and Mack was unexpected. I guess it jumps unpredictably. Did it say what the time was? 

As for Coulson, I'm assuming he'll be back as he always is.  Maybe he survived the explosion and will team up with Mack and Deke. That could be a good group. I do really miss Fitz though. 

[Jack Shaftoe]

I was tired of the "a character is replaced by robot" plot back in season 4 already. You would think the protagonists would have, I don't know, found an easy way to check who is a robot long ago instead of relying on May's convenient empath powers or needing to literally expose the metal and cables underneath the skin. I liked May snarking about Coulson keeping on dying and coming back and I call BS on "Mack's mother" defeating May so quickly at the end.

Oh, good, more torture, at least it was off-screen this time. The idea that Nathaniel could just synthesize quake powers in a few hours was all kinds of stupid, though.

Feels like something like a third of the show has taken place in the exact same drab corridors. I know the budget is low but it's funny how despite all the time traveling and supposedly different locations they end up in the exact same corridors again and again.

Simmons' explanation for Fitz being absent busy shooting a movie is so convoluted. Then again, so is the whole time-skipping thing this season. The Chronicoms could have eliminated SHIELD many times already if they weren't so stupid that they make even Hydra look like a bunch of geniuses.

[tennisgurl]

Well I guess this season had been a bit on the lighter side as compared to previous seasons, so we needed to catch up on some severe trauma to spread around. Poor Mack, that was freaking brutal. Not only are his parents dead (presumably) but he had to kill their robot dooplegangers who killed them. No wonder he needed a second, but now he and Deke are trapped in the 80s when everyone else kept jumping further in time. Him trying to awkwardly introduce YoYo to his parents was so cute, it just makes the reveal at the end even sadder. I thought it was nice that Deke went out to check on him, he really has come a long way. 

Also not having a good day? Daisy, who got experimented on and is looking pretty beat up, but luckily has a high probability of recovery at least. Nathan took her powers, but like an idiot, didn't bother to think that just grabbing up super powers willy nilly and sticking them inside of him might not be the best idea ever, and killed himself accidentally with the powers he stole, or at least he was badly hurt. It took Daisy awhile to be able to control her powers, so of course he cant get them down in like three seconds. Also on the plus side? Sousa decides to stick with the team to stay with Daisy, and...are they getting a vibe? I think I have been catching a vibe. 

So the timeline is just fully Jeremy Berimy at this point right? 

Stoner is still into May, and I totally get it. 

So Coulson dies again, and even he knows that he is just going to come back anyway, so why bother getting upset. Mays current state of semi emotionless is sad, especially as she and Coulson cant connect like they used to, but I suppose even if your emotions weren't on the fritz, being in love with someone who keeps dying and coming back in increasingly ridiculous ways would get pretty emotionally exhausting. 

So we finally find out where Fitz is, even if we still dont see him. Come on, get back here Fitz, I miss you!

[RachelKM]

1 hour ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

Oh, good, more torture, at least it was off-screen this time. The idea that Nathaniel could just synthesize quake powers in a few hours was all kinds of stupid, though.

I had the same reaction.  I think they were trying to sort of indicate that Nathaniel had access to Whitehall's research which explained how he'd accomplished it with Jiaying.  Still, a couple of hours and blood and tissue samples seemed rather easy.

1 hour ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

Feels like something like a third of the show has taken place in the exact same drab corridors. I know the budget is low but it's funny how despite all the time traveling and supposedly different locations they end up in the exact same corridors again and again.

As a long time Doctor Who fan, this feels totally normal to me. 

[paigow]

2 hours ago, blueray said:

Maybe he survived the explosion and will team up with Mack and Deke. That could be a good group.

That version of Coulson is in 1976...If he is alive, there is no way to guess where everyone ended up...

[blueray]

10 minutes ago, paigow said:

That version of Coulson is in 1976...If he is alive, there is no way to guess where everyone ended up...

So are Deke and Mack. Or wait did they jump before that?

Edited July 2, 2020 by blueray

[paigow]

54 minutes ago, blueray said:

So are Deke and Mack. Or wait did they jump before that?

There were 2 time jumps after the explosion...so Coulson is by himself...dead

[blackwing]

I thought it was really rich that Mack chewed out Deke for "disobeying a DIRECT ORDER" and killing Freddy Malick.  Deke thought he was doing good since Freddy Malick is such a bad guy.  But then Mack is willing to jeopardize the entire team to selfishly save his own parents, because he is the boss and makes the orders.  I wish at least one person would have called him out on that.  And then they turn out not to be his parents anyways.  Mack goes off on his own because he's sad, and now he and Deke are stuck by themselves.  Good going, great leadership.

So my big question after this episode is, did Daisy lose her powers?  Seemed like Nathaniel had acquired them.  Did he get all of them or just a little bit?  Or is that like being "a little bit" pregnant?  I hope she still has them.

It looks like Yo Yo still has her bionic arms. so even if she no longer has powers, at least she still has those.

[RachelKM]

2 minutes ago, blackwing said:

So my big question after this episode is, did Daisy lose her powers?  Seemed like Nathaniel had acquired them.  Did he get all of them or just a little bit?  Or is that like being "a little bit" pregnant?  I hope she still has them.

I don't think so.  My recollection was that Jiaying kept her powers.  I think the "process" as explained was that Nathaniel extracted her blood and tissue and injected it into himself the way, I guess, Whitehall did with Jiaying.

Daisy should still be Daisy, just down some blood and tissue.  Not all that different than being cut or shot. 

[dmeets]

If Mack's parents were chronicoms that whole time, why were they all "I'm scared, what's going to happen to us next?" when just the two of them were in the prison cell? Wasn't the reason they took their faces in the first place because they knew Mack would break them out? Or were they just acting 24/7 in the event SHIELD was watching them on spycam?

Curious if there's any non-contrived reason for the sudden second time jump. Or did the chronicoms just take one look at the early 80s and say "nope, fuck this."

Edited July 2, 2020 by dmeets

[Loandbehold]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I thought it was really rich that Mack chewed out Deke for "disobeying a DIRECT ORDER" and killing Freddy Malick.  Deke thought he was doing good since Freddy Malick is such a bad guy.  But then Mack is willing to jeopardize the entire team to selfishly save his own parents, because he is the boss and makes the orders.  I wish at least one person would have called him out on that.  And then they turn out not to be his parents anyways.  Mack goes off on his own because he's sad, and now he and Deke are stuck by themselves.  Good going, great leadership.

I think Mack has been the best of the SHIELD directors up til this season, but he has lacked consistency lately.

I was 10 at the Bicentennial. I didn't think Mack is almost as old as me. But, yep, Henry Simmons just turned 50. Damn. He looks almost as good as me. You know, if I was an LMD or Chronicom. Or Henry Simmons.

Did I hear correctly that besides blood and tissue, Nathaniel took some of Daisy's glands??? No wonder she's in a medical stasis pod.

Not a Deke fan, but Mack makes him bearable. So, I'm looking forward to their early '80s New Wave sound adventures. If Deke doesn't have a Flock of Seagull's hair cut, I'm gonna cut someone. And, yes, "I Ran" came out in 1982.

Btw, did we ever learn who or what was in the picture Daddy Malick had before Deke shot him? Was it Mack's "parents" being held prisoner?

Glad Sousa is sticking around. He and Daisy make a good pairing. I can get behind them, although they need a better portmanteau than "Dansy."

Looking forward to whenever Fitz returns. He has his own way of expressing disgust and impatience towards Deke that has been sorely missed. Simmons tried this episode, but didn't quite pull it off the way Fitz does.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, paigow said:

There were 2 time jumps after the explosion...so Coulson is by himself...dead

Or is he? Remember Terminator 3, its the software not the hardware LMD that matters. It looks like that after going Ripley on the xenomorph egg farm, unassigned Hunters, he will become Max Headroom in the framework while the team blips past Mack and Deke going the long way.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next episode is just the three of them plus the return of Fitz.

[blackwing]

Best line of the episode was when Elena introduced Mack to his "parents" (who already knew who he was) with "This is Mack... Lemore".

[Guest]

Since the original timeline is shot to hell I wouldn’t be surprised is the plan is to have Coulson be alive again. 

The most surprising thing about the episode is how much weaker the chronicoms were. Remember when it took LMD Coulson and Quake’s powers to subdue one. Now all it takes it robotic arms and Mac. Plus Coulson has blown a hole in their ship. At this point I hope next week’s terminator episode is the end of the chronicoms and the show focuses on finding Fritz and fixing the timeline. 

[swanpride]

I am currently not sure if the timeline is shot to hell...the Malicks who should be dead are dead now, for all we know the Malick left is still into religion, sure, Mac's parents died but I guess that just means that he and his brother now grow up with their relatives, and the lighthouse is shut down, just like it should be.  The only "big" change I can see resulting from the current situation is that Hive now has no longer a reason to kill Stephanie. And if they come back to the present and figure out that she is still alive and now their next big enemy, well, I really liked the actress.

[Sandman]

22 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Maybe the title should be "Adapt and Die"? Because Coulson's pretty good at both.

Coulson's superpower seems to be more like Die and Then Adapt, really.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Sandman

[RachelKM]

1 hour ago, Loandbehold said:

Glad Sousa is sticking around. He and Daisy make a good pairing. I can get behind them, although they need a better portmanteau than "Dansy."

Wounded! I was sort of amusing myself (at 1 am and after whiskey). It appealed to me for reasons that have to do with SYTYCD* which is definitely not an excuse, just a reason. Quake and Sousa make for some awkward portmanteaus, though.  Qusa? Sake? (Blech) Sousy? (NO!) Quakesa? (Eh, maybe?) Souke? (ugh) We might need to scrap the whole project.  Sometimes the lesson of failure is it ought not to have been attempted.

*Lacey and Danny, she was cute as heck when call them "Dancey." And Hip Hip Chin Chin remains one of my favorite Sambas. 

39 minutes ago, swanpride said:

I am currently not sure if the timeline is shot to hell...the Malicks who should be dead are dead now, for all we know the Malick left is still into religion, sure, Mac's parents died but I guess that just means that he and his brother now grow up with their relatives, and the lighthouse is shut down, just like it should be.  The only "big" change I can see resulting from the current situation is that Hive now has no longer a reason to kill Stephanie. And if they come back to the present and figure out that she is still alive and now their next big enemy, well, I really liked the actress.

There has clearly been a serious screwing with the technology progression. So, that might be an issue too. 

Edited July 2, 2020 by RachelKM

[swanpride]

You know, this could be the plot of next episode, Mack and Deke trying to stop the technological progress. Soooo 1980s.

[Llywela]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

So my big question after this episode is, did Daisy lose her powers?  Seemed like Nathaniel had acquired them.  Did he get all of them or just a little bit?  Or is that like being "a little bit" pregnant?  I hope she still has them.

Daisy's powers are part of her, genetically, they can't be taken from her (although they can be turned off). Nathaniel was able to also acquire her power, by obtaining her DNA and using Whitehall's process to graft it into himself. But he couldn't remove the powers from her the way you'd remove an appendix, the powers are still part of her genetic code. She couldn't use them when she was captured because she'd been drugged.

2 hours ago, dmeets said:

If Mack's parents were chronicoms that whole time, why were they all "I'm scared, what's going to happen to us next?" when just the two of them were in the prison cell? Wasn't the reason they took their faces in the first place because they knew Mack would break them out? Or were they just acting 24/7 in the event SHIELD was watching them on spycam?

Curious if there's any non-contrived reason for the sudden second time jump. Or did the chronicoms just take one look at the early 80s and say "nope, fuck this."

I would assume the McKenzie Chronicoms maintained the act just in case they were being watched, yes - after all, CCTV in the prison cell is how Mack knew they were there to begin with. And Chronicoms are nothing if not thorough.

This isn't the first time there has been a second time skip within minutes of the first. I guess, just like in 1973, the Chronicoms achieved what they were after extremely quickly! Although...since their time ship was damaged or destroyed, I'm not clear what the Zephyr is now following. I thought it was piggy-backing the Chronicom timeship?

1 hour ago, Loandbehold said:

Btw, did we ever learn who or what was in the picture Daddy Malick had before Deke shot him? Was it Mack's "parents" being held prisoner?

I think it was Mack's parents - we saw the Chronicom giving him the photo back in 1973 and calling it leverage over the SHIELD team. So, yeah, Mack's parents.

Overall, I thought this was the weakest episode of the season so far, and not just because it wasn't as funny - it was also quite disjointed, I felt. I'm thoroughly enjoying the ride of this final season, though, even if I do miss Fitz. I'm loving having Sousa on board, though! In interviews, Gjokaj has said he only has a cameo role in the season - now, three episodes to me seems like more than a cameo, but his statement does imply that he won't be around for the whole season, which is a shame. I think they should keep him, now they have him!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, swanpride said:

I am currently not sure if the timeline is shot to hell...the Malicks who should be dead are dead now, for all we know the Malick left is still into religion, sure, Mac's parents died but I guess that just means that he and his brother now grow up with their relatives, and the lighthouse is shut down, just like it should be.  The only "big" change I can see resulting from the current situation is that Hive now has no longer a reason to kill Stephanie. And if they come back to the present and figure out that she is still alive and now their next big enemy, well, I really liked the actress.

By shot to hell I meant that enough changes have been made that they have to be in a split timeline now. That’s the only why Endgame’s time travel theory works with this season. Otherwise they just changed Mac’s entire childhood. 

[swanpride]

Eh, no. The question is always if it is a ripple or a wave. Or, to put it differently: it doesn't matter if the characters roughly end up in the same place in the end. As long as the timeline isn't changed enough that there is still a Mack who time travelled back at one point, everything is okay, even though Mack and brother will now remember different childhoods. It's kind of like parting a string. It doesn't matter that you did it as long as it joins back at one point.

[mrspidey]

Ok, can someone please confirm that the guy who played Nathaniel is related to Evan Peters? They look and sound so much alike, it's driving me nuts. 

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, swanpride said:

Eh, no. The question is always if it is a ripple or a wave. Or, to put it differently: it doesn't matter if the characters roughly end up in the same place in the end. As long as the timeline isn't changed enough that there is still a Mack who time travelled back at one point, everything is okay, even though Mack and brother will now remember different childhoods. It's kind of like parting a string. It doesn't matter that you did it as long as it joins back at one point.

I disagree. What we’ve seen are big waves. They may not be world changing waves but big enough to completely alter Mac’s life.  Endgame made a huge deal about how your past can’t be changed. Mac’s past should be fixed and these changes create a different future. 

[Loandbehold]

1 hour ago, RachelKM said:

Wounded! I was sort of amusing myself (at 1 am and after whiskey). It appealed to me for reasons that have to do with SYTYCD* which is definitely not an excuse, just a reason. Quake and Sousa make for some awkward portmanteaus, though.  Qusa? Sake? (Blech) Sousy? (NO!) Quakesa? (Eh, maybe?) Souke? (ugh) We might need to scrap the whole project.  Sometimes the lesson of failure is it ought not to have been attempted.

Did not mean to WOUND. To put some salve on, I kind of like Sake. Goes well with tempura.

[Jack Shaftoe]

Wait, wait, wait, Henry Simmons is 50?!? I guess Ming-Na Wen shared her fountain of youth with him. 😉

Quote

I thought it was really rich that Mack chewed out Deke for "disobeying a DIRECT ORDER" and killing Freddy Malick.  Deke thought he was doing good since Freddy Malick is such a bad guy.  But then Mack is willing to jeopardize the entire team to selfishly save his own parents, because he is the boss and makes the orders.  I wish at least one person would have called him out on that.  And then they turn out not to be his parents anyways.  Mack goes off on his own because he's sad, and now he and Deke are stuck by themselves.  Good going, great leadership.

Well, Coulson made many such dumb emotional decisions and things always worked out at the end through the miracles of plot contrivance, maybe Mack is genre savvy.

 

 

[paigow]

Is rookie Phil Coulson still alive in Captain Marvel 1990 timeline? If young and old Mack can exist in the same 1976 timeline, Enoch can kidnap younger versions of May and Coulson from 198x

Edited July 3, 2020 by paigow

[MisterGlass]

I wondered that - if they are going to have cadet Coulson and May around.  I was glad PhiLMD and May got a moment together in this one.  May's retort about having mourned enough for Coulson however many lives or iterations he has was one of the better parts of this episode.

Patrick Warburton played this really well.  It was a fun gag that he had that giant steak up against his eye.  This was also another solid episode for Deke; I really like him a lot better this year.

Everything else was back to bleak.  I did not expect Mack's mother to also be a chronicom.  They've definitely gone past the 'ripple' stage.  I feel like they have to loop back to the beginning to fix this, a bit like how they fixed the future.  Or, they are coming up on some other critical junction in the future for one of the characters that will lead to them fixing the past.

I think @Raja may be right, and Coulson carries on as a part of a system.  Could be that Stoner has the middle generation Koenig make him a primitive armature.  Or, and I would really prefer it not be this, the chronicoms make a new version of him based on what they scanned when he plugged into the system.

[Linderhill]

I knew as soon as Mack said he needed a moment alone that the ship would have to jump.  I didn't figure that both Mack and Deke would be left behind, I figured it would be one of those desperate last minute boardings.  I never expected Daisy and Sousa to be paired up. I hope Daisy can bounce back quickly.  Maybe as she recovers they will figure out what is keeping Yoyo from using her powers.

[Raja]

So did Nathaniel Malick survive were version one of Fitz didn't in similar circumstances? And if we did will we find him hunting Afterlife Inhumans when the team blips forward?

[bettername2come]

On 7/2/2020 at 4:24 PM, RachelKM said:

Wounded! I was sort of amusing myself (at 1 am and after whiskey). It appealed to me for reasons that have to do with SYTYCD* which is definitely not an excuse, just a reason. Quake and Sousa make for some awkward portmanteaus, though.  Qusa? Sake? (Blech) Sousy? (NO!) Quakesa? (Eh, maybe?) Souke? (ugh) We might need to scrap the whole project.  Sometimes the lesson of failure is it ought not to have been attempted.

I'm feeling the Daisy/Sousa ship in ways I did not predict in the previous episode. He's been just great to have back no matter what show he's on, but I loved his protectiveness of Daisy and trying to comfort her as we get a little more Daniel backstory.

Ahem, may I suggest we try a throwback to season 1 and call it Skysa? (Fine, maybe I've just always liked the name Skye better than Daisy)

[Lantern7]

I'm expecting the entire team to walk off into the sunset in the finale . . .and smack into the Legends. Even if you don't factor in the stuff in the tease for next week, it still feels like AoS is copying LoT's playbook. The fights would be awesome, though . . . May vs. Sara, Mack vs. Mick, Daisy vs. Behrad and/or Zari, and Coulson and Ava trying to out-middle-manage each other.

Does Deke do anything where he doesn't deserve to be smacked? I know he's under a lot of stress, what with his existence tied into the estranged Fitz and Simmons "bumping lemons," but wouldn't he give Enoch the benefit of the doubt?

Damn, Mack got hammered in his soul. Is there any way that his existence can be salvaged after his parents were killed and replaced by robots? I will give him credit for not hesitating to end them.

Damn, the younger Malick was stupid. "Well, this girl has powers. Let me take random stuff from her, have it ejected into me, and not consider that my body can't handle the power." Dummy!

[swanpride]

...The only thing AoS and LoT have in common is that they are both doing time travel. That's it. LoT hasn't invented this concept. There are a chunk of time travel shows which are closer to AoS than LoT is.

Deke's existence is not tied to "bumping lemons". If that were the case he had vanished at the end of season 5. He himself was the one who brought the multiverse theory up.

[Llywela]

4 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Damn, Mack got hammered in his soul. Is there any way that his existence can be salvaged after his parents were killed and replaced by robots?

a) Deke's continued existence after the timeline he was born in got changed has already proved the multiverse theory, b) that doesn't apply to Mack anyway, since the deaths of his parents here has no bearing on his birth because he's already been born, his fake mother was telling Elena all about kid!Mack in this episode, plus he remembered this specific day in his childhood. His past has been changed beyond recognition, which takes us into multiverse territory, but his existence is unaffected.

I've decided that the biggest drawback of this season so far is how rushed everything is. With the time ship jumping so unpredictably and only a short time to spend in each time period, the characters constantly in a rush, there is precious little time to spare for meaningful character interactions, which the show always used to be really good at, and I miss that. Sousa being on board really drives that home, because the others all know each other so well anyway, but Sousa is completely new to the team and last week he didn't even know what year they all come from, they landed in 1973 and he assumed it was their home turf because no one had even bothered to tell him that much. Since then...has there been any kind of briefing at all to bring him properly up to speed? Does he even know that Coulson and Enoch are robots? Does he know that Deke is also a man out of time and that Elena is a fellow amputee? Has he been told anything meaningful at all or has it all been little snatches of information here and there, while on the go? May went from discovering her empathic sense with Simmons and Yoyo to everyone seeming to know and accept it, with apparently no wider discussion or questioning at all, just as there has been no real discussion of Yoyo's loss of her powers - still less any attempt to diagnose how that happened and explore if anything can be done about it. The characters just don't seem to be getting any downtime whatsoever, the standalone episodic plots are leaving no time at all for them to breathe, and I regret that, fun though the season is.