S07.E07: The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D

[Orbert]

4 hours ago, paigow said:

 

Thank you!  I tried to figure out how to embed pictures, and eventually gave up.

[Llywela]

9 hours ago, blackwing said:

So he's spent 20 months just feeling sorry for himself and not caring about the team at all, and now he's just going to waltz back into his leadership position?  Screw that.  Someone had to take charge of the team while he was missing... whoever that is should be the leader.  I am assuming it's May.

The team time-skipped. Mack and Deke lived through those 20 months, but from the team's point of view it has only been a matter of hours, maybe a couple of days at the most, since they left them behind. So they aren't going to have any problem with Mack carrying on as leader because they haven't been managing missions without him, they are just picking up where they left off. And the pit stop in 1982 means that Mack has had time to deal with his grief and is now ready to take up the reins again without his trauma affecting the team at all, because they all skipped over it (except for Deke).

I feel kinda bad for Deke's squad, who believe they are SHIELD agents but aren't actually affiliated with the real SHIELD (1982 version thereof) in any way beyond squatting in an abandoned base. I'm assuming they will all be left behind after the next time jump, so I guess it remains to be seen what happens with them next week, if they are included in the mission or not.

[Jack Shaftoe]

Generally I don't mind episodes that are mostly about wacky hi-jinks - the season six episode in which Jemma and Daisy got high was pretty good, for example but this one just one wasn't funny. A robot kills a bunch of randos - why should I care since we were never going to see them again anyway?

13 hours ago, blackwing said:

I didn't mind Mack until this season, when he became self-serving and a bad leader.  I found myself not really caring about his grief journey, and his repeated brushing off of Deke really irritated me.  So he's spent 20 months just feeling sorry for himself and not caring about the team at all, and now he's just going to waltz back into his leadership position?  Screw that.  Someone had to take charge of the team while he was missing... whoever that is should be the leader. 

Honestly, It feels like Simmons has been leading a lot more than Mack has this season. But the show has always had a problem with excusing the emotional decisions made by the team leaders, regardless if they happen to be Coulson, Mack or whoever. And of course, in addition to the bad decisions that pay off by dumb luck most of the time, SHIELD leaders tend to give hypocritical speeches about duty always coming first which makes them look even more incompetent. I like both Coulson and Mack much more when they aren't in charge.

[swanpride]

Honestly, I don't understand the criticism towards Mack....other than him chewing out Deke over killing Malick when it was at a point at which the act might clean up the timeline. On the other hand….it has always bitten them into the a... whenever they did something out of revenge instead of duty.

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, swanpride said:

Honestly, I don't understand the criticism towards Mack....other than him chewing out Deke over killing Malick when it was at a point at which the act might clean up the timeline. On the other hand….it has always bitten them into the a... whenever they did something out of revenge instead of duty.

When it comes down to it, I think he's a pretty selfish person who has demonstrated that he's mostly concerned only about himself.  I feel like he has treated Yo Yo pretty poorly.  Yo Yo got her arms cut off by Ruby, and Mack didn't seem to have enough compassion for her, to the point when she killed Ruby to stop her from turning into the Destroyer of Worlds (and partly out of revenge), he got really really angry with her.  Then when he became Director, he dumped her.  And promptly got jealous when she got together with a new agent.

Above all, his actions this season have been appalling and hypocritical.  He chews out Deke for killing Freddy Malick.  But has no qualms jeopardizing the entire mission because he wanted to save his "parents".  His actions led to the direct exposure of the team and compromised the mission.  His parents turned out to be Chronicoms.  He was in mourning for them but instead of recognizing that his friend is there for him, he pushes Deke away.  For 20 months, Deke has been trying, and he has financially helped out 10 year old Mack, his brother, and his uncle.

Mack is just a selfish and ungrateful ass.  He doesn't deserve any of them, but especially not Deke.  

[sinkwriter]

I love Mack, I adore his friendship with Fitz most especially, but I was really annoyed by how no characters seemed to care about Deke being stuck in the 80's. It was all, "Mack's alive..." and "We'll bring him back, he'll be okay" and not one word about bringing Deke back too. Even when they showed up in the base, obviously Yo-Yo would hug Mack, but not one person asked Deke if he was okay too. The closest we got was May saying hi to him and Coulson, but even she didn't ask him how he was after almost 2 years being away. I was like, come on... I know he's supposed to be the comic relief punching bag of the team, but what makes the show is that the characters are still human and have emotions and deep down they give a shit about one another and we get to see that. So to not see anyone give a shit about Deke really bugged me.

Also, when the F*** are we going to see Fitz again??? (I know the actor was off making a movie, but come on! This has to be a shortened final season, right? So, what, is he going to show up for one freaking episode and that's it? Unacceptable!) I really do miss him. Also, it makes me wonder, if Jemma was altered in order to do what she has to do, then what did they have to alter in Fitz?

[swanpride]

Marvel just released a feature in which Ian took part too, so I guess we are getting close to Fitz turning up.

I am also annoyed about the way Deke is constantly treated, but that is more a team thing and less a Mack thing specifically.

[Enigma X]

5 hours ago, sinkwriter said:

I love Mack, I adore his friendship with Fitz most especially, but I was really annoyed by how no characters seemed to care about Deke being stuck in the 80's. It was all, "Mack's alive..." and "We'll bring him back, he'll be okay" and not one word about bringing Deke back too. Even when they showed up in the base, obviously Yo-Yo would hug Mack, but not one person asked Deke if he was okay too. The closest we got was May saying hi to him and Coulson, but even she didn't ask him how he was after almost 2 years being away. I was like, come on... I know he's supposed to be the comic relief punching bag of the team, but what makes the show is that the characters are still human and have emotions and deep down they give a shit about one another and we get to see that. So to not see anyone give a shit about Deke really bugged me.

Also, when the F*** are we going to see Fitz again??? (I know the actor was off making a movie, but come on! This has to be a shortened final season, right? So, what, is he going to show up for one freaking episode and that's it? Unacceptable!) I really do miss him. Also, it makes me wonder, if Jemma was altered in order to do what she has to do, then what did they have to alter in Fitz?

Yeah. Mack, Fitz, and Jemma are my favorite characters.

[Terrafamilia]

The murderbots may have had a passing resemblance to Johnny 5 but their murderous behavior, and lasers!, were straight out of Chopping Mall.

[AKA...CJ86]

35 minutes ago, Terrafamilia said:

The murderbots may have had a passing resemblance to Johnny 5 but their murderous behavior, and lasers!, were straight out of Chopping Mall.

Thank you, yes, I was trying to remember the name, that's exactly what it was. Now off to binge that movie too.

Finally caught up with the season, and just like yesterday's post asking for a Sousa/Daisy spinoff, Disney, I'm also going to need a Deke Squad spinoff, but another appearance or two or they stay until the end of the season will suffice. Okay, thank you!

For me anyways, this season really made up for the prevous two. I was in the camp that didn't appreciate the last couple seasons.

[MisterGlass]

Was it a filler episode? Yes.  Did I laugh a lot?  Yes.  This was somebody's gleeful homage to 80's movies, and I can appreciate that.  There were so many references.  Deke and Mack's clasped handshake had to be a Predator reference (NSFW language).  Even the way it was shot, with people standing around ready to get mowed down by the robots, was so of the era.

Agree that the Max Headroom look was Phil's idea.

Mack was my favorite character addition after the show started to retool, and I still like him a lot, but the writing for him has occasionally suffered from main character drama syndrome.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I feel like no one was worried about Deke because they know he can ace being stuck in the past, plucky and shameless little plagiarist that he is.  And he committed, guyliner and all.

 

[kickingnames]

I never realized how badly I need to see Jeff Ward in something with James Roday and Dulé Hill until “Don’t You Forget About Me” started. OMG I loved that so much. Deke has really come into his own.
I may not have loved the overall episode as much, but oh man the 80s episodes were on point. That was pretty fantastic.

[Gothish520]

LOVED IT. 

Deke as an 80s pop star was everything. Nailed it. Forgot what a great song "Don't You Forget About Me" is, even if the movie it comes from seems melodramatic now.

Coulson as Max Headroom was awesome. 

When the robot killed the poor tech guy, I was shocked. WTF, I thought, that is way too dark and gory for AoS! Then it finally dawned on me that they were going the slasher movie route. Still too much blood for my taste, but pretty clever.

Deke was the All-Star this episode. Mack's gearing-up montage was funny. Glad he got back on track, because he was pretty insufferable up until then.

Edited July 11, 2020 by Gothish520

[swanpride]

I have finally figured out what bothered me about the episode: So far, AoS has explained some of the more whacky episodes through the perspective. And I guess that they tried the same here by having some sort of frame story in which Deke explains what happened to May. But: Once the actual episode started, we actually delved into Mack's PoV, not Deke. We discovered through Mack's eyes what Deke had been up to. Which renders the first scene when Deke is telling his "unbelievable story" completely irrelevant. They didn't even tie back to it towards the end of the episode. And the "explanation" that the slasher aesthetic might be the result of Deke remembering the whole thing a little bit more wacky than it actually was, well, that one is just gone, too, as a result.

[Raja]

7 hours ago, swanpride said:

I have finally figured out what bothered me about the episode: So far, AoS has explained some of the more whacky episodes through the perspective. And I guess that they tried the same here by having some sort of frame story in which Deke explains what happened to May. But: Once the actual episode started, we actually delved into Mack's PoV, not Deke. We discovered through Mack's eyes what Deke had been up to. Which renders the first scene when Deke is telling his "unbelievable story" completely irrelevant. They didn't even tie back to it towards the end of the episode. And the "explanation" that the slasher aesthetic might be the result of Deke remembering the whole thing a little bit more wacky than it actually was, well, that one is just gone, too, as a result.

With May debriefing Deke at the beginning I was expecting that this was the end of Mack, I had previously thought he is the team member least likely to survive the season. Seeing as when Feige puts another S.H.I.E.L.D. Director in place there are no continuity issue, assuming the fix the mess they made when trying to guess the Infinity War plot.

 

With the two appearances and the length of the song I think they just needed the time to fit commercial space schedule

[swanpride]

Nah, I expect him and Elena settling down at the end of the season, together with Flint.

[The Ringo Kidd]

I absolutely loved this episode. The ‘80s references were great. The only thing they missed?

Daisy dressed as Madonna in “Desperately Seeking Deke!”

That would have been awesome.

[foxfreakinmulder]

I didn't really care for this episode. It seemed more like a Nickelodeon episode to me, minus the buckets of blood. 

 Mack having a 20 month self pity party was over the top. Yes, I know his parents were killed and taken over by Chromicons which he had to kill and of course you are mourning the death of your parents but for a trained agent to sit in a chair and drink beer everyday for 20 months and feel sorry for himself was just bad writing. And was that supposed to be his parents house he was staying at? Because the date of death on their tome stone was 1976 and they were in 1982 so we're to believe that house sat empty for 6 years? I think it would've been a bank foreclosure because more then likely they were still making payments on it, or sold by family because who could afford to make payments and not live there?

And why did I get the feeling Mack blamed Deke for his parents death when he yelled at him for not following command and killing Malick which caused a wave. He was really awful to Deke, he let his groceries sit out on the front porch even though Mack had to go to the store and buy food and beer he was obviously eating because he wasn't skin and bones but he wanted nothing from Deke. 

I also didn't buy Deke knowing songs from the 80's when he didn't have the internet to look them up because he mentioned to Mack that it was hard tracking him down without it.  I guess he could've looked them up when he got here from the future but again it's like something you'd see on a Nickelodeon time travel show. I thought when he got off the stage he looked a little like Ben Stiller from Zoolander, lol. 

Are we to believe these people couldn't back up away from the robots saw arm? I know the one girl was grabbed by the robot but Cricket just stood there.

For me Deke was the best part of this episode and the Deke squad was so silly for a show not labeled a comedy. I don't know what happened this episode but I hope they get back on track. 

  

[Enigma X]

The major problem I am having with the Mack parents being killed storyline is that if this is an alternate universe, the parents who raised "our" Mack have not been killed. At least not by Chronicons. Mack cannot still have memories past 10-years-old of his parents, not have new memories of his life after their deaths, and have them have died when he was 10 all at the same time. I hate time travel and parrallel universes because it gives writers the agency to be sloppy with world building and the rules within that world.

Edited July 11, 2020 by Enigma X

[blueray]

Our Mack is from a different timeline (well all the main cast is) where his parents didn't die when he was a kid. His memories will remain the same as it already happened.  As they keep traveling to the future more and more has changed as the events that they did in this timeline happened but only in this one (not the one they came from).  The show has been consistent with this as it is the same thing that happened to Deke.  He is from the future where earth was split in half and grew up under Kree control.  He traveled back with the group and they stopped the accident that caused the splitting from happening in the first place. Therefore Deke's past didn't happen.  He obviously didn't disappear and has memories for his life before meeting the AoS crew. This is because he left his timeline (which still happened to him) and is now living in an alternate one which is his present.

[sinkwriter]

17 hours ago, kickingnames said:

I never realized how badly I need to see Jeff Ward in something with James Roday and Dulé Hill until “Don’t You Forget About Me” started.

Now there's a thought!  LOL. ❤️ 

[Enigma X]

1 hour ago, blueray said:

Our Mack is from a different timeline (well all the main cast is) where his parents didn't die when he was a kid. His memories will remain the same as it already happened.  As they keep traveling to the future more and more has changed as the events that they did in this timeline happened but only in this one (not the one they came from).  The show has been consistent with this as it is the same thing that happened to Deke.  He is from the future where earth was split in half and grew up under Kree control.  He traveled back with the group and they stopped the accident that caused the splitting from happening in the first place. Therefore Deke's past didn't happen.  He obviously didn't disappear and has memories for his life before meeting the AoS crew. This is because he left his timeline (which still happened to him) and is now living in an alternate one which is his present.

I understand this but his grieving process is as if these are his parents. I understand a profound level of sadness but not his Thorlike “my planet is wiped out” sad. 
 

with that said, what timeline are the Chronicons trying to invade? All of them?

[Raja]

12 minutes ago, Enigma X said:

I understand this but his grieving process is as if these are his parents. I understand a profound level of sadness but not his Thorlike “my planet is wiped out” sad. 
 

with that said, what timeline are the Chronicons trying to invade? All of them?

As Teal'C of Stargate said only my reality counts. Sibyl is here she fights for here as does S.H.I.E.L.D  no matter what happens in other timelines 

[Enigma X]

3 minutes ago, Raja said:

As Teal'C of Stargate said only my reality counts. Sibyl is here she fights for here as does S.H.I.E.L.D  no matter what happens in other timelines 

I am not disputing that.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Raja said:

As Teal'C of Stargate said only my reality counts. Sibyl is here she fights for here as does S.H.I.E.L.D  no matter what happens in other timelines 

That raises an interesting question. If the Chronicoms caused the timeline to split would it have been better for the team to just let them go? They’re now fighting to save a timeline that isn’t their reality. 

[paigow]

If time strands are an interconnected web then at some points, this current timeline will join up with timeline!prime and change it.

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, paigow said:

If time strands are an interconnected web then at some points, this current timeline will join up with timeline!prime and change it.

That wouldn’t be consistent with what Marvel has established so far. 

[blueray]

1 hour ago, Enigma X said:

I understand this but his grieving process is as if these are his parents. I understand a profound level of sadness but not his Thorlike “my planet is wiped out” sad. 
 

with that said, what timeline are the Chronicons trying to invade? All of them?

He was upset that this version of his self (and his brother) won't have his parents and maybe blames himself for this. That being said, I agree it was a bit a extreme but Mack has been through a lot in the past few years so maybe that didn't help.

[Enigma X]

11 minutes ago, blueray said:

He was upset that this version of his self (and his brother) won't have his parents and maybe blames himself for this. That being said, I agree it was a bit a extreme but Mack has been through a lot in the past few years so maybe that didn't help.

Mack is one of my favorite characters, but to me the point that he is grieving for a version of himself in an alternate timeline (other than a passing mention by Deke) just didn't ring through for me.

[Gothish520]

6 minutes ago, Enigma X said:

Mack is one of my favorite characters, but to me the point that he is grieving for a version of himself in an alternate timeline (other than a passing mention by Deke) just didn't ring through for me.

I think he's just grieving as if he lost his parents right now, regardless of timeline. 

[paigow]

2 hours ago, Dani said:

That wouldn’t be consistent with what Marvel has established so far. 

What was that blue stuff Sybil showed Coulson before the explosion? How she sees the future...so the timelines must share multiple common connection points.

 

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, paigow said:

What was that blue stuff Sybil showed Coulson before the explosion? How she sees the future...so the timelines must share multiple common connection points.

 

I don’t think that is supposed to be different timelines but possible outcomes of the current timeline. My main point is the marvel has explicitly stated that you can’t change your own past so I’m assuming that AOS works the same. Otherwise Deke could not exist.

[marykat71702]

On 7/8/2020 at 10:35 PM, cdnalor said:

So Mack was too depressed to keep his beard trimmed, but he could keep shaving his head?  I know I'm being nit-picky but these are the kind of things I notice in shows (sorry).

 

I noticed that too

[Raja]

On 7/8/2020 at 8:35 PM, cdnalor said:

Well, that was kind of a fun episode.  I was a bit shocked by the gruesome deaths of Cricket and his girl, given the light-hearted tone of parts of this episode, until I realised it was an homage to the slasher films of the 80's (I guess?)

It seems odd that Mack could just move into his parents' home like that but we can assume that Deke took care of the details when he started making money.  So Mack was too depressed to keep his beard trimmed, but he could keep shaving his head?  I know I'm being nit-picky but these are the kind of things I notice in shows (sorry).

 

Well if you don't keep shaving then you have to go through an itchy phase

[paigow]

4 hours ago, Dani said:

I don’t think that is supposed to be different timelines but possible outcomes of the current timeline. My main point is the marvel has explicitly stated that you can’t change your own past

Unless you are Steve Rogers

[swanpride]

Marvel has established that you can't change your own past, but they have also established that you CAN travelled back into the past and make small changes without changing the whole timeline. I am sure they will explore this question further in the Loki TV show.  

[Quark]

This episode was a hoot!

[Raja]

On 7/9/2020 at 4:38 PM, blackwing said:

 

I agree.  I was disappointed by this episode.  It really felt like filler.  I spent most of the episode wondering how Mack was surviving.  He doesn't appear to have had a job so where did he get the money to buy food?  Deke dropped off groceries and he wouldn't take them.  Where did Deke get the money?  From gigs of his cover band?  Or was there just some money saved in the Shield base?

I didn't mind Mack until this season, when he became self-serving and a bad leader.  I found myself not really caring about his grief journey, and his repeated brushing off of Deke really irritated me.  So he's spent 20 months just feeling sorry for himself and not caring about the team at all, and now he's just going to waltz back into his leadership position?  Screw that.  Someone had to take charge of the team while he was missing... whoever that is should be the leader.  I am assuming it's May.

I would go with the theory that the Lighthouse was home and Deke knew where General Stoner stashed all the good stuff in the designed lifeboat. He just had to figure out what was valuable in 1982. So with the Director stuck in depression Agent Shaw stepped up big time.  As for the leader Jemma is the mission leader the rest are just following along with the Director trying to enforce he was in charge as with activating Coulson and all LMD decisions go through him.. So far only Daisy would directly confront Mack, we will see how the Chief Sousa story plays out as he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. regional Chief in his day

On 7/9/2020 at 5:19 PM, Terrafamilia said:

Heh, even Deke's idea for a rock band as cover for secret agents wasn't original.

My first thought when he mentioned travel was Bill Cosby and Robert Culp in I Spy.

[Llywela]

The only decision the team had to make without Mack was the decision to go looking for him as soon as they landed after the time-skip, instead of going on the hunt for Chronicom activity. It was no more than a few hours for them. It was only a full 20 months for Mack and Deke.

I'm surprised to see posters here who don't think Mack should have grieved for his parents. I mean, really? They were his parents. Parents who should be alive and well for him to return home to, but now won't be, because their death created an alternate timeline in which he grew up an orphan. Their deaths were real, and so was his grief. I've said before, I honestly don't see how the team can return to a timeline that looks anything like their own, after all this. For all their efforts to preserve history as they knew it, too much has been changed now, for Mack in particular. His entire personal history has been overwritten and he is now bouncing forward through time in a universe in which his parents were murdered when he was a small child, with no way back. And if changes made in the past didn't affect the world in the present, there would be no need for them to go chasing through time after the Chronicoms in the first place.

[Raja]

9 minutes ago, Llywela said:

The only decision the team had to make without Mack was the decision to go looking for him as soon as they landed after the time-skip, instead of going on the hunt for Chronicom activity. It was no more than a few hours for them. It was only a full 20 months for Mack and Deke.

I'm surprised to see posters here who don't think Mack should have grieved for his parents. I mean, really? They were his parents. Parents who should be alive and well for him to return home to, but now won't be, because their death created an alternate timeline in which he grew up an orphan. Their deaths were real, and so was his grief. I've said before, I honestly don't see how the team can return to a timeline that looks anything like their own, after all this. For all their efforts to preserve history as they knew it, too much has been changed now, for Mack in particular. His entire personal history has been overwritten and he is now bouncing forward through time in a universe in which his parents were murdered when he was a small child, with no way back. And if changes made in the past didn't affect the world in the present, there would be no need for them to go chasing through time after the Chronicoms in the first place.

"The need" would be that they are in the new timeline and neither they or Sibyl are willing to surrender their people of that new timeline to the enemy

[Enigma X]

It is not that Mack grieved for "his" parents. To me the scenes as written are unclear that these were not his parents but a version of them from another timeline.

[Llywela]

1 hour ago, Enigma X said:

It is not that Mack grieved for "his" parents. To me the scenes as written are unclear that these were not his parents but a version of them from another timeline.

They were his parents. Not a version of them from another timeline. They were his parents. It was their deaths that created another timeline. Their deaths have sent him hurtling down the wrong trouser leg of time, as Terry Pratchett would have put it, have trapped him in a timeline in which his parents died when he was a small child, while for our Mack (who we know left his parents alive and well in the 'present' when he left it because he talked about taking Elena to meet them), that loss is brand new and devastating - and permanent, because as things stand there is no way back to the original timeline, history has been changed. Like I said, if they could get back to the original timeline, as if none of this mucking about with history had ever happened, there would be no point to them chasing around after the Chronicoms in the first place, but that isn't what's happening here, history is being changed and the team is moving forward in time in that altered timeline. In which Mack has just lost his parents and has the right to grieve for them.

[Enigma X]

@Llywela Thanks and got it. 

This is why I hate time travel and alternate universes though. Not for me and that is okay.

[Jack Shaftoe]

5 hours ago, Llywela said:

I've said before, I honestly don't see how the team can return to a timeline that looks anything like their own, after all this.

Through the miracles of plot contrivance, the way 99% of all time travel plots are resolved. I will eat my hat if they don't find a way to return to their own timeline and probably resurrect Coulson to boot because why not.

[snarktini]

11 hours ago, Llywela said:

The only decision the team had to make without Mack was the decision to go looking for him as soon as they landed after the time-skip, instead of going on the hunt for Chronicom activity. It was no more than a few hours for them. It was only a full 20 months for Mack and Deke.

I'm surprised to see posters here who don't think Mack should have grieved for his parents. I mean, really? They were his parents. Parents who should be alive and well for him to return home to, but now won't be, because their death created an alternate timeline in which he grew up an orphan. Their deaths were real, and so was his grief. I've said before, I honestly don't see how the team can return to a timeline that looks anything like their own, after all this. For all their efforts to preserve history as they knew it, too much has been changed now, for Mack in particular. His entire personal history has been overwritten and he is now bouncing forward through time in a universe in which his parents were murdered when he was a small child, with no way back. And if changes made in the past didn't affect the world in the present, there would be no need for them to go chasing through time after the Chronicoms in the first place.

Right. And beyond grieving his parents I think Mack is grieving everything. He's disillusioned with SHIELD and their mission. He's tired of the responsibility and people dying on his watch. He's angry at his team for not following orders (and maybe with himself for following or not following any particular order). He's upset that their time meddling has made things worse -- earlier interventions pushed the chronicoms forward in time, they then target and kill his parents because of Mack. If it weren't for his work, his family might still be alive. And then Mack had to personally destroy them. While he didn't kill his actual parents, it must really mess with your head to be bonding with your parents in the past then find out they are fakes and you have to murder them in hand-to-hand combat. He kicked NotMom out of the plane! Every move the team has made has further messed up the time stream, and really not fixed anything. That is weighing on him.

Question 1: Why/when did the Chronicoms kill Mack's parents to begin with? On the plane, NotDad said the real parents been gone for awhile. I assumed that meant well before yesterday's kidnapping. Was it always to lead to this moment or to entrap Mack in some way?

Question 2: How did Deke explain to the Uncle and Little Mack why he visited and helped them financially? Did I miss that explanation?

 

Edited July 13, 2020 by snarktini

[Raja]

11 minutes ago, snarktini said:

 

Question 1: Why/when did the Chronicoms kill Mack's parents to begin with? On the plane, NotDad said the real parents been gone for awhile. I assumed that meant well before yesterday's kidnapping. Was it always to lead to this moment or to entrap Mack in some way?

Question 2: How did Deke explain to the Uncle and Little Mack why he visited and helped them financially? Did I miss that explanation?

 

While the mind swipe seems to be done without permanent damage since Fitzsimmons survived it in season 6 the Chronicoms methods of getting a real face kills. Sibyl just set them up as sleeper agents as one of her back up plans.

I can't recall an explanation  for Mack's uncle to just accept Deke showing up with the cover story I guess as a friend of his missing brother and sister. I would just accept that working people is a big part of Agent Shaw's skill set. The prevailing opinion is that he found four random people with usable skills and convinced them that he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. recruiter and team leader

[paigow]

22 hours ago, swanpride said:

Marvel has established that you can't change your own past, but they have also established that you CAN travelled back into the past and make small changes without changing the whole timeline. I am sure they will explore this question further in the Loki TV show.  

If old Steve Rogers never jumped back to the post-endgame timeline, there would not be a  Falcon & Winter Soldier spin off as we know it...Thanos destroyed the shield for that timeline going forward...Old Rogers gives Wilson a shiny new shield. Yes, Bucky and Sam might have naturally become crime fighting partners in 2020 and asked Shuri to make one, but Rogers made a special trip to the future and made sure they teamed up...

[Jediknight]

4 hours ago, Raja said:

I can't recall an explanation  for Mack's uncle to just accept Deke showing up with the cover story I guess as a friend of his missing brother and sister. I would just accept that working people is a big part of Agent Shaw's skill set. The prevailing opinion is that he found four random people with usable skills and convinced them that he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. recruiter and team leader

Yeah, Deke's shown to get a lot better at being an agent since he wound up in present day.  He did have the tech company, and fooled multiple people.  Deke's attitude also helps him, he's gotten naturally likeable, so people are more likely to begin trusting him.  The guy charmed Snowflake, and she was trying to kill him.

And as shown in this episode, he really is a good leader.  He got pissed at Mack for insulting the Deke Squad, he didn't care that Mack insulted him, but had a problem with Mack insulting his team.  And at the end when the Chang Gang was down and thought they sucked, he gave them a pep talk, and reassured them that they were important.

[swanpride]

Deke is basically a con man. That is a skill he developed to survive. But he is a con man who means well nowadays.

[Mellowyellow]

On 7/9/2020 at 5:21 PM, swanpride said:

On the upside: No Sousa. and no, that is not a dig against Sousa, quite the opposite. His actor is not a regular this season, so if he keeps turning up, it is very likely that the character won't make it to the end. Less Sousa now means more Sousa down the line.

Omg me too!!!!! I love that his character joined the team this season but I looked at the actor's episode count and got very nervous. I was cheering when he was nowhere to be seen today!!!

***

Deke is a survivor! I love that he lands on his feet anywhere. It makes great sense for his character considering the tough world he was born and raised in.