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

[bethy]

I'm beginning to feel like maybe the rest of the team isn't good enough for Deke. I love that whatever circumstance he finds himself in, he finds a way to survive and, honestly, thrive. Is he shady in that survival? Sometimes, yeah. But he has a good heart, and he's trying. 

Mack's attitude toward Deke, while exaggerated because of grief, is fairly typical of the everyone's dismissal of Deke. Plus, grieving isn't an excuse to be a total jackass to people who are trying to help or support you. I hope once the team is all back together Mack is a friend to Deke the way he was a friend to Fitz. That was my favorite Mack. 

[blackwing]

On 7/12/2020 at 10:05 AM, Llywela said:

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 didn't see anyone suggesting that Mack shouldn't have grieved for his parents.  I just don't think he needed to do it alone.  Deke is his friend and was more than willing to support him.  But Mack was an ass.  The least he could have done was at least talk to Deke.  But he ignored him and pretended like he didn't exist.  He refused to answer the door.  He refused to collect the food that Deke would leave at the door.  Clearly he needed to eat and could have used the food instead of letting it go to waste, but it was like he took extra steps to go out of his way to say to Deke that "I don't give a crap about you, just leave me alone".

So for 20 months Mack has had little contact with society?  He just sits in that living room building models?  I am surprised that nobody would have called the police on him.  The couple that lived there is gone for a long time and now there's this strange man that just is squatting in there?

Deke was like a dog that keeps coming back to his human no matter how badly the human has been treating him.  Poor Deke.

[swanpride]

Not for 20 months. 20 Months is the time the team jumped. That includes both his grieving period and him turning the Deke Squad into a proper SHIELD outfit. I grieved a few months.

[Llywela]

I don't think there is a time limit on grief. Everyone grieves differently. And as someone mentioned up-thread, Mack had a lot more weighing on him than just the murder of his parents.

I mean, I agree that Mack's reaction to his situation was ugly and that Deke didn't deserve to be treated that way when he was also stranded and wanted only to help. But there were posters up-thread claiming that he shouldn't have been grieving at all because they weren't really 'his' parents - my counter-argument is that they were absolutely his parents and he had the right to grieve for their loss.

[Mellowyellow]

Whilst it was hard to watch Mack treat Deke so coldly grief does peculiar things to people so I am willing to give him a pass. He even gave up on his younger self.

The situation really says more about Deke imo. He's super efficient and not only managed to survive but thrive whilst juggling Mack, Young Mack and his gang. He is incredibly loyal and despite his crafty ways (which are not necessarily bad) will have your back. All while remaining unwaveringly cheerful!

Edited July 14, 2020 by Mellowyellow

[Raja]

Mack was under the impression that the mission was accomplished when Coulson blew up the Hunter nursery. He retired just as Thor did. I thought that this season was made before Avengers Endgame but they are hitting similar themes as well as playing homage to other genre shows over the decades 

[swanpride]

Currently they are following the show itself...they went through the Agent Carter era, then Project inside (which dominated the end of season 1) and next week they will apparently cover season 2

Spoiler

 by going to afterlife.

If they continue in this vain, the monoliths would be the next step.

[Jack Shaftoe]

19 hours ago, blackwing said:

Deke was like a dog that keeps coming back to his human no matter how badly the human has been treating him.  Poor Deke.

Deke is a writer's pet who shouldn't have returned after his "death" in season 5. Half the time he is on screen I almost can hear the writers screaming "Why don't you love him yet?!? He is so adorable! And funny! And important!". And I am all "Nah, I am good". So yeah, Mack was a jerk but since it was to Deke, I personally couldn't care less because Deke is mostly a waste of screen time with a few good moments.

[blueray]

Deke has grew on me actually. But the whole thing with Mack made me wonder was there a chance that early in the writing process that it was suppose to be Fitz. They used to have a lot of scenes together and Mack helped him through his brain injury. Of course it was Fitz the story would be very different or he would have made a scottish rock band (which would have been awesome). 

[swanpride]

I adore Deke! Always have since he ended up in our time.

[chaifan]

There were so many plot holes it really kept me from enjoying the episode.  First, Mack abandoning Deke right at the beginning was a total asshat move.  At least Mack lived through the 80's and would know the history; how was Deke not totally lost initially?  Where did either of them get money from in the beginning?  Was that really Mack's parents' house?  If so, how/why was it sitting empty for 6 years?  If not, where did he get money to rent a house?  Why didn't either of them seek out Stoner?  Why didn't they go to 1982 SHIELD?  Why didn't Nathaniel age at all from the 70's timeline to 1982? 

I felt the episode was unnecessary.  Pure filler. 

[Raja]

15 minutes ago, chaifan said:

There were so many plot holes it really kept me from enjoying the episode.  First, Mack abandoning Deke right at the beginning was a total asshat move.  At least Mack lived through the 80's and would know the history; how was Deke not totally lost initially?  Where did either of them get money from in the beginning?  Was that really Mack's parents' house?  If so, how/why was it sitting empty for 6 years?  If not, where did he get money to rent a house?  Why didn't either of them seek out Stoner?  Why didn't they go to 1982 SHIELD?  Why didn't Nathaniel age at all from the 70's timeline to 1982? 

I felt the episode was unnecessary.  Pure filler. 

As the saying goes this was not Deke's first rodeo. And like before he had future knowledge and some 80s knowledge as in the mangled song lyrics from the framework game. But this time he was in his childhood home, the Lighthouse, which was stocked as an arc for humanity and abandoned, at least in the first timeline we saw.

[Gothish520]

On 7/14/2020 at 2:30 PM, swanpride said:

I adore Deke! Always have since he ended up in our time.

I've liked him from Day One and quickly grew to love him. Great character, and the fact that he's easy on the eyes doesn't hurt  😁 But this entire cast is pretty hot, lol.

[swanpride]

In hindsight, they REALLY missed an opportunity this episode...they should have had Deke following Mack in Lola and later put Coulson's mind into Lola.

What happened to Lola btw? Haven't seen her in ages....

[Orbert]

Good question.  We should've seen here in the cargo bay, when they made sure we saw the motorcycle that Mack took off in.

[VCRTracking]

Finding out Deke was checking up on young Mack made me feel the same emotion I had when when skinny Steve Rogers jumped on the grenade. No longer living in a hellish dystopia and being around family really brought out the best in Deke.

[Kel Varnsen]

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

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?  

Mack is a highly trained covert agent. Finding way to survive, including getting money, in an unfamiliar territory would totally be in his skill set. Hell he could have just have gone on the Biff Tannen route and made a bet on who would win the 1982 Super bowl.

On 7/10/2020 at 4:51 AM, Llywela said:

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).

Speaking of Mack's trauma I am super tired of his judgy guilt trip attitude anytime someone in Shield kills someone. I mean if he was born in 1982, he was probably in Shield for a long time. And not just in Nick Fury Shield but probably Alexander Pierce Shield. He probably took part or at least was familiar with some super sketchy shit that went down.

On 7/10/2020 at 7:31 PM, 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.

I think the geysers of blood especially from the murdered groupie were straight from the Evil Dead movies.

On 7/10/2020 at 9:47 PM, MisterGlass said:

Deke and Mack's clasped handshake had to be a Predator reference (NSFW language).  

I was disappeared that Deke didn't call out "you son of a bitch" when he saw Mack. 

On 7/12/2020 at 5:18 PM, Jack Shaftoe said:

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.

Well wasn't the whole time travel suits that Tony Stark invented in Endgame so that you could make changes to the past and then come back to your present (rather than coming back as a baby or an old man)? And he figured that out in like a 5 minute scene. So Fitz, Simmons, Deke and Enoch should be able to figure something out.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Mack is a highly trained covert agent. Finding way to survive, including getting money, in an unfamiliar territory would totally be in his skill set. Hell he could have just have gone on the Biff Tannen route and made a bet on who would win the 1982 Super bowl.

Speaking of Mack's trauma I am super tired of his judgy guilt trip attitude anytime someone in Shield kills someone. I mean if he was born in 1982, he was probably in Shield for a long time. And not just in Nick Fury Shield but probably Alexander Pierce Shield. He probably took part or at least was familiar with some super sketchy shit that went down.

 

Playing the Devil's Advocate while Framework May fit right in with Hydra when she was training Skye in our world they made crossing someone off was a very big deal and normally left to people, "Mission Specialist" like Grant Ward. Even if Mack was undercover for the Real S.H.I.E.L.D. we saw he was an engineer on a aircraft carrier when Hydra emerged.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Raja

[Jack Shaftoe]

8 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Speaking of Mack's trauma I am super tired of his judgy guilt trip attitude anytime someone in Shield kills someone. I mean if he was born in 1982, he was probably in Shield for a long time. And not just in Nick Fury Shield but probably Alexander Pierce Shield. He probably took part or at least was familiar with some super sketchy shit that went down.

We have seen Mack himself kill quite a few bad guys without any hesitation, so his tirades on the subject are hilariously hypocritical. Mack, Bobby and the other loyal agents had to take back control of an entire huge ship full of traitors, for example, back when HYDRA uprising happened and they killed a lot of enemies in order to achieve it. Mack even has a signature weapon, yet the show pretends he is totally against killing. It's downright bizarre.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Jack Shaftoe

[Kel Varnsen]

2 hours ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

We have seen Mack himself kill quite a few bad guys without any hesitation, so his tirades on the subject are hilariously hypocritical. Mack, Bobby and the other loyal agents had to take back control of an entire huge ship full of traitors, for example, back when HYDRA uprising happened and they killed a lot of enemies in order to achieve it. Mack even has a signature weapon, yet the show pretends he is totally against killing. It's downright bizarre.

Are you telling me that the shotgun axe is loaded with rubber bullets and has a dull blade?

I recently watched Captain America Winter Soldier and Nick Fury admits to hiring the mercenaries that took over the SHIELD ship. Which means he hired them knowing that SHIELD would send in Captain America and the Strike team and that some of those hostage takers would be killed. And Fury didn't give it a second thought.

[BaggythePanther]

On 7/14/2020 at 10:31 AM, blueray said:

Deke has grew on me actually. But the whole thing with Mack made me wonder was there a chance that early in the writing process that it was suppose to be Fitz. They used to have a lot of scenes together and Mack helped him through his brain injury. Of course it was Fitz the story would be very different or he would have made a scottish rock band (which would have been awesome). 

I’m curious about this too, because throughout the episode there were a few things that reminded me of the Mack/Fitz relationship. I was surprised that no one commented on the fact that by making the shotgun axe, Deke was following in his grandfather’s footsteps.

[tv echo]

Edited July 31, 2020 by tv echo

[Taryn74]

On 7/13/2020 at 1:12 PM, bethy said:

I'm beginning to feel like maybe the rest of the team isn't good enough for Deke. I love that whatever circumstance he finds himself in, he finds a way to survive and, honestly, thrive. Is he shady in that survival? Sometimes, yeah. But he has a good heart, and he's trying. 

I'm just now getting around to watching S7 (and probably would have given up on the show already if I didn't know this was the end so I can power through) and I totally agree with this. Everyone treats Deke like a major screwup who's just in the way all the time, and I really don't understand it. He handles himself just as well as pretty much anyone else on the team - better in some cases - and he is just constantly treated like the forgettable third cousin who pops in every once in a while to remind everyone he exists. It's baffling.

Being a child of the 80s, I wanted to love this episode so bad (my daughter has been looking forward to me getting to it) and the multitude of 80s pop culture shoutouts were awesome, but holy hell, plotwise this was a terrible episode. TERRIBLE. I just CAN'T with Mack needing almost two years to mourn the death of his parents. He's a grown ass man in charge of a national security team, not a 10 year old kid. If he had found out last episode that his parents had been replaced by the Chroms when he was a kid and everything he knew about his life was a lie, I could understand how that would shake him to his core, but not this. Get a grip, dude.

I also have to mention that looking up the episode on imdb to see who all the actors playing the extra characters were, I noticed that the girl Cricket was with (who commented on them doing Here I Go Again before their encore) was named Tawny. Gave me a good chuckle, especially since they didn't make a big deal about it during the episode (if they said her name at all) so I missed it. Heh.