S02.E06: A Fractured House

[Linderhill]

 

One very shallow complaint--she should have stayed brunette. Her hair bleached to that brassy I'm-not-meant-to-be-blonde shade.

That's kind of funny since I hardly recognized her when she was brunette.  I always remember the actor from Supernatural as Jess who was very blonde and she was blonde in Friday Night Lights also.  Every time I see her as a brunette I think it looks fake (the Wonder Woman look was the worst).  I think the dishwater blonde is close to her actual hair color.

[Guest Accused Dingo]

Re; Wards escape. Just about every cop show has this scene where they "let" the bad guy escape. I know this isn't a cop show but it really isn't that much of a leap for for SHIELD agents or even thatt army guy who has been chasing them and is now suddenly their friend to play dead and let Ward think he has gotten away with a tracker on him.

I am explaining myself badly but there are three options i can see. 1. Ward escapes and all hell breaks loose. 2. Coulson lets him escape to find out what he knows for bigger picture issues. 3. Ward is right about his brother and he manipulating everything including the escape.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Accused Dingo

[MSquared]

I have really been enjoying this season.  I loved Tim DeKay...even with the hard time of trying to figure out who is the Ward brother telling the truth.  He's played a creep before (loooong time ago on SeaQuest 2032 but what makes it more fun is the good guy he's been on White Collar for the past few years.

 

I agree with those who think Coulson knows exactly what he was doing with Ward's restraints, now that I see those opinions.  Especially taking into account his vociferous "You will never be a part of this team!" line from earlier.  Ward's an asset, a psycho one, but one that Coulson will use if needed.  

 

And the Avengers scene?  Is it May yet? 

[Tryangle]

A good episode sandwiched between an all-too-brief Agent Carter promo and a super-cool Avengers 2 promo.

 

It was a good evening.

 

Jemma is freaking ticked off. She stood in front of Skye to cut Ward's hopeful glances off, and told him point blank she's going to kill him next time she sees him. Perhaps they need to get *her* into field work, not just Skye.

[Izeinwinter]

The bombs Hydra were throwing around are one of the most perfect assassins tools I have ever encountered in fiction. Doesn't look like an obvious weapon, small enough to be hidden nearly everywhere, absolutely and nearly instantly lethal, extremely quiet, and it  leaves no body behind. 

 

As a tool of discreet murder? Perfect. For putting on a show in guarded building? Errhhh.... what?  

[Spartan Girl]

Here's hoping that Simmons gets to kill Ward at the end of the season!  Sucks that he escaped but at least Coulson got to call him out on being a delusional son of a bitch.  Which he is.

 

And I too loved the Ultron scene.  The Avengers know how to party!

[Tarasme]

Very very good. My crazy life of late has allowed me precious few tv hours and I'm glad I used my one last night to watch this.

* Glad to see pretty much everyone last night; the SHIELD under players were represented, I didn't miss the omission of bad guys, and the A plot provided an opportunity to give a good balance to the team dynamic (not too much Skye, not too much "please kill me if I go bananas/postal" Coulson, great moments for all, etc.).

* Simmons: Henstridge is killin' it and has some great material. How horrible to know that the person to whom you were so close that you finished his sentences can now literally not function with you around. And that he can't understand that fact and therefore can't comprehend why you would leave him. Misery. That character must be spending at least part of her nights balled up in a fetal position in the corner, crying her eyes out.

* Mockingbird: such a great job by AP and I liked the interaction with Hunter. They had personal problems, currently they're stuck working together, and they appear to be putting some of that angst behind them. There's some childishness, yep, but both of them seem to be good hearted rather than vicious.

*Wards: glad that they're moving GW's story line and nice to see his back story become his right now story. I really desire for there to be something other than mustache twirling bad guy to his character. It would be cool if tPtB can explore what evil is (compare to Christian's speech about the nature's of both SHIELD and HYDRA- SHIELD= good because they protect, HYDRA= bad because, well, world domination) through Grant. Is evil a function of selfishness? Does evil have to want to hurt/destroy/dominate people or can someone be evil just because they're completely and only self-interested?

*Coulson, Skye, Skye-Daddy, Raina, Whitehall, etc.- glad their B plot got less time but still remarked upon this week. Nice stinger at the end to focus us for next time. Good pacing team!

AVENGERS scene: AHhhhhh! So! Good!

"Also really dug the Ultron preview, the 'Avengers in a beer commercial' was fa-reaking awesome! As others said, loved the moment Cap budged Mjolnir! Ha!

But what the fuck was Ultron doing in their living room?"

I was confused about this as well, but, after several viewings, I think we're going to find that the final print shows Ultron in the living room to be fancy editing by trailer monkeys. It doesn't make sense that everybody's partying in Stark luxury (assumed it was Tony's pad) to be roused by a lecturing half melty Ultron. Also, I wonder if the sound inflicted on them has anything to do with the Scarlet Witch? Her screaming at the end seemed to be banshee like. I'm not really familiar with that character; any chance that's part of her skill set?

[Jodithgrace]

It's kind of a trope in television and movies that politicians are evil. So, it would have been a nice twist if Senator Ward had turned out to be the one telling the truth. I think that  Grant's murderous escape is intended to lead us to think that is the case. However, I don't believe it.

When I saw those handcuffs, I was shocked. Handcuffs? Agents like Ward and May laugh at handcuffs. They have shown much more sophisticated restraints in previous episodes, haven't they? I think that Ward is being primed for escape, though I'm not sure to what purpose.

 

I got a kick out of Coulson's Grumpy Gat coffee mug. Those are the kind of Whedon-like details which make this show enjoyable for me.

 

Fitz and Simmons..so sad and beautifully played.

 

Terrific episode.

[Chicago Redshirt]

Sorry, but those bombs they used in the UN attack were stupid. So you throw them at someone and they cause someone to disintegrate, killing them.

And this is a superior weapon to a gun...how exactly? And they have a pretty limited amount, so of course when you have a SHIELD agent helpless and up close and you have a knife handy, you...use another disintegrator bomb.

 

The ways in which a disintegrator bomb is better than a gun or other conventional weapon depend on what your objectives are.

 

But generally, off-the-top, I would say the following

1. It's possible to survive one or several gunshots, even at close range. Not so much with the disintegrator bombs

2. Everyone knows what a gun is so it's an obvious threat. Again, the disintegrator bombs are not anywhere close.

3. A gun leaves various forensic evidence that even local law enforcement might be able to trace back to you. Disintegrator bombs don't. The only reason Our Heroes were able to track down information had to do with Bobbi having been undercover, some lucky guesswork that it was probably the handiwork of a suspected Hydra weaponmaster, and that weaponmaster thinking with his li'l Hydra and giving up some of the deets of what he was up to. Not that I can blame him, because like whoa. 

4. Gunning someone down, or even several someones, in this day and age is all-too-commonplace. To commit a real act of terror -- which is what Hydra is about, really -- you have to up your game. Literally disintegrating people accomplishes the terror part far better.

[Traveller519]

I think they were only planning to release the trailer yesterday, but when it got leaked last night we got the hammer lifting scene they showed at Comic Con in addition to the the mayhem features of the trailer. Fantastic! Thanks leaks!

 

However, I was hoping for some clarification in the apartment scenes. We know the big players are there. Tony, Cap, Thor, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Maria Hill, and Rhodesy. But there's one other brunette female character in a Blue dress. In the trailer scene in the apartment, they show her in a panorama and she's standing sort of behind Thor, but too far away to make out who it is. In this feature there's an overhead shot and she's sitting in a chair next to Thor, but her hair's covering her face. Who is that, Marvel????

 

Jane Foster? Lady Sif? Mockingbird? May? Skye? (Of course Sky will be in Avengers 2. She must be in every scene, and in the scene's she's not in, all the other characters will be asking, "Where's Skye?")

[Linderhill]

 

Her screaming at the end seemed to be banshee like. I'm not really familiar with that character; any chance that's part of her skill set?

Not if they go at all by her canon super (mutant powers).  Her power is to "hex" the probabilities, to alter reality, at least that's what it was way, way back when I read the Avengers books.  I'm not sure how they'll work that in the movie.  (Its got to be better than what Fox did in X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Despite the fact that Pietro and Wanda are twins, they showed her as a little girl and he was even more of a douche than he ever was in the comic books -- even when he was in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.)

 

eta:  the evil politician trope.  Yes, I believe that the senator is lying and that Grant is lying.  But then I'm very cynical when it comes to politicians in real life.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Linderhill

[Texasmom1970]

Loved the scene where Bobbi asked May if she still kept in touch with ex. The are you shitting me look May gave her was priceless.

[FurryFury]

An OK episode, but not great. 

 

Liked:

- The Ward plot, for the most part. It's nice he's still pretty ambiguous (it's unclear if his brother was lying or him), still creepy (every time he mentions Skye's name I have goosebumps) and that the show resisted the obvious route of having SHIELD go on some mission with him - that would have been way too stupid. Now he's in the open and will probably be captured by Skye's daddy eventually (or will just go to him directly).

- Coulson's speech about Ward an everyone else's reactions. No easy redemption. Skye didn't even look conflicted at the end. Warms my heart to see that at least one show treats a main character killing and trying to kill other characters like an unforgivable thing it is.

- May's facial reactions continue to be the best. And I was totally empathizing with her being over Hunter's ramblings about Bobbi.

- Talbot's still alive! I was worried there for a second. And the SHIELD/government feud seems over, for the time being.

- I love that Fitz and Simmons are finally becoming their own characters and that their relationship has been fractured. I also love that the "building tech gizmos" scenes have been eliminated almost completely, I never cared for them.

 

Not so nice:

- Bobbi being badass is great (the fights were mostly better than last week, too), but I want more characterization for her, promptly. I still suspect she's been brainwashed by HYDRA, though.

- Still don't care about Hunter and his relationship with Bobbi. Zero chemistry between them, BTW. Which probably makes sense, but I still expected more from bitter exes.

- Who was the guy at the end? I didn't recognize him. If he's new, it was a really lame introduction.

 

got a kick out of Coulson's Grumpy Gat coffee mug. Those are the kind of Whedon-like details which make this show enjoyable for me.

 

Yeah, the mug was funny and completely unexpected, loved it. I also noticed a Dalek design on one of Fitz's monitors and Bobbi was wearing a Star Wars T-shirt. Quite a few easter eggs this episode.

Edited October 29, 2014 by FurryFury

[Tarasme]

 

 

"Her screaming at the end seemed to be banshee like. I'm not really familiar with that character; any chance that's part of her skill set?"

Not if they go at all by her canon super (mutant powers).  Her power is to "hex" the probabilities, to alter reality, at least that's what it was way, way back when I read the Avengers books

 

Thanks Linderhill! I knew I was grasping but thought I'd ask. I appreciate the info!

[romantic idiot]

re: the rage stick - they never showed us what really happened to Ward, so he could have been lying later. We just saw lost of pictures of a little boy flailing in the dark water. 

[Amethyst]

However, I was hoping for some clarification in the apartment scenes. We know the big players are there. Tony, Cap, Thor, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Maria Hill, and Rhodesy. But there's one other brunette female character in a Blue dress. In the trailer scene in the apartment, they show her in a panorama and she's standing sort of behind Thor, but too far away to make out who it is. In this feature there's an overhead shot and she's sitting in a chair next to Thor, but her hair's covering her face. Who is that, Marvel????

 

Jane Foster? Lady Sif? Mockingbird? May? Skye? (Of course Sky will be in Avengers 2. She must be in every scene, and in the scene's she's not in, all the other characters will be asking, "Where's Skye?")

 

I believe it's Claudia Kim, who's playing an associate of Tony Stark.  Her character's name has not yet been revealed.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Amethyst

[Jack Kerouac]

An OK episode, but not great. 

 

Liked:

- The Ward plot, for the most part. It's nice he's still pretty ambiguous (it's unclear if his brother was lying or him), still creepy (every time he mentions Skye's name I have goosebumps) and that the show resisted the obvious route of having SHIELD go on some mission with him - that would have been way too stupid. Now he's in the open and will probably be captured by Skye's daddy eventually (or will just go to him directly).

- Coulson's speech about Ward an everyone else's reactions. No easy redemption. Skye didn't even look conflicted at the end. Warms my heart to see that at least one show treats a main character killing and trying to kill other characters like an unforgivable thing it is.

- May's facial reactions continue to be the best. And I was totally empathizing with her being over Hunter's ramblings about Bobbi.

- Talbot's still alive! I was worried there for a second. And the SHIELD/government feud seems over, for the time being.

- I love that Fitz and Simmons are finally becoming their own characters and that their relationship has been fractured. I also love that the "building tech gizmos" scenes have been eliminated almost completely, I never cared for them.

 

Not so nice:

- Bobbi being badass is great (the fights were mostly better than last week, too), but I want more characterization for her, promptly. I still suspect she's been brainwashed by HYDRA, though.

- Still don't care about Hunter and his relationship with Bobbi. Zero chemistry between them, BTW. Which probably makes sense, but I still expected more from bitter exes.

- Who was the guy at the end? I didn't recognize him. If he's new, it was a really lame introduction.

 

Yeah, the mug was funny and completely unexpected, loved it. I also noticed a Dalek design on one of Fitz's monitors and Bobbi was wearing a Star Wars T-shirt. Quite a few easter eggs this episode.

 

Not sure if it was a Dalek or one of ice planet Hoth towers from Empire Strikes Back?

 

Love the Fitzsimmons stuff, but I am ready for them to begin getting back together again.

 

Also, am I the only one who is ready for May to get her ass kicked? I Iike her character a lot, but the 'ultimate fighting machine' bit is getting a little one note. It would be fun to see Ward kick her ass in a fight and see how she deals with it.

[FurryFury]

Also, am I the only one who is ready for May to get her ass kicked? I Iike her character a lot, but the 'ultimate fighting machine' bit is getting a little one note. It would be fun to see Ward kick her ass in a fight and see how she deals with it.

 

Well, May's pretty one-note. She's an OK background character, but not much more (this is why I'd prefer for the show to take a risk and get rid of Coulson altogether while promoting May to the director position, which could really shake things up). But yeah, making her lose in a fight a with non-powered enemy is something I'd like to see soon. Anything to develop her character more.

 

Not sure if it was a Dalek or one of ice planet Hoth towers from Empire Strikes Back?

 

It was kinda blurred, but I think it was a Dalek.

[DeLurker]

 

the evil politician trope.  Yes, I believe that the senator is lying and that Grant is lying.  But then I'm very cynical when it comes to politicians in real life.

Is it a trope if it is (often) actually true?

[Xantar]

The ways in which a disintegrator bomb is better than a gun or other conventional weapon depend on what your objectives are.

 

But generally, off-the-top, I would say the following

1. It's possible to survive one or several gunshots, even at close range. Not so much with the disintegrator bombs

2. Everyone knows what a gun is so it's an obvious threat. Again, the disintegrator bombs are not anywhere close.

3. A gun leaves various forensic evidence that even local law enforcement might be able to trace back to you. Disintegrator bombs don't. The only reason Our Heroes were able to track down information had to do with Bobbi having been undercover, some lucky guesswork that it was probably the handiwork of a suspected Hydra weaponmaster, and that weaponmaster thinking with his li'l Hydra and giving up some of the deets of what he was up to. Not that I can blame him, because like whoa. 

4. Gunning someone down, or even several someones, in this day and age is all-too-commonplace. To commit a real act of terror -- which is what Hydra is about, really -- you have to up your game. Literally disintegrating people accomplishes the terror part far better.

 

I appreciate the attempt, but I only find #4 to be convincing. Kind of.

 

1. In the UN, the point was to spread terror, not necessarily to kill everyone. Talbot and several other people survived just fine even with the disintegrator bombs.

2. I think you're arguing that HYDRA could sneak the bombs into UN headquarters because they weren't obviously weapons. However, some of the HYDRA agents were in fact brandishing rifles. Presumably Talbot was hit by a bullet instead of a bomb.

3. In this case, the disintegrator bombs were so distinctive that they could only have come from HYDRA. If the point was to ensure that there was no forensic evidence tracing back to them, they accomplished the opposite.

4. Yes, I can buy that. Except....

 

Why then use a disintegrator bomb on that last SHIELD agent near the end of the episode? In fact, none of your reasons apply in that case. The point was to kill her, and the knife in the HYDRA agent's other hand would have served just as well. There was no need to hide the threat. There was no need to hide forensic evidence since there were a bunch of other dead SHIELD agents lying around as well. And there was no need to instill terror because nobody was watching. The only reason to use the bomb for that scene was to show off some special effects.

 

Which is stupid.

[Traveller519]

I believe it's Claudia Kim, who's playing an associate of Tony Stark.  Her character's name has not yet been revealed.

Thanks Amethyst! Some quick Googling led me to this Article which comes to the same conclusion.

 

http://www.newsarama.com/22534-avengers-age-of-ultron-trailer-who-s-that-girl.html

[Chicago Redshirt]

What I was saying was that when a gun is better versus a disintegrator bomb would depend on the objectives of the user, and gave some different generic reasons why one might consider a disintegrator bomb better. Not that all the reasons I stated (or others I didn't think of) would apply in every situation.

 

In the specific context of the attack on the UN, presumably Hydra wanted to spread terror and make people scared of SHIELD. While using regular old guns might do that, I think the disintegrator bombs would be far better for that objective. They would definitely scare the crap out of the average person as to whether there are more of these, whether there are other methods of deploying them than having them come in contact with an individual and so forth. And it would reinforce the narrative of "SHIELD has been doing scary stuff behind our backs all this time so we should be scared of them" more than guns.

 

In the specific context of the fight at the not-so-safehouse, the use might have been due to such factors as them just being what's at hand or because the Hydra guy wanted the SHIELD person to suffer more. (assuming for argument's sake that disintegration is more painful -- even if quicker --  than bleeding out.)

[ChelseaNH]

Ward escaped -- how unexpected.  I'm pretty sure the entire Ward family is seriously messed up.  Although with the parents traveling all the time, some blame will have to accrue to the nannies and other household staff.  (Hmm, who was their butler?)  I was thinking that I wouldn't miss Ward if he left, but he could still contribute to the show if he doesn't run off to rejoin Hydra.  The show could do with multiple people pursuing their own agendas, instead of having a single, monolithic enemy. 

 

So tired of Skye's daddy issues, and you know they're going to drag it out for at least the rest of this season.

 

Waiting impatiently for Mack to have more to do than be Fitz's Magic Negro.

[Traveller519]

I echo the sentiment on Mack. I've really liked Henry Simmons for a while. He's so...calming, but looks like a guy who would not be fun to mess with if he got angry.

 

Speaking of people with not much to do, Tripp hasn't been up to a whole lot besides exchanging pleasantries with folks when they arrive or are moving one spot to another.

[Glory]

Bobbie flipping through the vamp dust - er, I mean, person dust - to completely kick that guys ass was so many shades of Buffy that I audibly squeed while watching. This show has REALLY stepped up it's game this season!

[kennyab]

Waiting impatiently for Mack to have more to do than be Fitz's Magic Negro.

I've got no problem calling this trope out when appropriate (like last week's Nashville, which just made me go bug-eyed with its egregious use), but I don't think Mack fits the trope at all.

 

1) Mack has his own interests, relationships with other characters, and purpose on the team.

2) He hasn't imparted any real wisdom or life lessons to Fitz. He's listened to him, that's all. Hunter's done the same, to a lesser extent, in the scene with the three of them having a beer. It's more that the new guys don't have a preconceived notion of who Fitz is, unlike the old team, and Mack and Simmons are the two ends of the spectrum.

3) There's nothing tied into Mack's race that helps provide special insight. One of the key components of the Magic Negro and related tropes is that the otherness is what allows them to have special wisdom to share, and they don't have any value beyond that. It's considered exotic and spiritual. There's nothing about Mack that's exotic or spiritual. He's a totally average guy (well, super buff and a member of a super secret spy organization, but other than that, average), and the actor happens to be black.

 

To me, if you can change out the race of the character without it impacting the reading of the story, it doesn't fall into the trope. With tropes involving black people or Asian people or Native Americans, their heritage plays into the effect they have on others. In this instance, Mack's race is completely immaterial. You could replace him with a character of any skin color or ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation, and it would play out the same way.

 

I do want to see him do more, but for now I think he's just suffering from supporting characteritis and not tropism.

 

ETA: If Mack really was a Magical Negro, then his little talk with Simmons at the end should have resulted in an epiphany for her that fixed the FitzSimmons relationship. Instead, it turns out that his slight chiding was misplaced and he wasn't telling her anything she didn't already know. Actually a bit of an anti-Magical Negro moment there.

Edited October 29, 2014 by kennyab

[anna0852]

One of the things I love about this show is that while you probably couldn't change out the genders, you could easily change the races of the characters and it wouldn't affect the storyline at all. Which to mean speaks of good writing.

[AlliMo]

I'm really digging this season so far. Whoever is doing the fight choreography for this show is really firing on all cylinders.

 

Tim DeKay was fine as Ward's brother, but I still wish for my secret dream casting of Victor Webster in that role, if only because the resemblance between him and Brett Dalton is downright eerie.

[jelaine]

I thought the brunette next to Hawkeye was Cobie Smulders/Maria Hill.

Could Victor Webster be the youngest Ward brother? Yeah, I know better, but still a good thought.

[Grammaeryn]

Simmons: Henstridge is killin' it and has some great material. How horrible to know that the person to whom you were so close that you finished his sentences can now literally not function with you around. And that he can't understand that fact and therefore can't comprehend why you would leave him. Misery. That character must be spending at least part of her nights balled up in a fetal position in the corner, crying her eyes out.*

I actually have a different read on their situation. Fitz around Simmons is trying to be Before Fitz but he knows that he's different now. It's like a split focus. Do I put on the Before Fitz act or do I find the exact word I mean? I struggled with something similar the first couple of years after my brain injury. You so try to be normal and pretend everything is fine but your brain trips you up. It's not a lack of comprehension, it's part coping and part denial. I would spend so much energy being normal, I would have trouble walking or talking. Sometimes it's so much easier with people who only know the After you. Hence Mac.

[anna0852]

That was definitely Maria Hill.

[Jack Kerouac]

Well, May's pretty one-note. She's an OK background character, but not much more (this is why I'd prefer for the show to take a risk and get rid of Coulson altogether while promoting May to the director position, which could really shake things up). But yeah, making her lose in a fight a with non-powered enemy is something I'd like to see soon. Anything to develop her character more.

 

It was kinda blurred, but I think it was a Dalek.

 

Gotta disagree (but not about May - spot on)! The 'gun' is too long (and there is a Rebel soldier kneeling down in front of it):

 

 

Also, did anyone get the significance of Hunter's key chain? He seemed to want to hide it quickly when Mockingwhatever came around:

 

Edited October 30, 2014 by Jack Kerouac

[Dusty]

 

He hasn't imparted any real wisdom or life lessons to Fitz. He's listened to him, that's all. Hunter's done the same, to a lesser extent, in the scene with the three of them having a beer.

This made me realize that no one from the original team is really interacting with Fitz this season.  We had that one scene with Coulson and barely a scene with May in the premiere (which I don't really count) but that's about it.  I realized it on some level before but Simmons had more scene with the original team than Fitz has in like two of six episodes. It just bums me out.

 

 

So tired of Skye's daddy issues, and you know they're going to drag it out for at least the rest of this season.

I'm not interested in this storyline at all. I don't know if it's because I'm pretty 'meh' about Skye to begin with or there's just something about it that's not clicking with me.  I will give Skye props for playing Ward though.  I do like her better this season than I did last but the whole obelisk/Daddy storyline makes me kind of zone out a bit.  It's just really slow.

 

Another thing I didn't realize was the grumpy cat mug.  It was stupid and I loved it.

[Cirien]

(Its got to be better than what Fox did in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Despite the fact that Pietro and Wanda are twins, they showed her as a little girl and he was even more of a douche than he ever was in the comic books -- even when he was in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.)

Just a nitpick but according to Bryan Signer that little girl wasn't Wanda. She was most likely their younger sister Polaris.

[Loandbehold]

 

This made me realize that no one from the original team is really interacting with Fitz this season.  We had that one scene with Coulson and barely a scene with May in the premiere (which I don't really count) but that's about it.  I realized it on some level before but Simmons had more scene with the original team than Fitz has in like two of six episodes.

 

 

Simmons: Henstridge is killin' it and has some great material. How horrible to know that the person to whom you were so close that you finished his sentences can now literally not function with you around. And that he can't understand that fact and therefore can't comprehend why you would leave him

 

I actually have a different read on their situation. Fitz around Simmons is trying to be Before Fitz but he knows that he's different now. It's like a split focus. Do I put on the Before Fitz act or do I find the exact word I mean? ... Sometimes it's so much easier with people who only know the After you. Hence Mac.

This is a very interesting discussion. It's got me thinking that Fitz was abandoned by the other members of the original team, even though they're still in the same location. Yet, he doesn't seem to hold that against them, but does hold it against Simmons for leaving. I understand his reasoning - Simmons is/was his best friend and he confessed his love to her right before the plan to save them. But still, it seems that the others are as uncomfortable around After Fitz as he might be with them.

 

I also liked that the reason Simmons gave Mac for leaving is the same reason Coulson said in the season premiere. No secrets between them on that point. I wonder whose idea it was for Simmons to go undercover at HydraCorp. Did Simmons tell Coulson that she needed to leave and he said that they could use her for an undercover assignment, or did he go to her and she told him that would be a good idea because After Fitz was not getting better with her around.

[Ottis]

Why can't both Wards be lying?

 

 

I think they are, each for their own ends.

 

My only issue with Grant Ward being evil is he looks and sounds like Wesley Crusher in close ups. I instinctively don't like him, for an entirely Hydra-unrelated reason.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Ottis

[Raja]

What I was saying was that when a gun is better versus a disintegrator bomb would depend on the objectives of the user, and gave some different generic reasons why one might consider a disintegrator bomb better. Not that all the reasons I stated (or others I didn't think of) would apply in every situation.

In the specific context of the attack on the UN, presumably Hydra wanted to spread terror and make people scared of SHIELD. While using regular old guns might do that, I think the disintegrator bombs would be far better for that objective. They would definitely scare the crap out of the average person as to whether there are more of these, whether there are other methods of deploying them than having them come in contact with an individual and so forth. And it would reinforce the narrative of "SHIELD has been doing scary stuff behind our backs all this time so we should be scared of them" more than guns.

In the specific context of the fight at the not-so-safehouse, the use might have been due to such factors as them just being what's at hand or because the Hydra guy wanted the SHIELD person to suffer more. (assuming for argument's sake that disintegration is more painful -- even if quicker -- than bleeding out.)

Exactly it is why real world terrorist use suicide bombers instead of remotely detonated bombs snd executeby beheading

[Linderhill]

 

Just a nitpick but according to Bryan Signer that little girl wasn't Wanda. She was most likely their younger sister Polaris.

I'm not going to get into a discussion about this but since its Bryan Singer saying this, I'm going to pretty much ignore that statement since I lost what ever little faith I had in him when he played fast and loose with the whole Xmen storyline.  Its also kind of fishy that Singer didn't take the opportunity to make her hair green since they used that awful silver color on Quicksilver.  And where was Wanda then?

 

Anyway, back to AOS, I really want to know who the tattooed guy is.  I can't imagine who he might be.  

[blackwing]

This board is helpful, I had thought tattoo guy was actually Christian and he just looked different.  Glad to read that it's someone we have never seen before.

 

I liked this episode, although I'm sad that they killed off "Walters".  Would have been nice to have had other agents around the world from time to time check in.

 

I am confused as to what Mack's role is.  He's not a field agent.  Wasn't he one of Hartley's team?  Seems like he's just a tech/office guy? 

[kennyab]

I am confused as to what Mack's role is.  He's not a field agent.  Wasn't he one of Hartley's team?  Seems like he's just a tech/office guy? 

 

He's primarily the mechanic.

[ChelseaNH]

I don't think Mack fits the trope at all

 

I was overstating somewhat, but so far he exists to enable Fitz to contribute, rather than contributing anything himself, and I think that's a huge waste.

[Sakura12]

I know she's tall, but every time I see Adrianne Palicki in scenes with other characters, I go "damn, she's a giant!" lol She would've made a great Wonder Woman if they had good writers. Although her fight scenes gave me depressing Sara Lance flashbacks (stupid Arrow writers). 

 

I don't mind the ex marrieds bickering as long as we don't get every week. So hopefully they worked out their main issues this episode. 

 

Ward's still evil and manipulative, that was the one thing I was worried about them erasing. Both him and (Agent Burke!) Christian Ward are manipulative psychos. I'm going with the people that think Coulson set this up and is not trusting either of them, but using them to see where and who they can lead SHIELD to. 

 

May is still a bad ass. I think if I ever Cos-play for a con I'm going to dress up like her. 

[anna0852]

Just the thought of Christian Ward being a bad guy is making my head spin. I'm used to Tim Dekay as the most honorable straight arrow FBI agent ever on White Collar. I keep thinking 'But Peter Burke isn't evil!'

[Terrafamilia]

I'm of a mind that both Wards are not being entirely truthful but unless he is a much better actor than we even now think, Grant was legitimately afraid of Christian.

[JayKay]

I remember Tim Dekay as Sara's villainous handler on Chuck, so I can buy him as a baddie on a spy show.

If they somehow manage to rope Matt Bomer into the Marvelverse with him, that's okay too. But then again putting him on this show means he can't be cast as any of the hundred square-jawed perfect looking superheroes from the upcoming movies.

[Cirien]

I'm of a mind that both Wards are not being entirely truthful but unless he is a much better actor than we even now think, Grant was legitimately afraid of Christian.

Legitimately afraid of *Christian* or what Christian might have revealed though?

[shapeshifter]

After Simmons walked away, the look of heartbreak, sympathy, and empathy that Mack gave Fitz seemed destined to launch a thousand ships of slash fic.

Assuming Coulson wanted Ward to escape but didn't want Ward to know that Coulson wanted him to escape, wouldn't Ward have been suspicious when they took the hood off?

[Jeezaloo]

Whoever is doing the fight choreography for this show is really firing on all cylinders.

I totally agree. Is there an Emmy category for stunt work? There should be, the fight scenes on this show can be ridiculously fun to watch and are a good part of the reason I tune in every week.

 

 

The only reason to use the bomb for that scene was to show off some special effects.

Yup! Totally put in there for viewers like me who love that kind of stuff. Comic book overdrive FTW!

 

[ApathyMonger]

I totally agree. Is there an Emmy category for stunt work? There should be, the fight scenes on this show can be ridiculously fun to watch and are a good part of the reason I tune in every week.

 

Yup; The Blacklist won this year.

[mac123x]

Which Ward brother was lying?  I used to be ambivalent but now I'm not so sure.  Probably both of them, and when Youngest!Ward shows up we'll have aseries of flashbacks like at the end of the movie Clue. 

 

Skye's final interrogation scene with Ward reminded me of Black Widow questioning Loki.  I said "she's playing him" and I was right, but Skye wasn't nearly as detached as Natasha.  Still, pretty good scene.

 

 

 

But there's one other brunette female character in a Blue dress. In the trailer scene in the apartment, they show her in a panorama and she's standing sort of behind Thor, but too far away to make out who it is. In this feature there's an overhead shot and she's sitting in a chair next to Thor, but her hair's covering her face. Who is that, Marvel????

 

Jane Foster?

 

Oh, please, no.  Just no.  Natalie Portman is a charisma vacuum:  she sucks the energy out of any scene she's in.

 

ETA:

 

Timecode 1:20 on the Avengers trailer.  Someone is holding a product-placed Samsung tablet, looking at an image of something metallic and glowy.  It vaguely resembles Loki's scepter, but it's not as big.  Fourth Infinity Gem?  Is Thanos going to show up in this movie too?

Edited November 3, 2014 by mac123x