S02.E21: S.O.S. (1) / S02.E22: S.O.S. (2)

[blackwing]

Yes, I meant Asians.  It seems like Asians are the red headed stepchildren of the acting community (besides Native Americans).  And the Asian male is like the blue macaw, they are so rare.  Seems like there are so many more Asian females than males on mainstream TV.  Asian females have been able to break out into race blind roles, like Lucy Liu as Joan Watson on "Elementary".  And the three here.  But the Asian male, if he appears at all, is often the comic relief, rarely the lead.  (Fresh Off the Boat notwithstanding.)

 

That's why I think it's such a huge accomplishment that Ming Na Wen, Chloe Bennett and Dichen Lachmann had the three biggest roles of the latter half of this season.

[sinkwriter]

 

That's why I think it's such a huge accomplishment that Ming Na Wen, Chloe Bennett and Dichen Lachmann had the three biggest roles of the latter half of this season.

 

Absolutely!

 

(And I'm suddenly reminded of the commentary track from Joss Whedon's "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," in which Agents of SHIELD producer Maurissa Tancharoen sings a song about that very issue. It's called "Nobody's Asian in the Movies." Have you heard it? The lyrics are pointedly funny, but also sad and frustrating.)

[MisterGlass]

 

Didn't Cal use Gorilla DNA in his formula? He may have some knowledge on animals.

 

"...anabolic androgenic steroids, a liver enzyme blocker, various metabolic enhancers, methamphetamines, what appears to be gorilla testosterone, and, no lie, a drop of peppermint."

[NossohSeven]

"...anabolic androgenic steroids, a liver enzyme blocker, various metabolic enhancers, methamphetamines, what appears to be gorilla testosterone, and, no lie, a drop of peppermint."

Still didn't know adrenaline was the key to becoming Kyle Cro-Maglachlin!

[DeLurker]

I'll miss Crazy Cal when the show returns.

[Donny Ketchum]

Yes, I meant Asians.  It seems like Asians are the red headed stepchildren of the acting community (besides Native Americans).  And the Asian male is like the blue macaw, they are so rare.  Seems like there are so many more Asian females than males on mainstream TV.  Asian females have been able to break out into race blind roles, like Lucy Liu as Joan Watson on "Elementary".  And the three here.  But the Asian male, if he appears at all, is often the comic relief, rarely the lead.  (Fresh Off the Boat notwithstanding.)

If you want an Asian male in a major role, then perhaps you should check out The Walking Dead.  The character Glenn is one of the biggest heroes on the show, and he's an Asian character.

[DeLurker]

If you want an Asian male in a major role, then perhaps you should check out The Walking Dead.  The character Glenn is one of the biggest heroes on the show, and he's an Asian character.

David Carradine used to play an Asian character as Kung Fu.  Steven Yeun/Glenn is an actual Asian male!

 

Don't mean to come off as snarky, there's just a long history of white* folk playing Asians.  It's a funny-sad-bitter issue for me.

 

Oops...not just white since there's also Ricardo Montalban as Nakamura in the movie Sayonara.

[LilJen]

You'd think the agents would be scrambling to find those Inhuman crystals once the whole plane carrying the crystals went into the ocean.  So, if you have that particular brand of fish oil, does that mean that you will turn Inhuman or turn into a big grey rock, turn into ashes and blow away?

 

I'm envisioning a new medical disaster movie. Yeah, some people will become Inhumans, but the terrigen stuff is in the fish and the fish oil in such small amounts that people only get weird symptoms. A patch of dead, crusty, gray flesh? An organ that shuts down without warning (and when the docs go in to remove it for a transplant it's all gray and crusty and some of THEM get the gray crusty disease if they weren't careful about a sterile environment)? The medical community will puzzle over it. The marine food industry will crumble. There will be accusations of biological warfare and countries will be on the brink of war over it. . . until Skye saves the day!!

[Bruinsfan]

And she'll connect the cases to their source by using her elite hacker skills to find people's locations on Facebook!

[Donny Ketchum]

I felt bad for Agent 33 and Cal.

Rereading this thread, I just came across this.  Cal, I understand, @VCRTracking, but why Kara?  She made it pretty clear, after she was finally free of HYDRA, she was willingly choosing her path.  Standing with Ward basically led to her death.

[BPOX]

But she was kinda of crazy deluded, so you can still feel bad for her.

[ChelseaNH]

She went from being brainwashed by Hydra to being brainwashed by Ward.

[blueray]

I just caught up! And my first response is No Jemma! I really don't want to see her evil :(. I really just her and Friz to be happy. Plus I don't want a story with her being "evil" and not even knowing it. Hopefully it gets resolved in the first episode, or at least something they are aware off.

 

I was okay with this being about Skye because she had the main story arc this season. I'm going to miss her dad, he added some good comic relief and I always believed that he was a good guy who did horrible things. And the scene toward the end, where he didn't know her made me cry :(.

 

I was also mildly disappointed that the Kree blood didn't have any impact on the crystal. Though I'm glad that Mack was quick with that ax. I like Colson, which maybe a minority on this form (but a post for another time). And I liked that Friz was the one who killed Gordan (though I was surprised he died so early).

 

What surprised me was Ward actually seemed sad when Agent 33 was killed. He also to me was a sociopath that only cared about himself, which I still think, though he seemed to truly care about her. Which makes me agree with I think Bobbie, they should have just ran off to Hawaii together. Lastly, hunter, Bobbie and Mack grew on me to the point where I cared what happened to them.

 

Anyhow great show and season. I can't wait for season 3 in September and I'm thankful for Netflix to allow me to watch it.

[Donny Ketchum]

Anyhow great show and season. I can't wait for season 3 in September and I'm thankful for Netflix to allow me to watch it.

Season two is on Netflix now?  Last I saw, only season one was there.

 

Also, it's Fitz, not Friz.

[blueray]

Season two is on Netflix now?  Last I saw, only season one was there.

 

Also, it's Fitz, not Friz.

Yep, came up like Thursday (I binge watched).

 

Opps my bad.

[Jeezaloo]

Also, it's Fitz, not Friz.

The way his brain has been working lately, surely we should be calling him "Fritz"?

[John Potts]

Well, nice to see Phil is actually stepping finally stepping into the Director's shoes and actually leading rather than whining about how he's Fury's anointed heir and so everyone should do what he says. I loved that he actually was trying to prevent a war (even though I have no doubt that any war would mean the end of the Inhumans, by sheer numbers if nothing else) and actually led from the front. I'm sure he'll find a way to grow back his hand (or have Tony Stark build him a bionic one) in fairly short order.

 

Skye really needs to learn from Tucco ("If you're going to shoot - shoot, don't talk!"). OK, it's her mom so I accept she is understandably reluctant to put he down, but Cal loved her too and yet "Did what had to be done". However, I really don't buy that Skye could go toe to toe with May (at least until she started slinging quakes at her) - May has years of experience on her.

 

Liked May realising that Ward/33 had taken a radio and used that against them, even if that was a little too easy there. And I'm glad somebody confirmed she packed a bikini because I thought, "Oh, she's going on one of THOSE holidays" (she definitely deserves it and I was wondering if her ex husband with her).

 

Loved Bobbi "taking the bullet" to prevent Lance from getting shot (OK, they should have expected a trap there, but I'll allow panic to override clear thinking there). And her explanation to Agent 33 was perfectly valid - in the espionage business, individual pawns will be sacrificed for the Greater Good and all agents should know that (though given the fact she was worked over by first Whitehall and then Ward, I don't really blame her). And I was really glad to see all three of them looked like they'd gone ten rounds with each other - they're all trained fighters, so they should look like they'd taken damage.

MVP though was Mack. I'm always a fan of normals who go up against supers (one reason I prefer Batman to Superman) and I love that he thinks IN the box - a quantum phase inhibitor may work against a teleporter, but a crack over the head with an axe also works (and is handy against petrification, too). And he remembered that Skye is a hacker (she can use Facebook and everything!) even if she couldn't throw quakes, she could still be useful. And I loved him going "the axe is in case you CAN'T stop the launch" because it's too common to see people (IRL too) who can't see the simple solution to problems when they can use a high tech one.

Monty Ashley (from the Recap) Now that Raina can see the future, she's getting really into speaking in vague riddles. It's one of the side effects no one ever talks about.

 

 

So true!

Leia1979 Fitzsimmons reminded me too much of Fred and Wesley from Angel this episode

 

More like Angel/Cordelia from the end of S3 of Angel. And gee, could the anvils be falling thicker that they'd never "Talk" when they got back?

FurryFury Doubtful. She [Raina] needed sacrifices to heal
Sandman  how tempted I am to toss the phrase "It would take a miracle!"

 

At least they didn't say "Nobody could survive that!" because that would make her return inevitable!

Edited June 16, 2015 by John Potts

[blueray]

 

 However, I really don't buy that Skye could go toe to toe with May (at least until she started slinging quakes at her)

May I think would have won, except Skye used her powers which gave her the upper hand at that moment. However, May even said "I don't want to hurt you", she didn't want to fight with Skye, she wanted to figure out what happened. In an actual fight, even with Skye's powers my bet would be on May.

Edited June 16, 2015 by blueray

[John Potts]

May I think would have won, except Skye used her powers which gave her the upper hand at that moment. However, May even said "I don't want to hurt you", she didn't want to fight with Skye, she wanted to figure out what happened. In an actual fight, even with Skye's powers my bet would be on May.

 

I guess that's a possible explanation, it just seemed to me that Skye was able to keep up with May far too easily (even if she was probably losing) before she started slinging quakes. Particularly given how well she was did against Multiple Girl earlier, it seems TPTB want us to believe that Skye is not only an uber hacker (she can use Google AND Facebook!), she's also an unstoppable badass in combat and now has superpowers. Not surprising they named her Mary Sue Poots!

 

Also wanted to add: I loved the tagline on the fish cans: "It will change your life!"

[Cranberry]

May obviously wasn't trying to hurt Skye. She even said she didn't want to. Skye was keeping up with a toned-down May.

[Raja]

May obviously wasn't trying to hurt Skye. She even said she didn't want to. Skye was keeping up with a toned-down May.

That's the way that I saw it. Real world and not sparring May seemed to be easily paring everything Skye did so Skye had to pull out her proverbial guns.

[Sakura12]

And her explanation to Agent 33 was perfectly valid - in the espionage business, individual pawns will be sacrificed for the Greater Good and all agents should know that (though given the fact she was worked over by first Whitehall and then Ward, I don't really blame her).

 

That's one of the many things I love about this show, they let you understand both sides. It's not one side is inherently evil and the other side are all good heroes. Bobbi did what she had to do go undercover in Hydra, Kira got hurt in the crossfire and has good reason to be angry at her for having been tortured and brainwashed by Hydra. Jiaying saw first hand what putting people on lists does and was tortured and torn apart by humans experimenting on her. She had every right to be angry and want revenge for that. SHIELD does need to know who the powered people are and what they can do to protect the unpowered people. Cal had his wife torn apart and his daughter taken from him just because they were different. 

 

With Ward, he makes excuses for himself but no one else does. As May said they all have traumas and none of them turned into murdering psychos. Those are the things this show gets right that others do not *coughArrowcough* 

[blueray]

Maybe with the GH325 swimming though his system, Coulson will simply regrow his hand.

That would be awesome lol. But I'm sure the show sadly wouldn't go that way.

 

I'm sure he'll get some sort of mechanical hand that Tony designed.

[Chris24601]

I guess that's a possible explanation, it just seemed to me that Skye was able to keep up with May far too easily (even if she was probably losing) before she started slinging quakes. Particularly given how well she was did against Multiple Girl earlier, it seems TPTB want us to believe that Skye is not only an uber hacker (she can use Google AND Facebook!), she's also an unstoppable badass in combat and now has superpowers. Not surprising they named her Mary Sue Poots!

To be fair though that description basically IS the comic version of Daisy Johnson, right down to being the most trusted confidant of SHIELD's director.

Indeed, she's been toned down slightly in that she isn't the only agent other than Fury or Romanov to have a Level 10 security clearance (though to be fair Coulson did say he dropped security levels entirely when he became director).

Daisy Johnson in the comics is an Avengers level hero whose stood up to A-list supervillains. May only realistically ever stood a chance if Skye refused to use her powers in the fight.

It's one of the reasons I suspect they set up the advisory council arc in the show and put May on it... its a way to keep her central to the story as its shifting more towards a situation where May is going to be like Barton in A:AoU... a great human warrior that is still completely outclassed by the nature of the threats they now face.

Note that the original plan also had Bobbie and Hunter, i.e. the only other non-powered field agents, spun off into another show while Fitz, Simmons and Mac were all support personnel.

Basically, I think you're right in the sense that they were playing up Skye's abilities, but the reason for that choice was likely due to their transitioning to a version of the Catapillers storyarc from the comics (another arc that prominantly features the Director of SHIELD and Daisy Johnson as the leads) and that's the level of competance that Daisy's going to need for that story arc to work.

[amensisterfriend]

I just have to say that I'm kind of blown away by how much more I loved S2 than S1. S2 wasn't just a huge improvement over the shaky first season, IMO, but a genuinely great season of TV. I loved it was more than I probably should have. Should I allow myself to feel optimistic about S3...?! 

[Raja]

1 hour ago, amensisterfriend said:

I just have to say that I'm kind of blown away by how much more I loved S2 than S1. S2 wasn't just a huge improvement over the shaky first season, IMO, but a genuinely great season of TV. I loved it was more than I probably should have. Should I allow myself to feel optimistic about S3...?! 

While not as strong as S2 in my opinion there is no marking time like before Captain America The Winter Soldier during the beginning of the first season or stinker episodes like Crazy Cal and his crew of "enhanced taking over Director Coulson's hometown football practice. There is one big concept show that you will either love, most do I didn't like it, or fast forward through. But I finished looking forward to S4 which has the promise to fill in the gaps of the Sokovian Accords from Captain America Civil War even if it looks like with new management at ABC it will be the last of the TV-movie MCU tie in experiment.