S03.E01: Laws Of Nature

[KirkB]

I was wondering the same thing actually. If they DID have the room under surveillance there would be no question since they would have SEEN Simmons getting pulled into the rock, though they obviously wouldn't know if it ate her, melted her, or transported her somewhere. If they didn't have cameras there then how do they know the rock had anything to do with her disappearance and that Simmons didn't just...leave?

[HurricaneVal]

Holy cow, when I read the recap, I thought maybe it was a two-hour premiere.  But no, just the standard length one hour episode that was incredibly solidly packed with action and exposition.

 

I had a hard time keeping up.

 

I missed May, but then, exactly how were they going to be able to cram her into the already filled to the gills episode?  She'll be back...

 

The characters on NCIS, and the NCIS thread here was all abuzz about the new haircut on Gibbs.  Nobody noticed Coulson's new 'do?  I did.  I don't like it.  Super short doesn't work for him.  Sky!Daisy's new hair was nice though.  Much more superhero-y than hacker-y.

[Raja]

 

The characters on NCIS, and the NCIS thread here was all abuzz about the new haircut on Gibbs.  Nobody noticed Coulson's new 'do?  I did.  I don't like it.  Super short doesn't work for him.  Sky!Daisy's new hair was nice though.  Much more superhero-y than hacker-y.

Different demographic Mark Harmon was once People's sexist man, they might win the night over there but aren't as worried about 18 to 49

[xqueenfrostine]

Constance Zimmer does always play similar characters, but she's great at it. So I'm not complaining. Her character Penny on Good Morning, Miami is still one of my favorite sitcom characters. 

 

 

Yup.  Nothing wrong with being a skilled character actor.  They play an important part in film and television!

 

I was wondering the same thing actually. If they DID have the room under surveillance there would be no question since they would have SEEN Simmons getting pulled into the rock, though they obviously wouldn't know if it ate her, melted her, or transported her somewhere. If they didn't have cameras there then how do they know the rock had anything to do with her disappearance and that Simmons didn't just...leave?

 

I assume that they either had surveillance cameras in the room (because really, if they didn't, that's an almost unforgivable oversight) or some sort of sensors in the containment box tracking the movement of the monolith, but even if they didn't I would imagine that they'd have all sorts of cameras and sensors watching the exits, if not all of the hallways in the ship.  That alone might have alerted to the fact that Simmons was never seen on the ship again after Fitz left the room.   But I think sensors around the box and monolith is the most likely source of information.  Simmons was in the room with the monolith in the first place because she was studying it, and since there was a laptop and other scientific equipment in the room I think it's safe to say that she wasn't just there to use her own eyes..  

[blueray]

I imagine that there was a camera in the room and also Fitz wouldn't have been far enough away not to hear her scream (which she did).  And since he was in the hallway he knows that she never left the room.

Edited October 2, 2015 by blueray

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Agents Of SHIELD Turns Up The Power
What if the main character on a comic-book show had superpowers? It's so crazy it just might work!

[Cthulhudrew]

Isn't Gamora the last of her race, Thanos having wiped all the others out?

She is the last of her race, but she was actually saved from death by Thanos, so that he could raise her and train her to be an assassin to take out Adam Warlock's evil future-but-sent-to-the-past counterpart, the Magus.

 

True story.

[KirkB]

Yeah, comics are fun that way. But to steer this back to the subject at hand, since I still don't think Gamora (or anyone else we know) is going to show up, any guesses as to where Jemma is? A nameless planet which remains nameless or a named planet whose name will probably only mean something to about 25% of the audience?

[Paron Xanthis]

I agree.  Daisy and Lincoln are interesting, and I like that Lincoln has become more jaded and guarded.  That zen quality he had is gone, and he doesn't take crap or orders from anyone.

In fairness, I think finding out how badly manipulated he'd been by Jiaying really must've shaken him up.

[Cthulhudrew]

Yeah, comics are fun that way. But to steer this back to the subject at hand, since I still don't think Gamora (or anyone else we know) is going to show up, any guesses as to where Jemma is? A nameless planet which remains nameless or a named planet whose name will probably only mean something to about 25% of the audience?

 

If not for the shot of the two planetary bodies in the sky, I'd have guessed the Kree's Blue Area of the Moon. As is, I'm not certain if it will get named, or- if it is- if it will have any particular significance (probably significant to even less of the 25% of the audience, I'd guess).

 

It probably depends on what the monolith is supposed to be for. If it was just supposed to be some kind of link back to the "motherland" for some reason, then the planet may turn out to be the Kree homeworld of Hala. If it's supposed to be a portal to some kind of prison for wayward Inhumans, then the sky's the limit. I'm assuming the Negative Zone is not an option due to its Fantastic Four ties. Maybe it's the same planet as Tobias Ford's Hell?

[NossohSeven]

If Raina's S.2 prophesy was worth anything, then Jemma's not the only member of the team who is going to be enjoying a vacation in the glorious nether regions of the universe...

[Sakura12]

I'm going to guess that Simmons is on a Kree planet where some of their expiriments are still around.

[kennyab]

I'm still curious why they assume that Simmons was sucked into the monolith.  Coulson was discussing about Fitz's investigation that Simmons had been micro-miniaturized like Hank Pym -- did they honestly not have the monolith under 24x7 video surveillance ?  Does that mean that even now they are just guessing that Simmons was abducted by the monolith ?  Heck, she could have been vaporized for all they know, so It's a pretty big assumption that she was portaled away.

 

 

Bobbi specifically mentioned the Monolith swallowing her, they know that part for a fact (presumably because of video cameras). They're just trying to figure out what the monolith did to her, and they've been going through possibilities of what exactly it did to her. Until now, Fitz is the only one who's been holding out hope that it did something other than just atomize her.

[Raja]

  Heck, she could have been vaporized for all they know, so It's a pretty big assumption that she was portaled away.

 

Does this mean that there is an equally menacing monolith on whatever moon/planet Gemma is on now ?  Why doesn't Gemma look like she has lost any weight after being marooned for months on this moon/planet ?  Is there an IHOP (Intergalactic House of Pancakes) nearby ?

Well in intergalactic science fiction when people move like she did we normally have some kind of warping time and space as the  explanation. I supposed she landed on the planet and is now running. Maybe in real time a la Interstellar or the scene could be flashback for the audience and future episodes will fill us in on her long term survival resources. 

[KirkB]

Knowing Simmons she probably had some experimental dehydrated food capsules in her pocket or something. Though using water from an alien planet presents potential hazards of its own...

[HurricaneVal]

Constance Zimmer as Rosalind (and very nice scar makeup that pulls quite realistically at her mouth) was driving me nuts as to where I'd seen her before.  None of the shows y'all were referring to struck a note with me, and I had some vague sort of feeling that I remembered her from LA Law which is waaaay too far back for as young as she is.  So I looked her up on IMdB, and voila!  Boston Legal was the show where I remembered she was a lawyer, but what I really remember her from was her role as the cool nun on my favorite, though short lived Joan of Arcadia.

 

Edited because I forgot which forum I was in, and realized that I don't need to use specific html tags when it didn't render right.  Oops.

Edited October 2, 2015 by HurricaneVal

[DeLurker]

Don't think the scar is makeup - it was pretty noticeable in Unreal.

[Wynterwolf]

Knowing Simmons she probably had some experimental dehydrated food capsules in her pocket or something. Though using water from an alien planet presents potential hazards of its own...

 

LOL, I could see that.  But wherever she is, it seems like she's being chased by some(thing/one) that can detect/smell/sense blood, from the way she frantically dug up the mud to cover the cut on her head.  No idea what that could equate to in the Marvel Universe, but it's definitely intriguing.  

[Bruinsfan]

Fitz`s hot levels has very consistently gone up, and it was through the roof tonight. Damn Ian.

I'm sure not mistaking him for Peter MacNicol anymore!

[BPOX]

 

The only bit that didn't work for me was how Coulson and Hunter escaped the train. There were so many people guarding them! But one punch, one kick and one tech later they're gone? The plan relied on the ACTU deciding to inventory their gear on the spot? That didn't really work for me.

It didn't really rely on it, that just helped. Besides how cool was it to see Coulson take the standard Sheild break the thumb to get out of the cuffs moves and make it about beating the bad guy with the wrong end of his new fist? It took me a while to figure out that when he tells Fitz he's on his third hand it's because he just messed up his most recent one earlier in the episode.

Joey's powers seem pretty useless -- melts only certain metals within 3 meter range.  That doesn't explain the guy that was completely toasted in Joey's apartment or why the wooden door and wooden door frame were destroyed .  Was the implication that Joey went over the railing in his balcony -- so how did he survive the fall ?  I also don't get why the car exploded when he melted it -- it wasn't running at the time.

 

Joey has had his powers like a day. It seems pretty early to dismiss them. Obviously he can disarm people at close range. With some thought he can take down significant structures. All Shadow Cat from XMen could do was walk through walls. Oh wait...

 

I really could've used a "Previously On…" at the beginning, to be honest. And then I thought that they would use Joey to deliver a whole mound of exposition to remind us what happened at the end of last season while explaining what's going on to him.

 

You know I might have appreciated one too. I felt like there were lots of really exposition heavy scenes, and some felt kind of clunky. I was like Coulson, why are you telling Daisy this, surely she must know how many Inhumans you all have tracked.

 

The characters on NCIS, and the NCIS thread here was all abuzz about the new haircut on Gibbs.  Nobody noticed Coulson's new 'do?  I did.  I don't like it.  Super short doesn't work for him.  Sky!Daisy's new hair was nice though.  Much more superhero-y than hacker-y.

 

I love both their hair. Daisy's because of the wind machine and sort of wild look and it's a new chapter thing. Coulson because it goes with his more casual clothes and innocuous company man persona. That and I just think it looks better with the angles of his face.

 

[Raja]

Constance Zimmer as Rosalind (and very nice scar makeup that pulls quite realistically at her mouth) was driving me nuts as to where I'd seen her before.  None of the shows y'all were referring to struck a note with me, and I had some vague sort of feeling that I remembered her from LA Law which is waaaay too far back for as young as she is.  So I looked her up on IMdB, and voila!  Boston Legal was the show where I remembered she was a lawyer, but what I really remember her from was her role as the cool nun on my favorite, though short lived Joan of Arcadia.

 

Edited because I forgot which forum I was in, and realized that I don't need to use specific html tags when it didn't render right.  Oops.

 

 

Don't think the scar is makeup - it was pretty noticeable in Unreal.

The scar was there when she played the ex nun on Joan of Arcadia

[mac123x]

I'm glad I read this thread to get some details on what happened with Simmons since I couldn't see a damn thing it was so dark.

 

Great episode in general.  I didn't miss May until Coulson mentioned that she went on vacation and didn't come back; I assume tht's set up for her to either a) be in someone else's custordy like Ward or b) come roaring back unexpectedly to save the day in some tense situation.  "Miss me?" smashcut to commercial. 

[ChelseaNH]

I wish they had managed to sneak an h-word into "Advanced Threat Containment Unit" because I really, really, really want them to be ATCHU.

[tennisgurl]

Constance Zimmer is awesome. I never want to go without her on my television. And now I don't have to!

 

With more people with powers/enhanced abilities popping up, I wonder how much this show will be affected by what happens in CA Civil War?

[enness2000]

The new, Metal-Melty guy was okay .. his gay outing seemed a bit forced (diversity, dammit !)

 

I think I'm correct in saying that Joey is the first acknowledged LGBT person in the MCU, right? If so, then twelve movies and 70-odd episodes of television in, I think we were due a little diversity. While the later 'coming out' scene was a little anvillicious, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing (it's not like LGBT people all over the world don't still face a truckload of problems in coming out), and I thought the first scene was actually pretty natural. I mean, if Bobbie had said "ex-girlfriend", the scene would have played out exactly the same, and would have been an entirely normal character note to drop in (not least to exposit that the attractive new male character is single) that no one would have blinked at. If it feels unnatural or forced when it's done with a gay character, that's probably more down to the general heteronormativity of society than down to stilted writing.

 

More directly on-topic: Yay! New gay character who looks like he may stick around for a while! I'm keeping every digit crossed that the show pays the numerous hints about Mack last season and does something there. Even outside of that, though, I'd love to see Daisy and the team training new Inhumans and taking over from Afterlife as a sort of bridging station for the newly transformed, and he seems like a decent character to start with.

 

I fully appreciate what others are saying above in terms of this show feeling completely different to how it was in season 1, but honestly, I appreciate that. I like that they've been willing to completely retool things as needed, and I think it's kept the show more interesting than it might otherwise have been during its rockier patches. That said, I'm curious to see how the broader structure of this season emerges, both in terms of a Big Bad (the ACTU seem extreme, but a step down from "genocidal superhumans" or "terror-Nazis", and Lash is just one (massive, blue, pointy) guy) and in terms of what the bulk of SHIELD actually does now. If Hunter chasing Ward is basically a solo mission, and Daisy's secret warriors are technically a side-project of SHIELD, are the rest of the team (once Simmons and May are back) going to be facing off against other random non-Inhuman-related threats of the week? Or will it be all Inhumans, all the time?

[DeLurker]

I wish they had managed to sneak an h-word into "Advanced Threat Containment Unit" because I really, really, really want them to be ATCHU.

Hazard would have been so easy to add...shame.

[mac123x]

More directly on-topic: Yay! New gay character who looks like he may stick around for a while! I'm keeping every digit crossed that the show pays the numerous hints about Mack last season and does something there.

 

Honestly, I hope they don't go there.  Introducing a new character to become the designated love interest of one of the regulars isn't that interesting to me regardless of their orientation.  I'd kind of like it if they had two characters who happened to be gay who also happened not to be interested in each other beyond friendship. 

[HurricaneVal]

Wow, I do not remember Constance Zimmer having a scar on Joan of Arcadia, so it must really be her scar.  No wonder it looks real!  Maybe now that the actress is a little older the scar is more prominent, and since it works with her character, they've been accentuating it. 

[Kel Varnsen]

It didn't remind me of the Care Bear stare (though now that you mention it...), but his lightning bolts reminded me too much of the proton beams from Ghostbusters.  And while yes, Ghostbusters is awesome it's also 30 years old so the effect just felt really dated looking to me.  Daisy/Quake's powers are more subtle (visually anyway) and better looking.

Yea that effect looked pretty weak. I also thought the monster guy suit/make up looked pretty bad too. I know this is a mutant enemy produced show, and it looked like they went to the storage room and found some 90's WB monster faces and other stuff from Buffy/Angel and mixed a few of those monsters together.

[ahisma]

More directly on-topic: Yay! New gay character who looks like he may stick around for a while! I'm keeping every digit crossed that the show pays the numerous hints about Mack last season and does something there.

Honestly, I hope they don't go there. Introducing a new character to become the designated love interest of one of the regulars isn't that interesting to me regardless of their orientation. I'd kind of like it if they had two characters who happened to be gay who also happened not to be interested in each other beyond friendship.

I am hoping we do find out Mack is gay or bi, based on his interactions with his old captain and with Fitz. In fact, I was hoping while Fitz was upset over Jemma's treatment of him that he'd wake up and discover the joys of requited attraction. But then Jemma came back with her confession and that put paid to that.

However Mack's conversation with Bobbi in this ep shows that Mack is still deeply caring about Fitz (however one wants to read that). I agree that I'd prefer Joey not be around to be a Mack love interest. If Mack's reeling from being unlucky in love twice in a row and Joey's had his life turned upside down, still needs to control his powers, etc., then friendship would be a better option.

[John Potts]

Well I guess SHIELD are no longer wanted by the government (I guess the "deal" with General Talbot stuck) but at least the new anti-mutant - sorry, Inhuman - agency actually seems to be competent. Of course, in the future she's bound to make some spectacular screw-ups just to make our heroes look good.

 

Of course, they'll have to work on actually being vaguely competent first. If Skye/Daisy is meant to be their "Welcome to your new life" Girl, then perhaps she could mention that she's just gone through a major mutation herself. Or that they're working to mitigate the effects of the mutations rather than just say "Sorry - you've just been screwed and can't do anything about it!" Admittedly, any bad news is easier when delivered by a hot chick (maybe less so when you're gay), so there is that.

 

Senna Please, someone get that man a shotgun-axe or whatever it was he wanted.  I want to see that!

 

That would be AWESOME!

 

Lantern7 Nice to see Blanka from Street Fighter II get work. And he's got new powers beyond zapping hapless people.

 

But... he didn't cannonball roll into anyone!

 

ChelseaNH I wish they had managed to sneak an h-word into "Advanced Threat Containment Unit"

 

It was rather uninventive - couldn't they use SWORD or AIM? Marvel is usually pretty good at coming up with inventive acronyms. You could even come up with something new like, "Hazardous Alien Reaction, Detection, Anticipation & Scientific Solutions"  (HARDASS).

Edited January 15, 2016 by John Potts

[Raja]

 

 

It was rather uninventive - couldn't they use SWORD or AIM? Marvel is usually pretty good at coming up with inventive acronyms. You could even come up with something new like, "Hazardous Alien Reaction, Detection, Anticipation & Scientific Solutions"  (HARDASS).

AIM was used in Iron Man III