Agents of SHIELD, Season 4, Episode 21: The Return
As the title cards show, we're out of the 'Agents of Hydra' Framework storyline and back in the final stretch of Agents of SHIELD's fourth season. Two episodes to wrap up an entire season's worth of story. For one, I'm a big fan of the approach taken for the fourth season, where the season is split into three huge arcs (Ghost Rider, LMD and Framework) before finally concluding in two final episodes. Balancing the amount of story threads being told has always been Agents of SHIELD's largest problem since its inception, but this model certainly works fine.
Of course, it's a bit of a shame that the actual episode itself isn't the most exemplary example of a great penultimate episode. It's not bad at all, of course, but there's just something... lacking. I'm not sure if an additional episode would've allowed the plot threads to be paced better, or if trimming off certain plot lines (specifically, either Ghost Rider, Ivanov or Talbot being removed from these two episodes would've been great) would be the answer... but then we would lose the hectic 'so many things going on' aspect of this penultimate episode.
One of the biggest problem, really, is the Superior. He shows up earlier this season during the second arc as a very underwhelming (and hilarious in how crap he was for all his high talk) villain, and spends most of the Framework arc getting a couple of lines telling Aida how he's going to kill Coulson once he gets free from her control, and it's just a matter of whether he'll work with Aida or against her.
Aida's own struggles with humanity ends up being the centerpiece of this episode. Yes, Coulson and May having to awkwardly defend themselves against an army of Ivanov robot-clones while arguing about how the fuck did Coulson not see through the LMD May (and Coulson trying to avoid telling May about the romance-not-romance deal they got going on) is entertaining and hilarious -- and Coulson slicing off an Ivanov robot's face with his shield is badass -- but it's just kind of the filler B-pilot for all the Aida stuff.
And whether the finale lives or dies depends on how invested you are in the Aida stuff. Aida has been a machine with motivations for the majority of the season, but what she wants is to be a real human, to feel and love and hate, and she's a child experiencing the rush of all the emotions a human has for the first time. So she brings the shell-shocked Fitz into a house by the beach, to love and care for, but at the same time she's feeling empathy, confused about leaving Coulson, May and the others to basically die. It's slightly rushed and for the amount of time they're given I guess they kind of did a relatively okay job with it, but a couple more scenes really wouldn't hurt.
The scenes as Fitz sobs in the SHIELD containment unit on whether Simmons will be able to accept him, the growing realization on Aida's face as she goes from comforting to realizing that after all she's sacrificed Fitz still loves Simmons and not her, and transforming into a psychopathic yandere, going to Ivanov in all confusion about just what is this amount of rage she's feeling, the insanely uncomfortable scene of almost-sex with an Ivanov robot before realizing she has a fetish for murdering people... Yeah. Aida's volatile, and while part of me really wish for her character change to be delved with in more detail, this volatility and rapid change from one to the other also works in its own way.
Meanwhile, all of this is going on alongside Yo-Yo's own crusade to save Mack. She basically posits all of the reasons that I did last episode -- break his legs, drag him, knock him out -- and while Yo-Yo accepts Daisy's whole 'Hope' reasoning, it does seem relatively forced. Yo-Yo's intense anger as she tries to save Mack in the face of all odds is definitely well-done, though at the end she takes a dive into the Framework to save her man and honestly I'm unconvinced that we couldn't have done this to pad out last episode, because as much as I enjoy these characters, the whole Mack storyline is just a huge, huge chunk that I could do without.
Oh, and Aida and Ivanov apparently beat up poor Mace's body into a paste and dumped him in a river, causing Talbot and his army men to suspect that some Quaking has been done and goes off to arrest Coulson's team. Mind you, it's not without bad reasons, and Talbot, as usual, quickly changes his allegiance back to Team Coulson as soon as one of the crazy stuff Coulson's spouting is proven true.
Also, RIP Agents Prince and Davis, who end up being fodder to Aida's insane yandere ultra-inhuman powers.
Also, Ghost Rider is back at the end of the episode, which is awesome. Like, shit, he's another can of worms to crack, and I'm pretty sure neither the Rider or the Darkhold will be explained clearly, but at the same time the little fanboy in me is just squeeing at the amount of crazy superhero stuff that's in play at the moment. A godlike being with all your powers combined in league with a psychopatic robot-man with an army of duplicates, fighting against SHIELD, allied with a demonic fire-skull-headed demon with hellfire chains and a kick-ass ride.
Overall, it's a bit messier and far, far more erratic than the slower, more consistently well-done stories in the Framework, but damn if it isn't intense.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Aida's new body is revealed to have the powers of the Inhumans that Hydra researched in the framework, all of which are the powers of Inhumans that we've seen in the past. So far, she's displayed telepotration (Gordon), electrical blasts (Lincoln), instant regeneration of tissue (Jiaying, sort of), and super strength (maybe Mr. Hyde?). Villains with super-powers that are a combination of several pre-existing ones is, of course, something that Marvel comics likes to do, notably with the Fantastic Four villain Super-Skrull.
- Coulson's "can we get a break, please?" followed by the scene cutting to Ghost Rider arriving from hell is similar to how Robbie got his powers earlier this season.
- Ivanov's description of himself as 'being designed only for killing' is similar to a phrase often associated with the Marvel supervillain MODOK.
No comments:
Post a Comment