Agents of SHIELD, Season 4, Episode 18: No Regrets
One thing that I disliked about alternate timeline/reality/world stories in superhero stories and general science fiction genre is that what you do in the alternate universe don't really matter, because you're coming back home to the 'main' universe. It's one thing why after a while the Earth-2 stories in the Flash really ceased to be interesting, especially when everyone started dying off like flies. Who cares if Earth-2 Joe West or Caitlin Snow or Cisco Ramon gets killed one by one? The ones I care about are the ones in the 'real' world. Here, though, the setup of the whole Framework thing ends up making it matter about what they do in the Framework, and why it matters. For one, a good chunk of the cast still doesn't believe this whole multiple worlds stuff, and they kind of have to help out and play along with what they perceive to be reality to really jar them awake. And the other? Well, if you die in the virtual world, you die in the real world.
As, well, happens in this episode. Suddenly it's not just a fun Alternate Universe trip into a world where everything is fucked up and Fitz is the leader of Hydra and Mack is a single parent and Jeffrey Mace is basically Captain America. The Framework claims its first victim, with Jeffrey Mace falling in action thanks to him going back to rescue a couple of kids before being crushed by a building and blown up by a Hydra quinjet for good measure. And we even get a cutaway to the real world to show that, yeah, they're not pulling any of that 'didn't happen onscreen, so he survived' bullshit. Long rest, Patriot. You served well.
And up to his death, Jeffrey Mace didn't even get to realize that he's in a simulation, which I guess is for the best. He died thinking that he is a superhero, a man with super-strength that died saving people -- even May, who used to be an enemy -- and acts like a true, honourable hero, and it's an amazingly sad yet awesome end for the man. He's spent so much of season two just being unsure about his status as the leader of SHIELD, being a fraud, especially when he can no longer take the super-serum, with a majority of his role being relegated to a support one, having him die as a man who lived his entire life as a hero, the bastion of resistance against the evil Hydra regime, dying rescuing a child? That's a good death.
One of the more powerful moments in this episode is Simmons not being able to really tell Mace anything about the man's favourite stuff or whatever despite supposedly being friends, and that's honestly really sad. Mace's a fraud, sure, and everyone instantly hates him or suspects him from the get go, and the man doesn't deserve it. If Simmons had tried to bond with Mace more, especially after Mace came clean about the whole Patriot business around the halfway point of this season, maybe all of this could've been avoided. Maybe.
Also, the combination of seeing Hydra indoctrinating children (which is completely fucked up, by the way, especially when you realize that the children from Coulson's class an episode ago is there among the prisoners) and seeing just how selfless Patriot and the rest of his people are ends up jarring Melinda May into realizing that, shit, Hydra isn't the harsh, disciplinary parent. Hydra's a fucked-up tyrannical organization.
So yeah, we have our first casualty, but while he doesn't know that he died in a simulation, neither did the man who essentially pulled the trigger, which is Fitz. Fitz ordered the hit on the Patriot, and he basically caused Mace's death in this. He doesn't know, not at the moment, that he's friends with Mace in the real world, but when he comes out and regains his memory, hoo boy, that's not going to be a pleasant sensation. It's a very unique and intriguing situation, that's for sure.
And really, the big question as to why Fitz is so cruel doesn't just stem from Aida, it stems from him fixing his one great regret -- daddy Alistair walking out on him. Turns out that Alistair raised his kid to be ruthless and not weak, and Simmons was right to talk shit about Alistair so many episodes ago. Alistair's interactions with Fitz didn't really take that long, but they're easily some of the more uncomfortable scenes I've watched in this show. Fitz is basically the only main character who hasn't been turned to the 'light' side. May and Mack might not necessarily believe in all this real world malarkey (and really, a big question for our heroes is how to get them to really determine reality), but they're at least on the same side as Daisy, Simmons and Coulson. Fitz? Getting him to come to whatever exit that Radcliffe has prepared is going to be a tough one. (And of course Radcliffe built an exit. We need an endgame for this storyline, of course)
Oh, and in addition to everything that's going on? Antoine Triplett returns, literally a character that I bet no one expected to come back in this arc, least of all the identity of the secret double agent working for Mace. It's a clever way to work in this woefully underused character, and I'm happy to see him back and interacting with the main cast again.
The episode ends in a hell of an amazing bit as May makes her allegiance switch. She probably doesn't believe or even know about the whole alternate world is the real world thing, but she knows one thing. The side she's working with is the side that goes around brainwashing people, editing textbooks and killing honourable men like Jeffrey Mace, so she gives the imprisoned and tortured Daisy a Terrigen crystal, allowing her to transform, finally, into Quake.
There were some uneven points, that's for sure, and maybe we could've afforded to see a bit more of Jeffrey Mace in these episodes, and maybe May's change of heart could've taken some more buildup because before this she is pretty much emotionless evil henchwoman through and through, but those are small complaints. It's a very great episode, Trip's return and Mace's death were both executed well and unexpected, and just how our heroes are going to get out of this situation cleanly is definitely a very intriguing question .
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Lots of references to earlier Agents of SHIELD episodes in here. Obviously, we've got the return of Antoine Triplett, the SHIELD agent unceremoniously killed in season two. But in addition to Triplett, the voice of Sunil Bakshi (also from season two) returns in the PA system for Hydra's hypnotist facility, and Kenneth Turgeon (Simmons' boss during her time undercover in Hydra) is the Hydra officer that debriefs May. Also, Agent Burrows, killed earlier this season, returns as Mace's second-in-command in the Framework world.
- Two kids from Coulson's Framework school -- the one escorted out in the middle of the class, and the one that talked to Simmons next to her car -- were among the kids in the brainwashing facility.
- May's super strength serum was apparently derived from the Mr. Hyde serum used by Calvin Zabo, with obvious alterations so May doesn't go through the disfigurement that Cal Zabo wen through. Last episode showed that Cal's alter ego, Dr. Winslow, was arrested by Hydra, suggesting where they got the serum formula from.
- Coulson talks about an Inhuman with lion paws while being checked at Hydra, which references a conversation he had with John Garrett back in season one about a powered individual that Garrett arrested. Both are apparently references to the supervillain Griffin.
- Sunil Bakshi's hypnotism speech is obviously identical to his and Daniel Whitehall's modus operandi in the second season.
- Trip using wartime antiques to spy on Hydra is a reference to how he is a big fan of his Howling Commando father, and thus collects and uses a lot of wartime equipment.
- There's way too many references to what Ward did in earlier seasons, although an especially clever bit was Coulson noting that he gets 'hives' from seeing him.
- Coulson posing as a bus driver is totally a reference to SHIELD's big plane, the Bus, isn't it? Especially when he name drops 'The Bus' in conversation?
No comments:
Post a Comment