Agents of SHIELD, Season 6, Episode 8-9: Collision Course, Parts 1-2
I actually watched through this two-parter a while back, but just didn't really find a whole ton to talk about it. It's... it's kind of predictable, honestly, which isn't the worst thing ever since Agents of SHIELD has certainly had its share of suffering because they shoehorned in plot twists that were there just to 'shock' the audience, but it does make "Colission Course" feel particularly generic as far as sci-fi superhero action finales go. Granted, it's a very entertaining superhero action finale for this first half of the season, so I'm not complaining too much. I just expected more, y'know?
Because turns out, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Izel is actually "the Maker" or the boss of the Shrike, and she's coming to Earth to basically set up the apocalypse. Meanwhile, Sarge ends up going through his own plans to basically pull off a "everyone else is disposable" plan to sacrifice not just SHIELD agents, but even his own allies in pursuit of his vendetta. Both of these twists are earned, to some extent. Sarge FakeCoulson has became a solid enough character and Clark Gregg's acting is great enough to keep both characters in-universe and the audience to wonder if Sarge's going to put practicality over his petty vendetta. So while I personally never bought that Sarge was ever going to be redeemed, whether he was going to cooperate was a whole other beast. Izel... Izel's a bit less well built-up, and she spends the rest of her screentime as a disappointingly generic (if hammy) alien overlord because we have to save her true nature for the rest of the season.
We do have some neat sci-fi stuff, like all of the Shrike victims gathering together to make a big-ass giant crystal tower that's totally not ripping off Superman, while Sarge continues to be both obnoxiously glib about his plan while complaining that SHIELD won't give him his truck or whatever. After a whole bit of misdirection with a hilarious sword prop (which the show plays absolutely straight, but I just find so dang silly) Sarge's plan is, of course, to blow up a chunk of Earth with a nuclear bomb while he teleports to safety with a portal. But Sarge's minions (which honestly haven't really had a whole ton of personality until last episode and these two) end up kind of getting cold feet.
And... I really want to say that I care for Snowflake, Jaco and Pax, but I really don't. They're far more fleshed out than just "Goon #1-#3" for sure, but they're not fleshed out enough for my liking. Jaco's likable enough over the course of these two episodes, but the increased screentime and his clear conflict, as well as the too-obvious sad backstory given a while back, is just there to set up his eventual heroic sacrifice at the end of episode 9. Snowflake randomly deciding to fuck fucking Deke (who I still find obnoxious and unnecessary) is funny but not that interesting, while Pax's just a generic weaselly coward. I'm not super invested in whether they'll betray Sarge or not, and they kind of end up doing so, albeit with a couple of flip-flopping.
The Fitz Simmons and Izel storyline honestly plays out more like a clumsy D&D exposition segment, with Izel going through a brief recap of her own POV of things (she, of course, is responsible for the destruction of the Chronicrom planet) before quickly revealing herself to be evil and taking over the crew of space-alien-rogues or whatever, which is basically kind of Fitz and Simmons sort of trying their best to buy time until the rest of the cast catches up with them.
I'm likewise not as invested with the Mexican standoff between Sarge and Mack on the Zephyr. It's cool and all, and both actors certainly play their parts well, but things just end up being procedural, y'know? Sarge keeps ranting about how the mission is the most important thing, but Jaco ends up realizing that Sarge's making things more difficult by not cooperatnig and ends up befriending SHIELD, while Mack beats the shit out of Sarge after a brief standoff.
On the ground, Snowflake has fully changed sides. Partly because she has a thing for Deke (ew) but also because Sarge left her to die with the bomb. And... and they just sort of use Daisy's Quake powers to stop the nuclear bomb, which... yeah, that's kinda deus ex machina-y, and while I'm always happy to see Quake do cool things, this one kinda felt like an asspull on the writers' part.
And then everything sort of progresses sort of organically for an action movie, which is honestly pretty cool but at the same time predictable. Team Daisy makes a stand against the Shrike with some neat usage of confined shots. Mack leads the strike team to fight against the mind-controlled aliens on board Izel's ship, rescue Fitz and Simmons, leading to Jaco eventually leaving behind and telling the others to remind Sarge that the mission comes first... and he blows up, blowing up the ship and apparently killing all the Shrikes. And Izel... supposedly, but this is a comic book show and we still have half a season to go.
And I'm not knocking off the cinematography or action sequences or scriptwriting of episode 9. It's all serviceable, and I was entertained the whole time through. But when the dust settles and everything's over, it just feels so dang mundane and predictable for Agents of SHIELD, y'know? Although at least we kinda get a fun epilogue. Everyone's back, no one of real importance died, Mack and Yo Yo get together and we breathe a sigh of relief that this pointless subplot isn't dragged on longer, Snowflake is thrown in a cell (she gets a TV), Deke continues to be a gigantic creep towards Daisy, and... and May shoots Sarge to death in the post-credits scene, which is a neat plot hook, I suppose.
Honestly... I dunno. This mid-season sequence is pretty fun and everything's resolved cleanly, but it just feels like there's something lacking, y'know? Everything is resolved yet the cnoflict feels particularly small-scale and we're just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's at least fun to watch, though I really do hope the back end of season six will end up proving to be something more interesting than Generic Superhero Comic Plot #13.
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