Agents of SHIELD S06E10 Review: Body Jumping

Agents of SHIELD, Season 6, Episode 10: Leap

This is an... interesting episode? Episode 9 acted as kinda-sorta a mid-season finale, essentially, which was why I took a bit of a break in reviewing Agents of SHIELD episodes, even though the episodes technically still aired weekly. 

And... "Leap" is certainly an interesting episode to come back to. Knowing that we still have around half a season to muck around with, this one ends up taking all of the questions raised by Izel and Sarge's mysteries over the past season and basically goes all-in in explaining them. It's kind of an episode that kinda works as a bit of a tense bottle episode of having everyone trapped in base, not sure which one of the people in the room they can trust. And... and honestly, while executed well, I do feel that it's honestly not particularly that interesting. Sure, all the acting's pretty great, the exposition is nice if not quite the best, but ultimately there is a huge sense of "been there, seen that", even within the context of Agents of SHIELD. 

Turns out that Izel can body-hop, turning herself into a wispy, ghost-like form and she can jump around, which was the explanation of May shooting Sarge to near-death in the post-credits scene of episode 9. Without getting too recappy, basically this episode has everyone starting to realize that there's something not quite right. Sarge's dead body is returning back to life, people are losing time, and some people are behaving oddly. They figure out that Izel can either mind-control people or hide inside people, leading to that pretty fun scene where everyone important gathers in the same room and they have to tell each other secrets... which I kinda felt was kind of underwhelming, other than the revelation that Daisy's been sending money to Lincoln's sister. 

And then Izel keeps jumping into different people once her cover's blown, leading to that very creepy scene where Izel-in-Piper shoots Piper's hand, and later on causes poor, poor Agent Davis to commit suicide by jumping off of a ledge. Which, as shocking as the scene was... is admittedly kind of way too obviously just done for shock value. 

Eventually, though, Sarge breaks free from Simmons' restraints (off-screen, to, I may add) while Izel continues to jump bodies until she reaches the room where the Fear Dimension sphere was kept. We get monologue courtesy of Fitz and Deke that apparently, the third monolith that created the Fear Dimension probably interacted with the Space and Time Monoliths, creating another Coulson and sending him way back into the past. Which is kind of a nice little nod to a previous episode and gives Sarge a backstory... but I really kinda wished that the delivery wasn't such obvious exposition. 

Izel and Sarge give their own exposition as well, with Izel noting that she and Sarge (real name Pachakutiq) are energy beings from a different dimension who arrived into this reality... but Pachakutiq's memories are corrupted by his host body, causing him to hallucinate and get a whole ton of false memories about the true nature of their race and whatnot... and as interesting as these revelations are, I really, really wished that they were either foreshadowed better earlier this season, or that it was exposited to us better. I dunno. So much about this felt pretty dang underwhelming, y'know? It's interesting for sure, and it's going to be something to think about for future episodes, but at the same time, I really wished it had been done better. This one is clearly meant to be a setup episode, and while it's certainly informative and tense enough, it's not quite as good as it could've been. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Ghost Rider and SHIELD's encounter with him is mentioned by Fitz, as is Ghost Rider breaking out of their containment unit in season 4. 
• Poor, dead Lincoln Campbell, Daisy's love interest in season 2 and 3, gets mentioned as well. 
• Other more recent stuff include the whole monolith and fear dimension stuff from the previous season, and the "Great Puff Incident of 2019" when Team Quake got high on alien food.