Agents of SHIELD, Season 7, Episode 8: After, Before
So I guess this season of Agents of SHIELD will take a form similar to the fifth season (a.k.a. the other one that I will keep referring to as the intended conclusion of the show) where we basically take some of the best hits of the show's seven-season-long history and build up stories from it. That's pretty cool, and the Inhuman community of Afterlife is certainly one of the best parts of the first two seasons. Say what you will, but it's easily one of my favourite parts of the show, and, honestly? Despite featuring mostly original characters they did a far, far better job at introducing the Inhumans as this exotic secluded tribe of superhumans with eccentric customs far, far better than the trainwreck of their actual Inhumans show.
With the previous show being a bit of a bizarre distraction with Mack and Deke stranded and parodying horror B-movies, "After, Before" is probably one of the first episodes in this season that really felt like it was building up to some larger story instead of just sort of jumping and sort of bouncing from one episode concept to the next. And sure, it's been fun, but I for one am happy to get into the meat of the season.
Of course, there's still a bunch of obvious 'plot-phlebotonium' stuff going on that pervades this entire season, with the Zephyr's increasingly unpredictable time-jumps and Simmons being utterly baffled at everything that's going on being something that's honestly kind of a huge shrug from me. I don't hate it, but the fact that it's basically a way for the show writers to just split the cast apart into whichever time periods and sets is kind of clear. Sure, I'm sure we'll be building up to the huge Fitz/Simmons/Enoch twist that'll also involve the finale of the previous season, and there's a revelation there, I'm sure, but at the same time it also feels very artificial in a way. Oh, and adding to this? The time-drive is busted, teleported between dimensions or planes or something, and only Elena regaining her Slingshot powers can really fix this. Okay, sure, that's a neat catalyst to finally address Elena basically not being able to access her Inhuman powers for the past seven episodes or so.
The only person that they know that's an authority on Inhumans... is Daisy's future mom, Jiaying, which means we get the glorious return of Dichen Lachman! Elena and May go off to Afterlife to talk with Jiaying, all ware of the Inhumans' distrust of outsiders, while the rest of the crew... sort of have a bit of a character moment while they kinda await their doom. Coulson's probably got the best scene here, with all the talk about the meaning of his existence as a robot, and his interactions with his surrogate daughter Daisy is always welcome. And the fact that throughout all of this Sousa is just going "parachutes! We need our parachutes ready!" is extremely charming. The 'I don't want to know' face that he has when Simmons talks about jumping off of a plane without a parachute is hilarious, too.
But, of course, the main focus of the episode is still the Afterlife shenanigans. After Elena proves herself to be an Inhuman by touching a Diviner without harm (a hilarious scene), Jiaying and her small cabal of '80's Inhumans in the Afterlife (including a curly-haired young teenaged Gordon!) are utterly warm and helpful. They keep saying things like having to keep the community secret and there's a constant tension on May's part since she knows what Jiaying is able to do in the future (this Jiaying's future, but May's past. Time travel!)... but turns out that pre-Hydra-mutilation Jiaying is utterly helpful. It's honestly the same question that we ask from Freddy Malick earlier this season, except unlike the one-dimensional Malick patriarch, Jiaying is a character that has more impact due to, well, having a larger impact on the show itself.
Jiaying quickly surmises that Elena's problem isn't with her body or alien toxins or whatever, but rather with her mind. And realizing that May has empathic powers, the attempt at meditation (as embarrassed as the two badasses end up being) ends up devolving into May and Elena sparring against each other, with May getting flashes to Elena's mind. And there are a couple of interesting parts that really causes Elena to be emotionally traumatized -- the Shrike infection, sure. The death of the girl from the Lighthouse. Elena being forced to kill Ruby (a moment that I did criticize about season 5, since Elena never dealt with the fallout, so yay for that). But there's also a memory from Elena's childhood, where Elena's speedy theft to save a family heirloom ends up indirectly riling up the debt collector that shot her uncle dead.
It sure is a powerful scene and is thematic with Elena 'freezing' and being unable to run, yet also kind of feels artificially inserted and feels like it came out of nowhere. I kinda would've preferred that Tess or Ruby's deaths were the real catalyst for this. Still, everything is executed pretty well and Cordova-Buckley gets an admittedly rare chance to show off some acting skills instead of being a snarky badass.
There's also a running storyline in Afterlife that... maybe it's an effect of reading a lot of X-Men comics recently, but it's kind of a pretty basic premise. One of the younger members in Afterlife, a girl named Kora, keeps trying to flee and seems to have some problem controlling her powers and there's always this hint that Jiaying and her main thug Li (hey that is Byron Mann!) are being evil overlords that are confining Kora and are one step away from killing her. Li sure is, but Jiaying, despite all the hints that she's actually evil... turns out to take a far more mentor-like quality and even wants to try and use the information aobut Elena losing her powers to remove Kora's uncontrollable and extremely destructive powers.
Kora ends up actually running away, stealing Li's gun, and is about to shoot herself dead. It's a very dark scene (and I assume what happened in the 'proper' timeline, since Kora never showed up in Agents of SHIELD)... but she ends up being interrupted by Nathaniel Malick, who knows where Kora will be, and ends up sweet-talking her into accepting her powers and using it against her oppressors. A very, very dark turn from what would otherwise be an uplifting moment for an Inhuman accepting that she's not a monster and her powers can be used for good... and honestly mirrors Daisy's own interactions with Jiaying in season two. Except where 2015-era Jiaying at least had noble intentions in tutoring Daisy... Nathaniel Malick clearly is all slimy and evil. Nathaniel and Kora end up attacking Afterlife, and we get the revelation that Kora isn't just a girl in the community, but Jiaying's own daughter. Our heroes escape, and Nathaniel's little army (Hydra? Neo-Hydra?) ends up taking over Afterlife. Or, well, the half-dozen or so extras they managed to cast for the scene, which feels very underwhelming.
This plot point is kind of interesting, but we have to put a pin on it because while Gordon and Jiaying survive via convenient teleporting, the two of them sort of go into hiding because the rest of SHIELD end up having to time-jump once more. Elena ends up actually getting past her mental block and develops her power even further -- she realizes that it's all been symbolic, that her Slingshot/Yo-Yo powers is a sign that she's tied to her past (and why she keeps returning to the same spot) and now she can just super-speed in one direction without bouncing back. So she fixes the Time Drive. I'm not going to lie, it's honestly pretty cheesy (and, again, Elena's traumatic I-caused-Uncle-Ben's-death storyline kind of comes out of nowhere) but Cordova-Buckley really sells all her scenes in this episode and I really can't help but like it.
...and then the Zephyr time-jumps-in-a-time-jump anyway. Whoops!
Overall... I do have mixed feelings about this episode. The Elena/May stuff is simultaneously an ass-pull and also some of the best character work to come out of the season. I do really like the Afterlife/Inhumans storyline, and Kora is kind of interesting, except it all feels like it's being rushed and only the bare minimum of exposition and plot development is being done. I dunno... we've had a lot of episodes earlier in the season that I feel could've been spent building up Nathaniel Malick as a villain (he's certainly more interesting than the Chromicoms, sure, but his personality is just a generic Hydra prick) or building up some of the plotlines that are building up here. Then again, I'm not sure if the Afterlife/Inhumans stuff will stick for more than two or three episodes, so maybe it doesn't matter? A solid, entertaining watch, even if the season at this point is kind of a mess in terms of pacing.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Jiaying, Gordon and the Afterlife storyline are all explored in season two of this show, although Kora the powers-are-too-great girl and Li the knife-making Inhuman is original to this season.
- Simmons falling out of a plane without a parachute is actually a nod to one of the very first episodes of Agents of SHIELD, where she fell out of a plane without one and was rescued by Grant Ward. Remember when Ward was a sickeningly charming gentleman-spy-man?
- The necklace that Elena stole in her flashback is, I believe, the same necklace that gets passed around the cast in season three and ultimately was vaporized with Lincoln when he died.
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