Agents of SHIELD S07E09 Review: Obligatory Groundhog Day Episode

Agents of SHIELD, Season 7, Episode 9: As I Always Have Been

So we have a Groundhog Day/time loop episode? Did Agents of SHIELD never do this before? I guess I got Legends of Tomorrow on the mind, huh.

Anyway, this episode is pretty top-notch. Ultimately it doesn't really serve to amend my opinion that this final season could've done better with a tighter pacing, but this is certainly a very solid episode. After the events of the previous episode, the time-drive has fucked up and shunted Zephyr One into some weird timey-wimey nebula dimension. The episode makes a nice way to segue into Daisy discovering all of this seemingly for the first time... and then we get the revelation that as far as LMD Phil Coulson is concerned, they've done this a couple hundred times. Again, I really do like the way that the episode tells this to us, and the exasperated ha-ha-I-am-so-tired-and-pretending-to-be-cheerful "this guyyy!" delivery that Clark Gregg makes as he explains to Daisy for like the twelfth time that Daisy and Coulson are the only ones to be able to remember the time loops (because they start the loop unconscious... don't question the video game logic too much); that Coulson remembers everything because he's a robot; and that Daisy remembers everything but forgets them if she dies at any point in the loop. And almost everything happens identically to how they do in previous loops with the only difference being the timer counting down as they reach closer and closer to the event horizon of the timey-wimey dimension.

There's a combined mystery of how they can get out of the time-loop, but also the fact that the only real way that they can do it is to finally, finally broach the question of what the fuck has happened to Fitz in-between season 6 and 7 since Simmons has that weird implant that causes her to forget where Fitz is. And also someone seems to be deliberately sabotaging them, but who among the SHIELD buddy-buddy team is out there willing to doom everyone on-board into ambiguous time-related cessation of existence? The mystery is pretty fun, and best of all? The episode is so dang funny. I'm not sure just what makes it work, but the performances of everyone, how some of the other characters react to Daisy's time-loop talk without batting an eyelid, and even the fun little jump-cuts and casual 'oh we just got beaten up so easily by Enoch' all work out perfectly.

Speaking of which, yeah, Enoch is the somewhat-unwilling instigator of the murders in Zephyr One, because he's got a subconscious routine that tells him to protect the secret of where Fitz is... even if it means killing everyone. Even if it means killing Simmons. Thankfully, there's the time-loop to reverse every single time that Enoch succeeds, whether it be when he outsmarts everyone, or when he beats up everyone. Ultimately, though, after many many timeloops and in literally the final iteration of the loop before their destruction, Enoch proves that the sweet, lovable emotionally-flat alien robot is still everyone's best friend, and we have a genuinely great and touching moment as Daisy and Coulson stick around with Enoch after he rips his robo-heart out and is just waiting for his death. A great scene that is emphasized because of Enoch's inherent lack of over-the-top emotions. The fact that Enoch says everything he says with a calm and factual demeanor makes a lot of his existential questioning about fear and the uncertainty of death hit home a lot more, as is his sacrifice. Where the humans are still wringing their fingers at essentially sacrificing one of their own, Enoch just calmly and efficiently rips out his heart with no fuss because that's what he hopes his buddies would also do for him. What a good friend.

It's just such a shame that Enoch himself has been criminally underused in this season, relegated to 'ha ha he got left behind in time but it's okay because he's an immortal robot' jokes and being kept off-screen most of the time, but he's been a likable character and easily the best part of season six (some would argue the only good part).

In addition to the obviously great emotions that revolve around the death of Enoch as well as the fun madcap and wink-wink-fourth-wall-leaning writing (the logo shows up twice as part of the time loop!), there are still also a couple of great moments here. The show is still extremely oblique with Fitz's fate and I feel like it's going to be a thing that will simply be saved for the final episode or something, but Elizabeth Henstridge gives us a great performance as Simmons gets an emotional breakdown when she finally remembers, but the urgency of their timeloop situation means we (or the 'restored' Simmons after the time loop) don't get to learn any of the information that she learns. Honestly, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if we learn that Fitz is dead all along or transformed into a computer or some shit, but at this point... eh. As much as the writers basically stretch the 'star crossed lovers doomed to never be together' aspect about Fitz and Simmons, I really do feel like the writers wouldn't give the two of them a 'bad ending'.

Best of all, however, has to be Daisy and Coulson. The two of them have always had some of the best chemistry in the show, with a surrogate father-daughter vibe going on, and they just play well together. Whether it's them cracking jokes at each other revolving the time loop, making jokes about vinyls and record-skipping, or the surprisingly raw moment of LMD Coulson just ranting about his existential crisis regarding his fate and life as a Life Model Decoy and how "having to watch everyone he cares for die over and over" is not just a reflection of the time-loop, but also his eventual fate as a robot that will outlive May, Daisy and the rest of the team. And ultimately Coulson essentially gives himself the Coulson Speech (we haven't heard one of that in a while) when he talks to fellow robot Enoch about the place of someone immortal among their far more mortal human friends.

Also, apparently Daisy and Sousa are a thing. It... it honestly kind of came out of nowhere. Sure, Daisy and Sousa had that whole thing where they shared a mission or two together in the Nathaniel Malick thing, and Sousa was watching over Daisy in the loop... but I dunno, I feel like their little romance came literally out of nowhere beyond Sousa having a type for main character protagonist superhero women. It's like... I like Sousa from the Agent Carter TV show, and the actor is sure charming, but the random romance feels like some typical 'everyone needs a love interest' typical early Agents of SHIELD move.

Overall, though, other than a couple of hiccups (and my general dissatisfaction with the pacing of the season as a whole) this is a very top-notch episode.