One Piece 826 Review: Sanji's Siblings

One Piece, Chapter 826: 0 and 4

A bit of a slower chapter as we meet two of Sanji's siblings, and apparently that poison fish from last chapter was actually quasi-relevant to put Luffy in enough peril in order to show off Reiju's poison-sucking ability. Apparently Magellan doesn't include this particular poison-fish among his repertoire of poisons. Man, I miss Magellan. 

We meet two of Sanji's siblings here, his little brother Yonji (because Yon = 4, San = 3) and his older sister Reiju (Rei = 0). Yonji has Sanji's face, but is different in every other way. He dresses like a 60's superhero, and has a weird spiky hair, and is super-arrogant. He's also a lecher like Sanji when he sees Nami, though, so there's that one familial similarity. Is Sanji's family all like that? Yonji doesn't want to give Luffy the antidote, but Reiju kicks Yonji overboard -- confirming two things. One, kicking prowess runs in their family, and two, Yonji isn't a devil fruit user.

Also, they have shoes like the Trickster from DC comics that allows them to walk on air... which, in a world where literally anyone can learn the Rokushiki (which includes Geppo) isn't very impressive, honestly. But apparently Big Mom wants these technology? Also, Reiju's cleavage runs down all the way to her bellybutton and she's got a very short skirt and weird butterfly wings. She's got a... very interesting design.

Brook finally spills out what he knows about the Vinsmoke family, and apparently Sanji is a prince! The Vinsmoke used to be a dynasty of tyrannical royals that once ruled North Blue with an iron fist... but the dynasty has kind of petered out and they're now a nation with no home. They're still acknowledged enough to show up in the Reverie, which makes all that Reverie scenes even more relevant. 

Reiju kisses the dying Luffy in the mouth and sucks out not the poison (enough to kill a giant, apparently), but the rash even moves from Luffy's mouth to hers. She doesn't suffer a wee bit for doing it, though, referring to the poison as a delicacy. Something to do with her technology? Or is it just a devil fruit power?

Reiju tells the Straw Hats how the Germa family kind of confronted the Marines back when Sanji's first poster, with the Duval face, circulated, and it actually neatly ties in to why Duval was attacked by so many Marines -- the Germa 66 pulling strings to get 'Sanji' back is why that particular bit happened. There's a bit of a confrontation, with Luffy wanting Sanji back, Pekoms just hanging around and the Germa siblings unwavering in their want for having Sanji marry Big Mom's daughter.

Meanwhile, an eel fishman with a hella long ponytail (Aladdin, I think his name was?) is spying on the Straw Hats, reporting to Jinbe that Luffy is here. Well, we know that Fishman Island did have some problems with Big Mom before thanks to Luffy, so what he's doing here is a bit suspect. Maybe he'll just show up to join the crew in the most anticlimatic way ever? Eh. We'll see. It's gotten interesting enough without Jinbe thrown in, but it's about time that weird triangle-fish dude shows up again. I like Jinbe.

Agents of SHIELD S03E19 Review: Prometheus

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 19: Failed Experiments

A bunch of great scenes happen in this episode, from Hive's backstory being explored, to the Kree finally returning to the show all Prometheus-style, to the Kree fighting against the Inhumans, to Mack confronting Skye with the hopes that she's just faking her loyalty to Hive, to a strike team just not messing around and wanting to blow Hive up, this is a very eventful episode.

From the beginning where Hive's Inhuman posse is just hanging around playing pool and pinball, there's a sense of fun before the shit hits the fan, though the dueling lab scenes between Radcliffe and FitzSimmons was a bit slow and ultimately kind of pointless. May's infiltration scene and quasi-flirting with James without being overtly sexual is a great scene, and hilarious to boot.

The Kree being behind the Inhumans has been hanging over the show's head since season two, and finally after the rather disappointing Vin-Tak last season, two Kree Reapers show up in this episode, summoned by Hive himself. After a failed experiment where the remaining Hydra leaders (whoops, nameless dudes, you guys just died, further nailing the fact that Hydra is no more) were melted quite gruesomely, Hive finally makes use of the artifact that he claimed was his 'one downfall' to wake up the Kree Reapers that are apparently just hanging around near our solar system (no, really) and summon them in a bid to obtain Kree blood. 

Meanwhile we get to see Hive's own backstory as he, an ancient human, was captured by the very same Kree Reapers and transformed into the Inhuman that he is now. There is definitely a sense of a cosmic sci-fi story as the creation rises up against the super-advanced creators. Granted, I wished the Kree looked more like Ronan the Accuser with the face-paint instead of dudes painted like Papa Smurf, but hey. 

It's exciting to see the Kree Reapers landing and just doing battle against Hive's forces. Alisha (or two of her copies, it's hard to tell) bites the dust against one of the Reapers, and while one of them engage Hive, the other battled Skye. Skye, surprisingly fares far better against the Kree, using her Quake powers to essentially cripple the dude so that dr. Radcliffe can drain him dry. Meanwhile, Hive's fight is far more brutal and physical, with that whole theme of a creation fighting against his creator.

All the while, May and a strike team of SHIELD agents are just lying in wait waiting for whoever wins to kill the other -- though bazookas and high-tech gear did jack shit against Hive. I am honestly surprised that entire team (including Agent O'Brien, who showed up last episode in May's Bahrain flashbacks) survived and no random redshirt got eaten by Hive.

Meanwhile, Skye is confronted by Mack, who is certain that Skye is actually asking to be rescued and is subconsciously or otherwise trying to tell SHIELD where she is... when in reality, Skye did just fuck up. Whoops. It's a very tense conversation between the two, with Mack believing in his partner being very believable, and, well, four or five episodes ago I didn't even care about Mack! That episode with his brother and his constant claims that Skye is on their side in this episode certainly helps to make him more likable. But no, Skye is fully believing in the Inhuman cause, and Skye even tries to recruit Mack to her side, noting that all they had to do is to 'see'. Skye still evidently cares for her SHIELD teammates, noting that all they had to do is to make them 'see'. Except, y'know, that's not going to happen, and when Mack blows up the crippled Kree, Skye was so angry that she very nearly earthquaked Mack's chest to death.

I honestly would buy it if Mack died this episode, and fully expected it to be a big dramatic thing that happened, but May showed up to rescue Mack, and Hive showed up to pull Skye out of the line of fire. That was a fucking scary moment, though, nonetheless. Skye's rantings about how SHIELD takes normal folk and turning them into soldiers, about how everyone keeps trying to save her, really would make you believe that they are coming from Skye, the character we've known over three seasons, and if she wasn't actually brainwashed it would be even more tragic. 

Lincoln, meanwhile, has a subplot about forcibly injecting himself with the antibody vaccine thingamagig thing that Fitz and Simmons are developing without waiting for them to perfect the drug, and, well, like all things scientific you don't just test drugs randomly and they don't work simply because of burning determination. Lincoln is dumb, and his whole subplot didn't amount to anything other than to highlight that he's dumb. They probably need to give Lincoln an episode to himself to make me care for him -- that worked for Mack -- but the downside would be, y'know, giving Lincoln and episode to himself.

Oh, and while SHIELD might think they have won by blowing up the Kree bodies, apparently two years is still enough time for Kree blood to hang around in Skye's body (despite, y'know, the spleen destroying blood cells and whatever every couple of months) enough for her to be enough of a plot device to further Hive and Radcliffe's plans. It also segues in nicely for Skye to show her devotion to the Inhumanization plot.

Yeah, still a great quality episode, despite the slow way that it begun. Not really buying that Evil Skye will continue to be a thing over the next few episodes, but this one is certainly convincing with some great acting skills. It's a big episode where everything that SHIELD does -- the grand 'wait for them to duke it out and shoot the loser', 'save our brainwashed teammate', and even Lincoln's stupid desperation plot -- all fail. Great plot development, great scenes and overall a great episode. Three more episodes to go, and it definitely is a great buildup!

Agents of SHIELD S03E18 Review: OG Shipping

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 18: The Singularity

A little more to go before my reviews are caught up! I do love how Hive's mind-control works. It's not a simple one-note conversion for Skye. She doesn't just get up and worship Hive all of a sudden, but rather Hive enhances all the resentment and feelings of wanting to belong to a family that Skye demonstrably displays throughout three seasons of Agents of SHIELD. Skye is still Skye, with all aspects of her personality still intact, but her feelings of making Inhumans more accepted and whatnot are enhanced and whatnot. 

This episode's focus was both on Skye working as a Hive operative, as well as Fitz and Simmons finally getting an episode devoted to them. It's great having them play spies as they infiltrate this body-enhancement back market convention thing, and having them basically be quite forward with their relationship. Nothing overtly much to note other than it's cute and fun. Their confrontation with Skye and a Will-persona Hive is great, with Skye brutalizing Fitz without doing any real lasting damage, warning him to stay away, while Will-Hive sparing Simmons, and delivering some lines of dialogue that probably fucked with Simmons's head. Simmons isn't fooled, though, and stabs Hive in the gut. That probably won't kill a creature made up of a swarm, but hey, good on Simmons!

It's a tense confrontation even if I don't particularly think any of the main characters are going to die here, but the fact that Fitz and Simmons have shown their love for each other so strongly and bad things happen every time they do that in the past, well, you can't help but think that the showrunners will throw in yet another wrench to fuck them apart. 

We also get a little subplot with Coulson, May and Lincoln going off to find the other Inhumans, namely 'Ginger Ninja' Alisha. May calls Coulson out for being so overprotective of Skye, while all but willing to put a bomb vest on Lincoln. I mean, Lincoln isn't quite as likable as Skye, that's for sure, with his tantrums and being uncontrollable, but Coulson is playing favourites and it's great for May and Lincoln both to call Coulson out on that. Alisha's already been taken over by Hive, though, and Hive is always one step ahead of SHIELD in this regard.

Before the big Fitz-Simmons thing, Team Hive is just going around picking up all the ersatz Inhumans around the globe. First Alisha, who will probably provide cannon fodder fighters like she did when she was working for Jiaying, and then James. James finally gets to be an Inhuman with explody powers similar to X-Men's Gambit (apparently he's the MCU version of Hellfire, who I have no idea who he is but cool), and he gets a decent fight scene against Mack in the climax of the episode as Mack tries his best to rescue Fitz and Simmons. James is funny, filling in a niche left behind by Hunter as the snarkiest asshat member of the cast, and his little search for a superhero codename is fun enough on its own. 

After Fitz and Simmons' attempts to infiltrate and gain the trust of dr. Radcliffe in an excellently atmospheric twisted CyborgCon thing, he ends up being gang-pressed by Hive to help out as the brains of the team. Hive has brought an entire village with Gideon Malick's money, and apparently is going to pull off a Magneto and experiment on turning humans into Inhumans.

I thought there was a bit of a missed opportunity for Hive not to hunt down Elena and Joey, people who we actually care about unlike the cipher that is Alisha (as cool as she is) or the asshat James, but hey, guest stars and all that.

Oh, and despite his attempts at interacting with Skye, Hive never once in this episode brings up Grant Ward's persona despite bringing out Will to talk to Simmons. Interesting, that.

Meanwhile, with the death of our last named Hydra member, Gideon Malick, Hydra is just this vague, nebulous threat with no real leader in check, and while we only see it from Coulson's POV, Talbot shows his competence by sending in his ATCU forces and finally crushing Hydra and cutting off the head. It's a bit anti-climatic considering how big a presence Hydra has been, but it's a nonetheless appropriate end. With all the leaders of Hydra dead (or in Ward's case, converted into Hive) there really isn't any point to introducing yet another new head of Hydra and doing the same old thing as we did throughout several movies and two and a half seasons of Agents of SHIELD, so yeah, that just happened. It's appropriate, I guess, after all the heads cut off the body just kinda dies.

Overall, a great setup to hopefully a climactic ending to this surprisingly excellent third season. I hope we learn more about Skye and just how deep in mind-control she is. With Hydra out of the way (and the show seemingly ignoring the Watchdogs after that one episode) we're focused on a proper SHIELD vs Hive war, which is cool.

Agents of SHIELD S03E17 Review: Civil War

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 17: The Team

I thought this episode would just be the Secret Warriors kicking ass as they show off that the Inhumans can too pull off an Avengers and beat up evil bad guy organizations. In a sense that bit happens in the first half of the episode, as Quake, Slingshot, Lincoln and Joey (we need proper superhero names for the latter two) assault the Hydra base and fuck everyone up. From Lincoln lightning-bolting everyone, to Skye doing battle with equal amounts of martial arts and shockwave blasts, to Elena and Joey bantering as they go down a lift and take down a small strikeforce by simply stopping bullets and Flash-zooming in, it's pretty awesome all around. Elena is officially more badass than the MCU's version of Quicksilver.

And when Giyera and Lucio come in and we have actual superhumans fighting each other, it's a big treat to me as well! Lucio, being nowhere as badass as Giyera, ends up being killed by Joey in the resulting fight, though Joey really looks shocked -- he was just a civilian looking for a date, and he probably never killed anyone that closely before. 

The big team victory with them driving out Hydra and capturing Gideon Malick ends up being thrown off as, well, SHIELD and the Secret Warriors end up self-destructing as it seemed that one or all of the Inhumans are infected. Fitz and Simmons performing an autopsy on Lucio's body and finding out that Hive is able to literally infect the poor fucker's brain ends up putting all of the Inhumans under suspect. I thought that it was a bit rushed, and we could've had the Secret Warriors actually working as a team for a couple more episodes first... but the rushed manner that the Secret Warriors are put together is probably a contributing factor to how quickly they start to blame each other.

And you do have proper reasons to suspect each of the four members of the Secret Warriors, and justifications for their actions as well. Every member of the team had a moment where they were alone in which Hive could've infected them, and every member have their own reasons as to why they would want to resist -- we all know Lincoln's got a terrible temper and distrust issues, Joey's all out of whack thanks to having killed earlier this episode and it isn't far-fetched to have him disappear and mope, Elena has minimal interaction with SHIELD and hates governments in general, plus she has superspeed, while Skye can pull the guilt-tripping card and she indeed was alone thanks to other characters conveniently putting her in her room. 

There definitely was a bit of a Civil War vibe to the whole team splitting up with every member having their own reasons and agendas, and it was told quite beautifully. The grand reveal at the end when both SHIELD and the audience thought it was Lincoln, but no, it was actually Skye that was mind-controlled by Skye was exciting and made a crapton of sense. Having Skye be the traitor is a bold move, with her having a main character throughout the entire series, and seeing her unleash her full glory as Quake, shaking the entire base without abandon as she leaves to rejoin her Inhuman kin, is brilliant. Using Lincoln as the fake reveal was an inspired move, because he really does feel like he could be the traitor from a meta standpoint -- as an audience, we know Lincoln long enough compared to Joey or Elena for him to elicit a reaction from us, but Lincoln is nowhere as likable as Skye. The perfect character to fall. And, well, Skye thought so too, apparently.

That was a brilliant reveal, too, with Skye asking Lincoln to leave still not outright painting her as the killer and could be just Skye letting her friend and lover a way out of everything. But no, Skye is the mole, and it makes sense, and definitely as great a twist as Grant Ward being Hydra in the middle of the first season.

Gideon Malick dies this episode, without an opportunity for redemption, which is a nice swerve as well. With SHIELD having captured him and him being angry about his daughter's death, you'd think it would be the obvious setup, but other than some cryptic warning, he dies offscreen and gets blown up, and only until the end with the big Skye reveal that we see he dies... rather ignominiously. 

Malick isn't the only thing that died, though, because neither Elena nor Joey feel happy to be working with SHIELD after the events of this episode, so, yeah, the Secret Warriors just died after a single outing. Joey's just broken after everything, and the poor dude just looks so defeated, and Elena basically gave a grand middle finger to Mack. Poor Mack.

Oh, and in face of everything, we get something positive out of it. Fitz and Simmons finally got together, much to the joy of shippers everywhere. And I am happy we don't get an exhaustive season-long will-they-or-won't-they like what we got in season two, and after their near-death experiences it's definitely sensible for them to want to grow closer. It's a low-key relationship upgrade, a nice little moment in the face of everything. 

Overall, a season-changing and status-quo-destroying episode. It seemed like a standard happy fun time as we finally build up to the Secret Warriors being a thing, but the show isn't afraid to take us for a swerve that totally makes sense (not like, ahem, Zoom), and subverting all the transparent ways that it seemed Hive was going to be taken down. We'll see where we go from here, though, and whether Evil Skye will work better than Evil Ward.

Agents of SHIELD S03E16 Review: The Death You Were Not Expecting

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 16: Paradise Lost

Just churning these out, am I not? I'll try to catch up with SHIELD this week.

Anyway, yet another good episode, if I haven't started sounding like a broken record yet. Who expected Gideon Malick to get his secret supervillain origin this episode? Who expected Daniel Whitehall to show up in the flashback? Who expected a death this episode? Well, honestly I expected Gideon Malick to die, and for Stephanie Malick to be the Hydra figurehead that Hive can control... except it's Stephanie herself that ends up dying because Hive wants to teach Malick the meaning of loss. It's a sudden plot twist that ultimately makes sense, and subverts all the hints that Stephanie would be a far more willing ally to Hive than Gideon ever will be.

The flashbacks doesn't help to allay the foreshadowing that this episode seemed to be Gideon Malick's last episode, though maybe that's just the Tokyo Ghoul fan in me talking. We get some really great flashbacks with Gideon and his brother as children, facing the death of their father as well as the ritual to send someone through the portal as a tribute to Hive on that deathworld (any reason how Hive was able to control that particular planet, by the way?) and meeting Daniel Whitehall, who tells them that their vision of Hydra was way too narrow-minded and seeped in superstition. 

Um, yeah, poor Whitehall ended up being the narrow-minded one himself, but he does have a point, telling the Malick brothers that their father has actually been rigging the system of picking stones to select a tribute. Gideon seemed to reject this, telling his brother that they will face their destiny with pride and all that... while using the same trick that their father did. This is all played out beautifully as the flashbacks are spread out gradually over the episode, and we see how Hive throwing a rock into a pool affected Gideon Malick so much when later on the episode shows Gideon doing the same thing while fooling his brother.

It's doubtful that Gideon wanted his brother to die, and it's more of an accident and fate that the final choice came to Gideon saving himself or saving his brother, but the point is, y'know, Gideon chose himself. And didn't even tell his brother that he was planning on rigging the system. We get the revelation that Nathaniel Malick is still within the mass of memories that is Hive, and while Hive could just be remembering Nathaniel's memories and is just being a sadist, it really felt that Nathaniel's psyche retains within Hive and is let out for a moment (albeit probably twisted by being, y'know, inside Hive) just to say 'fuck you' to Gideon and unleash his vengeance. 

Meanwhile we get more Lincoln and Skye as they go around trying to find out more about Inhumans. Skye and Lincoln get into a bit of an argument about Lincoln keeping secrets, as well as his past alcoholism and temper problems, though nothing really notable came out about it. They go off to find James, a hateful Inhuman who was not granted powers by Jiaying, who's hiding out in some cowboy trailer in the middle of nowhere. Skye showed off some cool shit setting off those landmines, and Lincoln bait-and-swtich'ed James with promises of giving him a terrigen crystal. It's great that Lincoln did not actually go through with it, though, because James seemed like a crazy motherfucker. They did get a plot device, the Kree Orb, and our heroes learn something about this Hive fellow, a.k.a. Alveus, the first Inhuman.

Coulson also gets a couple of introspective moments about his decision to murder Ward in that planet there. I don't think we really needed this bit of angst, but it's a nice moment that wasn't dragged on for too long. Both Fitz and May seem to agree with me that they would kill Ward either way, so yeah. Maybe we'll give everyone from Skye to Simmons to May to Fitz a chance to murder Ward, so that would be like group therapy or something.

Not an Asari

Speaking of May, May gets into a fistfight against Giyera, which is an awesome, cool fight. Even if May wins by kicking him in the balls, Giyera's combat prowess is good enough to stand toe-to-toe with the Cavalry herself. It is a bit dumb, after Fitz talking in length about Giyera's powers, for no one to be guarding him or see the floating metal objects around his cage, so, yeah, all of you in the Zephyr totally deserve to be hijacked by Giyera. Giyera's awesome. Why hasn't he fought SHIELD more often before?

With Hive finally asserting his powers over the remaining Hydra heads and basically making Malick his bitch, and revealing his Cthulhoid true form (even if we only see it from behind), and Giyera making his move to trap the majority of SHIELD, the story is set up for Skye and Lincoln to bring in the Avengers! I mean, the Inhuman Strike Squad! I mean, the Secret Warriors!

(Speaking of which, Marvel fans have told me that the comics version of Hive, while affiliated with Hydra, has no connections to being an alien or an Inhuman, though he does originate from a Secret Warriors comic. He does have those head-tentacles, though, and this version of Hive as an ancient powerhouse with mind-controlling powers is a lot more awesome than just some Venom ripoff.)

Definitely an eventful episode, and while the focus of the episode is on Hive and the Malicks, and the exploration of this particular branch of Hydra, it's still a great episode for so many characters involved. Agents of SHIELD may be playing its hand a bit more transparently by seemingly setting up how Hive will be defeated -- Malick's set up for redeeming himself, and the Kree McGuffin is obvious... but thankfully, as someone who reviews this after seeing a good chunk of the follow-up episodes, the show knows enough to shake things up. Coulson, Giyera, May, Lincoln and Skye all get great scenes and we're set up for an explosive confrontation next episode. 

Arrow S04E21 Review: Tying Everyone Together

Arrow, Season 4, Episode 21: Monument Point

While the previous few episodes of Arrow has been tenuous, this one is amazing. It definitely outshines the last Flash and Legends of Tomorrow episode as far as pre-season-finale episodes go. Everything comes to a head in this episode, tying in a lot of the loose threads we've had in this season. We've got Darhk's master plan finally revealed and put into action, which is basically launch all nukes, hunker underground and repopulate the earth. But the large amount of death will also serve to power Damian Darhk up thanks to the nature of his magic. The whole mayoral thing, plus the emphasis on the ley lines, also ended up factoring to why Darhk's plans involved putting Ruve in the mayoral office.

A lot of old characters return in this episode. Lyla and ARGUS were relevant, thanks to the events of last episode, and previous season's miniboss villain Brick returns and hangs out with Murmur as HIVE's hitmen. Well, they certainly are far more impressive than just a faceless army of Ghosts. Anarky even returns after his numerous appearances this season, having infiltrated the underground utopia dome where Thea is, and it's definitely a cameo that makes sense. Oh, and finally, Felicity's little fight with Calculator in a previous two-parter this season also becomes really relevant as the Calculator ended up being important in this episode. Also, just like Oliver, Felicity gets fired from being head of Palmer Tech, which is hilariously appropriate.

It's a great, tightly-written episode, with the writers juggling no less than six villains in one episode, plus all the nonsense with Baron Reiter in the flashback (which still goes nowhere -- basically Tatiana gets possessed by Reiter through the idol). Darhk takes a bit of a back-seat, content to allow his new goons Murmur and Brick assault the place where the Calculator and Felicity are trying to sabotage the nuclear bombing. Presumably he needed to be at the ley line convergence place in order to pull off his demonic ritual thing.

And, really, none of the minor villains got shafted! Anarky is still as insanely fun as ever, breaking out that fun three-piece staff and getting a lot of great lines with Thea, who he views as his 'mommy' for turning him into, well, this unhinged version of the character. I am still pissed that this Anarky has little to nothing in common with his source counterpart, but he's still an entertaining villain, even if we really should've had an outing or two more to really justify his obsession with Thea. It's certainly far more interesting for Thea's plotline to have this actually-relevant villain be an opponent for her instead of just sitting on a table being passive-aggressive with Malcolm and his new Winter Soldier arm. I thought the boyfriend and Anarky's fixation with removing this controlling influence was kind of dumb, and Alex dies... but honestly I forgot Alex exists most of the time. The whole scene is a great moment for Thea, certainly... one that really would've had more impact if Alex had been, y'know, relevant.

Brick and Murmur got decent fight scenes too, though Murmur, on account of being just a dude with a stitched up mouth, really didn't do much other than be this elite mook who Diggle couldn't manage to catch before he got up to shoot Kuttler in the arm. Brick was a lot of fun, with him learning not to talk back to Darhk, pulling off his 'shoot me in me head and you live' game with Calculator, and his fight scene with Oliver is pretty great.

Calculator and Felicity are great fun together. There was no reason why Curtis Holt wasn't around to help Felicity, and I thought a throwaway line of dialogue would've been good, but hey, we got the two of them in a hilarious villain alliance to steal from Felicity's old company. It's a far more organic and less repetitive interaction than the ones we had for Malcolm and Thea weekly. Calculator's motivations are still in suspect -- is he seeking to profit, just not wanting to die, or is he genuine in his desire to reconnect with his daughter? He does take a bullet in the end for Felicity, but we'll see.

Felicity is great in this episode, proving that her character works best when she's not bogged down with time-consuming romantic plots. Her moments with her father and mother and the complicated feeling she has for Calculator, as well as the fact that, y'know, they have to save the world... it's all great stuff, and especially the ending.

At the end, they managed to stop all but one of the nuclear bombs, and I do love how they didn't actually win. It's a Pyrrhic victory, with Felicity diverting the nuke from Monument Point to a different suburban district, killing 'merely' thousands instead of millions. Felicity only got to the nuke when it's already close to impact, and can't, like, lob it into a desert or a sea or something, and Felicity's shaken expression when she realized she just played god, essentially, and chose who lives and who dies, is great acting. We've never had this kind of moral ambiguity before, the closest to it in the show being the lives that Oliver took on the island or pre-Tommy's-death. And when it's the ever-optimistic Felicity that has to deal with the consequences as opposed to ol' broody-face Oliver? It's going to be interesting.

The really weak point in this episode was Donna and Quentin's scene, really, where Donna takes a five-year-old mentality to 'you should not lie!' It's different when you're lying about someone else's daughter being dead, or when you're lying about a secret baby to your future wife, or when you're lying about your superhero identity. That bit Quentin did was just, well, basically a formality so he can return to the force, and it just kind of is dumb for Donna to put so much emphasis on such a naive worldview.

Oh, and the flashbacks, really, which was stretched to the breaking point, where once more in five episodes straight Oliver and Taiana exchanged bullets with Reiter, ran around while he did some idol voodoo magic, and repeats the same thing next episode. There really isn't an emotional or tense component to the flashbacks at all, with Reiter being a very bland villain, and Taiana being a very bland supporting character.

Overall, though, it's a very cohesive plot, with little that annoyed me, a lot of great well-utilized cameos and a great emotional ending with Felicity being forced to make the tough calls. Next episode, Green Arrow and the Spartan battle a soul-empowered Damian Darhk. Keep up this good work, Arrow! It's episodes like this that really demonstrate why sometimes Arrow has enough quality to last four seasons and more.

Agents of SHIELD S03E15 Review: Deus Ex Visiona

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 15: Spacetime

And finally, after a couple of character-heavy episodes, we go ahead with the Hive subplot. It's... still a pretty strong episode, but definitely flawed. I do like the episode quite a bit, though! Even if it's a bit of a common sci-fi plot, and somewhat done earlier in the series with Raina's own vision powers, the premise of the episode is still decent. Basically, our heroes run to yet another Inhuman, Charles Hinton the Hobo, who has the sucky powers to imprint visions of someone's death into other people with a single touch. Charles Hinton is a fun enough one-shot character (who dies in the episode), displaying the manic madness that precognition no doubt causes him. The fact that he keeps seeing people die without being able to prevent it definitely can't be healthy for him too. 

We get an interesting and fun little explanation of dimensional correlation from Fitz, and how looking forward through time is just seeing something set in stone and you can't change it, and while it's something that most self-respecting geeks would've known about already it's still an interesting debate with people like Skye refusing to believe in fate, Coulson being cautious about it and Lincoln spouting a whole long speech about how Inhumans are balanced and blah blah blah. 

It's a strong episode nonetheless, with everything proceeding sensibly, and while it's obvious that the hobo's visions will come true, everything went along just as the visions shown. The episode does spend a bit too much time with Skye rehearsing what she saw in her vision in that room, and while it's fun to see May pull her punches and being exasperated with Simmmons' bad acting, it still kinda kills the momentum of the plot. Still, it's a minor complaint for such a strong episode. Plus, Skye has been kinda pushed to the side a fair bit ever since season two ended, and she's been given increasing roles throughout the previous few episodes, so it's great for her!

Also, even Coulson forgot that Skye's supposed to be Daisy now. Hey, can't fault me if the people living in the same universe with her sometimes forget it!

Hive kidnaps the Hobo, and grants Gideon Malick actual, physical power in the form of an exo-suit that allows him to stand toe-to-toe against Skye. We get a great moment of 'power corrupts absolutely' as we see Malick crush the head of that one corporate boss, and reveling in the pure power that the exosuit grants him. Malick has been a functional but ultimately boring villain, and this more than allows him to grow as a character in his own right. I'm not sure if Hive still views him as disposable (he seems not to care either way if Malick survives that rooftop battle), and whether the exo-suit was meant to be an offhanded Uriah gambit to kill Malick, or if it truly is a gift and Malick's just too bloodthirsty. The vision of his own death that Charles showed Malick can't help his trust either.

Skye and Malick's battle is pretty great, and there definitely is a tension of Skye actually dying or at least captured by Hive. Lincoln got whacked in the head by Giyera and a flying chunk of metal (though Hive doesn't allow Giyera to kill Lincoln, surprisingly), while Coulson and Fitz-Simmons are far away. It's a great, tense moment, and the episode definitely delivers in that front. 

Also, Hive's gruesome powers as he slowly eats away the entire board of directors is, well, quite horrifying. The show has settled in to display superpowers as everyday happenings, no doubt helped by the bigger budget, and it's fun to see this be applied in combat too as Skye, Giyera and Lincoln lob their respective superpowers here and there. 

We get a rather random subplot as Lash, or rather, Andrew, surrenders himself to SHIELD. It's a strange move, but Andrew apparently can't control his transformation to Lash anymore. Despite them trying out the Inhuman vaccine on Andrew, he ends up fully transforming into Lash. We get an emotional moment from May, and it's great that the show allows the two to have a bit of a emotional goodbye. It's still tragic what happens to Andrew in the end, of course, but at least they got to say goodbye. I think it's odd that they unleashed Lash in the mid-season episodes only for him to do nothing and end up surrendering to SHIELD, but hey. 

Oh, and SHIELD knows that "Grant Ward" is back. Even if it's not technically Grant Ward. Well, plot progression! Overall the episode was a bit uneven, but it played on an interesting concept and more than delivered on that. Again, yet another in a streak of really good Agents of SHIELD episodes.