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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: One Door Closes + Afterlife [2x15 + 2x16] ✦ Watchalong Reaction & Review

Happy weekend y'all! Some CRAZY things happening! Still so stoked for more. Thank you so much for watching with me! [Direct link here.]

✦ KL

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: One Door Closes + Afterlife [2x15 + 2x16] ✦ Watchalong Reaction & Review

Comments

It’s hard to be the “good guy” when your enemy is making so much more progress than you by being ruthless. It gets back into the debate of being a superhero & how much force do you use, do you kill or paralyze? If your a really strong country, you could wipe them out but your obviously not gonna do that & it wouldn’t be allowed by its citizens but then how much force is necessary? Well we’ll be debating that until war is obsolete & I doubt we ever get there Ig Spider-Man is a good example, constantly having to pull his punches or he’d just obliterate your face at a full strength punch, punch your head off your body typa thing. Or Wanda “even now, this is me showing mercy” or whatever she said Fighting hydra would be exhausting, it’s like fighting an insurgency, they hide in plain sight, launch an attack & then disappear. You can’t fight what you can’t see

Despero Riggity

Love the recap episode and seeing my girl Hartley{Xena} again wish she could had more screen time image her an some crazy melee ops with May. Loved seeing the old crew faithful too Coulson the tricky new Jemma and the sly Fitz working together and my boy Fitz rewarded with a beautiful sammich with Ward no where around to ruin it this time ! My favorite scene has always been Skye first display of power using self defense fully blocking a bullet and causing a shockwave that AOE destroyed the forest kinda like when Thor brought the hammer down on Caps shield the first time in the first Avengers but less powerful. Now Hunter and Coulson already getting in all kinds of trouble but for a good cause lol

Chris Elkins

2x16 Seeing Jiaying is confusing but the show loves to do that. Cal never said she died. Just that Whitehall cut her to pieces and took out her organs. Normally that means death but not when you are dealing with powered people. I mean look at wolverine or Deadpool. You can see scars all over her face. In 2x8 he told Whitehall that he wanted to reunite with his family in the afterlife. Which we now know is a physical place not him having a death wish. Mike's return is great as well so now we have a piece of season one story coming into season 2. Fitzsimmons coming together is great and the sandwich at the end is so symbolic. The last time she gave him a sandwich was in 1x7 the EP after she jumped out of the plane. It was when their friendship was at its strongest. So it's return means that has returned as well. Now to follow what they actually did. Fitz noticed Simmons was cloning the box on the screen when talking to Mack. Simmons switched the real with the fake. Fitz went to the lab and lifted the box and tossed it (also showing his hand eye coordination is on point now completely) to see if it was the real one. Once he realized it wasn't he told Simmons to put the real one in his bag as he is going to leave. They did all this without speaking with each other first showing how in sync they are again.

Christopher simeon

2x15 There are parallels that are being drawn between tactics used by Hydra in those flashbacks invading real shield base and real shield using similar tactics to take over our base. But if you remember Coulson also used hydra tactics earlier in this season by sending Simmons to spy and having Skye kill Donny gile the ice guy just like Ward said hydra would do. Shield and hydra have been connected for so long it is hard to shake the influence that has had on shield as a whole. The real shield fear of secrets and powered people being used against them makes logical sense from what they have gone through but the issue will always be about the response.

Christopher simeon

One other thing I forgot to mention earlier - Agent Weaver's line that "Phil Coulson has no right to call this S.H.I.E.L.D." Definitely something that can be argued, especially given S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer legitimate, but then they can't have the right to call themselves S.H.I.E.L.D. either.

Sean Ellingham

I don't think they are saying no secrets. I think they are saying leadership should not hold all the secrets while the people below blindly serve them.

Christopher simeon

Some more CA:Winter Soldier MCU connections here, with the footage of the helicarriers crashing into the Triskellion at the start of episode 15, and then in ep. 16 the "real S.H.I.E.L.D." is using the same battering ram that was used by those fake cops in CA:Winter Soldier to attack Fury's SUV in Washington D.C..

Onno Smits

FYI KL; The post title on kaiielle.com also has a typo (216+216). 😉

Onno Smits

Also, the post title having the wrong episode names *really* confused me for a moment when I got the notification earlier!

Sean Ellingham

Another two good episodes that give us some explanations about "Real S.H.I.E.L.D." and their concerns. As you note in the reaction, Phil's actions don't necessarily look great from the outside without the context we have as viewers, so it's understandable why they are reacting as they are. Overall though, I find them to be really annoying, primarily because for all the good points they have (and they definitely do have many good points), they've already made up their minds regarding Coulson and don't seem willing to change their opinions or admit that they might be wrong - everything they see "confirms" what they believe, regardless of whether it's actually does or if their interpretation is even correct (e.g. their belief that Coulson was chasing the Diviner because of the GH-325 impulses). On top of that, for all their talk in these episodes and last episode that they would have "preferred to be invited", their actions make it clear they never had any intention of being diplomatic and just simply talking to Coulson. This is further shown when they go after Skye, and *every* agent ignores Bobbi's instruction to use ICERs - instead using potentially lethal force. Finally, as you noted, Coulson has been focusing on the threat of Hydra, whereas Gonzales et al appear to have been laser focused on Coulson and seemingly ignoring Hydra. Doesn't really paint them in the best light, and from what we see they have far more resources available on the carrier than Coulson does at the Playground. FitzSimmons seem to to be back! It's an interesting touch in 2x15 that we see them using each others first names as a way to show just how apart they are at that point, but in 2x16 we get them being a little of their previous "psychically linked" selves regarding getting Fury's toolbox out of the Playground. Afterlife (the place) is difficult to judge just yet - they do appear to be helping Skye, but it does give off some cult-like vibes, which isn't helped by Lincoln's evasiveness and avoidance of answering questions or that we don't know where Afterlife is. Other brief thoughts - we get a good demonstration of how much Skye and Simmons have progressed as agents, Hunter continues to be a fun character, and Mike is back!

Sean Ellingham

I think the idea of “The Real SHIELD” is nuts. Especially in their line of work—any intelligence agency must have secrets, that’s literally the point. Then there are security clearance levels and the most important part with maintaining secrets—need to know. They think they need to know but they don’t. The only part I could understand about their argument is maybe they do not like Nick Fury or Coulson’s leadership… I sure as hell have had some bosses I didn’t like but I’m sure there are legit paths to take that are better than sending in spies, gassing your people, blowing up a wall and shooting them up.

Ray H

I always find myself siding with Coulson because real shield has been real shady to me. And it’s not that they’re wrong it’s just the way they initially went about things and the small details. Like how that agent shot a real bullet at Skye and how they didn’t approach Coulson before assuming the why. Like Coulson would’ve given them a chance and eased the concerns. Even when they turned on him, he still saw it from their perspective and didn’t want either side to be harmed. Imo Coulson is the real shield because this faction only formed because of the fall. They decided to turn shield into something else(a democracy) while Coulson decided to closely operate it similar to Fury with a right hand and secrets but not completely like Fury in that his secrets are more temporary as he tells the team when he needs to. The fact that Coulson even let everyone in on personal matters when fury would’ve taken everything to the grave and just sent agents out like normal without the full picture. Bobbi and Mack would’ve never gotten that info out of Nick. Part of the reason why I don’t they believed they had to push this hard against Coulson. My FitzSimmons bit, I love them so much. Even though they’ve been at odds and secretive the whole season they still trust each other and understand each other so well. The fact that Simmons setup that plan and Fitz executed it perfectly shows how much they still can depend on each other and work well together. Regarding Skye and the afterlife if you remember when Skyes father said in an earlier episode that after he took down shield he wanted to be reunited with his family in the afterlife. Before this context it seemed crazier than it actually was. Raina still player in this story and apparently still has a suicide wish. The afterlife is a scary place looking from the outside. Like a place full of genetically enhanced people or half aliens considering it’s in their DNA. It’s crazy that shield nor Hydra never came across it since it goes back so many generations . And I forgot that the mom was reintroduced this episode, it was a bit of a shock to me. Skye and her family situation/dynamic is very interesting. I love Skyes character arc this season can’t wait for the 2 part finale. Things end up in a very interesting way.

PB&J


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