Last night the last pre-Age of Ultron episode of Agents of SHIELD aired with the aptly titled “The Dirty Half Dozen,” which effectively brought a few emotional elements of this season to a close while setting up the last few episodes for Ultron-y madness and “everything is changed forever!” platitudes used appropriately.
1. The Gang’s All Here
Well, it has been a while! I have to admit that there was a sort of sense of pride in seeing the Dirty Half Dozen get together, even if that did just basically result in drama, and arguing, and betrayals, and a lack of proper teamwork. Team Coulson has been kind of beaten down at this point and they’re not really functioning very well, but there was certainly something in seeing Ward stand toe to toe with the rest of the gang and actually help them, or even empathize with him. It’s sad that we’ll be looking back at this as “the happy times,” given what I am assuming is coming by the fact that the song playing in all of the Ultron commercials is in such a foreboding minor key.
Also, how about that tracking shot of Skye whooping ass in that Hydra facility? Tracking shots are so hot right now.
2. Secrets, Secrets, Secrets
Secrets, secrets, are no fun. And that’s, like, all SHIELD is at this point, right? Coulson had his mysterious box, but now he’s hiding the elements of Theta Protocol from everyone on the team, and even keeping some strange unknown secret of Gonzales’, which will hopefully be revealed soon (or did I blink and miss it?). But as we move towards the finale, things are being kept closer and closer to the vest by almost all characters involved, and it’s making me wonder about something.
If memory serves — and I’m not going to Google this to double check — but the creators of the show said that they had a two year plan, or so. We’re nearing the end of the second year, and right now the direction of the show is completely up in the air. Most of the characters have motivations so hidden that they use revelations as character development, and there are quite a few disparate elements that seem like they either won’t connect or won’t connect in a meaningful way.
I’m being pessimistic, of course, but at least in the build-up to the last season finale we had a guess of where the show was going. Right now? No idea.
3. God Help the Girl
One of the things that troubled me on last night’s episode is Jemma’s quick switch towards that of a killer. It’s not completely out of the blue; she did temporarily join Hydra and has certainly been on a dark path since last season’s finale. Yet her willingness to kill Ward and her lack of remorse over killing Bakshi was kind of weird. Ward actually put it best when he said “I’m disappointed in you.”
Which is strange to say, I’ll admit. I like that Jemma has grown a lot as a character to the point that she is taking such a risk. I suppose it says something towards my attachment to these characters, that I get uncomfortable when they take paths that put them in compromising position. As long as this moment isn’t just forgotten in the #synergy to come, it could be a strong turning point for Jemma and everything she does on the team from here on out.
4. Meanwhile, in Inhuman City
Everything happening in the Inhuman city is the worst part of the show right now. I can’t be the only one who thinks that, right? I know a few of you in the comments have expressed distaste to the whole SHIELD v SHIELD storyline, but honestly, the Inhuman stuff just isn’t doing it for me.
Which isn’t to say that I’m not interested in the Inhumans on the show; I absolutely am. I even think that introducing the whole concept of the Inhumans on the show is a nice backdoor way to doing the actual Inhumans film, as it helped put together a few disparate elements of Kree aliens on Earth. But for the most part, the drama that is present in this segment of the show does little for me, and I actually look forward to seeing what weirdo stuff Cal Johnson is going to get up to.
Continued belowHopefully with Raina starting up her power move to take over the city from Jiaying, we’ll see something a bit more interesting post-Ultron. Speaking of which,
5. Theta Protocol
So, this is it: the stage is pretty much set for Age of Ultron. I still don’t totally understand what Theta Protocol is supposed to be, though I imagine that’s by design; it apparently has something to do with Loki’s staff (last seen in Winter Soldier), which will somehow play into everything that’s coming up in AoU. Not only that, but now the Avengers are keyed up to go and deal with Baron von Strucker in Segovia thanks to intel from Coulson, which is how I assume the film opens. But, hey, we’ll find out when we all go see it in theaters this weekend, right?
Of course, the bigger question will be, how is SHIELD going to tie into all this? Raina had her vision which certainly is the first domino, but unlike with last season’s Winter Soldier tie-in I can’t particularly see how SHIELD will deal with the post-Ultron landscape. The budget of this show certainly isn’t big enough to feature Ultron himself, so we probably won’t see Coulson and his crew dealing with leftover robots like they could deal with leftover Hydra, right?
Ah well. I suppose we’ll find out, and I’ll see you in the comments section next week!
