Hi there! Remember me? I used to review Agents of SHIELD for the site, and recently reviewed Agent Carter. Well, apparently there has been some requests for the 5 Thoughts of SHIELD to return, and so Multiversity has listened to your requests, pulled me out of my cave and given me a computer to bang away at for you. I’m not going back to the missed episodes, but I’ll be covering the rest of SHIELD — and it all starts (a little bit late) with last night’s flashback episode, “Melinda.”
1. 7 Years Ago
So the first thing that I noticed is that the episode opens with a flashback to Melinda May’s past “7 years ago.” It wasn’t a big deal at first, but as the scenes continued we got Coulson referring to a project that Nick Fury was putting together in assembling “Earth’s Mightiest” — and if my understanding of what this scene entails is correct, this would inherently mean that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is happening in real-time. After all, Iron Man came out in 2008; it featured the first appearances of Coulson as an operative of SHIELD, it featured the first appearance of Nick Fury and the mention of the Avengers Initiative, and it came out seven years ago.
We may have discussed the MCU operating in real-time before (it may have been in an interview with Kevin Feige, I don’t know) and it’s obviously not exact (there have been past moments of crossover, like between
2. Don’t Call Her the Cavalry
I’ll be honest: I remember Agent May having a “shady past” or whatever, but I completely forgot about the references to Bahrain. Having this episode explore what happened to her that changed her from a fun-loving person into the stoic, solemn figure we know today was certainly interesting — but I think what’s more is that it allowed SHIELD to essentially do something we don’t get to see a lot on television dramas of this nature, and that’s really add some depth to its heroine. SHIELD‘s women are the best characters on the show hands down (like, it’s not even a question), but since we never see their backstories our interactions with them can be somewhat limited to what happens in any given episode; this changed that dynamic in a big way, and was exactly what I liked seeing on Agent Carter.
Of course, there are other aspects of her origin that were interesting as well. particularly in the inclusion of Eva Belyakov. It’s probably pointless to make assumptions based on last names (unless there was a line of dialogue I missed clearing this up), but it’s possible given the talent on display that Eva also has some connection to the infamous Red Room that gave birth to the Black Widow and was explored on Agent Carter. It also helps put a stamp on Inhuman operations in the rest of the world, which is something Marvel is really keen to go all in on apparently — and which leads us to…
3. Skye and Jiaying
So, Skye’s family is here at last, and Skye is learning to develop her powers. The way that the show mirrored May’s descent with Skye’s ascendance was interesting, but I like that the show is attempting to slowly build up the Inhuman mythology now and using Skye and her mother as a tool to do so. It allows this aspect to be eased in a little bit more gracefully, and gives us a sneak peek into the background operations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe where these people have been operating since long before Fury thought up the Avengers Initiative.
More to the point, I like that they actually explained some of the inconsistencies the show had had in the past in terms of its explanation of who Jiaying was — particularly in that we were told she was dead pretty much on all accounts, and that Whitehall had “absorbed” her power so to say. But apparently Cal pieced her back together and just became so warped as a person due to the loss of his daughter that he never got to explain the whole story to us, which I guess is as good a story as any? Why not.
Continued below4. Theta Protocol
So, what is the Theta Protocol? OG SHIELD would have you believe it’s Coulson going rogue and assembling his own new team of superhumans… but perhaps there’s something more there? Perhaps something bigger?
Lets break it down. Coulson has indeed always been on the frontlines for superhuman operation in the MCU, from his days with Fury and the Avengers Initiative to TAHITI. However, with the MCU expanding at a rapid pace and with at least three teams existing in it (the Avengers, the Guardians, and the Defenders in a few years), it stands to reason that there are other teams that will get put together. So if we look at who Coulson is working around, and the type of characters that tend to make it onto this show, what kind of hints are we getting? Is it possible that Coulson might be angling to work with a Secret Avengers team (like in the comics), maybe he’s even trying to put together the Secret Warriors (there’s a lot of Hickman’s comic in the show) — or, if we look at upcoming films, is it possible that Coulson might be putting together the New Warriors?
Look: I’m just guessing, and trying to make the return of this column worthwhile for readers. But, hey, Captain America: Civil War is around the corner, and everyone seems to think that Coulson putting together a team of super powers on his own is a dangerous idea. And you all remember how “Civil War” opened, right?
5. It’s Not a Dream
Last but not least, lets look at Raina. Raina is the opposite of Skye’s journey in the Inhuman city; everything for her sucks, her skin is ruined, she can’t go out in public and her powers are non-existent. That is, until the end of the episode where we learn that a dream she had predicted the future.
Here’s the thing about that: in Season 1, we had the Clairvoyant. The Clairvoyant supposedly could tell the future as well, although it turned out to be Garret, a member of SHIELD utilizing classified documents in order to reasonably predict events and/or manipulate them. In fact, everyone on the show was pretty sure that clairvoyance was an impossibility, that no one could predict the future and that this was all bunk — and this was pre-Inhumans stuff.
I find it interesting that the show went back on this, and I find it interesting they’re utilizing Raina to do it. It’s obviously on purpose, and the showrunners may even claim that it’s all part of a plan, but even so. It’s interesting to see, to say the least. I don’t think there’s anything nefarious related to this, mind you, but I can’t personally decide if they’re just backtracking or realllllyyyyyyy good at seeding minor details.
