Clark Gregg makes his return, but not as Coulson. Except kind of yes. But not really. Meanwhile, Fitz is being Fitz. So let’s take a look at season six, episode two, and see what the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is up to this time.
1. About Our Baddies
We’re learning a little more about our villains this time, but only bits and pieces from conversations. This is actually fine, as it lets us put the pieces together over time, rather than getting everything in one infodump. When Sarge (the not-Coulson) says “You can tell a lot about a world by its currency,” we learn that this isn’t their first invasion.
Similarly, their conversations show that not everyone is completely on the same page – we’ve got the slightly insane reincarnation speech girl (“Not everyone gets to be a butterfly”), the guy huffing gas from his planet’s atmosphere, and the guy who thinks they might want to enjoy Earth a bit before they destroy it. I’m sure they have names, but we’re not a the point where they’re at all memorable yet.
However, as the end of the episode shows, they’re definitely planet destroyers. It apparently involves swarms of demonic bats and requires crystals (or PEGs, as they call them). How all this pieces together, we don’t know quite yet. I’m trying to think of what Marvel group they’re at all related to, but the closest I can think of is Black Swan, who hopped between Earths to destroy them before an incursion happened. For some reason I doubt that’s their goal, but let’s see where it goes.
2. Sarge
Then we have Sarge, the Coulson doppleganger. We’re learning a few things about him, starting with how much he likes giving a “don’t be a hero” speech. Clearly the ability to run a team is consistent across Coulson lookalikes, since he manages to keep his ragtag team of world-hopping murderers together.
The opening scene does a good job at symbolically indicating that he isn’t Coulson, by focusing the shot on a pair of aviator glasses like those Coulson always wore, before panning up to a dark pair of goggles that Sarge grabs instead. It might not be the most subtle symbolism, but it gets the point across nicely.
Yet there is still some connection to the characters. As we learn, their DNA is identical, give or take radiation and alien elements. Then there’s a split-second hesitation when he hears the name “Coulson.” There’s a connection afoot, so part of this season will involve the characters (and us by extension) learning what it is.
3. May is Mad
First of all, a big congratulations to Ming-Na Wen for being named a Disney Legend! From Mulan to May, she’s earned it.
With that said, let’s look at her performance this episode. It’s good. We get some raw emotion as she talks about being with Coulson until the end, and how she wants his double dead for wearing his face. Ming-Na described it in an interview as someone coming up and painfully reopening this chapter of her life she’d closed, so the reaction is fitting and comes from a place we can understand, having followed her these past five seasons.
And of course she gets to be her usual awesome self, beating up three of Sarge’s minions. If only she’d mentally prepared herself for seeing Sarge again, instead of freezing and saying “Coulson?” On the other hand, it mirrored Captain America: The Winter Soldier so nicely I almost expected Sarge to say “Who the hell is Coulson?”
4. Fitz in Space
Meanwhile, we’ve also learned what Fitz has been up to. He’s been disguising himself as an alien from Sivos and working as an engineer on a ship, but his cover gets blown because he didn’t quite have the time to put together a believable backstory.
With that said, we get some good character-building moments from him this episode. We see what lengths he’ll go to in order to get frozen and reunited with Simmons, but this doesn’t include sacrificing others. He’ll even put his own plans on pause to protect the rest of the crew. He was willing to risk sacrificing himself, but still have a backup plan in case that play didn’t work. I’m not entirely sure how having a ship set up with two airlocks in the same room is the best design choice, but he still managed to reverse it so the captain ended up launching himself out of it rather than Fitz and the other engineers.
Continued belowReally, tossing people out of an airlock so you don’t have to pay them is a bad habit to get into anyways.
Of course, the detour means Fitz will be spending a few more episodes wandering around deep space. Which brings us to our next point…
5. Timing
Simmons may have figured out Fitz’s plan, but her timing was a little off.
Yes, the episode ends with Daisy’s crew arriving at the planet Fitz was initially planning on going to, the one that makes the cryogenic chambers. As it just so happens, they arrive right when he turns the ship around and leaves. Whoops.
So the question then is: where to from here? Will Simmons spend the next few episodes running around trying to find Fitz, or waiting for him to arrive? More importantly, how will everyone react to her completely overriding their plan to rest and restock on Earth? Tensions are already running high, so this will likely lead to plenty of conflict between the characters. Let’s see where it takes us next week.
