With one part of the timeline saved (give or take leaving Enoch behind) it’s time for the S.H.I.E.L.D. team to head to their next destination. Where will the team go next, and what do the Chronicoms have planned for the past? Let’s find out…
Also, I have to say I love the episode title. The way the show’s logo also changed to reflect the design of 50’s B movies titles made it all the better.
1. Welcome to the 50’s
Next stop: the 50’s. The “Red Scare” is in full effect, the space race is reaching new heights, and retro diners aren’t retro yet because they’re just diners. Oh, and racism and sexism are still rampant, as the team experiences. In fact, the racism is in more of a focus in this episode than in the episodes set in the 30’s, between the segregated restrooms and the general disrespect Mack, May, and Yo-Yo receive from the captive Gerald Sharpe.
Fortunately, Sharpe gets a hilarious comeuppance in the end, where he’s tossed out and made to believe he was abducted by aliens.
The 50’s era technology was also entertaining. We get a wrist communicator that’s still too large to be properly worn (and requires an antenna) and an EMP with a range of a whole 30 feet, which I’m sure would have been top of the line science fiction tech back in those days.
2. Agent Carter
The best thing about time travel? Getting to go back into Marvel’s history. Simmons takes on the role of impersonating Peggy Carter, which is plenty amusing, although I do wish we could have gotten Hayley Atwell to make an appearance.
What we do get is Enver Gjokaj back as Daniel Sousa, and he does a great job with the role. The character is smart and plays it cool, calmly letting Simmons piece together who he is before arresting her. Of course, there’s still a lot he doesn’t and can’t know, but he’s even beginning to suspect that S.H.I.E.L.D. is being infiltrated. His return is a welcome one, and I look forward to seeing more from him before the team moves on to the next point in time.
Let’s just hope Daisy doesn’t try to use him to change history.
3. Are You a Robot?
The Chronicom hunters have been getting quite adept at stealing faces and infiltrating organizations. It also doesn’t help that the S.H.I.E.L.D. team doesn’t know what most of them look like anyways. So how can they figure out who’s real?
Coulson and Simmons find a great way to do that: just talk to them and try to get an emotional reaction. This ranges from talking smack about John Wayne to using the word “moist,” making for a very entertaining montage.
Some of you might be thinking this sounds like the Voight-Kampff test from Blade Runner – that was my first thought as well. Fortunately, the show’s writers agreed, as even Coulson quotes the movie by asking a suspected Chronicom the turtle question from the test. The good news is: she passed. The bad news is: he made an old woman cry.
It was just a great scene overall.
4. Don’t Panic
Last time, we observed how Agent May was more or less emotionless after being revived. I say “more or less” because she’s still got plenty of rage. This time, however, we get a bit more out of her.
As May and Yo-Yo toss smoke grenades to get to the Chronicom, May begins to suffer a panic attack. The show builds up to it well, showing us her perspective as the panic intensifies. Considering she died and had to be brought back recently, it’s understandable that she’d have a little PTSD to deal with as well; between everything affecting May right now, we should get a solid character arc out of her this season.
5. Rebooting…
The show has done a good job setting the Chronicoms up as a legitimate threat. They’re smart, compassionless, and have the strength and durability of a robot because, well, they are robots. When they shrug off bullets and provide a challenge for even the most battle-hardened of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, it makes sense.
In this case, S.H.I.E.L.D. only manages to win because Simmons fixes up the EMP prototype to be a proper EMP with a range much greater than 30 feet. It does the trick… but also takes out Coulson.
Yes, let’s not forget that Coulson is currently a Life Model Decoy built on Chronicom tech. Sure, it’s easy to say “Okay, bring him back to base and reboot him,” but things might not be that easy. More importantly, as the episode ends, we see his eyes change color as something sparks behind them.
What does this mean? Probably more problems that will have to be resolved down the line, or perhaps the writers kill off another version of Coulson by the end of the show. Let’s see if anything comes of it next week.
