Agents of SHIELD After, Before Television 

Five Thoughts on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s “After, Before”

By | July 17th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

Well, time is not on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s side this time around. But the trip through Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. history continues, as we revisit the Inhumans. So let’s not waste any more time and see how things have been, once were, and perhaps will be.

1. Time Crisis

Remember how the Zephyr just teleported without warning, stranding Mack and Deke in 1982? At first, it seemed like a clever ploy from the Chronicoms – if the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is leaping at the same time as them, they can pull them around with unexpected time jumps while the team is apart. After all, it’s always been a last-minute rush to get everyone on board before the next time jump, that’s how Enoch got separated from them before.

Well, that’s not the case. The time drive took some damage, and now it’s jumping them forward in time at random. Each jump moves ahead shorter periods in time and takes less time between them, which means eventually it’ll try to jump mid-jump and implode.

This essentially gives the characters a ticking time bomb, but one they experience at different rates. While May and Yo-Yo are out on a mission, they have a few days while the rest of the team has twenty minutes. It allows the show to cut between scenes, showing how time progresses on one side without breaking the pacing or moments in another. It’s a clever use of the time differences that works well with the cuts.

2. Re-Meeting the Inhumans

Remember when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. introduced Inhumans before the rest of the Marvel cinematic universe could? Yeah, that… that had an impact on the direction the MCU was going in.

Well, it’s been a while, so you might have forgotten about some of the characters. I know I did. When we’re re-introduced to Daisy’s mother, Jiaying, it’s before she’s even met Daisy’s father. Along with her, we meet Gordon (the blind teleporter) again, and some Inhumans who are new to us.

Admittedly, a recap would have been nice. The Inhumans arc was several seasons ago, and not everyone remembers Jiaying’s backstory or powers. Still, as this season is wrapping up Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with a trip through history, it only makes sense that the Inhumans are brought back in.

Just… let’s stick with these ones. We don’t need the characters from the Inhumans TV show to return. Let them stay on the moon, far away from this show. Forever. Thank you.

3. Yo-Yo’s Therapy

The reason why May and Yo-Yo have to visit Jiaying in Afterlife is because Yo-Yo’s powers haven’t been working. Her assumption was that the shrike did something to her, but it’s soon discovered that it’s due to a psychological block.

I quite like how May and Yo-Yo handled the “therapy” portion. Neither of them are particularly good at expressing emotions, but May has to use her newfound powers of super-empathy to guide Yo-Yo through her own feelings. Naturally, it’s just plain awkward and embarrassing for both of them.

How do they work out their emotions? With violence, of course! Yes, a little sparring provides the physical contact May needs to connect with Yo-Yo’s emotions (although her powers have grown so that she just needs to be near someone to feel what they feel) while letting them work through their emotions in a more physical manner.

This then leads to a flashback where we learn about Yo-Yo getting a family member killed. The way the younger her sneaks out of the closet to grab a necklace then hide back in without getting noticed nicely parallels her powers as an adult, including how she constantly bounces back to where she came from. While a part of me thinks this psychological trauma probably should have had an impact before this season, I can accept it as everything is catching up to her at once.

4. Family History

Speaking of families: Daisy has a sister.

Well, let’s take a step back. When we see the Inhumans of Afterlife, they’re bringing back a girl named Kora. As we see, she’s having trouble controlling her destructive powers, and while Li (an Inhuman with the power to… summon knives to his hands?) wants her taken out, Jiaying is more focused on finding a way to block her powers instead.

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Then we learn that Kora is Jiaying’s daughter.

So Daisy has a half-sister, which casts a new light on a lot of Jiaying’s behavior from past seasons. If the timeline went on uninterrupted, Kora would have killed herself rather than let her powers destroy her and everything around her.

But, just like Yo-Yo’s powers were blocked by psychological issues, all it took was a little pep talk to help Kora embrace her powers. Too bad that pep talk came from Nathaniel Malick.

Now there’s another character who was supposed to be dead causing trouble for S.H.I.E.L.D., and this one is even more personal. Will Daisy face the half-sister she never knew she had?

5. Team Malick

Yes, Nathaniel Malick is shaping up to be as just a big a threat as the Chronicoms this season, or at least a mid-boss on their side. Not only is he helping Sibyl rebuild herself (and her army), he’s much better at using the powers he stole from Quake, and now he’s got a whole city of Inhumans captured.

At the end of the episode, he talks about anarchy and redistribution, presumably referring to powers instead of wealth. Considering all the Inhuman captives, it’s likely we’ll see Hydra agents with powers in the coming episodes.

Either that or he’ll try to take every power for himself, but that’s hardly a redistribution.

However it plays out, things are certainly getting interesting. First Chronicoms, then Hydra, now Inhumans – they’re pulling out all the stops for the last season.


//TAGS | Marvel's Agents of SHIELD

Robbie Pleasant

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