The spacefaring adventures of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues. Daisy may or may not have destroyed or will destroy the Earth in the relative past but her future, Simmons is wearing gold makeup and serving the Kree, and the others are stuck in the junkyard.
All in all, a regular mission. Let’s see how it’s going.
1. Space Inhumans
One of the key plots of this episode revolved around Simmons and an Inhuman girl named Abby. At first it seemed like things were pretty cool for Inhumans, at least not as bad as regular humans; everyone gets the chance to go through Terrigenesis when they turn 18, and if they do their families are rewarded, they take a little test on using their powers, and then they get to go into space to become an ambassador. Pretty sweet deal, right?
Haha, yeah, like it was going to be that nice. Sure, their families get rewarded… because they’re paid to sell their Inhuman children to the Kree. The “test” is really more of a gladiator match, as we see in a rather painful scene where Abby gets tossed around like a rag doll by a greased-up brawler, and apparently “ambassador” is another word for “soldier slave.”
It’s actually pretty powerful, as we realize what’s happening to this girl who we spent some time getting to know through Simmons. It makes sense from a story perspective, because the Kree did originally create the Inhumans, so of course they’d view them as both property and things of value.
Then you wonder what would happen if Yo-Yo or Daisy were discovered to be Inhumans. More on that in a bit.
2. Striking a Flint
Speaking of Inhumans, this episode has a very brief scene with a young black human named Flint. Well, probably human; going off the name alone, it’s highly likely he’s the geokinetic Inhuman, first introduced in Charles Soule’s run of the “Inhuman” comic. I base this theory solely off the fact that they share a name and there would be absolutely no purpose to that brief scene with him otherwise, but since the Inhumans TV show tanked and there’s no hope for a movie, I see no reason why Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. can’t make full use of all the Inhuman characters at their disposal.
3. Go Yo-Yo
Continuing on the topic of Inhuman characters, I love how they utilized Yo-Yo’s powers this episode. Constantly bouncing around back and forth from the same location to all around the compound made it seem like her metric (which functions as a tracking device and a restraining tool) was malfunctioning. In the one second it took to replace the device, she managed to zoom through the partially-open gate to pass things off to Daisy, then later used her powers to plant a gun on the mook that was about to screw over S.H.I.E.L.D.
That is a great use of her powers. It’s clever, it’s well within the established rules of what she can do and the tools at her disposal, and it’s making her a much more important member of the team than she felt like in previous seasons.
4. Betrayal. Sudden. Inevitable. Yadda yadda.
Oh look. Deke, who spent the entire episode angry with Daisy and has clearly demonstrated he values his own survival and self-interest above all else, betrayed her when he knew she went running off to do something dangerous. I’m so surprised.
Okay, so up until that point we were getting some good stuff out of Deke and Daisy’s interactions; she’s headstrong and liable to charge in without a plan, whereas he insists on playing the long game. Deke is clearly the type who will put himself before others as a survival mechanism, and given how Daisy is willing to risk everything on an improvised plan (and I did like the moment where she failed to cling to the ceiling for long enough and had to admit “I really thought this would work”), his willingness to betray her is completely in-character.
Now the question is: will he try to have a redemption arc?
5. Ground Control to Major Tom
Of course, Coulson and company haven’t just been sitting on the sidelines. In fact, they’ve discovered that Vergil has been in touch with some mysterious benefactors, and their arrival has been expected. I quite liked how the Earth fragment sector they receive the signal from is 616 – a nice shout-out to Marvel’s comic universe’s place in the multiverse. Answers to our questions are approaching, and there was just something nice about seeing how the team is working in secret shifts to receive the signal. It’s little team-building moments that really add to the show.
