I have to give this episode props for the best title of the season; I love a good science pun. That minor note aside, let’s take a look at the mid-season finale, and see where it takes us.
1. Morrow’s Magic
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is at an odd place with magic right now. It was easy to handwave early on, with Thor explaining that, where he’s from, magic and science are the same. It operated on Clarke’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and the “Girl Genius” corollary: “any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science.”
Then Doctor Strange happened, and they had to say “Okay, it’s magic. But it uses alternate dimensions and quantum stuff, so there’s still SOME science in there!”
And that’s the line Agents of SHIELD has to walk now. They can’t really handwave the Spirit of Vengeance off with a line about quantum fields or parallel universes, but they still attempt to show how Eli Morrow’s power works with it. In fact, there’s a lot of discussion as to how his powers can apparently defy the first law of thermodynamics, also known as the “conservation of mass.” Their answer is the same as Doctor Strange: he’s taking it from alternate dimensions, which is an acceptable explanation as far as the MCU magic goes.
Still no explaining away Ghost Rider that way, though.
2. Eli: An Analysis
A hero is only as good as the villain they fight, and so with Eli Morrow’s defeat, we need to look at his character. Previously, it seemed as though much of his motivation came from greed and jealousy, which are pretty typical traits, especially for someone who keeps seeking more and more power.
We get a nice little emotional confrontation, with Robbie calling Eli out on everything he did, including set into motion the events that got Gabe hospitalized. Naturally, Eli refuses to accept any responsibility, but he’s still more than willing to cause more pain now.
In the end, his motivation seems to come down to a desire for respect and recognition. He talks about how nobody had any faith in him, how every success was met with suspicion and condescension. While that could make for a more compelling character, it seems a little tacked on at the end, rather than anything we really got to see building up. It’s a concept I’d like to have seen explored more, rather than just thrown in during his angry villain ranting.
In the end, Eli Morrow was an okay antagonist for this part of the season. He’s ties to Robbie and Gabe added some personal stakes to the conflict, but he’s unlikely to go down as a particularly memorable villain in Marvel’s history.
3. Director vs Director
A big part of the season has been the conflict between former-director Coulson and current-director Jeffrey Mace (or, as Fitz notably called him, “a lying weasel”). In spite of Coulson’s apparent cooperation, there’s still a lot of back and forth on each side; Mace tries to keep Coulson’s team apart, Coulson keeps doing whatever he feels like, and when both sides are keeping secrets from each other, that causes plenty of conflict within an organization.
That all comes to a head this episode, when they get into a conflict over the secrets Coulson has been keeping (ADA being an android, Ghost Rider, working with Daisy, etc) and Mace’s own dirty laundry (particularly Nadeer’s blackmail). There’s no communication and no trust, so of course things get messy.
Regrettably, I have to admit that Mace does have a point, when he explains that he had to work with Nadeer to protect SHIELD, after she got a recording of Coulson’s team working with Quake (currently a wanted fugitive) and Ghost Rider (who burnt an incarcerated man to death). Even Coulson concedes that Director Mace really was doing it to protect SHIELD, so maybe the clash of directors is at an end? (Probably not, but it’s a change.)
But don’t think we didn’t notice how Mace made himself a little SHIELD superhero outfit for when he takes to the field. Suit and tie not good enough for him?
4. All About ADA
Continued belowSpeaking of secrets, ADA’s true identity as an artificial intelligence controlling a life-model decoy body has come to light, including to Director Mace. Apparently androids are also a big no-no on the Sokovia Accords, thanks in no small part to Ultron. (I have to imagine there was a little footnote in the “no robots” section of the accords saying “This means you, Stark.”) Radcliff tries to argue her benefits and defend himself, but the most he and Coulson can do is get him to agree to use her for this one mission.
Apparently Radcliff also added some synthetic blood to her robot body for dramatic effect, and emotions for realism. So yes, he programmed a robot to feel pain (insert Simpsons reference here).
Still, after her Darkhold-induced technological prowess allows her to create a machine that helps save the day, and she takes a bullet for the team in a very literal sense, Mace allows Radcliff to continue the program under SHIELD supervision.
So of course this is where the robot uprising begins. Radcliff seems to have forgotten to program ADA with Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, as she’s breaking law number one pretty frequently (so that gives us the laws of physics, Clarke’s laws, and Asimov’s laws in one episode). We’ve got robot doubles to look forward to for the next half of the season, which I will almost certainly be referring to as “Cylons” the first time we get a surprise revelation that someone’s been replaced by one without the audience knowing.
It’ll happen. You know it will.
5. Getting Down With Daisy
Last but not least, we have Daisy “Quake” Johnson, who we’ve followed from episode 1 as she joined SHIELD, became an agent, became Inhuman, became an outlaw, then became a SHIELD agent again. As part of Director Mace’s “let’s make everyone forgive me for being the designated nasty authority figure” tour, he clears her name with a little story about how she was working on an extended undercover operation to take on the Watchdogs (a group that keeps getting pushed to the background every time the actual plot starts).
Of course, this is after she uses her power to absorb the earthquake’s Eli’s powers are causing, launches herself off into the sky with a quake-powered super jump, then lands in front of multiple news crews. So it was something of a necessity, though at this point she was pretty much back to being an agent in all but name anyways.
There is a cute little scene where Coulson mentions that he wanted her to be the Inhuman face of SHIELD, although Daisy’s response of “maybe in the comic book version” was a little too on the nose. We all know that the comic equivalent of Quake spent a fair amount of time as the head of SHIELD, following one of Maria Hill’s many career-threatening screw-ups.
Still, she’s back to being an agent of SHIELD, and the status quo is restored. On to the second half of the season!
