Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Also, Mac

He came back.

As far as I can tell despite being a founding member of "Real" SHIELD Mack was never technically on the board. Though that could easily change going in to Season 3.

Also Calderon is still alive, though it's questionable if he'll be able/willing to reclaim his position once he gets out of the hospital given how he ended up there. He'll be in for an awkward conversation regardless.

Mack's got his shnazzy new position overseeing alien artifacts, while Bobbi isn't even certain she wants to stay at S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore.

With nearly the entire "council" dead or doing something else, and given Coulson's utter disdain for the concept, it doesn't look like Real Steel's policy of democratic leadership is going to last much longer. I get the feeling the Chain of Command has been reinstated, with Coulson back on top.

edited 18th May '15 7:56:32 AM by TobiasDrake

I don't know. I think both Weaver and May won't like that (especially since May was really disappointed in Coulson keeping secrets from her). So perhaps they will form a new council or something?

May might not, but without Gonzales to throw his weight around, I'm not sure how much authority Weaver will even have. She was basically Gonzales's parrot.

If the "council" winds up just being Coulson and May, that's not so different from there just not being a council anyway, especially once Coulson inevitably starts keeping secrets and doing things behind May's back like he does.

I may just be misremembering, but wasn't the council "advisory", in that it could give Coulson input on command decisions, but as Director Coulson makes the final call?

I think so.

Which is what the WSC should have been.

Actually, I think that's that the WSC was. "I realize the council has made a decision, but considering it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it."

Except that then the WSC was able to go around his back and order the strike anyway. And in Winter Soldier, when Fury changed his mind on Insight, they kept it going despite his objections.

Does anyone feel like Jiaying needing to drain people to survive came out of nowhere? Cal states that her power wasn't offensive in nature and Whitehall was never shown needing to drain people to survive.

Though Pierce was the only one he told about his suspicions, and we all know how that turned out.

edited 18th May '15 10:29:11 AM by KarkatTheDalek

In WS, Fury asked for a delay in Project Insight and got it. During that delay, he was "killed" and the truth about Batroc came out, and in light of the implication that he was a traitor the council voted to stop the delay and continue with the project.

Ah, okay.

Pierce is the one to blame for that, though. The Council didn't do that just because they didn't like Nick Fury.

The draining came not really out of nowhere. I always wondered what the point of killing a whole village was. It was pretty much the last missing puzzle piece.

Gonzales position as a leader was already shaky the moment Coulson revealed that Fury is still alive. Now with the whole council either hurt or dead, Coulson shouldn't have a problem to take the lead again.

Right. Point is, Fury had to lobby for the WSC's approval, and they had the ability to undermine his authority and go around him. He was beholden to them. The advisory council was beholden to Coulson; they could advise, but his decisions were final.

The conversation about the nuke made it clear what direction the chain of command was intended to go; Fury was under military obligation to fire the nuke once the WSC decided they were going that route, and was going off-script with his fantastic "Stupid-ass decision" line, to which they responded by cutting him out of the loop and delivering the orders to his subordinates directly - and at least two people who received the orders knew that the WSC's authority supercedes Fury's.

edited 18th May '15 12:08:23 PM by TobiasDrake

I think the Council had a little more authority — for one thing, Gonzales was in control of the entire aircraft carrier. If he wanted to, he could just say, "Ignore Coulson's commands." And Coulson knows that, so they both have to cooperate with one another, which is why Coulson agreed to send Gonzales to Afterlife.

...which, I mean, Gonzales probably regrets now.

"I have an Aircraft Carrier, Coulson." *Ao U hits cinemas* "I have an Helicarrier."

...*beat*

"Fine. Teamwork it is."

The best part about that is how tiny it makes Gonzales in comparison. Sure, if Gonzales really wanted to be a domineering jackass about it he could have refused to deal with Coulson and asserted his dominance, but then Coulson could've just gone to Cap's Avengers organization - which had a lot more clout, more resources, and more influence in the world at large. It's clear Coulson and Fury considers the resources they build up to be at the Avengers' disposal already - distancing even further at that point would've been simple.

If Coulson left, he likely would have pulled a Disney and had most of the important characters in the plot go with him. The connections and facilities Coulson's spend the past season creating would have gone with him as well (and should Coulson have gone to the Avengers, Gonzales would've been unable), as would all the goodwill Coulson built up with the army and the US government.

Gonzales would've been left with the same thing he started with: a single ship and the insistence that "our organization really is SHIELD, honest." All he would've gotten was a facility with most of its important personnel gone. And May, admittedly.

edited 18th May '15 2:29:48 PM by KnownUnknown

I do think Gonzales had more resources than just the ship. In the episode, we see a bunch of Quinjets, but Coulson's team only had one Quinjet (stolen in the first episode). Those must have all been part of the Real SHIELD.

Speaking of councils, anyone find it odd how we never see these Inhuman Elders that Jiaying supposedly answers to?

I thought Jiaying was the Inhuman elders, or at least one of them. I don't remember her ever having a boss.

I figured the "Inhuman Elders" she answers to were the Royal Family or something. Whoever's higher than the Afterlife colony on the chain of command.

edited 18th May '15 2:48:43 PM by TobiasDrake

Same.

Maybe after her resurrection Jiayang split from the Elders? I'm guessing that if they are the royal family it's they who are going to be the focus of the movie.

So I got thinking. Imagine you are one of the Inhumans who were in Afterlife. Jiaying goes to meet with a SHIELD negotiator. The negotiator tries to kill her then SHIELD attack Afterlife directly, aiming for the building Jiaying had been in. They don't get her and Gordon evacuates you to safety.

Next thing you hear, if you hear anything, is that Jiaying and Gordan have both been killed by SHIELD and Jiaying's daughter, who was a SHIELD agent, is putting together a black-ops squad of Inhumans under the direct control of SHIELD, any Inhuman they find is going on the Index and they're saying the whole thing was Jiaying's fault.

SHIELD got everything they wanted and the Inhumans are scattered or under SHIELD's control.

I suspect they will do nothing with that but you could have some really anti-SHIELD Inhumans out there.