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

Once again, this has been an unexpected turn of events.

• That car sequence was great... Daisy gets the best action sequences in this show.
• Quake/Ghost Rider romance in 4-5 episodes, calling it.
• Don't f'ck with this senator commander.
• I'm oddly aware of the fact that two strong women were taken out by two men in the same episode. That almost never happens on AOS.

edited 27th Sep '16 8:05:59 PM by Soble

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

Quake didn't have a love interest in Season 2, maybe Season 4 will repeat that magic.

Didn't expect the new dude to be an Inhuman. That was a swerve.

Is he supposed to be anyone from the Marvel Universe retconned into being an Inhuman like Daisy / Quake?

And yeah, May really should have said something about what she was seeing, though from the looks of it, she didn't make the connection that something was wrong with her due to being compromised it seems. It looks like she assumed something was getting at everyone else.

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He could be Jeffrey Mace made into an Inhuman.

Darkhold! The ghosts talked about the Darkhold. That's neat. I wonder if any characters associated with the Darkhold in the comics will show up. Victoria Montesi, maybe?

Jeffrey's cool. He is such a management type and it makes me actually kinda hate him even though he does seem like a nice guy.

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Those Box Ghosts were actually pretty amusing, I'm glad to see this show is embracing magic. Hopefully one day we can get a another reference or even a tease to Man-Thing, who was name dropped way back in season 1. Now would be a perfect time to reveal his existence, especially since we got all this magical energy all out and about.

edited 27th Sep '16 11:18:35 PM by clockworkboy

Tis the great art of life to manage well The restless mind

I'm glad that they made the new Director (who is totally Jeffrey Mace — remember, he said Coulson wanted somebody to symbolically replace Captain America and Mace did that in the comics) likeable, if a bit douchey. He's a bureaucrat, but he isn't wrong. Optics are important and Coulson isn't objective when it comes to May or Daisy.

Damn, though, I did not expect references to the Darkhold. That is pulling deep from the magic side of the Marvel universe. I mean, that's a book written by Cthon. It also created the first vampire, so, hey, we might get vampires this season!

It's funny also because "Ghost Boxes" are a thing in the Marvel universe, but they aren't for holding ghosts. Instead, they open doors to parallel universes.

Also funny: Coulson says that Peggy Carter had plenty of adventures "which are, sadly, undocumented."

edited 27th Sep '16 11:23:31 PM by alliterator

So at the end, when May was ranting in the Quinjet, were those the congresscritters watching her, or random SHIELD red shirts? Either way, I wonder if it was intentional in order to make her look crazy in front of people who don't know her well. Admittedly, she is crazy at the moment, but I meant once she gets better, the director might think it will prevent her from building support against him.

Though he might not be that much of a chessmaster. It's probably just a sign that he doesn't really care about doing the humane thing and tranqing her for the trip.

I'm pretty sure those were shield agents on there. I doubt an agent going through a psychotic break is something you want members of congress to be exposed to. He's probably taking her to a secret facility somewhere which she'll end up busting out off or be rescued from. Who knows.

Tis the great art of life to manage well The restless mind

The preview for the next episode showed Jemma trying to save her as her heart stopped. So, uh, no, I don't think May will be busting out.

The new director is kind of swarmy....

I am feeling a little bit lost with the current story-line, to be honest.

Do you include the strong woman who single-handedly defeated five highly trained operatives before facing someone she didn't know was enhanced?

So, no Fitz having to lie to Jemma this episode, which is good, because I know that this drama I will hate when it will be there. I don't really like the ghosts as antagonists, or at least, I fear that their powers will be used for cheap drama and infighting, which I usually don't appreciate - I'd rather have heroes fighting each other because for some time they are on opposing sides, like possibly Daisy vs Shield, than heroes fighting each other because "demuhnic puhsessiuhn".

I greatly enjoy Ghost Rider, as they managed to make him and his powers look incredibly cool despite the failure potential they had on-screen; And I like "the new director", whoever he is. I hope he doesn't turn out to be secretly evil in the end, because so far him being obstructive was actually perfectly reasonable (except for what looked like torturing Mei).

Well, SHIELD knows that the ghosts will make them go crazy, so that's good. They know to avoid them now. I'm guessing there won't be a major confrontation again until they either perfect the ghost traps or find a way to immunize themselves to the insanity. It also looks like Daisy and Robbie are going to handle that side of things.

As for the new director, I don't like him, but in a "this guy is doing the best he can but is nowhere near as competent as he thinks." He's a good PR guy. Bad everything else. I'm guessing Coulson will be back to being director by the end of the season (maybe even mid-season finale), but I really hope it's not because Jeffrey turns out to be evil. I'm hoping that the weight of his bureaucracy starts to strangle SHIELD in its crib, and he has to be replaced. Though I can't really think of how they'd show that.

Also liking that Coulson voluntarily stepped down. Before the season started, when I heard that he couldn't be director because he's legally dead, I thought that was the stupidest thing ever. There are legal precedents for people thought to be dead coming back, and I highly doubt anyone but the Avengers still cares. It makes much more sense that that is the excuse, when in reality he was still dealing with the problems from the end of last season.

The subtitles on the video I watched called him Mace so he's probably Jeffrey Mace yeah.

I know that the characters we like have been complaining about red tape and bureaucracy and I know that's now what people watching action shows like but I think he kind of has a point. Not all of it but some of a point. Some of it seems asinine like the color coded hierarchy but someone stealing medicine is definitely a good reason to do regular inventory. An official spy agency that's going to be operating internationally should be a bit more ordered.

Especially now that SHIELD isn't being funded by all the money Nick Fury embezzled or whatever.

And he's a reasonable authority figure to a point. Probably going to change down the line though.

Regarding May, I think the ghost effect makes you paranoid and she saw spook faces with everyone she would have confided in so... yeah.

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I also think it may have affected her mind, so instead of thinking "Oh no, I'm hallucinating," she goes, "Oh no, everyone's infected!"

ETA: And in rereading what you wrote, you said pretty much exactly the same thing I did. Whoops.

edited 28th Sep '16 8:21:19 AM by alliterator

I also said more or less the same thing a few posts up.

So Bocaj actually stole that from me.

I'm suing.

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You'll never take me alive

Forever liveblogging the Avengers

If you insist.

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Since season 2 Shield was founded by the funds Daisy stole from Hydra. I guess the money run out....

Wait, really? I thought it was just secret funds that Fury had hidden away.

Yeah, they kind of used the information they got from Ward to drain the Hydra funds...it was a minor subplot at the start of season 2.

So long ago I forgot.

Now everything makes sense. I'm kinda confused why certain scenes or at least plot devices (box ghosts, most importantly) didn't get more prominence in the previous episode, making the new paranormal angle a little more comprehensible.

But, now we know about the Book of Darkhold, have a yet-unseen villain and something for the Ghost Rider to do, so the entire arc starts looking better.

"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis

In response to Discar's question, it looked to me like May was with the tour group at the end. But why put her there?

So here's a crazy trip:

A random cable channel (WSBK, which I believe is UPN....if UPN still exists) is airing season one of Agents of Shield.

The first episode even....which means pre Winter Soldier Ward.

It's weird man. It's so weird I can't even describe it.

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