Synopsis of 05×1 and 05×2: S.H.I.E.L.D. finds itself where no S.H.I.E.L.D. team has found itself before (hardly any of the Avengers have even found themselves here)… SPACE! And…
Heads up. There is absolutely no way to write this review without some pretty serious spoilers about this new season of AoS. So if you want to avoid those, do not read on!
The FUTURE!
This season opens on a bald man swimming, eating, and otherwise preparing for a day of work. Oh, he also seems to be an alien of some kind that can remove his human skin. It’s fairly unclear precisely who or what he is. However, he is, in fact, the man who kidnaps the team (sans Fitz, who “isn’t on the list”).
From here, the team is taken to a room with a white Obelisk, only to be transported by it when it liquifies. Poor Simmons is all too familiar with this process.
Arriving one by one, they come to discover that they are on a ship that hosts humans, Kree, and some other quadrupedal alien. Mack, wisely, notes that the team really should stay together; haven’t they seen an Alien movie? What follows is an example of the delightful comedic beats that this two part premiere holds. From his comment, the scene jumps to the team slowly walking down a hallway in formation. “We’ve never looked cooler.”
With the help of some human locals, Deke and Tess, the agents slowly uncover the truth of this world. This isn’t just space. This is earth in the future. Finding a postcard from Fitz confirms this, he is in the past working to uncover a way to save them.
For the part of the new characters, Deke is a roguish, Starlord type (his entry is literally as Starlord as it gets: helmet, rusty red jacket, flying) who doesn’t want to believe humans can be saved from the current order of the Kree. Instead, he exists within the system, creating a Framework for escapism. Yes, the Framework. It’s back. But in an Inception dream world way. The Kree allow it, because it encourages complacency. He’s also likely not the neighbor of Clint Barton. Just guessing.
Tess is a true believer. She thinks these heroes can save humanity and is willing to risk her own life to see them succeed. There are prophecies or some such.
Daisy confronts Deke, Yo-Yo and Mack are nearly frozen by Kree, Coulson and May avoid being murdered in a Thunderdome murder brawl situation, and Simmons is taken by the Kree overlord as a servant. That might be problematic at first, but I’m willing to bet that will be his downfall. No one keeps Simmons in a corner.
As for the time travel, it’s a complicated storyline to pull off. Just ask Lost. Or Heroes. Especially when what caused the near-destruction of earth and led to this future is one of the team: Daisy.
So presumably, the team will return to modern times, trying to stop whatever event causes the destruction, only to cause the destruction. So maybe they can just stay in the future? But then the future would cease to exist? So they would cease to exist too?
See how confusing it already is?
As potentially concerning as the time travel storyline might seem, this was, honestly, one of the best episodes this series has had in a long time. The characters were humorous and working together. Hopefully the writers learned their lesson from last year that these guys work best together. We can also assume that Fitz will somehow end up in the future, as well, given that he has a dramatic, future grunge photo to match the rest of the team. The more Agents together, the better.
I can’t seem to quit this show. And with episodes like this, it’s easy to see why. I’m looking forward to my Friday nights. I was never going to go out and do anything, and now I have S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep me company.
Oh, and if you were thinking that maybe the Inhumans would show up on the moon, Ming-Na Wen seemed to suggest that that show had been cancelled. But that’s really not a surprise right?
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