S.H.I.E.L.D., "Dirty Half Dozen" - April 28

And so, “S.H.I.E.L.D.” had delivered yet another surprising – in a good way – episode...as opposed to JW, whose surprises – like the I-Rex that is not even a tyrannosaur – are not as good. A carnosaur combined with several abelisaur species does not have much right to the claim of a T-Rex, period. 

With “Agents” the twists are in another manner. In the “Dirty Half Dozen”, Grant Ward had reached his ‘nadir’, and has confessed that he misses the team and sincerely regrets what he has done. However, it is still a bit too early for him to come back (at least, according to the overall plot of the series), so Jemma tries to kill him instead. Because Grant is better than she is in such a situation, Simmons has failed, (though she got Bakshi, but the latter has earned it), and has come to a realization that as far as people go, Grant is better than she is, at least at the moment, so far – no dead Grant, and no live one either, to Kara Lynn’s loss. It seems that no matter how had Grant tried to get over Skye – one good look at her, and it’s game over, it’s back to the skip SkyeWard, at least in theory. True, Skye has Lincoln, but considering that in the first part of S2 she had been paired with Lance Hunter instead, SkyeWard should not be dismissed just yet.

Whereas the ship Philinda...this is another story. “Dirty Half Dozen” has also attempted to connect itself with the upcoming Avengers film; the references to baron Strucker, to twins Wanda and Pietro, to Fury and Hill’s future involvement with Ultron abound in this episode. Yet what’s important here is the price that “Agents” had to pay to become involved in this film – Coulson has gone to the backs of him team, or rather – behind their backs, in order to get Hill (and Fury) the info about the Theta protocol & etc, rather than sharing it with May and the others. Considering that in the world of “Agents” anything that includes a team is wrong, Coulson’s actions are going to bite him in the back; he has already lost May (at least for a while), and also Simmons. (Considering that Fitz will not be happy about Jemma’s attempt to kill Grant, this couple just might have problems of their own.) 

On the other hand, Morse is growing increasingly dissatisfied with Gonzales’ leadership, and if she goes, so will Mack and Hunter, most likely. Since Kara Lynn appears to be hanging with them at the moment, odds are we are going to see some shifting loyalties on the teams in the future. 

On the other end of the world we have the Inhumans, who have not only learned that Skye is the daughter of their leader (one of their leaders), but who also have to deal with Raina, who has partially recovered from her own ordeal with the Obelisk and seeks to challenge Jiaying for the leadership – if she is able to master her powers of prophecy first. Skye may have her hands full in helping her parents keeping Raina in check – and helping her mom keep Cal happy and user-friendly, to quote her. Yet, since “Dirty Half Dozen” has emphasized the similarities between Skye and her mother, the following episodes may focus on their differences instead, causing Skye’s task to be increasingly difficult, especially since Gonzales continues to unveil his own master plan (such as it may be). With Hydra down for the count (or rather – fighting the Avengers in their own new movie), there’s nothing stopping S.H.I.E.L.D. in dealing with the Inhumans – and each other. What will happen, when Coulson and Gonzales go toe to toe, how will their respective teams react, and how will Fury (cough potential Avengers crossover cough), is anyone’s guess.

Let’s wait and see!

JW and S.H.I.E.L.D. - April 21

Once more, Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” have a delivered a very good episode; but before we get into it, let us talk about a certain upcoming future film – “Jurassic World”. 

What is the film’s premise? 22 years in the future after the events of the first JP movie, InGen – or a similar company – has restarted the dinosaur theme park thing, making it bigger and better. When I say bigger, I mean literally – aside from the I-Rex, there was also a vastly oversized mosasaur (Tylosaurus?) that swallows great white sharks whole: in reality, mosasaurs were very big animals (8-12 m long on average), but that wasn’t big enough to swallow a modern great white shark (or its Cretaceous analogue – the Ginsu shark) whole; it would rip and tear into pieces first, instead. What JW presents here, though, is already an imaginary, impossible, artificial creature, making the producers’ use of the I-Rex redundant.

And as for the I-Rex itself... Aside from various rumors – that it possesses telepathy and similar amazing mental powers – there is the fact it is not a Rex! There is not any tyrannosaur in this monster’s genetic makeup: apparently, it was created from the DNA of Giganotosaurus and various abelisaurs instead. We will get to Giganotosaurus in a moment; first about the abelisaurs. They were a group of Cretaceous carnivorous dinosaurs, descendants of the Jurassic Ceratosaurus and the like; formidable hunters in their own right, they were smaller – on the average – than Tyrannosaurus was, or than Giganotosaurus, for that matter. They also had very small front limbs – even smaller than those of a T-Rex, though they had three or four fingers instead of T-Rex’s trademark two. The Carnotaurus from Disney’s “Dinosaur” film, for example, was an abelisaur – and it did not look anything like an I-Rex. Or the I-Rex does not look anything like an abelisaur – instead it looks like a carnosaur.

What is a carnosaur? It is a group of carnivorous dinosaurs, which in the Jurassic were represented by allosaurus, saurophaganax; in the Cretaceous – by Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Mapusaurus and so on. Compared to tyrannosaurs and abelisaurs, the carnosaurs were more gracile, so to speak: they had longer and thinner legs, lighter skulls, less powerful jaws (more designed to rip and tear rather than to grip and crush), and correspondingly – longer and stronger front legs and claws, as you can see for yourself in a museum, or a paleontology book, or online. The I-Rex has these features too – especially the front limbs – so why is it a Rex? You could have as well called it a “Megalo-raptor” or something along those lines, and it would be just as true! The real T-Rex should sue this impostor for the unlawful appropriating of its name or something...

Anything else? There is the blatant disregard or mocking of the modern paleontological discoveries – JP3 had its own share of problems, but at least its’ raptors had protofeathers, and the Spinosaurus featured there was not so much wrong, as it was outdated, just as the featherless raptors in the first JP films were. Speaking of raptors: for Crichton, in the original novel, velociraptors were not a name of a specific species, but a term that he used as a synonym for a generic ‘raptor’, to describe such dinosaurs as the Deinonychus (a bigger, stronger species of ‘raptor’ than the Velociraptor was) instead; once again, he was more scientifically accurate than his followers in the field of mass media are.

As for the latest incarnation of JP (-related franchise) raptors...yeah. They are still the size of Deinonychus, but are still – apparently – identified as velociprators by fans and filmmakers. The fact that they are featherless and scaly is only an extra insult to an injury, but still. The telepathically communicating dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine reptiles put all science (paleontology?) out of the window, which contrasts sharply with the main message of the film – artificial animals are bad, Dr. Frankenstein was wrong; man should not meddle with what he does not understand in the name of science, etc. I would not go that far to say that JW has been sponsored by creationists to discredit science in general, but discredit science the JW cast and crew do all the same.

(And on top of all the paleontological inaccuracies JW had some legal problems as well, mainly in regards to who had actually written the story – the WGA had to get involved; I’m not sure if it was Writers Guild of America East or West, but that’s not the point; the point is that the film hadn’t been yet aired, and yet there already are legal problems with it. Sad.)

While JW is dealing with problems legal and scientific, “Agents” have to deal with Hydra instead. Well, most of them anyways; Skye has to deal with her parents instead. So far, she’s got a delusional, perfectionist father, who puts insane into ‘insane genius’, and has physical prowess not unlike that of the Incredible Hulk, just like in the comics, and a mother, who is obsessed with research and protecting – and running – her town of Afterlife; a typical modern American family gone nasty, in the other words. To make things more complex (potentially), there is also Lincoln, a young man she may have developed a crush on; Raina, who is Raina, and Gordon, who may be Raina’s only friend in the world for the moment. Together, combined, these people may make life in Afterlife more complex...even if one forgets about the fact that Lincoln was captured by Hydra alongside his new potential friend Deathlok the Cyborg...and Skye’s mother appears to be the sort of a person who doesn’t like complications...then again, she had lived with Skye’s father, who is a complex character, in an insane sort of way...where were we?

Right, the rest of the team. They got Grant Ward and Kara Lynn, sure enough, but somehow this plot line did not have the same impact as the one dealing with Skye and her family did. Grant’s re-integration into the rest of the team just did not feel natural, but rather rushed; and the team itself appeared to lack the moral high ground that is needed, when dealing with Grant and 33; Coulson’s idea of a carrot – S.H.I.E.L.D. erases Grant’s memory and makes him a normal man – is flawed, and not just because this is a lot like the mental/memory manipulation that Whitehall and the rest of Hydra had practised... yeah. (And Kara Lynn was not even included in the negotiations – who did Coulson think he was by dealing with her in such a high-handed manner? Headmaster Dumbledore? Aye and Fitz almost got his throat slit for this.)

Moral ground aside, this plotline also feels rushed and forced: Coulson and Ward switched from arguing with each other at gunpoint to watching each other’s back within an episode (though that came as a surprise to Coulson, admittedly.) So did Lance and Kara Lynn, of course, but considering that Bobbi is getting rather friendly with Mack...who knows? Maybe the ship HunterBird is more broken-up than it initially looked like. True, there are rumors of a Lance/Bobbi spin-off going around, but, firstly, it all depends on the actors, and secondly, not unlike the “Agent Carter” plotline it could be a filler arc that takes place in the past (with more of agent Isabelle/Xena/LL thrown into the mix, maybe?), so all bets are still off.

And finally, the villains (not counting Grant and Kara Lynn). Dr. List is ruthless and efficient; Bakshi is back being charge and something of a creep; Cal and his ex-wife were already discussed (though it is anyone’s guess if they are villains or not); and there was an official mention of the good baron von Strucker too (and a possible tie with the upcoming new Avengers movie). Hydra villains are getting badder, basically – will S.H.I.E.L.D. be able to stand up to the challenge? Only time will tell.

Until next time!

S.H.I.E.L.D., Melinda - April 14

Back on ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, the plot to save Skye continues, whether she wants it or not, but before we get into that...

First, the pigeons have stayed, apparently – our (admittedly half-hearted) attempts to drive them off were unsuccessful, and we are not ready to call in the professionals just yet. Well, more power to them, I say!

Second, after the initial euphoria of Brontosaurus’ return has ebbed, the other scientists are once again claiming to take things slow, it is not certain yet if Brontosaurus is really Brontosaurus, or just another Apatosaurus species/specimen. Considering that even in ‘canon’ Apatosaurus can number up to 4 species, this is a reasonable approach.

Then we have River Monsters returning to Discovery channel. By its standards and the standards of Animal Planet, this is one of the best things that could’ve happened to it, because otherwise AP is just a load of crap, with pet shows and ‘Too Cute’, and DC’s ‘Shark Week’ is right there for comparison, too. I will not be talking about River Monsters in detail just yet, though.

Now, back to ‘Agents’. This episode had somehow gone all ‘girl-power’ – not only it had focused on Melinda May and her becoming the warm and fuzzy machine of emotion that we all know and love, but it focuses on other female characters of the show as well: not just Skye, Gemma and Skye’s mother, for example, but on Morse and Weaver (team Gonzales) as well, albeit to different degrees.

Let us start, then, with the star of the episode – Melinda May. In the flashback, 7 years ago-

Wait. Let us talk about chronology. Skye was born, according to her parents, back in 1988, making her, supposedly, 26 years old. 1988 + 26 = 2014: in real life, this was last year, back when these episodes were aired and filmed (?); in ‘Agents’ world 2014 – 7 = 2007, which was when Coulson and May went to Bahrain (a small island country, located near the western shore of the Persian Gulf in Middle East, if anyone cares) to try and bring-in an Inhuman woman from Russia, empowered with super-strength. Fair enough and aside from ‘casting the type’, the cliché works. The rescue had not. The woman had a daughter, whose gift was to mentally dominate the others and to take away their pain in the process, as well as free will. May had to kill her - alongside her mother. This is not S.H.I.E.L.D. way, and May asked for a job transfer to an office job, which she got and kept, until Coulson got her back into the field back at the beginning of the show.

So far so good, but we also get:

- More of Melinda’s ex-husband, Andrew. Not only in flashbacks, but also he gets mentioned in real life: Coulson had been keeping in touch with him; not because of their mutual bond with May, but also because Coulson just may be setting up something called ‘the Delta protocol’ that will enable him to run some sort of a colony or training camp for super-powered people such as Skye and Deathlok, and he has also empowered Deathlok further (maybe because he needs Deathlok’s help in confronting Ward?). Considering that May (and also Simmons) hadn’t heard about this, this means that either Coulson had been lying to May...or that team Gonzales (Bobbi, Mack, Weaver, etc) are lying to May in order to suborn her. May – even with Simmons’ help – will need all the smarts that she has in order to figure out the truth.

And the same goes for Skye, naturally. Her mother told her that story as well, but... firstly, she does not appear in the flashbacks, making one wonder just where she was all the time when May was fighting the rogue Inhumans and why she had not stepped in. She knows about S.H.I.E.L.D., but how and why are different questions that ought to be answered – maybe her scars hold the key? They look as if someone had tried to tear off her face with a clawed paw or something like that; when you are dealing with Inhumans, maybe this is exactly what has happened...but why?

On the other hand, we have, well, Skye’s mother per se: Cal had told Skye that Whitehall had killed her (Skye’s mother) and used her organs to rejuvenate himself. Considering that Whitehall had not aged for almost a century that certainly may be so. Only...now we’ve got Skye’s mother alive and well, and  this means that either someone is lying to Skye here, or ‘Agents’, as a show, had just hit their first plot hole – and it’s a major one! Well, only time – and future episodes – will tell us what version is correct.

What already can be seen, however, is that Skye’s dinner with her parents feels somewhat choreographed; well, it was choreographed by the actors, but it feels choreographed by the characters too. Skye’s mother wants Skye to remain in Afterlife, of course, but she also wants their relationship to be kept secret, for after the incident in Bahrain 7 years ago, the inhabitants of Afterlife take a dim view to the whole ‘bond between parent and child’ thing. This sort of duplicity is not healthy, and may be an indicator of darker things to come.

Conversely, though, we have Lincoln, whose own Inhuman gift is the ability to see the future, apparently (just think Rachel the Oracle in ‘Percy Jackson’ novels), and who had foreseen Skye having dinner with her folks that she had. This is certainly a twist in the plot and it is anyone’s guess what will come from that.

While Skye bonded with her parents, Raina bonded with Gordon, sort of. Raina is suffering from nightmares, low self-esteem (she looks like a chupacabra!), the realization that she just may constantly be in Skye’s shadow, to name a few. Gordon is having his work cut out for him...yet he has no intention of giving up, and he is firmly on team Raina – he honestly thinks she is beautiful. Considering that everyone else on the show ignored the flower girl, hated her, or did not know about her at all, (or any combination of the above), Gordon just might be what Raina needs to get herself out of the pit that she and Cal had made...

And so, in this episode Melinda took a trip down the memory lane and found herself in charge of the Playground, surrounded with allies who just might be trickier than any outright enemies, Skye took a training course from her mother and learned about May’s adventures in the past, while finding herself surrounded by family/allies, who just might be trickier than any outright enemies, Raina has begun to bond with Gordon, and Fitz (who had been mostly ignored in this episode) had not only hacked into Fury’s ‘toolbox’ (with an acetylene torch?), but has contacted Hunter and Coulson and together they will shake-off Fitz’s tail and get a move-on in saving Skye. Another great and dramatic episode, put otherwise.

S.H.I.E.L.D., Afterlife - April 7

And so it happened that yet another episode of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” was aired on TV. Awesome! But first – few other bits of info.

First of all – real life here – we appear to have acquired a couple of pigeons on our balcony. We have no idea of how to get rid of them, and barely more intentions if we want to in the first place. So far it seems that the pigeons are roosting there, and not nesting, but I would not bet on it, so for the moment the pigeons are there to stay.

Second – also real life here – it seems that the scientists (paleontologists) have decided that Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus are two different dinosaurs. Leaving aside that the Apatosaurus family accounts for up to 4 different species, this is really exciting news; it seems that the main different between the cousins is that the Apatosaurus is the slightly bigger and bulker dinosaur. Neat.

Third – here we go to TV land – is that the fifth season of MLP: FIM has begun to air. The season starter concerning the cutie marks was good – it introduced a new villain into that universe, the Mane 6 weren’t the ones to save the day, actually – and MLP: FIM in general has changed its tune: now the villain isn’t bringing chaos and change into Equestria, she – Starlight Glimmer – is bringing order and monotony instead. Clever move on Hasbro management, maybe they have experienced some change of their own...

Finally, about the latest “Agents” episode, “Afterlife”. In this particular episode, several things happened – primarily Skye has arrived at the titular destination; fortunately, it isn’t what one expects, but rather some sort of a Shangri-La-like place, where Skye should be able learn how to use her powers in peace. The catch is that both Raina and Cal are there as well – let us talk about them for a bit.

It is easy to dislike Raina – all she did had been stirring up trouble for Skye/Daisy and her coworkers, but conversely she had always been dominated by someone else (like Cal) and she was always in Skye’s shadows, a replacement, and not a very good one, perhaps. It is always bad to be perpetually stuck in second place, and to add an injury to the insult, Skye, who had never wanted it, has become something of a prototype superhero (agent Quake from the comic-verse, perhaps?), while Raina, who had been always eager, has become a chupacabra instead. One could start to feel sympathy for Raina here, you know?

With Cal it is more straightforward – just like his comic-verse counterpart, Mr. Hyde, Cal is insane, selfish, and bipolar. However, Gordon (the grimlock to Raina’s chupacabra) apparently can handle him well enough, as can Cal’s wife (Skye’s biological mother?). Her character has just made an appearance, but there is already something of a Fu Manchu vibe about her, suggesting that there is a snake in Aftermath’s paradise, so to speak.

Then again, Skye already does not seem to find Aftermath to her liking – it is too static and quiet for her: she is a woman of action, of strong ideas and ideals, and the quiet and serene retreat of Aftermath just may not be the place that she’ll want to stay permanently – though perhaps she could be persuaded to stay awhile...

And while she stays, Coulson and Hunter are planning to find and rescue her (and given the universe of “Agents” their attempt will probably not be misguided). To do that, they will need help – and it comes in the shape of Deathlok, also known as Mike Petersen. This is really good, for Deathlok was very important in the previous season, and so far he has proven to be more formidable than before. That is good, because Coulson and Hunter will also need Grant Ward to help, and as it was shown in the “Love” episode, Grant has apparently cooled his ardor for Skye quite a bit, and his parting with Coulson was even worse. Odds are, this is the sink or swim moment for Grant’s character – he will either start returning to the good guys’ side and become a proper S.H.I.E.L.D. agent once more, or will become fully a villain and probably die soon enough (Simmons, for example, wants to kill him). Considering that “Agents” tend to provide the unexpected it can go either way.

As for the rest of the team... Fitz and Simmons have made up, and have smuggled Fury’s toolbox – a vibranium cube – out of the Playground. Captain Gonzales and his people may be quite competent, (and apparently they got the numbers on their side too), but so are Fitz and Simmons – they have come a long way since their naive debut back in S1. They may no longer be able to talk in synch, as they have done before, but they have become much more mature as well – Mack, Morse and others will not know what hit them.

But finally we have Melinda May, who has issues of her own – and since the next episode deals with her back-story, well...let us leave her for next week as well. 

So: Deathlok is back, Coulson is starting to fight back and to recollect his team, Fitz and Simmons have proved their mettle, Grant may get a last chance to get his, Skye is going to get rescued whether he wants to or not, and May will get a special episode about her next week.

S.H.I.E.L.D., One Door - March 31

...The “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” has met their new major enemy for the rest of S2 – and it is them. Back on the day when S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen to Hydra, a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had broken away from Fury’s decree and survived instead, rather than blowing their – S.H.I.E.L.D. – warship with all hands on deck instead. That group featured Captain Gonzales, Bobbi Morse, Mack, and agent Hartley (also known as Lucy Lawless and Xena, Warrior Princess, cough), who died in the beginning of S2. Hunter was not a part of the core group, but he was around – an important distinction, for as the S2 continues to develop, more of the ‘other S.H.I.E.L.D.’s’ back-story will come to light, as will Hunter’s, for he is a part of both S.H.I.E.L.D.s, so to speak, unlike Ward, who is a part of neither now, and whose role in the “Agents” universe has become largely diminished especially as Hunter does join up with Coulson and officially becomes a part of his team at the end of this episode.

Captain Obvious points out that this is a repetition of Angel/Spike dynamic back in BtVS, save that for “Agents” it took roughly 2 seasons – not 5 or more as it was for BtVS; besides, Grant isn’t completely gone: in her confrontation with Morse May refers to him, albeit not mentioning his name: here, Grant (and Hydra) serves as a foil/contrast to this season’s take-over of S.H.I.E.L.D.: unlike Hydra, captain Gonzales and his crew aren’t heartless murderers or brainless drones; they’re people just like Coulson’s team, with beliefs and convictions and determinations to fight for their beliefs – on one hand.

On the other, we have Mack and Morse who are more merciful than Ward was, they aim to incapacitate, rather than kill, and Mack actually saved Fitz, when Gonzales went to storm the Playground at last. Given the propensity of “Agents” to surprise their audience with twists and turns, it just might be that Gonzales’ people will become ‘the good guys’ in the eyes of the general populace (of the Marvel-verse), and Coulson and co will become the villains – Ward and Kara will certainly appreciate the irony should they learn of it.

Skye, on the other hands, will not. This civil war of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s (reminiscent of the greater civil war story arc in the Marvel comics) had caught her already unbalanced by the visit of the Inhumans’ representative, who offered to help and train her in ways that S.H.I.E.L.D. cannot. As Skye’s takedown of one of Morse’s underlings had shown, she is already a competent fighter, but her powers of vibration are another story, and to a person who doesn’t know her back story, she can be easily seen as a villain or a monster; to a person who had been hurt by Skye’s vibration strike (epic scene, that) – ditto. Odds are that the future episodes of “Agents” S2 will feature a manhunt for Skye, putting extra pressure on top of what her father is trying to do to her too: their last showdown had been rather inconclusive, especially for Cal, who is crazy (bipolar, most likely). 

In good news, Fitz and Simmons are finally back together – a sign of their personal growth and competence. Gemma was able to capture Bobbi, however briefly, so if she and Ward will meet again, she just might kill him, for the main team, Coulson’s team, are growing in competence, and Ward has stopped, and his influence in series has become diminished, as have the chances for the SkyeWard ship. 

That is unlike the ship FitzSimmons, which is stronger than ever, and the ship PhilMel is showing evidence of being in being as well: the way that May has sacrificed her freedom to save Coulson is impressive; the audience will have to wait and see if Captain Gonzales’ team can offer anything like it. Considering that agent Weaver, FitzSimmons’ old mentor from the Academy is on the good captain’s team, this idea should not be dismissed out of hand.

So: Coulson’s team is captured and split, and he can only count on Hunter for help at hand, at least for now. Skye is off to parts unknown, seeking to learn the ways to master her new powers. S.H.I.E.L.D. is in full throes of a civil mini-war.