Wednesday, 26 April 2017

S.H.I.E.L.D., Madame's Men - April 25

‘All the Madame’s Men’ was the 84th, I believe, episode of AoS, and it marks a turning point, as the core characters are beginning to leave Madame Hydra’s/Aida’s world behind. This means, of course, a resolution of the entire ‘SkyeWard’ relationship, done in a manner to generate a lot of feels, and to leave SkyeWard fans happy…which is important for the AoS, for when Brett (Grant) returned to AoS, the show’s ratings went up. Looks like the ‘controversy’ gamble paid-off – sort of.

Of course, given the fact that we’re dealing with MCU there is still plenty of controversy, especially since in the comics, Captain America/Steve Rogers is (still) Hydra, and many people are angry about that because…reasons. With ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy II’ and even ‘Avengers: The Infinity War’ I and II in the wings, this sort of controversy can be an ambiguous sword – but we digress.

The point is that ‘SkyeWard’ was beautifully done, but it feels tacked on, a later addition, kind of like the mention of the departed Mr. Paxton, (John Garrett), was. As always, AoS has plenty of good ideas, new and old, but the way it is depicting them? It sucks. Unlike ‘APB’, whose main idea is meh, but the delivery is solid, or ‘Time After Time’- Oh, right, it was cancelled, never mind.

Or yes, do mind, thank you very much. First ‘Time’ got cancelled, while ‘APB’ made it to the season’s finale on one hand, and now ‘Powerless’ has also gotten cancelled, while ‘Making History’ seems still to be going. True, it has been reduced to 9 episodes from the original 13, but who knows? Maybe somebody somewhere was feeling superstitious? For otherwise, ‘History’ is much more lowbrow than ‘Powerless’ was, let alone ‘Time’, yet it hasn’t gotten cancelled – yet.

The above written awkward mini-rant is to point out that shows tend to be cancelled on an irrational basis and without rhyme or reason, and it sucks. To make it even worse, RM is in its final season, so yeah – after S9 wraps up, no more RM, period. The world of TV will be diminished…

Back to AoS? Yeah, ‘SkyeWard’ was put in to entice the fans/viewers, and it worked, (though S4 is still nowhere as badass as S1 & and S2 of AoS used to be), so I doubt that we will see Grant in S4 ever again, (though who knows? After S3, no one expected to see any of Dalton’s characters in AoS ever again either). Of course, this still leaves the issue of Trip hanging around – what kind of closure will he get, and there was still the matter of Bakshi: WTF did he come back?

…Bakshi was a Hydra member back in S2, who got killed by Simmons in the Arctic, and who had never been in contact with Radcliffe or Aida or Anton Ivanov/the Superior, not in canon or otherwise. So, how did he end up in the framework? Had Radcliffe and Aida Mk II, (this one) hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. files or something? In this case, they and their allies could have done much more damage than what we have seen in the LMD story arc. Instead, we seem to be dealing with a plot gap, (or a plot hole, whatever it is called), and also, before team Coulson, (including Ward), had stormed ‘Hydra Daily News’, cough, Bakshi had been briefly interacting with a somewhat Bobbi-like blonde, and Bobbi used to be undercover in Hydra… it would’ve been fun to see a framework Bobbi, yeah? However, that did not happen, alas…

(Speaking of Ivanov, WTF he is ‘The Superior’ now? Is his new ‘rank’ an adjective, a noun, a verb, etc.? In general, Marvel isn’t big on using ‘Superior’ as a noun, more as an adjective…and what, or who, Ivanov is superior to, or then? This is sort of like FH ‘Conqueror’ from the Knight faction – there wasn’t much active conquering going on in FH, which is part of its’ problem, but that is another story…)


So. Another good episode made by AoS S4, and ‘SkyeWard’ fans actually got the closure that they sought, so things are looking up. ‘Madame Hydra’ is moving into her endgame, as does AoS S4 in general. 

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