Saturday, 27 January 2018

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Best Laid Plans' - Jan 27

‘Best Laid Plans’… The latest AoS episode… Did it work?

Not really. The plans got derailed – of Mack and Yo-Yo, as well as of Kasius and Sinera, but-
But Sinera died. In a fight with Daisy, (though Deke helped – but more on Deke below). When compared to Kara’s death in S2, to Grant’s, the Malicks’, Hive’s deaths in S3, even AIDA in S4, you will realize that Sinera’s death was simply meaningless: she and Daisy were doing their best to kill each other, and Daisy accidentally won. That is it. No one will shed a tear for her, not even Kasius, who is apparently already busy on his next master plan, now that the xenomorphs (remember, in the previous episode?), and bombs have failed. Oh, and he has a seer as well!

…Let’s pause a bit. If Kasius has his own seer, and they’re real, and not a fraud as John Garrett had been back in S1, then Kasius should’ve known that Sinera is going to die out there, regardless of how formidable she is, and if he loved her, he would never let her go on her own. Evil does not mean incapable of loving – Grant and Kara, and Gideon Malick with his daughter showed that. (Sorry, but in canon S3 Grant did become a villain, alas, and he died as one – but he did bring Hive back to Earth at expense of his own life – not unlike a hero – and Hive did beat S.H.I.E.L.D. up better than Grant ever could. Talk about a pyrrhic victory!).

Back to Kasius, ahem. So he has a seer of his own, who may be a real deal. Given how AoS loves twists and turns, it just might be Virgil, who hadn’t died in the S5 premiere – remember him? This could be him coming back – or maybe it will be a cyborgnetic version of Lance Hunter; given how AoS loves its’ twists and turns, that is also possible.

Anything else? The sequel to ‘Deep Blue Sea’ is coming out this year. The original film was about a crazy doctor using mako sharks to develop a cure for cancer; it worked, but then sharks escaped during a storm and killed almost everyone, and getting killed themselves in the process. Basically, it was ‘Jaws’ meeting ‘Jurassic Park’ and producing a ‘Jurassic Shark’ kind of movie in the process. The most noteworthy part of DBS was that the movie used mako sharks rather than the more famous great whites, as the movie monsters. The sequel is using bull sharks instead – again, a less-known species than the great white…more or less. In ‘River Monsters’ series, (RM), the bull shark appeared fairly regularly, and while this species was smaller than the great white shark is, it was still a formidable species. Kudos to Darin Scott and co. for starring them in DBS2.

…Conversely, here is the thing. In the DBS2 trailer, the bull sharks were shown as pack hunters, a new and improved version of the old fish. That is not bad, but real life being what it is, there is already a carnivore who does it without any genetic editing – the killer whale. It is just as formidable a predator as any shark is, it has a more advanced brain than any shark does, and it is already a pack hunter, unlike most sharks…or, to be more precise, it is a better and more coordinated pack hunter than the sharks are…and it is much more adaptable than any shark species is, too. Why can’t it be a villain in a movie?

…Possibly because between the ‘Free Willy’ movie franchise and such films as ‘Blackfish’ that expose animal abuse of killer whales and similar species by humans, the killer whale or orca is just isn’t villain material; plus there are no confirmed attacks of humans by killer whales either, so there’s that.

…Back to AoS? Not much left to say. The previous episode was largely all about the back story, filling the gaps for the viewers. This episode was all about action and moving into position – both by the agents and by Kasius and his forces. The final confrontation is about to begin, and AoS needs it: its’ numbers are growing, but are still low. Good luck to them!


…That’s it for this time; see you all soon!

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