Let us try talking about AoS S5 finale once again. What are
the key points that can be derived from it?
Firstly, the fight between Graviton and Daisy/Skye/Quake. It
was impressive. It was CGI. It was one-on-one. It was big and showy and
everything that the fight between her and Robbie against Ivanov’s LMDs at the
S4 finale had not been. It was a proper showdown with a Big Boss, a genuine ‘hero
meets monster’ moment, and…
And nothing. On one hand, ever since S3, especially the
second half, AoS did its’ best to make itself continuous, especially within
itself, (within the rest of MCU – not as much), and Talbot got his moment to
shine, but…that was the proverbial hour before the dawn, or rather – the hour
before the dusk, because after his defeat, (demise, doom, etc.) I doubt that
AoS has anymore of the recurring
characters left; when AoS S6 returns in summer 2019, they will have to
introduce new characters from scratch, something that they do not really manage
to do, not even in S2. True, the ultimate point of a villain is to be defeated,
or even – destroyed, but when they made, however poorly, Grant Ward into a
recurring villain, this was even better, because this was someone who could
genuinely go toe-to-toe with the agents for several rounds at least, and
challenge them properly, in a smart way, without any extremely overwhelming numerical
odds…and nothing else. Ever since Malick, most of the villains used exactly
that against S.H.I.E.L.D….and it simply was not enough. Moreover, true, there
had been villains who were attempted into being someone different…only not.
Hive relied on his Primitives in a very Hydra-like way, (though he made them
from the Watchdogs, who are KKK rather than Hydra), Ophelia/Madame Hydra was
simply powerless against the Ghost Rider, (and Ivanov was something else), and
now Graviton. Yes, he is a conflicted character…only after he had killed Creel,
(who became a friend to him before), and some other people, he was not. Rather,
he was acted out in a conflicted manner, the show tried to keep him humorous, but
rather, it made him incompetent. Robin Hinton, of course, was just unlikable,
and by now,…Melinda seems to have abandoned any maternal feelings that Robin
brought out in her, and instead is staying with Coulson, on Tahiti.
Yeah, about that, since this is the second point – yes,
Coulson is dying, technically, but AoS made it look more like he retired and
made Daisy the new director, something that some people suspected from the
start, because in the Marvel comics’ canon, Daisy Johnson/Quake did become the
director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after Fury at least in some of the universes. AoS
tried to pattern itself after the Secret Warriors comic story, especially in
S3, but it did not work. It really did
not work, as the Secret Warriors ended in a bad way: Lincoln died, and Joey
just quit, which was one of the more pathetic moments in AoS’ history. No,
seriously, you should try to find and rewatch the promo ads of the ‘Fallen
Agent’ story line (S3) finale – Joey was a part of them, just as Mack, May,
Coulson and the others were, but otherwise? He quit several episodes before the
S3 finale, thus nullifying, (to put it nicely), the entire S.H.I.E.L.D.-ATCU
conflict of that season.
No, seriously, the two organizations first locked their
horns over Joey in the S3 premiere episode, everything went into motion in part
because of him, and he – just quit. In such circumstances, WTF did they invest
all that effort into him? Just hand him over to ATCU and start something
different.
The same situation went here: at least for the first half of
S5 AoS tried to show how Robin brought out the maternal aspects of Melinda May’s
character, and it came to naught – Coulson is still dying, so he and Melinda
aren’t going to adopt anyone soon; Daisy might’ve acknowledged May as ‘mom’ in
one of the earlier S5 episodes, (during their failed attempt to rescue Ruby
from gravitonium), but that’s it. AoS just cannot pick a theme and stick to it –
rather, it makes a series of potentially good ideas as one-shots set in a
continuous story line, or story arc, aka an AoS season…and unsurprisingly, it
all falls apart in the process.
This brings us to Fitz. In S5 finale, he died. Only not,
because as it was pointed out, he went into the future the first time around by
launching himself into space in a sealed cryogenic chamber, so he is still
alive at the moment, so all Simmons has to do is to stop mourning, to remember
the above state of affairs, and to bring Fitz back from space instead, now that
the present, and the future, changed. Put otherwise, this is not no tragedy,
but more of good old FitzSimmons drama and people are rather tired of it. Is
there anything new?
Well, Gregg made a series of interviews, or mini-interviews,
online, and they give the impression that he is done with AoS; with MCU in
general – not so much, so he probably won’t be returning in AoS’ S6 as a main
character at least, (fingers crossed), so we got some plot development at least. Everything else is up for grabs,
including Daisy’s relationship with Deke Shaw, (none of the cast show any
enthusiasm regarding it), and as such, it is anyone’s guess if Jeff Ward, (who
is playing Deke), will appear in S6 either…
That is it for now, and for AoS (S5 in particular). Until
next time, people, whenever that might be!
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