AoS episode 7x11 - Aug 6

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, especially if you are a cicada, from the U.S. state of West Virginia, which are being infected by some insecticidal fungus, which is neutering and killing them, (presumably in that order). That said, the scientists, (starting with the various entomologists), are cool about it, saying that this cicada species will survive this. Fair enough, but where does this leave us?

With the latest episode of AoS – next week it is going to be the double-feature series’ finale! Sounds exciting, and after yesterday’s episode, the series could use it. Pause. Let us restart.

Yesterday’s episode was lackluster, to say the least, as it featured the usual set of AoS’ shortcomings.

First, there were plot twists – i.e., Kora talked to Daisy that Sibyl told Kora that Daisy would not abandon her sister…and Daisy showed that she considers Simmons to be her sister, not Kora. Very poignant, really, but considering that Jemma and Skye were friends from the start, and Kora appeared… what? Only halfway through the S7 and she and Daisy didn’t really interact until now? Yeah, suddenly the twist appears to be a lot less twisty.

…Incidentally, when did Daisy and Jemma acknowledge themselves ‘sisters’? In S6, they had some bonding on an alien planet, but no acknowledgement of sisterhood. In S3, Bobbi Morse acknowledged either one of them to be her ‘sister’… and that was the Russian mission episode after which Bobbi and Lance left the show for good, (yes, Lance appeared in one S5 episode, but his appearance was perfunctory, so let’s let it slide), so not a good track here, people! AoS tried to do a dramatic, poignant twist, but it just managed to make itself look stupid itself.

…The mention of S3 brings us to Grant Ward – in this week’s episode, Kora actually mentioned him, talking how she, (+Nathaniel Malick? – things were blurry for me by that point), could bring back all of the team Time Bus’s deceased friends, including those, who died because of Ward. Pause. How does, or did, Kora learn about Grant Ward and co? Did the Sibyl and Malick tell her about him? If so, why?

No, really, why? Yes, Grant Ward became of the greatest enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D., thanks to Coulson’s hubris, Melinda’s viciousness, and his own arrogance, (among other reasons), so it would make sense to bring him to the anti-Time Bus party, but instead, we got a young John Garret, who acts nothing like who his grown-up version acted in S1. …Yes, MCU brought the son of the original John Garrett actor to play this new version, but so what? I like trivia points as much as anyone does, but even I acknowledge that trivia on its’ own does not make a successful TV episode, (among other things). Pause.

Let us put Ward aside from the moment and return to the inconsistency issue – did anyone notice that the AoS rebooted itself again? The S7 premiere was all about the Chronocons and time travel, but by now both of them took a second seat to the InHumans, as well as Nathaniel Malick and his not quite Hydra. Notably, Gideon Malick, Nathaniel’s elder brother and the Hydra head from the S3, is quite absent from the episode. Ouch.

…And yet, the issue of Gideon Malick is nowhere as prominent as the great big jarring absence of Leo Fitz. The man had been physically absent from S7, and though his absence is a major plot point, sadly, YouTube had told too much: there is a video clip that has Jeff Ward, (who plays Deke Shaw), acknowledge that he and Iain, (who plays Fitz, no duh!), cannot stand each other. Ergo, first we had the S6, where Leo had been kept separate from the rest of the team because of reasons, (feel free to re-watch AoS’ S6 to re-learn all about them), and now we got S7, which is glaringly Fitz-free. Since the series’ finale is coming up next week, I really hope that Leo will finally re-appear on the show and save everyone, because he is just that adorable.

And if he doesn’t? That does not matter, sadly, because after the next week, that is it for AoS – it will be done and gone. High road, low road, it does not matter: they are about to be done for good, and while they are doing it better than how HBO’s GoT did it, that’s because practically anyone can do it better than how GoT did it. And yes, the last season of GoT has similarities to AoS in general – but that is another story.

…Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!