Agents of SHIELD 4.15 Self-Control
May. 8th, 2017 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessAgents of SHIELD 4.15 Self-Control
Easily the best episode this season! I was so chuffed because it was all about ladies’ agency: Simmons, Daisy, (Jemma working with Daisy), Robot!May and Aida.
The episode trailer, which I’d seen, suggested they’d ramp up the paranoia, and they did. I was so delighted that they went for one of Fitzsimmons being a robot, because even in their first scene and before Jemma saw the computer warn about an LMD – although you’d think SHIELD would have rigged an alarm involving red lights and blaring noise for that by now – I was still urging Fitzsimmons to check they were both human. And it became a plot point!
It also got quite emotional. I was more affected by Fitz (turns out it was robot!Fitz) trying to calm Jemma down as she thought through the ramifications of the robots taking over than the big confrontation, although the actors played it well and it was horrible, because of how much Leo and Jemma love each other. He, er, it even let slip that Leo was thinking of marriage. (Having said that, Daisy coming out as a FitzSimmons shipper since always was silly, and I'd hoped that she was going to say something about family.)
Speaking of Daisy, I had noticed that she wasn’t acting as unemotionally as Coulson, Mack and Mace, but blamed Chloe Bennet’s acting for it. I apologise, Chloe Bennet. We had the big reveal of all the Daisy robots waiting for activation, which was a cool visual (that we’ve seen on other shows), and although we had a tank top, still felt adjacent to the gratuitous scenes at the start of the season AND POINTLESS – why have a dozen copies of Daisy? (Except for how the show is obsessed with her?) Copies of Jemma and the redshirts would have been much more logical, although they'd have had to rewrite the scene in which Daisy doubted Jemma and vice-versa.
Nor would we have had Daisy pretending to be a robot and then the cool Quaking of Mack, but I was equally puzzled over why she went fighting at Mace and didn’t use her powers and her smarts for so long. Yes, it looked cool, but it was hopelessly ineffective (finally! Mace gets superstrength, but only by being replaced by a robot!). All her injuries were caused by stupidity, but was that power ball new?
The robots’ programming making them less ‘human’ than May’s robot didn’t quite track, because the Fitz robot was convincing enough at displaying emotions until it became irrelevant. Coulson was more programme driven around Robot May, and I know they were playing up the contrasts between the latest robots programmed by Aida and the ones programmed for Radcliffe, but it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
But I did like this episode, honest.
For one thing, they pulled out quite the epic emotional punch with robot May, who, apart from Aida, is the most established robot. She was basically giving robot Coulson back some of what Coulson had told her, and her different programming, including loyalty towards the team – how could you not find sisters-in-arms Jemma and Daisy adorable? – and love, to whatever measure, for the real Coulson fed into her sacrificing herself and destroying Not!Coulson. (Did the unconscious agents get moved somewhere safe in time or were they redshirted?) I presume the snow falling was a Doctor Strange reference.
And Aida made some surprising, vicious moves, which Radcliffe and Fitz should have seen coming when they blithely built her. Her being vicious to Ivanov was predictable, and you could almost feel satisfied for her in a comic book violence way, but Radcliffe. Heh, schadenfreude, and it made the necklace a misdirect. So, he may be an ally in the Framework, along with Agnes? I mean, Ivanov’s head controlling the robot’s body makes no sense, but whatevs. Aida boosted by the Darkhold is going to be a considerable foe.
And though I don’t get how Jemma and Daisy’s cockamamie (its daftness was lampshaded) plan could work, we’re finally getting AOS does VR/The Matrix, and the tasters of the Framework were tantalising, offering payoffs on the past – Mack’s kid is alive! Okay, I would have preferred Linc to have been Daisy’s bf than Ward, but Coulson the norm, hating Inhumans, the mystery of Ftiz’s lady friend, the state of Simmons and May being in Hydra... I would suggest they rescue the latter first because she’s been in there longest and note that Radcliffe (and Agnes) are rogue players.
Easily the best episode this season! I was so chuffed because it was all about ladies’ agency: Simmons, Daisy, (Jemma working with Daisy), Robot!May and Aida.
The episode trailer, which I’d seen, suggested they’d ramp up the paranoia, and they did. I was so delighted that they went for one of Fitzsimmons being a robot, because even in their first scene and before Jemma saw the computer warn about an LMD – although you’d think SHIELD would have rigged an alarm involving red lights and blaring noise for that by now – I was still urging Fitzsimmons to check they were both human. And it became a plot point!
It also got quite emotional. I was more affected by Fitz (turns out it was robot!Fitz) trying to calm Jemma down as she thought through the ramifications of the robots taking over than the big confrontation, although the actors played it well and it was horrible, because of how much Leo and Jemma love each other. He, er, it even let slip that Leo was thinking of marriage. (Having said that, Daisy coming out as a FitzSimmons shipper since always was silly, and I'd hoped that she was going to say something about family.)
Speaking of Daisy, I had noticed that she wasn’t acting as unemotionally as Coulson, Mack and Mace, but blamed Chloe Bennet’s acting for it. I apologise, Chloe Bennet. We had the big reveal of all the Daisy robots waiting for activation, which was a cool visual (that we’ve seen on other shows), and although we had a tank top, still felt adjacent to the gratuitous scenes at the start of the season AND POINTLESS – why have a dozen copies of Daisy? (Except for how the show is obsessed with her?) Copies of Jemma and the redshirts would have been much more logical, although they'd have had to rewrite the scene in which Daisy doubted Jemma and vice-versa.
Nor would we have had Daisy pretending to be a robot and then the cool Quaking of Mack, but I was equally puzzled over why she went fighting at Mace and didn’t use her powers and her smarts for so long. Yes, it looked cool, but it was hopelessly ineffective (finally! Mace gets superstrength, but only by being replaced by a robot!). All her injuries were caused by stupidity, but was that power ball new?
The robots’ programming making them less ‘human’ than May’s robot didn’t quite track, because the Fitz robot was convincing enough at displaying emotions until it became irrelevant. Coulson was more programme driven around Robot May, and I know they were playing up the contrasts between the latest robots programmed by Aida and the ones programmed for Radcliffe, but it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
But I did like this episode, honest.
For one thing, they pulled out quite the epic emotional punch with robot May, who, apart from Aida, is the most established robot. She was basically giving robot Coulson back some of what Coulson had told her, and her different programming, including loyalty towards the team – how could you not find sisters-in-arms Jemma and Daisy adorable? – and love, to whatever measure, for the real Coulson fed into her sacrificing herself and destroying Not!Coulson. (Did the unconscious agents get moved somewhere safe in time or were they redshirted?) I presume the snow falling was a Doctor Strange reference.
And Aida made some surprising, vicious moves, which Radcliffe and Fitz should have seen coming when they blithely built her. Her being vicious to Ivanov was predictable, and you could almost feel satisfied for her in a comic book violence way, but Radcliffe. Heh, schadenfreude, and it made the necklace a misdirect. So, he may be an ally in the Framework, along with Agnes? I mean, Ivanov’s head controlling the robot’s body makes no sense, but whatevs. Aida boosted by the Darkhold is going to be a considerable foe.
And though I don’t get how Jemma and Daisy’s cockamamie (its daftness was lampshaded) plan could work, we’re finally getting AOS does VR/The Matrix, and the tasters of the Framework were tantalising, offering payoffs on the past – Mack’s kid is alive! Okay, I would have preferred Linc to have been Daisy’s bf than Ward, but Coulson the norm, hating Inhumans, the mystery of Ftiz’s lady friend, the state of Simmons and May being in Hydra... I would suggest they rescue the latter first because she’s been in there longest and note that Radcliffe (and Agnes) are rogue players.
