The third season of Agents of SHIELD comes to an end with a two hour finale. The hours are titled “Absolution,” and “Ascension” respectively. Each title makes sense as the episode goes on, and things don’t go as well as they could. Also, as promised for weeks now by annoying voice-over man, “SOMEONE WILL DIE.” The two hours together are collectively “Fallen Agent,” which is somewhat ironic, really.
The Agents of SHIELD are getting close to the end of the season. “Emancipation” is the last episode before the two hour finale. Things are building to a head, and they do their usual great job of incorporating the events of the movies into the show. It’s not just a passing reference or nod, Captain America: Civil War actually has some influence over this episode.
You want the good or the bad news first? Well, we’re going with bad.
I admit before starting this that I am absolutely a fan of Marvel. Most of the comics I get these days are from them (it wasn’t always that way, but that’s another story), and I’ve loved their movies. I don’t think they were all fantastic, but all were good, and the worst of them (probably Thor: The Dark World) is still worth watching more than once. So yes, I’m going into this with a bit of bias. Admitted, acknowledged, moving on.
“Failed Experiments,” begins in distant past. We get to see Hive’s origin, when he was what looks like some kind of Indian who was captured by the Kree and experimented on. It doesn’t look like it was an enjoyable process, that’s for sure. When they return the story to the present, Hive talks about how those early experiments were the first Inhumans, and now he intends to start converting humans, beginning with the few members of the Hydra ruling council he has left with him.
Right on the heels of “The Team,” Agents of SHIELD has to wade through the aftermath in “The Singularity.” After Daisy’s shocking defection to Hive’s side, the team has to literally dig themselves out of the ruins she made of the base. On the good side, no one died. On the bad side, Joey and Elena have both left (so much for that team), the hanger is sealed closed, and some of the team have been injured. A little detail like the hangar not quite working right won’t stop a pilot like May from getting the Zephyr in the air.
With the majority of the team captured, Daisy makes a decision to try a new approach. She calls in the two Inhumans she’s managed to recruit so far, interrupting Joey on a date and Yo Yo as she studies a language tape. She briefs them as best she can, but there’s a lot of “I don’t know” in the attempt. This isn’t exactly reassuring for anyone.
Things get a bit weird, even for them, on “Spacetime,” the latest episode of Agents of SHIELD. The opening scene at first seems to be a slice of urban life, with a homeless guy in an alley. A restaurant worker tells him he needs to move along but is actually kind about it. It’s all going ok until the man gives the homeless guy some money which gets weird. The restaurant worker is apparently having visions, and says, “Save me Daisy, help. This is where I die.”
The writers on Agents of SHIELD dug deep into the catalog of Marvel characters to find a really obscure group of bad guys for “Watchdogs.” They are an obscure hate group that, in the comics, was part of a long term plan in one of Red Skull’s conflicts with Captain America. They played a large part in the early career of John Walker, who was one of the men to temporarily replace Steve Rogers as Captain America before going on to become US Agent.
There’s a big change coming for the Agents of SHIELD in “Parting Shot.” There’s a lot of tense plotting, with cuts back and forth between now and several hours in the past. The number of hours ago each segment takes place gets smaller with each flashback, making a sort of countdown to “How did we get here?”
ComicBookClog 