Episode 5.22 discussion (SPOILERS!) :)

I hope that you are right about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. having a long future, at least until someone on the cast Twitters under the influence of Ambien.

It looked like a cheap 1960s special effect. If it were CGI, I wonder if they intentionally made it look like a 1960s special effect for artistic reasons. Also, is it cheaper to use CGI to mimic cheap 1960s special effects than it is to do what was done back then, or is there nobody around who knows how to do cheap 1960s special effects?

Some of the articles that Fitz read in "Rewind" had headlines like "S.H.I.E.L.D. top brass at large," "Manhunt continues," and "S.H.I.E.L.D. to be defunded and dissolved." This suggests that the team is viewed as being the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. and that the legitimate organization is gone. Right now, S.H.I.E.L.D. is just a group of vigilantes squatting at a secret facility. I do not see a plausible way for them to become legitimate again unless the world at large dismisses these headlines as being fake news.

I like the idea of doing something different. Between the new settings and the focus on new characters, it felt like the writers were getting a bit bored with what they were doing before. Perhaps Agents of S.W.O.R.D. could inspire the writers. I still would want to keep the same agents.

I am going to disagree with this. Talbot may have been able to soften the blow, but he clearly did not. The blow was hard enough to blow chunks of asphalt a few stories into the air, create a large crater, and cause damage to nearby buildings. In fact, that blow caused the ceiling collapse that killed Fitz. At the time of impact with the ground, neither body was recognizable on screen, so it is theoretically possible that, at the last second, they flipped so that Talbot took the blow. Still, even if Daisy landed on Talbot, she should not have survived and, even if she did, she probably would not be in any position to continue the fight. She did not take the centipede serum until afterward.

Daisy has already become overpowered. There have been a couple of times this season when she resorted to fist fighting when her powers could have ended an encounter in a few seconds. If she is also indestructible and, if reports are true that the centipede serum will have a lasting benefit, she will be even worse.

As I said in the first sentence, I agree that it was probably not a single event. I was just pointing out what would have been the trigger for Robin to say that everything changed if there was just one event.

Fitz did say that the darkness was always in him. I do not believe him, but I do believe that he believes that. Where, in the first 80 episodes, was this level of darkness? Based on what we were told, the people forced into the Framework have two sets of memories that feel equally real. For some things, it is probably impossible for the person to tell what came from the Framework and what was there before. I do not see how Fitz can know whether the darkness was always in him or if it was just something AIDA added to further her goals. The evidence that I see suggests the latter.

What I see from the first 80 episodes of the show was that Fitz was probably the most moral of the characters. Except for one scene in "The Law of Infernal Dynamics" in which prior characterization was tossed aside in order to create a cool image (including having the right-handed Simmons fire a gun left handed so that she could mirror Fitz), Fitz never killed anyone without feeling bad about it afterward. In "Maveth," Hive, in Will Daniels's body, tried to kill Fitz, leading Fitz to kill Hive's host. A few episodes later, Fitz still felt guilty about that. This was a long way from him being a sadist in the Framework.

The worst thing he did in the first 80 episodes was probably participating in the Guesthouse raid, which may be the most heinous act committed by supposedly good characters not named Simmons. (By "supposedly good characters," I am just talking about Coulson and Fitz even though, at the time, we thought that Ward and Garrett were good characters as well.) I see that as Fitz simply going along with Coulson rather than being an instigator. Actions like this and when Fitz helped Daisy violate the civil rights of a Watchdog are why I said that a Doctor-free Fitz lacks the strength of personality to be Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Everything that led to Fitz's run in with Daisy is in Frozen Fitz. What I am trying to say is that, this time, the team has seen what Fitz is capable of with the Doctor inside him. They need to get him the treatment he needs.

When I say that Fitz was the most moral of the team, that means that everyone else, including Simmons, is less moral. In fact, I got in a little trouble when I suggested that she perhaps should have been court-martialed for her role in the deaths of twelve Inhumans in "Maveth." To be fair, I was so focused on stretching to find ways to defend the action that I did a crappy job explaining why it was wrong in the first place. I did not discuss Bakshi instead because that was a clear case of first degree murder. The only defense, other than "I have powerful friends" and the fact that the only surviving witness was not inclined to talk, would be to claim that she was so traumatized from her trip to the bottom of the ocean that she was not in full control of her actions. That might be enough to keep her off death row and, if she were lucky, might give her a chance for parole in a few decades.

My concern about Simmons being infatuated with the darker Fitz is that she may end up enabling this side of him. It is a bit like the girlfriend of an alcoholic describing her boyfriend as being a "fun drunk."

You might be right about a changed storyline. When a person in a period piece coughs blood for a reason other than a recent injury, it is usually a sign that the person is dying. When a woman who is sober and not bulimic vomits, it is usually a sign that she is pregnant. Maybe one of the writers went to this site, read my threat to post a rant if she turned out to be pregnant, and thought, "Ugh! I really do not want to have to read what that FreeKresge has to say. Let's just kill the pregnancy arc."

Is a Quake Ball like a hairball? They both involve throwing up...

("Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat! See? Nuthin' up my sleeve... No doubt about it. I gotta get another hat!)



Could you ask him if he knows what the work, "contrived" means?