A little late, I'm working on another project right now.
This episode doesn't lend itself to consolidating into a normal summary. Very little downtime, almost the entire episode was to move something forward. So this is more a running commentary...
AoS 705 - A Trout in the Milk
In 1850, Henry David Thoreau purportedly wrote:
"Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk."
He wasn't commenting at the time about the state of dairy farmers diluting their milk to increase the volume, but that if you find a trout in your milk, you can pretty much assume that the milk has been diluted with water.
Or as someone probably famous said, "If there's a Thoreau quotation in your TV series, milk it for all it's worth." Or something like that...
Right after last week's summation, the episode jumps directly into some 1970's credits that could have come from the Mod Squad, or the Rockford Files. It wasn't so much the title card this week, as the entire credit scene. And Lola gets an appearance, lol... Interesting to note Ian doesn't get a mention this week in the credits. I believe one day he'll bother coming back to the series...
Opening scene: The Brooklyn Bridge spanning the East River with the Twin Towers in the background. (World Trade Center Twin Towers opened in 1973.) Coulson is lameting that this is the NYC he remembers, while everyone is in 70's clothing. Except Sousa. At least Daisy didn't to an "L7" on him... This is also where Sousa finds out the 70's is not the team's home time period. I think the team needs to be a little more open with the background Sousa needs.
Sousa questions time travel, the same questions we've been asking since they first went to the future 3 years ago. Daisy's reply? "I'd stop thinking about it. Your brains will spill out."
Yep. I still hate time travel, lol...
Sousa: I'm here. No going back. Might as well dive in, and embrace the 1970's. (Guy skates by with a boom box. Pregnant five second pause.) Starting now. (LOL...)
They enter the bar (still using the password "Swordfish") looking for Enoch, and instead of being empty, it's packed full. Bendeery beer makes a reappearance. Is this stuff named after someone? There is a Ben Deery in IMDB, but there doesn't seem to be a connection to Marvel or AoS.
And... Jemma has an implant. What's up with Jemma and her implant? More is revealed later, but something's not right.
Deke: If you and Fitz don't... Bump lemons... so to speak...
LOL on Jemma's reaction!
Mack and Elena break into the Lighthouse. It looks deserted, but it's not. They begin to find differences from when they were caretakers of the facility.
Back in the bar... I want a SHIELD coaster, lol...
May doesn't need a drink, she just needs to be touching people in a room full of drunks.
Daisy: A new form of contact high, lol...
Enoch hasn't been working in the bar for over a year.
And, in charge is General Rick Stoner, known to Sousa as Little Ricky, lol.
Sousa: Couldn't tell a mag from a clip. (Some still can't. Mostly in the media.)
And... Stoner announces Project Insight. Oh gee, this can't be good... Sousa sees the look on Coulson's face. Hydra is 40 years ahead of schedule. I liked the cake, though.
So both Freddie and Nathanial Malick are alive. Both should have been killed four years ago. The Chronicoms have changed the timeline.
Upon return from a commercial, yes, someone inserts an 8-track. (Actually 4 tracks in stereo.) If you've never had to deal with an 8-track, well, you're young. I tried to enhance it.
May approaches Stoner for information, by asking him to buy her a drink. Stoner: "Well, pardon me Miss, but as a commanding officer, purchasing you an alcoholic beverage would be a violation of H.R. guidelines. However, uh, if you need assistance, I would be happy to use my privilege to flag down a server..." I just quoted that because it needed to be preserved...
Insight is still three years away. To be completed in 1976. Anyone remember the bi-centennial? What a year for marketing every item in existence in red, white and blue.
And Gideon Malick tries to pick up Daisy, lol. Out of all the Malicks we see in this episode, Gideon is the least... dick-like. Imagine that.
Back in the Lighthouse, Yo-Yo wants to leave. Mack doesn't.
Yo-Yo: You ever see a James Bond movie, Mack? An underground base, full of men in jumpsuits... always a bad deal. (A door opens to show them building a launch platform in the hanger.) See? Called it.
Daisy and Sousa find's Freddie's secret room in the bar. It's full of outdated computer equipment.
Sousa: Whoa! High tech.
I'm sure they used the amber monitors because they aren't green, lol. List of targets. Bruce Banner was the best they could do for the list?
Chronicoms confront Coulson in the bar. Daisy takes Nathanial (Malick) hostage, and Sousa sees Daisy's inhuman powers. They're rescued by Enoch in a sixth generation Dodge Coronet. They came with engines as large as a 440ci V8, so they did have some grunt.
Enoch: Come with me if you want to continue to exist!
And sorry Enoch, Consumer Reports was best suited to review refrigerators. Their car reviews sucked.
There's an unexpected jump to July 4, 1976, the day Insight is supposed to launch. How convenient everyone was on the Zephyr. In the Lighthouse's hanger bay is now a Titan missile. Oh, this can't be good... Nice SFX, though.
And then, maybe the most disturbing part of the episode. After a snide remark from Enoch about being abandoned for 40 years:
Jemma (to Enoch): Something's wrong. Without you, I feel like I've been... slipping. Was I supposed to know that we would jump? I keep forgetting.
Enoch: Jemma Simmons, you are forgetting?
Jemma: And getting confused. I-- I'm not sure.
Enoch: Have you told anyone else?
Jemma: I'm afraid to. But why am I afraid to tell these --
Jemma keeps forgetting? Does she know everything in the timeline? Something bad is going on here.
New plans in 1976:
Coulson and May are to plant explosives and flood the Lighthouse.
Daisy and Sousa are to break into the Lighthouse's computer systems (well, Daisy will, Sousa is just going to be some muscle) to give Coulson and May access.
Yo-Yo and Deke are going to get Freddie Malick.
Daisy gets Coulson and May part of the way in, when Nathanial Malick shows up and uses a weapon to knock out Sousa and Daisy. Nathanial knew they'd be coming. Interesting that he'd know that someone was trying to get around a firewall in 1976...
May and Coulson are planting the charges. Daisy and Sousa are unconscious in the back of a van. And Deke blows Freddie Malick away. Wait. Deke just capped Malick? Whoa. Talking about taking the Daisy pill...
It's never revealed what's in the picture Malick had.
They're about to flood the Lighthouse, and... The chronicoms have Mack's parents imprisoned. Mack aborts the mission. And we're back to the messy question that if Mack's parents get killed, does Mack still exist? (I assume Mack is under 44, they never really state his age...)
Coulson and May are stopped by security. Mack, Jemma and Enoch use a missile from Zephyr to blow up Insight. And succeed, but reveal their position to the Chronicoms.
Epilogue. Nathanial Malick is on the phone, trying to get someone to talk to Daniel Whitehall, wants information how to surgically transfer an enhanced's powers to a human... (Jiaying, anyone?)
Roll credits.
Thoughts:
One of the big problems this season may be what Jemma and Enoch (and Fitz, for that matter) are hiding from the Team. I hope this isn't going to be a Groundhog Day (or Edge of Tomorrow), where FitzSimmons has run through this scenario before. Jemma did seem to know precisely when to step in to save May at the end of S6...
FitzSimmons is the key to all this. The reason the Chronicoms know the main events that transpire, is because they have Fitz and Simmon's brains. The team has to figure out what Fitz and Simmons don't know, to use against the Chronicoms.
Is the key to this from when Fitz and Simmons were absent from the Team? Like in Season 5? Where's Benson, Piper, Flint and the others?
Two of the big unknowns to me right now are both guys who are out of time. Well, more out of time than the rest of the Team. Neither has any idea what went on from Season 1-3 (lol), and have no real idea who the Malick's are and what they've done. Yeah, all the Malick's are dicks, but they're just a part of the machine that is Hydra. Sousa and Deke both have the greatest chance of somehow screwing something up. Sousa seems too inflexible, which is ironic, since he's already accepted he's dead and time traveling. And Deke just upped and murdered a guy. Okay, some people deserved to be killed, and I guess not totally unexpected in a way, since that'd be more like Lighthouse justice in the future. Freddie should have already been dead.
It looks like May is starting to use her "problem" to the teams advantage, though she needs to somehow control how much it affects her. The big underlying question, which will probably never be answered, is what she'd experience during sex. But I'm not going to go there...
Well, after a well crafted episode that was meant to just be enjoyed, comes an episode that seems to have been kicked up into a higher gear. We're almost half way into the season, we need to find out some answers, like why the Team is really doing what they're doing...
Deke and Yo-Yo have the picture.
Nathanial Malick has Sousa and Daisy and wants to operate Daisy's powers right out of her.
SHIELD has Coulson and May.
Mack, Simmons and Enoch just shot down Insight, but the Chronicoms (and SHIELD, I guess) know where they are.
Stay tuned next week, same time and channel, to see if our intrepid heroes escape with their lives! (Trying to keep that 70's thing going...)
This is typical of AoS (except for, maybe, S4). We're always wanting more answers and they never happen until the last 2 or 3 episodes.......... 