sigh. Real life is demanding my time again this week. Dammit, stop taking away from my play time! (This post is as finished as it's gonna get...
)
AoS 709 - As I Have Always Been
Directed by ELIZABETH HENSTRIDGE
sigh. I knew there'd be an episode like this one this season. But of course, this is Agents of SHIELD...
This episode served three purposes, one of which makes me happy, and two makes me sad, and a dire warning for the Team.
I started this comparing each time loop, but that turned out to be a disaster... This episode is dialogue heavy, maybe the most dialogue heavy show so far. That's for a couple of reasons.
First, you need the repeated dialogue to connect the time loops. Second, there needed to be a tremendous amount of 'splainin on what's happening, and why the team is in dire straights. Then, there's a couple of those personal character moments in there...
Like any time loop progression story, there's an establishing shot (in 709, it is Daisy waking up in the healing chamber), then the window of time shifts downstream. By that I mean we see the events in the control room the same for the first few ittertions, then changes when Daisy steps up the game. By the middle of the show, we don't even see the control room sequences, but jumps directly to where the story happens to be at the time.
One has to wonder which movie they're ripping off, "Edge of Tomorrow" or "Groundhog Day". I thought at first it was Groundhog Day, but since a lot of people sometimes die during each time loop, Edge of Tomorrow seemed more appropriate, lol.
Daisy is William Cage, and the story is told from her POV. There are a couple of twists.
The first is the time loop becomes shorter by clipping off some distance to the vortex, so there's a finite number of loops, and each becomes shorter. The second, after Daisy dies, her memory is reset with a time reset.
The first 12 minutes is used just for establishing what the problem is.
A WTF moment happens early on. Daisy gets up, and we follow her through the first loop, establishing the baseline of the loop. She looks out the cockpit window, and we see the title card, followed by the opening credits.
Jump to the second loop, where Daisy is freaking out to the events around her. She looks out the cockpit window, says, "No way", and they repeat the title card and the opening credits. (I really wasn't sure. I had to back up the video just to make sure...)
In act 2 (which starts halfway between commercial breaks, lol), the Team learns of Diana. Convincing Jemma to remove... uh... her, comes with it's own problems. People start dying. Jemma dies, Jemma and Daisy die (and Coulson has to fill her in on what' happening again, lol), Sousa dies... Almost like they were... murdered. And the list of suspects is suspiciously short.
It is, Enoch. The secrets Diana is protecting are so important, that Jemma has programmed him to even kill to prevent the secrets from being divulged. Even if he has to kill Jemma.
Wait. Jemma programmed him? Jemma knows how to program a Chronicom?
Can she reprogram Sibyl?
The odd part of this, is he's killing below the conscious level. Re-watching the episode, watching Enoch as someone dies is... sort of creepy.
Of course, once this is learned, we see the team attempt to stop Enoch several times to comedic effect, culminating with this:
Coulson: That did not go well.
Sousa: Where'd he get all those weapons?
May: Deke's dead? (There's a bullet hole in his forehead, so, yeah...)
Daisy: Very.
Mack: Do we need to be sad about that?
Daisy: We do not.
(time reset, lol.)
Right after that, some of my favorite dialog.
Aaaand Daisy wakes up in the healing chamber.
Sousa: Hey. What are you doing up?
Daisy: Uh, well, believe it or not, I am stuck in a time loop, and running out of ways to save us all.
Sousa: Okay. How can I help?
Daisy: There's no time. There's... (laugh) Actually, I can take a loop. So, that wasn't hard for you to swallow? The time loop? Nothing seems to faze you.
Sousa: It all fazes me... just maybe not my face.
Daisy: Every time I ask you for help, you say yes. Even if I don't, you're waiting here to make sure I rest or... whatever. Why? Be honest.
Sousa: Honest? I know your type.
Daisy: My what, now?
Sousa: I know people like you. Some of my favorite people are people like you. Focused on the greater good, even at your own expense. You want people to think you like being alone, even though you always end up back with friends. You hate losing.
Daisy: Everyone hates losing.
Sousa: Yeah, but you keep running at the problem full-tilt until you either solve it or slam headlong into a brick wall.
Daisy: Some of those walls are literal.
Sousa: I know.
Daisy: But how does that...
Sousa: Because when people like you run into those walls, you should have someone there to pick you back up.
Daisy: And you... you like to... be that someone?
Sousa: Not for everyone. It helps if they're fun to be around and if they say what they mean and if they have that superpower where they can rock things around, which is very impressive.
Daisy: That's um... that is awfully specific.
Sousa: Mm-hmm... (They exchange looks.) So, what's this problem you're trying to crack?
Aaaand Daisy wakes up in the healing chamber.
Sousa: Hey. What are you doing up?
Daisy: I need you to do something for me.
Sousa: Of course. What do you need?
Daisy seems to come to a revelation. She kisses Sousa, and he returns the favor..
Daisy: That was nice. Now we need to trap a space robot.
And once again, Sousa has that bemused look on his face...
They finally get the implant removed.
Jemma: It's Enoch. He's the key. He's been against you, but he's the key.
Deke: How?
Jemma: His Electrochron Displacement Mechanism. Chronicoms use it to regulate energy stability.
Daisy: It could do the same for the Time Drive.
Jemma: It's compatible.
Deke: Great. Then let's get to it.
Jemma: It's not that simple. It would be like removing a human beings heart. Taking it out would...
Coulson: Taking it out would kill him.
Daisy: Simmons. Are you okay?
Jemma (in tears): What have I done? Oh my God... I'm sorry.
Coulson: Jemma? What are you remembering?
Jemma: Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No!
Aaaand Daisy wakes up in the healing chamber.
Oh, boy. What could Jemma have done to cause her to react like that? How does Jemma know so much about Chronicoms?
(commercial.)
sigh. While Enoch was willing to kill to keep Jemma's secret, Enoch is more than willing to sacrifice himself to save the Team. (There seems to be a dis-connect there.) He's removed his Electrochron Displacement Mechanism. Jemma and Deke go to install it. Daisy and Coulson stay with Enoch...
Daisy: Does it hurt?
Enoch: It does, a bit. But it's not the physical pain that troubles me. I am acutely aware that in my thousands of years observing humans, I never used to feel lonely. I have been alone many times. To be candid, I preferred it. But it wasn't until I met this particular team of SHIELD agents that being alone meant... feeling lonely. And I don't care for it. So... I am feeling as you might expect, some anxiety now.
Coulson: You don't have to. You're not alone. Daisy and I will stay with you right up to the end.
Enoch: That is very kind of you. But... It's that last part, isn't it? You can stay with me up to the end, butyou can't come with me at the end. I will have to leave you. And I will have to do that alone. And I can't help wondering... when that happens... will I feel lonely?
Coulson: I can say with some authority that you're not wrong. Dying is lonely. But the feeling is temporary, at least for the person dying. The ones who are left behind... less so. I guess that's the one advantage of going first.
Enoch: Yes. It's different watching your friends go before you, isn't it? I have been through that, as well. It can be harder to stay than to leave. I'm sorry, Phillp J. Coulson.
Daisy: Enoch... the team will carry on the mission. We will survive because of you. Thank you.
Enoch: You are most welcome. But, Agent Johnson, while your friends will indeed survive, the team will not.
Daisy: What do you mean?
Enoch: I have seen the future. Carry on this mission and cherish it, for
it will be your last mission together.
Daisy: It... That's... That's not possible. I.. Enoch, this is my family.
Enoch: Of course. Yet this is the nature of family, isn't it? I've seen it countless times on countless worlds. People arrive, so we celebrate, and people leave us, so we grieve. We do what we can with the time in between, but the cycle is always there. No one escapes it. Not even me.
Coulson: Which means you're not alone. You're a part of that cycle.
Daisy: Like every other living thing.
Enoch: Fitz. He was my best friend.
Daisy: And you were a good friend to Fitz. You were a good friend to all of us.
Enoch: As I have always...
Bye Enoch. Thanks for the ride!
The Time Drive activates.
Mack: Jump successful, everybody. We're safe.
(commercial)
Comments, guesses.
While an entertaining episode, it was very sad, and the writers made sure to gut-punch you on the way out...
I'm very happy with the way they're treating Daisy and Sousa. It was the bright spot of this episode before some sad and serious revelations.
If Jemma could program Enoch, can she program the rest of the Chronicom race? Give them another chance without the need to conquer Earth?
Can Enoch truly die? He's a machine. Can he be resurrected like Coulson? Sibyl seems to have survived...
What did Jemma do, that would make her just break down?
Here's a guess. Implant gives her the memories of Jemma, Jemma and Fitz are dead of old age. The Jemma we see is one hijacked from earlier in her life. (Or, that isn't Jemma,
but Diana.)
This would fit with Enoch's prediction:
This leads me to think Fitz is dead. Simmons may be too.
As I said, it was a fun episode, but Jemma's emotional breakdown and Enoch's words (and death) put a foreboding on the remainder of the series I can't shake.
Four more episodes. Be at peace, Enoch...
But yeah, I'd say that's pretty accurate. 
I'll be spending next weekend with some family I like and trying to avoid any remotely controversial conversations with others that I spend the rest of the year avoiding 