The Characters' Personalities: The Good And The Bad

The fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. was viewed as a terrorist organization is a very good point. It seems like there should have been at least one S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility somewhere they could have used, but maybe there was not. At minimum, there might have been a doctor who could be trusted to pretend that any reference to S.H.I.E.L.D. was simply a delusion. Coulson had the resources to build a flying aircraft carrier, he should have the resources for this. Even in a worst case scenario, they could have left Fitz with his mother, unless there was a reference to her dying or being invalid that I forgot. At least he would have been in familiar surroundings with someone to care for him.



There is a deleted scene (and it would be fair to say that deleted scenes do not count) from "Who You Really Are," when Fitz confessed to Daisy that he had been hallucinating about Simmons. Daisy appeared to be shocked, although it could have been the detail about being Simmons, or maybe Daisy only pretended to be shocked. Also, in Coulson's speech toward the end of the first episode of the second season, just before he revealed that Simmons had left, he mentioned that he authorized the quinjet heist because he realized that Fitz could not engineer cloaking himself. This suggests that Coulson only recently realized, perhaps during the episode, that Fitz was not as functional as he hoped.



There is also a plot point that Mack and Hunter befriending Fitz filled a void that the other characters were not filling.



If Simmons insisted that she would leave no matter what and could not be talked out of it, that would absolve Coulson for that part, but would make it worse on Simmons. I do not believe that she made things worse, and, if Coulson and the team were monitoring Fitz, they would know that. They did notice that he got worse when she left.



I think that it is possible that Simmons believed that she was making things worse. In my headcanon, she tried to do all her old duties plus all of Fitz's old duties plus she micromanaged Fitz's care (as in she insisted on doing everything that did not involve physically carrying him or contact with his private parts). By trying to do too much, she ended up do nothing well and just stressed herself out. After a meltdown, she recognized the situation and felt the need to leave. The problem is that a person stressed beyond her level of tolerance is not in any position to infiltrate a very paranoid and evil organization. If my headcanon is true, she would have been better off visiting her parents.



Even without my headcanon, having Simmons simply visit her parents would have been better, at least in hindsight. It would have been much easier to recall her as soon as they realized that Fitz was getting worse without her. Besides, Simmons mission was not that important. When Raina threatened to expose Simmons, Coulson let her do so. Even if he were 100% certain that Morse would be able to save Simmons, exposing Simmons would end the mission. If Coulson cared about the mission, he could have haggled with Raina. He could have offered to let Cal and Daisy exchange letters or have a phone call.



Bringing Dr. Garner to see Fitz would be better than nothing. Under normal circumstances, which these were not, Garner would realize that Fitz needed neurological care beyond what a psychologist would be able to provide. In fact, the only way that Garner would accept anything more than being a junior partner in Fitz's care would be that the circumstances were so far from normal that it was not possible to bring in anyone else. This would require bringing Garner to the base, which either he or May might not want.

This covers all characters who appeared in at least 14 episodes. I also included Bakshi because he was so pathetic. This was a fun exercise.

Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez
The Good:
1). She acts quickly.
Best Moments:
1). She learned how to use her powers on her own before we even see her and used these powers to do good.
2). She performed well when assaulting the police station in "Bouncing Back."
3). She disabled several Hydra agents and rescued the team in "The Team."
4). She completed the memory machine trap, rescued hostages, and planted the homing beacon that captured Hive in "Absolution."
5). She took a bullet for Mack in "Ascension."
6). She helped the team fight Eli Morrow's minions in "The Law of Inferno Dynamics."
7). She took charge of the Zephyr while Simmons and Daisy were in the Framework.
8). She rescued Mack from the Framework in "World's End."
The Bad:
1). She can be a bit quick to jump to a conclusion.
Worst Moments:
1). She hid Daisy's whereabouts early in the fourth season.


Jeffrey Mace
The Good:
1). He genuinely cares about all people, including Inhumans and even redshirts.
Best Moments:
1). He helped stop possessed May and sent her to Radcliffe for a cure.
2). In the Law of Inferno Dynamics," his quick thinking turned Daisy from a wanted fugitive to a hero.
3). He sacrificed himself to protect the rest of the team in "BOOM."
4). He led the resistance in the Framework.
5). He rescued Trip and sacrificed himself to save a child in "No Regrets," becoming a martyr.
The Bad:
1). He was in over his head as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
2). He was too wedded to his slogans
3). He was not very good at getting the team to trust him.
4). He probably should not have been so tolerant of the team's insubordination.
Worst Moments:
1). He lied about being Inhuman.
2). He made a deal with Senator Nadeer to send Simmons away with a canvas bag over her head in "The Good Samaritan."
3). He failed to set up a roadblock on the mission to capture Shockley in "BOOM." Having civilians drive by would have been nearly as bad as having the Watchdogs drive by.


Sunil Bakshi
The Good:
1). He can be very effective, if he is brainwashed.
2). When not brainwashed, he apparently is very good at hiding his incompetence from Whitehall.
Best Moments:
1). He successfully infiltrated Hydra in "Frenemy of my Enemy." He should have been brainwashed a long time ago.
2). His heroic sacrifice saved Ward from Simmons in "The Dirty Half Dozen."
3). In "All the Madame's Men," he was on a first name basis with Leopold. Simmons is not on a first name basis with Fitz. OK, this is a stretch, but I have to take what little I can get to find good moments for Bakshi.
The Bad:
1). He is pathetic when it comes to carrying out a mission. In other words, S.H.I.E.L.D. was very lucky that Bakshi was working for Hydra.
Worst Moments:
1). He lost the obelisk (a.k.a. the diviner) to Raina in "Heavy Is the Head."
2). He failed to spot a lie, by Simmons of all people, and failed to recover Donnie Gill in "Making Friends and Influencing People."
3). He failed to recover the painting in "Face My Enemy."
4). For the fourth time in four episodes, Bakshi completely failed In "A Hen in the Wolf House." This time, he failed to keep Simmons from escaping Hydra.
5). He skipped a few episodes before being captured and turned over to S.H.I.E.L.D. in "The Writing on the Wall."
6). In The Things We Bury," he gave valuable information to Morse without realizing it.
7). In "Aftershocks," he unwittingly let himself be a pawn in a plan to wipe out Hydra's leadership.

Now that you mention this, it was maybe a bit of an understatement.

While waiting for new episodes, I have been rereading old threads. This one was fun, so I updated my responses to include the characters' actions in the fifth season. I am continuing my numbering from my previous responses, which is why, for example, Coulson's best moments starts with #14.

Phil Coulson
Best Moments:
14). In "Inside Voices," he effected his and Talbot's escape from Hale's prison.
15). In "The End," he slipped the centipede serum into Daisy's gloves rather than use it for himself.
Worst Moments:
[Now that we know what his deal was with the Ghost Rider, I am removing it as one of his worst moments.]
9). He insisted on proceeding with a reconnaissance mission in "A Life Spent" even though he knew that Zev was watching him. Coulson then refused to eliminate Zev when Zev found out what the team was up to.
10). He passed power to Daisy despite lack of support among the rest of the team.
11). He did not listen to the entire menu in "Option Two."

Melinda May
The Good:
2a). She added to her legendary piloting by figuring out how to fly the Trawler in "Orientation" with no training even though she never flew in space before. She also successfully navigated the Zephyr through a gravity storm in "Best Laid Plans."
3). She apparently was a very good mother to Robin in other timelines.
Best Moments:
16). Despite her injury, she survived on the roach-infested surface of earth long enough for Enoch to find her.
17). She did not need a gun to stop Qovas in "The Force of Gravity."
The Bad:
2). She is prejudiced against sentient Chronicoms from a planet which revolves around a star in the constellation we know as Cygnus.
Worst Moments:
5). She did not respect Coulson's wishes regarding his impending death.

Daisy "Skye" "Quake" Johnson
Best Moments:
[It is a close call, but I am going to keep her support of Fitz near the end of "World's End" in this category even though Fitz ended up in Hale's custody anyway and even though Dasiy grew to regret Fitz's Doctor persona.]
17). She rescued the team from a roach and rescued Mack and Elena from the Kree in "Orientation Part 1."
18). She took out Sinara in "Best Laid Plans."
19). She escaped from Taryan's mind control in "The Force of Gravity."
20). In "The End," she realized that she was not up to the job as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and relinquished power to Mack.
21). She blasted Talbot/Graviton roughly toward the sun in "The End."
Worst Moments:
1a). In yet another example of acting without thinking, she charged in to rescue Simmons in "A Life Spent" despite Deke's warnings of reprisals.
7). She did not respect Coulson's wishes regarding his impending death.
8). She validated the Peter principle by rising to her level of incompetence when Coulson made her the acting director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
9). She gave Talbot a phone in "The Honeymoon," despite a high likelihood that Talbot's family was compromised.

Leopold Fitz
The Good:
1). [My earlier statement should be amended to say that Fitz was probably the most moral of the regular characters. This will be past tense at least as long as he has the Doctor inside him.]
Best Moments:
26). He showed off new fighting skills and maneuvered himself to be with the rest of the team in "Rewind." He also planted very useful S.H.I.E.L.D. tech that Mack and Elena would use eventually.
27). He saved May and helped free Daisy and Simmons in "Fun & Games."
28). In another timeline, he designed the machine that sent the team back to 2018. His plans also made it possible for the Zephyr to fly in space.
29). He undid yet another one of his goofs (not detecting Hale's trap) by creating the means to plug the rift in "The Real Deal" and sealing it permanently in "The Devil Complex."
Worst Moments:
1a). He continued to contribute to creating major problems that S.H.I.E.L.D. dealt with:

• He failed to detect the trap that Hale set in "All the Comforts of Home," which led to the "Fear Dimension" rift.
• In "The Honeymoon," he did a pathetic job at destroying the key component to the gravitonium module. This allowed him to risk the lives of billions by repairing the gravitonium module in "All Roads Lead..." Furthermore, he failed to destroy it at any time after bringing it back to the Lighthouse. As a result, Talbot was able to infuse himself with gravitonium and become the final villain of the fifth season.

8). While it was good that he sealed the rift in "The Devil Complex," he did so in a manner that completely messed up his relationship with the rest of the team.
9). In "The Honeymoon," he twice let himself be trapped easily: first by Ivanov's mechs and then by Ruby.

Jemma Simmons
Best Moments:
20). She figured out how to reboot the trawler in "Orientation Part 2" despite losing 50-70 IQ points (see below).
21). In "A Life Spent," she successfully trained Abby despite very limited time.
22). In "Best Laid Plans," she came up with the plan to fly the Zephyr through the gravity storm.
23). She helped save Mack from Kasius in "Past Life."
Worst Moments:
15). She seemed to have lost about 50-70 IQ points when she went through the portal. Her worst example was helping the wounded servitor in "Orientation, Part 2" after she was repeatedly told to blend in.
16). Her acid test in "Inside Voices" was also not a good reflection on her alleged intelligence. It took a very gullible Mack to fall for it.
17). In "The Honeymoon," she twice let herself be trapped easily: first by Ivanov's mechs and then by Ruby.
18). In "All Roads Lead...," she risked the lives of billions by helping Fitz repair the gravitonium module.

Alfonso "Mack" Mackenzie
Best Moments:
10). He led the revolution in "Best Laid Plans" and finished off Kasius in "Past Life."
11). He obtained robotic arms for Elena in "Principia." His friendship with Caine was also very useful.
12). In "The Honeymoon," he performed successful surgery on Deke despite no medical training.
13). He recognized that Talbot was brainwashed and ICEd him in "All Roads Lead..."
14). In "The End," he stated S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prime function: "We save lives."
Worst Moments:
5). In "Orientation Part 1," he punched out Virgil before Virgil could provide useful exposition.
6). He lost his cool when trying to intimidate Gunner in "A Life Earned."
7). In "Inside Voices," he fell for Simmons's obviously fake acid test.

Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez
Best Moments:
9). She planted a gun on Zev in "A Life Spent" so that Grill would not kill Mack and Coulson.
10). She gave herself valuable information in "Past Life."
11). She took out Ivanov in "The Honeymoon."
12). She took out Ruby in "All Roads Lead...," thus ridding the show of a terrible character.
Worst Moments:
2). She collaborated with Simmons's acid test in "Inside Voices."

Lance Hunter
Best Moments:
6). He successfully sprang Fitz from Hale's jail in "Rewind" and helped Fitz go to the future.

Glenn Talbot
Best Moments:
7). He successfully fought off the Hydra brainwashing in "All Roads Lead..."
8). In "Option Two," he sacrificed himself by absorbing the gravitonium to save the team from the marauders.
9). In "The One Who Will Save Us All," he successfully took over Qovas's ship and maneuvered himself into the Confederacy.
Worst Moments:
4). Eventually, he let the gravitonium take over and became the final villain of the fifth season.

Deke Shaw
The Good:
1). He is half FitzSimmons.
2). He understood how things worked in the Lighthouse.
3). He may whine a lot, but he ends up doing the right thing in the end.
Best Moments:
1). He sprung the team from Kree jail in "Orientation Part 1."
2). He ensured that Kasius captured Daisy in "A Life Spent," thus averting reprisals against innocent humans.
3). He came up with a plan for the team to escape from Sinara and Maston-Dar in "Together or Not at All."
4). In "Past Life," he helped Enoch defend the time machine from the Kree.
5). In "The Real Deal," he successfully obtained everything needed for the FitzSimmons wedding and gathered rogue S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including Mike Peterson and Davis.
6). He knew zero and retargeted missiles in "The Force of Gravity."
The Bad:
1). He is also half "belligerent space goon."
2). He spends a lot of time whining.
Worst Moments:
1). In "A Life Earned," he stupidly told Coulson and May that he saw Daisy recently, which got him in a lot of trouble when May caught him in his lie.
2). He did not understand 2018 currency in "All the Comforts of Home."

Davis
The Good:
1). He can fly a plane, which is useful when May is otherwise occupied.
Best Moments:
1). In "The Man behind the Shield," AIDA 2 may have captured most of the top officials in S.H.I.E.L.D., but, despite Fitz's concern being "only slightly lessened," Simmons was well protected.
2). He flew the Zephyr undetected for over a week, giving time for Simmons and Daisy to save the rest of the team in the Framework.
3). He helped save Fitz from Ophelia in "The Return."
4). His survival in "The Return" was so awesome that I cannot possibly do it justice in this post.
5). Unlike Piper, he did not sell out the team to Hale.
6). He answered the call in "The Real Deal."
The Bad:
1). He does not seem to inspire much confidence in others (e.g., Fitz's "concern only slightly lessened," Coulson's "I trust you [May] way more than Davis to fly that crazy rescue" in "Principia.")
Worst Moments:
1). Ivanov's jet eventually caught up to him in "Farewell, Cruel World!"


So, did I miss any heroics or moments and brilliance or any dastardly deeds and major blunders?