Agents of SHIELD 3x03, "A Wanted (Inhu)Man"

[renay]

I was going to skip last week's episode because I've been busy focusing on Black Wolves but then I was reminded that the show did the thing I really didn't want them to do and I needed to shout about it somewhere. Also, this week was a bunch of moving pieces with a few moments of genuine tension/emotional connection but was otherwise pretty low-key. There was a lot of set up and very little resolution as the season gets ready to launch into the first glimpse at what I assume will be the bad guy for at least the first ten episodes.

After the disaster at the hospital, Lincoln is on the run from the ATCU. I'm sad I don't like Lincoln more, although I sympathize with him wanting nothing to do with any other organizations or people with power. He's exactly what Daisy needs — someone adept with his abilities — to start putting a solid team together. Of course, him wanting no part of it must be really frustrating to her given her hopes to create a crack team of people with alien superpowers. SHIELD continues to be hella creepy in both a) planting a tracker on Lincoln and b) not telling Daisy about it. It made me think of the conversation that Steve had with Fury after the incident with Natasha in The Winter Soldier: keeping things from the team leader can backfire, and here it goes blammo all over Lincoln's personal life.



Jemma's recovery process is underway and she's hypersensitive to everything. Fitz doesn't quite know how to handle her situation and her aversion to places and things she's loved. Jemma's sections of the episode are few and far between, but they were so heartbreaking and sweet. Fitz saved their dinner reservation for months and cleared the restaurant of people. I did like Fitz's conversation with Bobbi beforehand, when he references his own recovery from drowning, which I thought was a nice touch. He knows he wants to get through but isn't sure how. Poor Jemma. :(



Lance has skeevy friends, who hook he and May up with the chance the get an interview with HYDRA. I should have liked this part of the episode more, because who doesn't like watching Lance get punched in the face repeatedly while making wisecracks? But May was frustrated with being unable to help, and any episode where May gets to beat up on dudes should be great. But something about this whole storyline didn't work for me: maybe because it was obvious the dude set Lance up to hurt him and the weirdly vicious/impatient way May approached the situation, which makes me wonder if she or Lance are in a place emotionally to really make this work (spoiler: probably not).



Lincoln, also, is the worst at hiding. You're a white dude in the US, Lincoln! It should be easy to disappear! When they release his photo to the public and the military guy attempts to stop him, it could have all been avoided! Self-checkout, a razor, some hair dye, fake glasses, this isn't rocket science! Lincoln is a bad outlaw and the show really needed the visual metaphor for Lincoln's rejection of American authority I GUESS. But seriously, someone get him some advice for going on the lam, stat. He tops this off by bringing in people close to him who have zero ability to help. I suppose my problem with the episode comes with the fact that everything felt so on the nose. As soon as you see the poor sucker picking Lincoln up, you know he's doomed.



A bright spot this episode with more Rosalind! I really like this actress. When Coulson initially calls her, I've decided that he got Daisy to hack the satellite that allowed it to look like the White House was called and it's completely not a problem; when do I get Daisy and Natasha, BFF hackers? The White House wants results, now not later, and is willing to go to really harmful lengths to get them. These two are good at making boring political maneuvering entertaining. Part of the reason I'm not yet anti-ATCU is that I somehow really want Rosalind to be, if not a good guy, than a character like Gonzales (who I am still bitter about losing even if that was a sucker-punch of a reveal). I continue to find Phil way more interesting when he's sniping with another high-level operative who he doesn't quite agree with. Also, Rosalind's "Eyes up here." to Phil was excellent.



While Phil and Rosalind talk, Lincoln's friend calls the cops and turns him in. Not a great pal, Lincoln! Who discovers one secret after years of friendship and panics? This is another one of those weird decisions this episode that felt forced and odd. Even if I learned a friend had potentially done something bad, I'm not sure I would immediately assume what I saw on the television was accurate? But I am also paranoid about authority! The show is really working on driving home how terrified people are going to be of alien threats, irrationally so. What I want to know: is every TV in this universe always tuned to the news? Couldn't at least one be set to Food Network or something? Anyway, dude threatens Lincoln, Lincoln uses his powers, and his friend has a heart attack due to the shock and dies horribly! So not only did Lincoln accidentally cause the death of his last pal and I assume, AA sponsor, he now has nowhere else to go, except back to Daisy.



And of course the show goes the way I was sincerely hoping that they wouldn't! When Daisy finds him, there's her slowly tugging him, convincing him it's time to let SHIELD protect them, and then Obligatory Heterosexual Makeouts. It's not so much that I'm anti-Lincoln/Daisy or don't want her to have a relationship with anyone, but I'm super grossed out they chose to do it in this way, where Lincoln is super emotionally compromised and backed into a corner and Daisy has an agenda that doesn't have anything to do with Lincoln's health (even though I'm sure she cares about him). Don't Kiss People Who Are Emotionally and Mentally Exhausted Because They Were Running for Their Lives 2015.



Phil's weakness continues to be Daisy, though, because he gives Lincoln up without a second thought when Rosalind reveals she knows Daisy is working for him. The ATCU is a political entity and when Lincoln, quite rightly, goes "I'm out!" and leaves Daisy and Mack behind, Rosalind is taking someone in so they can show results. Mack was NOT having it. I don't get, however, from the way Rosalind talks, that she's in favor of this? This whole scene was fascinating, because I suspect there's things about the ATCU that have not yet been revealed to us. Losing Lincoln and Phil saving Daisy by sacrificing some of SHIELD'S secrecy did manage to net us one thing: more Rosalind and Phil banter. I, with no shame, ship this.



Back to Mack: he didn't tell Phil about Daisy's hot make out session with the Inhuman fugitive and at the end they curl up on the couch together and play video games. I love them and their partnership! I need more of them protecting each other and hanging out and being pals! The episode could have ended here and made me super happy, but of course it continued to show Jemma looking at the exploded evil monolith portal remnants and telling Bobbi that she needs to find a way to go back to the planet. Which is something I did not see coming at all. Looks like Ana's possession theory is back on the table. :P

More thoughts:

• We're probably going to get one looming HYDRA symbol per episode at this point.


• Mack's Therapy Session: shoot things on a screen until you feel better.


• Why is it that the ATCU team still looks like it's staffed with Neo-Nazis????


• I would like more of Daisy threatening armed men with a fearless gleam in her eyes. Yes.


• Andrew and May tried to reconcile and apparently it didn't work for Andrew. :( :( :(


• Bobbi's workout session getting shown to us: will she be the one to swoop in later, back to 100%, to save Lance's ass with May's help? ONE CAN DREAM.


• WHO named this episode? No. Just NO.

3x02 - "Purpose in the Machine" ↔ 3x04 - "Devils You Know"

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I pretty much agree on your assessment of what made the kiss so uncomfortable to me. Also, they have zero chemistry. IN ADDITION: IS SIMMONS GOING BACK FOR...

A) her soul
B) the dude that got trapped there from Victorian times
C) ?

Ana (Book Smuggler and Fangirl)

[renay]

HER SOUL????? Ana, what? XD

[biting_moopie]

You're a white dude in the US, Lincoln! It should be easy to disappear!

lmaooooooo how true is this

Honestly, it was my thinking as well. I don't know why he didn't try harder to hide his identity. As you said, there were plenty of things he could have done.

I also like Rosalind's character, even if she's super shady, and am curious to learn more. Yes, agreed on the kissing. My guess is that it's meant to be them ~seizing the moment~ because they don't know what the future will bring. But like you, I find it a bit gross and absolutely not the time.

Lincoln's dad played Dave Karofsky's dad on Glee, so I had an interesting moment of canons colliding when he showed up. But I agree with you completely on people just calling the police on their friends! Like you, I am so paranoid about authority. And even if I weren't, I'd want to hear my friend's side of the story and find out what the hell was going on. Maybe showrunners think that won't make interesting television. But I think it would have been so much more exciting if Lincoln's friend (I keep calling him 'Paul Karofsky' in my head lol) had stuck by him and helped him out. Or at least listened when Lincoln tried to explain.

Now that I think about it, wouldn't it make more sense to listen and be on Lincoln's side? If he's innocent, then the guy can feel good about helping him. If Lincoln is guilty, then the guy can pretend to be on his side and run when he has a chance. Because if Lincoln is dangerous, then what chance did he have attacking him with the poker/baseball bat (I can't remember what he attacked him with)?

So much YES to Mack and Daisy bonding! They're so adorable.


Why is it that the ATCU team still looks like it's staffed with Neo-Nazis????

Not-so-subtle symbolism? That's my guess.

What did you think of this week's episode? Really enjoying your recaps!

[renay]

I have spent the last week thinking about how I would rewrite all John and Lincoln's scenes to make them more more sympathetic and the guilt Lincoln feels on John's accidental death way more heartbreaking. That is a Bad Sign when I want to redo the work a writer has done and FIX IT. I'm an extrapolator from canon moment, not it fix-it person. BUT THE WHOLE THING WAS A MESS.

I had some feelings about Mack and Daisy in this episode and also the writers and their obsession with writing high stakes that are super lazy. That'll probably go up on Tuesday, filled with me screeching about tension.

[biting_moopie]

WRITE THOSE SCENES. WRITE THEM, I SAY. They would be amazing. I agree that they were a mess, which was a shame. It would have been more realistic to have John confused and startled by what he'd seen on the news; not turning against his friend but not completely discounting the possibility that Lincoln might be dangerous. And John could have died from a heart attack because the bad guys burst through the door, or something like that. Although, he didn't have to die at all. But that's my thinking, at least. If you need a beta reader, let me know!

obsession with writing high stakes that are super lazy

If you're comfortable explaining, I'd love to know more about this because I'm not sure what stakes you're referring to, and I would like to know more (because this kind of discussion makes TV so much fun :)

(omg this week's episode was incredible, no spoilers in case you haven't seen it but omggggggggggg.)

[renay]

I'd have to sit down and work it out multiple ways, but I would probably have taken the ATCU element out of it completely (has then track him to John's some other way, rather than John calling them). They could have had a confrontation over Lincoln lying, John could have still gotten angry/scared and threatened Lincoln to stay put until he had explained himself, Lincoln could have reacted the same way (with the bat) and the heart attack thing could've happened, too. Then while he was running away, someone ELSE could have seen him and called the ATCU to that area. It might have required some extra scenes/actors, but it would have also made John's death weigh more heavily on Lincoln, too. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

Right now AOS deals in high stakes most with a character death cocktail, where they loom over us with "YOUR FAVE MIGHT DIE" and it gets really tiring, because one a piece is off the board, unless that's dealt with long term, it becomes useless. We saw that happen with Tripp -- it was a wasted death. So when they need to raise tension, their default is to rush to the "LIFE-THREATENING SCENARIO!" grab bag instead of using interpersonal relationships to drive the action (they're kind of doing it with subsequent episodes in S3 tho). Other people don't find this lazy, but I admit I do most of the time. But I find killing characters off to be pretty lazy in general, and a boring way to get rid of characters on short notice/for ratings/whatever. >.>

[biting_moopie]

Oh man, that description alone is making me so happy. If only, if only, if only. They should hire you for the show. This is a realistic and far more emotionally satisfying scenario.

Thank you for explaining. You are absolutely right. This is just what the show does, but I couldn't put it into words. Tripp's death made me so angry! There was no point to it at all. What's worse, his character was underutilised on the show. I'm noticing the same thing with Mack and am starting to worry. It's a pity because the cast have so much chemistry and the characters are all awesome, and there's so much more they could be doing!

I agree that killing off characters is lazy. It's a cheap way to get an emotional response from the audience. Joss Whedon is most definitely guilty of this. I really hope AoS doesn't continue down this road because the cast is so talented and there are so many stories the writers could tell.

[renay]

Ha ha, if TPTB wanna call me up and pay me to give them feedback on how to further make dude characters miserable, I will happily accept. :D

I'm pretty behind at this point (two or three episodes?) but I have heard rumblings that they may have decided to continue on their theme of boring character death. SIGH.