I have fewer thoughts this week. It felt kind of like most of the episode was for a different demographic. College, the superhero version? Done, thanks. And I'm not loving the Operations vs SciTech thing they've set up, or that they've got three separate schools, that seems counterproductive.
I liked that it was the old SSR building and Bucky was on the wall there. Also that they teach that Hydra was their first opponent. Sense of scale, time, legacy. Kind of like Coulson's collections, there's a lot of history under what we've already seen. And these are the guys that build the future.
The kid with the 190 IQ did some spectacularly stupid things. Flash freezing is not a good plan. Why would he not end up with a frozen solid leg, or blood? We're bags of mostly water. Also, being stuck under ice that long is a looooong time to hold your breath. Pretty stupid, if he just wanted to talk to someone.
Also, 190 by what scale? Many don't go that high.
Setting up villain origin stories for the win. Compare contrast on Skye's origin story and her reactions also good.
Coulson seems to trust SHIELD a lot easier than, like, 90% of fans. I mean, he was right, they changed one thing, who says they didn't go in and edit him? All that trust the system bit? Is he honestly enough of a company man it's a surprise when his people get screwed over? Because that doesn't seem like a senior agent mindset. But May says he's okay and he trusts May. So do we? I'm sure we'd like to.
It was a very heartwarming moment with him saying Skye decided SHIELD were her family all along, and so now Coulson gets his faith back, and hearts and flowers and lalala... but a family that tortures and mindwipes you is loving you all wrong.
The how of Coulson's return was never the most interesting part. The why is the heart of it. Or should be. Did someone just love him too much to let go? Or did they want their Agent back? The former is forgiveable, but the latter?
They couldn't let go of their toys? Treating people like useful tools and resharpening them... kind of a problem. But if it is the family thing, we're not learning enough about who would want to do that. It has to be Fury, right? But we don't get to see it. So we're not learning the motives of whatever individuals made each choice, we're just getting warm fuzzies about SHIELD as a family and how the system loves you. It's sort of unsatisfying and also worrying. Because you can assume the nice motive led to the bad thing, but the nasty motive would have more reason.
Also, having mentioned Bucky, what we're really wondering is if... agh, spoiler policy, can't even say that sentence here.
Like, for comics it's not a spoiler, and it's in the trailers, but it's still a spoiler.
But there's a thing, right, with Bucky, that's kind of relevant.
The other thing is, now we know how Coulson came back, either we've got the 100% of the answer at mid season or he's right to worry. I don't know which. It might just be a warm fuzzies sort of show.
He's forgotten things, like the muscle memory thing, and he's remembering things, like Tahiti, and he has to wonder if he's still who he thinks he is. May says he is. So, okay... but how would she know?
There was a comic where someone got erased from the universe and brought back from her team mate's memories. Titans maybe? I don't know. But I remember the outline because it really creeped me out. Because who knows you that well? Being brought back from just one perspective... how do they know what you're thinking? What you do when they're not in the room? They could all be perfectly happy they had the real and true friend back, but you'd never know if what was inside the box really matched what was there before.
So the same with Coulson. They kept fixing him until they got him back. But for what definition of him, and who decided that?
Finding out what happened to him is maybe changing him, like dying in the first place changed him. I thought him stopping efforts to revive that guy was him reacting to his own experiences. But it could just be TV timescales. Tricky.
The stuff with Skye is all questions that lead to answers that lead to more questions. It's also very very comics origin story stuff. Like everyone's stories are origin stories this season.
reckon this ep told us more about everyone, including May, with her attempts to draw Coulson out and stop him obsessing on the horrible painful thing (because she knows from her own experience what that does to you?)
so this was pretty good ep.
