Amph Agents of SHIELD Discussion Thread (and Slingshot)

Spoiler

I thought that was AIDA herself inside the Framework?

Also, for being a pair of spies Daisy and Simmons were doing a horrific job in maintaining their cover.

 

So, it is seriously going to be tomorrow before I can say last week's episode, What If..., because it is still locked today.

 

Spoiler

I thought it was clear that it was Zombie Jemma as she came out from the ground and said she woke up in some mass grave at SHIELD headquarters. Plus, her appearance was very corpse-like.

Coulson is definitely a father figure to a few of the Agents.

 

My twentysomething son watched last week's ep with me. I nearly bit off my tongue not explaining everything that was going on complete with backstory, and we enjoyed the show together. Would anyone offer a good, succinct summary of the program up to date, please, should he watch again tomorrow?

 

Woohoo! I got one of the above back. Let's see if the other two have a chance.

Great episode tonight. Very concerned that not all of our heroes will make it out of the Framework now. So kudos to the writers for really raising the stakes with this virtual world.

 

Spoiler

Wait so when Fitz killed Agnes in the last episode, is that permanent? I mean she's basically a computer program right, so couldn't Radcliffe have had a backup copy of her lying around?

 

Spoiler

Nope, she's dead. That's why Radcliffe is so upset. I don't think he can copy human minds multiple times as he can with Aida. Same with Radcliffe being trapped himself.

My prediction; Fitz kills Jemma which will probably snap him out of it.

 

Never mind, he fell asleep after watching part of it. He's into Game of Thrones, so perhaps following another plot-heavy show is too much for Mortal Minds.

 

still dont care for this storyline

 

I probably shouldn't be here, what with E4 (the channel it's shown on in the UK) being behind your ABC. But I never did care about spoilers so I must ask, what is Agents of Hydra like so far? Is it any good?

 

This story arc has been interesting but also a little slow IMO. Last night's episode moved the story forward a lot though... it was easily the best one of this pod so far.

Spoiler

Mace's character arc was really well done this season. I'm actually going to miss him

 

I will admit when I first watched the first Agents of HYDRA episode and they dropped a reference to "The Doctor!" my Marvel Zombie brain went "ZOLA!" Turned out to be Fitz, which is totally okay and a very good idea for the show itself. Same deal with "The Director" MZ brain goes "Red Skull!" But it was Ada, which also is totally okay and a very good idea for the show itself. Evil Ftiz is actually kind of awesome, we got a taste of it with Robo-Fitz (and a few moments of darkness in the earlier seasons) but full on super crazy mad scientist doctor totally works. I keep getting the feeling SOMEHOW this storyline will end with either a resurrected robo-Ward or a resurrected robo-Trip (I'm fine with either one) pulled from the Framework to the real world. big shocker with Mace, though, didn't see that one coming. Oh and the Matrix / HYDRA green tint to the Framework is really cool.

I will say, I didn't buy May's sudden "But they're kids! I'm good now!" twist, out of all of 'em, I would assume she would be the one who would go full HYDRA and, to be fair, they exceptionally leaned into May going Full HYDRA for, like, 3 episodes straight.

 

Really? Of all, I thought May's was most believable. Fitz's crisis of conscience earlier felt far less earned in a way given all the terrible experiments he's appeared to have done. But May has been in the framework since the beginning; fighting like hell to get out. Her one mistake was failing to save the girl so this time she fails the agents. Both weigh on her. But she had no idea about innocent kids in that building. And kids are her established soft point. That and Coulson's "Snap out of it May!" are enough to convince me. May is a company person second. Her personal code always takes priority. When those two conflict, her code wins out.

 

Very good point, actually. I guess I just love May being the unstoppable force that the crew has to go against.

 

Agents of HYDRA/The Framework have been some of the best episodes yet, probably because it's a cohesive and intimate story. Plus, it has two of the best villains the show has ever had, Madame Hydra and The Doctor. Additionally, the Patriot became a more impactful character.

 

Yeah it's a way to take the wheels off the MCU "framework" (pun intended) and like the show be as big, world altering bugnuts crazy as it could be. Although, personally, I always kind of take it as a sign of creative frustration whenever people take established worlds and start tossing them into an alternate reality for a sustained amount of time. But you can get awesome stuff out of it. If there is a Season 5 (and EW said AoS was more "bubble" than "cancelled") it'll be interesting to see if they even want to continue to be tethered to the MCU or just go completely their own way.

 

I think Framework Ward escaping into The Real World to be a Real Live Ward (and not as psychotic HYDRA member) is possibly a thing. (Because what else is the option? Giving Ward a THIRD death scene if the Framework is wiped? I mean, come on) Of course, I would love it if they managed to bring both Ward and Trip back. Trip's death I thought worked if only because a superhero origin almost always needs a tragedy tethered to it, usually a death, so he drew the short straw. Although, Radcliffe is also an "only alive in the Framework" character. Mace is dead dead now. But, hell, maybe they don't need to put them in robot bodies. The Framework is a byproduct of the Darkhold and, hey, magic!

.... this is assuming there is a Season 5 but Jeph Loeb did say the words "Hopeful!" about a renewal. And the show apparently has a 110% DVR uptick. That ain't small potatoes! Also branding for Infinity War! But I do think with Inhumans mini on the way, AoS hypothetical Season 5 may be a shorter episode run. (which I don't mind. all killer, no filler!)

 

Inhumans is only 8 episodes that'll premire Sept 26 (On TV, weeks after the IMAX premiere) so it'll probably be over by the end of November. Would ABC do 22 eps of AoS from Dec 2017 to May 2018?

 

Spoiler

Well I mean the whole point of putting her into the framework to begin with is to make her immortal right? Why would he put her into a world then where she's just as fragile and susceptible to harm as her previous human existence?

 

Spoiler

Because as noted earlier, the mind is such a tricky thing that dying in the framework can impact the real body. Hence the death of Mace and their inability to just unplug them from the framework. But without a real body, they can only live as long as they're in the framework, but are still subject to the limitations of the mind. That being that if they die inside, they die for real. Basically the standard trope in virtual reality stories.

Radcliffe wasn't expecting Aida to find a loophole and kill Agnes.

 

Spoiler

Even if AIDA didn't go off the rails and have Agnes killed, what if one day she just slips, falls, bumps her head, and dies? Radcliffe doesn't have any safeguard against that?

And what's to say that the framework needs to be limited to what people expect to see in real life? I mean, we dream all sorts of impossible things like being able to fly...and here in the AOS universe we've got Mace who actually has Inhuman powers despite not having them in the real world.