Amph Agents of SHIELD Discussion Thread (and Slingshot)

Almost every episode has been introducing or establishing elements into the ongoing story arc before starting to coalesce together mid way through the season into the end-game story arc of the last few episodes of the season. It just wasn't very obvious until you knew what you were looking for.

101: Pilot- Introduces centipede, Petersen.
102: 0-8-4- Introduces the concept and significance of an 0-8-4 as a setup for the Skye connection down the road.
103: The Asset- Introduces Quinn
104: Eye Spy- Introduces the remote controlled implants and messages (presumably being sent by the Clairvoyant)
105: Girl in the Flower Dress- Further setup for the Clairvoyant and the Centipede organization
106: F.Z.Z.T- Not directly related to the larger story arc, though a key step in the Coulson subplot
107: The Hub- Slight progression on Skye's 084 nature and Coulson's subplot.
108: The Well- Thor tie-in, slight progression on Coulson's subplot.
109: Repairs- This one is stand-alone.
110: The Bridge- Petersen, Coulson, Clairvoyant and Centipede subplots converge
111: The Magical Place- Large development on Coulson subplot, begining to converge Eye Spy remote tech with Petersen.
112: Seeds- Further developments with Quinn, now connecting him with the Clairvoyant. Skye's connection to the 0-8-4 origin.
113: T.R.A.C.K.S.- Quinn, Clairvoyant, Peterson, Eye Spy, Centipede all converge into the introduction of Deathlok.

So, out of the first 13 episodes of the first season, we've only had 3 episodes that were not directly related to the non-Coulson-related (as the resurrection tech may or may not tie into Deathlok too) ongoing story arc. Out of those 3, one was a vague Thor tie-in (something people expected/wanted out of the show) and one was the first episode where most people started caring about the characters (F.Z.Z.T.).

Compare that to, say, Babylon 5- pretty much the gold standard in laying out an ongoing story arc, whose first season also took 13 episodes (not counting pilot movie) to have it's first big "mythology" episode.

Of it's preceding 12 episodes, more than half were either complete standalones, only connected to one or two follow-up episodes seasons later, or were only connected to the larger arc in connections so vague you'd have to read about them after watching the whole series to understand them.

AOS is following a very reasonable and generous first season structure for establishing an ongoing story arc versus standalones. The quality of execution is debatable, but they're hardly unconnected. We just didn't know how they were connected yet when we first watched them.

 

And they have been hyping the back-nine, which I assume will make up this Uprising "maximum event".

 

This is a little hopeful. Maybe. More what I've been looking for anyway.

Tonight's episode...just...ugh. I am so over Skye.

Spoiler

Skye could hack into this hologram and hack into this compound and do any number of things to save Skye's life if only Skye didn't need her life saved.

And now Skye is coming back to life with spliced-together intestines.

That said...I did thoroughly enjoy Bill Paxton, and May kicking Quinn's ass.

The preview for next week looks much better. We'll see.

 

Paxton was cool.

Spoiler

Dr. Manhattan's torso, not so much.

 

Dp- I had that exact reaction! "A Doctor Strange reference!" Then, a min or two later, "Oh, it was just the accent, dammit...".

Bill Paxton was good- I liked the dynamic everyone had together/between them. And May's moment early on was satisfying and kinda fave me chills.

As to the end (well, not the stinger, which was basically like the opening scene to the next episode it seems), I have NO idea what that was.

Spoiler

And now every fanboy lore master is digging through every Marvel wiki and guide trying to figure out what "G.H." might stand for and answer that question).

Also, that Echo Chamber interface? IwantoneIwantoneIwantone!