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More political manoeuvring. Sometimes this show reads as much of a political thriller as an action-adventure-drama show.
So, less about HYDRA these days, more about SHIELD. And a lot more about Bobbi and Lance's relationship. Man, those two are kind of messed up about each other. (But their fight choreography was good stuff.)
Talbot - again. SHIELD in the firing line, Senator Ward, simplifying the battle between good and evil (you know, for a society that says 'there is no absolute right and wrong' we sure like our black and whites), Skye playing Ward to the hilt and then leaving him cold, Fitz and Simmons and Mack (that feels quite a lot like a love triangle: old love Simmons, new love Mack), Coulson and Senator Ward and taking SHIELD out of the firing line, Ward's escape...
Incidentally, putting SHIELD and anyone who used to be SHIELD in the firing line would definitely have Maria targeted. She gave witness to Congress, is working with Tony Stark - I mean, between those two things, one can't exactly escape.
I don't suppose anyone wrote about Maria during the brief targeting of SHIELD before Senator Ward decided to play Unhappy Families?
Question of the day (no, that wasn't the request for Maria-being-targeted-by-the-antiSHIELDs fic): was the whole Mack-helps-interpret-Fitz moment when they realise the Belgian is HYDRA really glossed over or was that me? (Not the fact that Mack is helping Fitz, but exactly how they found out that the Belgian is a traitor. It was like BLINK AND YOU'LL MISS IT.)
Problem: There's a lot happening in each episode; and it's really easy to lose things through the cracks.
I really liked the focus on the Ward brothers; personally, I'm going for "they're both lying liars who lie" and if there was a truth, it's long since been stomped on between political expediency and Grant's need to belong to anything that isn't the Ward family. Also, just because Coulson was going to hand Grant off to Christian doesn't mean he believes Christian; just that Grant is the price Coulson is willing to pay to get SHIELD out of the firing line.
Characters being expedient; how I love it!
And Grant getting free! Given that this is Grant FREAKING Ward we're talking about, and Coulson handed him over in nothing more than handcuffs, I have to say: What. The. Everloving. FRIGG?
This is a world that has superhumans. Super-strength people. Whom SHIELD is known for dealing with. I mean, taking Grant Ward out in handcuffs is like giving Maria Hill a gun with one bullet and saying "haha, let's see you shoot me across a crowded helicarrier deck in the middle of a major fi--" Like thinking you can fight Captain America just because he's not using the shield. Like taking on Tony Stark in a battle of wit and snark? (Newsflash: doing such a thing would officially have you classified as an idiot. Just get it tattooed on your forehead and be done with it; saves people having to discover it.)
I have no doubt that Coulson wanted Ward off his hands and wanted his agents out of the firing line, but I am also not putting it past Coulson to give Ward a fighting chance to get out - and, you know, to thwart Senator Ward. Because see above ref. "lying liars who lie". Ain't nobody shiny in El Barrio Ward. Also: Coulson.
Finally, at this point, the whole point of Phil being alive is kind of, I don't know, BLEEDING OBVIOUS. And this is not 1970; it does not take a week for the news to filter through. A lie may run around the world before the truth can get it's boots on, but these days, the truth goes barefoot on social media and has just as much of a chance of catching up. (It's just that the lies are much more dramatic and people prefer spreading them.)
So, yeah, I find it hard to believe that the Avengers don't know that Coulson's alive. I mean, surely there were SHIELD agents who took refuge with Stark Industries. And some of them would have encountered people who encountered people who encountered people. It may not be a small organisation, or a happy-group-hug one (thank you, Hunter, last episode), but the whole six degrees of separation thing is down to at least four, maybe even three within SHIELD. And there's such a thing as impossible secrets to keep; the fact that someone very high up who was thought dead but now is alive is something that's not exactly easy to cover up in the modern world.
Final question: DID they kill off Raina? BECAUSE IF THEY DID I AM VERY NOT HAPPY.
Looking back, that was a lot of ranting about plot points that Didn't Quite Make Sense. But overall, I enjoyed that episode.
So, less about HYDRA these days, more about SHIELD. And a lot more about Bobbi and Lance's relationship. Man, those two are kind of messed up about each other. (But their fight choreography was good stuff.)
Talbot - again. SHIELD in the firing line, Senator Ward, simplifying the battle between good and evil (you know, for a society that says 'there is no absolute right and wrong' we sure like our black and whites), Skye playing Ward to the hilt and then leaving him cold, Fitz and Simmons and Mack (that feels quite a lot like a love triangle: old love Simmons, new love Mack), Coulson and Senator Ward and taking SHIELD out of the firing line, Ward's escape...
Incidentally, putting SHIELD and anyone who used to be SHIELD in the firing line would definitely have Maria targeted. She gave witness to Congress, is working with Tony Stark - I mean, between those two things, one can't exactly escape.
I don't suppose anyone wrote about Maria during the brief targeting of SHIELD before Senator Ward decided to play Unhappy Families?
Question of the day (no, that wasn't the request for Maria-being-targeted-by-the-antiSHIELDs fic): was the whole Mack-helps-interpret-Fitz moment when they realise the Belgian is HYDRA really glossed over or was that me? (Not the fact that Mack is helping Fitz, but exactly how they found out that the Belgian is a traitor. It was like BLINK AND YOU'LL MISS IT.)
Problem: There's a lot happening in each episode; and it's really easy to lose things through the cracks.
I really liked the focus on the Ward brothers; personally, I'm going for "they're both lying liars who lie" and if there was a truth, it's long since been stomped on between political expediency and Grant's need to belong to anything that isn't the Ward family. Also, just because Coulson was going to hand Grant off to Christian doesn't mean he believes Christian; just that Grant is the price Coulson is willing to pay to get SHIELD out of the firing line.
Characters being expedient; how I love it!
And Grant getting free! Given that this is Grant FREAKING Ward we're talking about, and Coulson handed him over in nothing more than handcuffs, I have to say: What. The. Everloving. FRIGG?
This is a world that has superhumans. Super-strength people. Whom SHIELD is known for dealing with. I mean, taking Grant Ward out in handcuffs is like giving Maria Hill a gun with one bullet and saying "haha, let's see you shoot me across a crowded helicarrier deck in the middle of a major fi--" Like thinking you can fight Captain America just because he's not using the shield. Like taking on Tony Stark in a battle of wit and snark? (Newsflash: doing such a thing would officially have you classified as an idiot. Just get it tattooed on your forehead and be done with it; saves people having to discover it.)
I have no doubt that Coulson wanted Ward off his hands and wanted his agents out of the firing line, but I am also not putting it past Coulson to give Ward a fighting chance to get out - and, you know, to thwart Senator Ward. Because see above ref. "lying liars who lie". Ain't nobody shiny in El Barrio Ward. Also: Coulson.
Finally, at this point, the whole point of Phil being alive is kind of, I don't know, BLEEDING OBVIOUS. And this is not 1970; it does not take a week for the news to filter through. A lie may run around the world before the truth can get it's boots on, but these days, the truth goes barefoot on social media and has just as much of a chance of catching up. (It's just that the lies are much more dramatic and people prefer spreading them.)
So, yeah, I find it hard to believe that the Avengers don't know that Coulson's alive. I mean, surely there were SHIELD agents who took refuge with Stark Industries. And some of them would have encountered people who encountered people who encountered people. It may not be a small organisation, or a happy-group-hug one (thank you, Hunter, last episode), but the whole six degrees of separation thing is down to at least four, maybe even three within SHIELD. And there's such a thing as impossible secrets to keep; the fact that someone very high up who was thought dead but now is alive is something that's not exactly easy to cover up in the modern world.
Final question: DID they kill off Raina? BECAUSE IF THEY DID I AM VERY NOT HAPPY.
Looking back, that was a lot of ranting about plot points that Didn't Quite Make Sense. But overall, I enjoyed that episode.
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