Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 (2017-2018) (1 Viewer)

[Sam Favate]

I finally caught up with Friday's episode, which I liked a lot. I thought Fitz's deception made sense, and avoided cliches of becoming the villain's friend only to betray him. The escape sequence with Fitz, Simmons and Daisy was a thrilling bit of derring-do.

 

[dana martin]

and while we are enjoying this season. well

http://www.tvguide.com/news/abc-marvel-agents-of-shield-inhumans/


who knows what will happen, personally i would like to see Agent Carter come back, and have a good solid 8 to 10 episodes, and let Shield continue to build it's own mythology

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I thought SHIELD was going to be done after this season. It seemed creatively bankrupt and running on fumes all throughout the fourth season. But man, was I wrong -- this current season has been a blast so far! If they're able to keep up the momentum, energy and excitement that this season has had, I'm quite happy to continue following the show.

Inhumans, on the other hand, was one of the worst broadcast shows I've ever seen, and the worst thing produced in the MCU since the MCU was launched. I would be extremely surprised if it returned.

The pilot played in IMAX for a week. At my local IMAX theater, it appeared that the most tickets they sold for a single showing was less than dozen, and that the majority of the screenings were completely empty. For how heavily promoted it was as an IMAX experience, that wasn't a good sign to begin with.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I could have sworn I saw Kasius's throat get cut in the last episode, but there he was last night with just a slice on his cheek -- which makes no sense as a tactical move by Fitz and Co., but whatever.

A table-setting episode for what's likely to be some big events in the next episode.

 

[Sean Bryan]

I could have sworn I saw Kasius's throat get cut in the last episode, but there he was last night with just a slice on his cheek -- which makes no sense as a tactical move by Fitz and Co., but whatever.

A table-setting episode for what's likely to be some big events in the next episode.

I thought that too. So I recovered the deleted episode from my TiVo and watch that scene again. Sure enough, she slashed his face exactly where his scar is in this episode.

I think we thought she cut his throat because it happened so fast and that type of move typically has always been someone cutting someone’s throat. But no, just the “F-U” shame scaring cut.

 

[dana martin]

Not a shame scar that's a badge of honor to the cree and Caius actually steps up to the plate and grows a backbone and takes out his brother guess he is trying to get back into dad's good graces last night's episode rocked, and yes pun intended

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm really enjoying this season in a way that the show has never gripped me before.

In the past, I always held it against the show that it didn't deliver what its creators and early episodes promised, that it would be there to "fill in the gaps" between the major motion pictures. But after the first (and especially after the second) season, the two no longer overlapped, and I got disappointed as the show kept moving further and further away from what its makers had sold us on. The problem I had with some of the earlier seasons was that they'd raise the stakes so high that the only logical thing for the characters to do would be to call in the Avengers... but then, they never would, because it's a TV show with a TV budget. The MCU movies are smart in that they acknowledge other heroes are in existence. At the very least, if a major event happens in one film that should impact another film or another hero not present, they will at least throw in a line of dialogue to explain why they can't call on so-and-so. But SHIELD never really did that, and it seemed literally unbelievable that they'd face extinction level event after extinction level event, and that Coulson would never say, "Hey, I need to call Nick Fury, we need to flag down Iron Man, this is a problem for the big guns."

By moving the show into the future, a future that probably will be reversed in the season finale, the show is able to move away from all of those concerns and tell its own self-contained story in a way that fits into the MCU, or at least, doesn't strain credibility existing in the same universe.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Not a shame scar that's a badge of honor to the cree and Caius actually steps up to the plate and grows a backbone and takes out his brother guess he is trying to get back into dad's good graces last night's episode rocked, and yes pun intended

He put such an importance on physical perfection and was upset when his perfect specimen slave was ruined by a scar in an earlier episode (which Gemma witnessed). So Gemma marring his face was either terrible “aim” or an intentional FU to him, knowing that he’d be deeply bothered by being “ruined”himself, a prominent mark given to him not in battle but by a lowly human slave. I’d be inclined to stick with shame scar. But he’s definitely up for getting his hands dirty now.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

One of the things that's been nagging me all season is the fact that the team is supposed to be at the center of the events that lead to the end of the world. But if they got transported 74 years into the future, they shouldn't have been there at all. The very act of sending them through the monolith should have negated the events that created this dystopian future.

IIRC, there was a throwaway line about an infinite universe theory in which the monolith didn't send them to "the" future but rather one possible future, from a timeline where they never traveled through time. But that seemed sketchy at best.

Tonight's episode explained it far more satisfactorily as a very long time loop, with Robin's visions being the variable. They go back in time to prevent the future from happening, Robin's visions change, which affects the future but doesn't not prevent it. They've iterated this process over and over and over again, being sent to the future and then returned to the past to prevent it only to lay the groundwork for it. It seems that this time around is the first time that Robin had a vision of the series of events that could prevent it.

So presumably we've followed this particular iteration because it's the one in which Flint crossed paths with the team and Flint is the missing piece for Earth's salvation.

 

[Josh Dial]

One of the things that's been nagging me all season is the fact that the team is supposed to be at the center of the events that lead to the end of the world. But if they got transported 74 years into the future, they shouldn't have been there at all. The very act of sending them through the monolith should have negated the events that created this dystopian future.

One set of common time travel "rules" typically allow for this sort of paradox, where the first "trip" is N, and every subsequent trip is N+1, N+2, etc. Within the N timeline (and only the N timeline) sending them through the portal doesn't negate the events until we (the viewer) sees their trip back and their efforts to prevent the future. As soon as N completes its loop (or rather we the viewers see the completion), the other trips--none of which can happen as you say--collapse in on themselves. It's a paradox, but it's pretty common.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Yeah, I was wondering in this episode why we were seeing the 2020 scenes with the crew in the 'bad' future, when presumably they are going to go back in time and prevent those scenes from happening and thus shouldn't be there.

Is Flint 'pebbles'? Or someone we haven't met yet?

 

[dana martin]

Okay so I only got to watch the episode half-heartedly, how end up having to watch it again I kept seeing the time jumps back and forth and was getting lost things going on in the house with the dogs. But one thing that I did notice is, they must have done something different with the lighting or whatever else because there is moments in this where yes she's a good-looking woman but Ming-Na was just smoking hot.

With everything that's going on to try and figure out how to jump in the timeline why didn't they just bother Enoch he's from the future and made it back doesn't oh I forgot he only has the one module and it's someplace else.

Maybe that's what Fitz should be doing is looking at the way it's set up and try to reverse engineer that for the larger ship that they're already in.

 

[dana martin]

Yeah, I was wondering in this episode why we were seeing the 2020 scenes with the crew in the 'bad' future, when presumably they are going to go back in time and prevent those scenes from happening and thus shouldn't be there.

Is Flint 'pebbles'? Or someone we haven't met yet?

Sorry, it was just the perfect time for that gag

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Okay so I only got to watch the episode half-heartedly, how end up having to watch it again I kept seeing the time jumps back and forth and was getting lost things going on in the house with the dogs. But one thing that I did notice is, they must have done something different with the lighting or whatever else because there is moments in this where yes she's a good-looking woman but Ming-Na was just smoking hot.

With everything that's going on to try and figure out how to jump in the timeline why didn't they just bother Enoch he's from the future and made it back doesn't oh I forgot he only has the one module and it's someplace else.

Maybe that's what Fitz should be doing is looking at the way it's set up and try to reverse engineer that for the larger ship that they're already in.

Enoch is not from the future. He's an alien "anthropologist" sent here 30,000 years ago to observe us. He's just along for the ride in this story. Well, helping out as best he can since his only reason for interfering now is to prevent a predicted "extinction-level event".

 

[NeilO]

Is Flint 'pebbles'? Or someone we haven't met yet?

Yes he is. My theory is that Flint/Pebbles can help keep the Earth together.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Yes he is. My theory is that Flint/Pebbles can help keep the Earth together.

I was just thinking that right before reading your post. Specifically back to the shot we saw of all the rocks rising up and coming together in an orb shape before he blasted the annoying bald / bearded boss human guy who they were all 'working' for.

 

[dana martin]

Time for the kid, to bring the planet back together , one piece at a time,

 

[Sam Favate]

I'm enjoying this season, and glad to see the band back together, so to speak.

I confess to being a bit confused as to how we see flashbacks to times after the gang was plucked out of time.

 

[Dheiner]

I'm enjoying this season, and glad to see the band back together, so to speak.

I confess to being a bit confused as to how we see flashbacks to times after the gang was plucked out of time.

I think those "Flashbacks" are to what would have/did happen if they had not been pulled into the future. In other words, the past as seen by the people around them.
But "their" future is not set, so any changes to their choices in the future will change what will be. As they experience it.

So they will create a new Future history....

OK, now I've confused myself.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Ascent of Zephyr One was one of those sequences that makes one marvel (no pun intended) at how far the medium of television has come in a very short time. Between the zero-g stuntwork inside the ship and the flawless visual effects outside the ship, that sequence was something big budget feature films with months of post-production wouldn't have pulled off as well.

I was happy that Tess got resurrected, but it's always a dangerous story element to introduce, because it makes it difficult for any death to be truly consequential. What was stopping Kasius's brother's men from resurrecting him, for instance?

I think those "Flashbacks" are to what would have/did happen if they had not been pulled into the future. In other words, the past as seen by the people around them.
But "their" future is not set, so any changes to their choices in the future will change what will be. As they experience it.

So they will create a new Future history....

OK, now I've confused myself.

The "flashbacks" were a previous iteration of the time loop, featuring versions of the team that had returned from the future after experiencing events very similar to the ones featured in the last nine episodes. But they were old Robin's memories, and she's the reason the time loop is evolving rather than fixed. Her prophecies and her memories change each time, which in turn impacts the decisions all of the characters make, which in turn affects what transpires.

However many previous iterations of the time loop there were, the constants have been the team being sent to the future, and the world being destroyed after they made it back.

The new variable this time around is Flint. Based on what Robin said, it sounds like they didn't have him on their side in the previous iterations of the loop, or if they did, they didn't know to bring him back with him. As Neil and Dana have predicted, he's probably what prevents the world from being destroyed this time around.

The tricky thing, though, is that he was only born because of a series of events that resulted from the world being destroyed. So a paradox seems unavoidable unless there's some more twists and turns between now and the moment of truth.