[8.1/10] Most of us have someone we would do almost anything for, a person who is so vital and important to our lives and our well-being that we would make any sacrifice to save or keep them. Thankfully, when you’re not a secret agent in a comic book universe, those sorts of sacrifices tend to be fairly prosaic. But when you’re an Agent of Shield, they mean turning a gun on an old man, nearly freezing to death on a superjet, or choosing to stay in a digital reality rather than a real one.
These are the sorts of unusual choices our heroes are forced to make in an episode that provides a major turning point in the “Agents of Hydra” arc that has, so far, proved to be one of the show’s best ever. When Daisy uncovers a “back door” to send anyone in the Framework back to the real world (assuming they have a body in the real world to go back to), a number of big decisions have to be made about who goes through it, and how willing and able they are to do so.
But “Farewell, Cruel World” also gives us our first look at Yo-Yo and company since they helped strap Daisy and Simmons into the Framework. I’ll admit, it’s not always the best-acted series of scenes, but the adventures of the Shield B-team serves two purposes. The first is that it adds a sense of urgency to our heroes escaping from The Framework. The Shield jet needs to refuel, the people flying it are freezing, and Ivanoff is liable to attack at any minute once the cloaking goes down. That means it’s all the more vital that Daisy and Simmons complete their mission before it’s too late.
But more than that, it shows that there’s something in the real world for the good guys, especially Mack, to come back to. Yo-Yo is willing to put her life on the line to save her friends, particularly the man she loves, and it makes his decision at the end of the episode all the more poignant.
Yo-Yo’s not the only one in the episode willing to go to extremes for the man she loves. Simmons gets pretty hardcore when she discovers that Fitz’s dad (who we learn is named Alistair) is alive and shows up to FitzDad’s house brandishing a gun, in the hope that a hostage situation will get Fitz to talk to her. I love when Agents of Shield let’s Simmons be a badass like this. There’s a great quality they’ve shown in both sides of FitzSimmons that, for the most part, they’re still better as lab techs than they are as field agents, but that when one or the other is threatened, they find their inner hero and go to work.
Of course, things go more than a bit awry. FitzDad tells his son “the fugitive” is in his house rather than play along. In a hilarious moment he throws a phone at Simmons, and in the ensuing scuffle, Simmons shoots Alistair. Meanwhile, Radcliffe has become a turncoat at the promise that Aida’s new organic body machine could be used for him as well, and he agrees to take Fitz to the backdoor to stop the good guys.
It leads to a harrowing moment where Simmons faces Fitz and tells him to snap out of it, that she loves him. Fitz’s response is to put a gun to her head and declare that she means nothing to him, that he is there to take vengeance on the person who killed the man who’s always been there for him. It is an unnerving scene, with the tension only broken by Radcliffe revealing that it was all a feint on his part, and that his cooperation was a ruse to get Fitz to the backdoor, and he makes good on his intentions to send “The Doctor” back to the real world whether he wants to or not.
It’s a striking story because of its effect on the four characters at the center of it. Whatever his other faults, Alistair is willing to put his life on the line to further his son’s ends. Simmons will take a hostage, face down a bullet, just for the chance to plead to the most important person in her life to wake up. Radcliffe will likewise put himself in harms way to save Fitz, and tells Fitz that this was all Radcliffe’s own fault, not his, showing a similar fatherly affection. And Fitz himself wakes up, aghast at the blood on his hands, both real and digital, shed in the name of his affection for “Ophelia,” and cannot help but wonder if he his a bad person. It is a charged series of scenes, one that shows how those sorts of strong feelings pull people in the same direction, albeit to different ends.
(Oh, and there’s a subplot about Coulson convincing May to take a “leap of faith” that’s pretty undercooked, but gets by well enough on the chemistry between the actors and the sense that they too have a connection that persists in any universe.)
Still, the most affecting moment in the episode belongs to Mack. When Daisy figures out how to quake the portal to the real world open, she herds her compatriots in one at a time. (And she quietly explains to Trip that it’s not a place where he can follow – and Trip’s humorous asides about everything not only make me wish he could come back, but that he would have never left.) But Mack refuses, even after Coulson’s trip through the wormhole reveals that they’re living in a world of pixels.
He refuses because this is where his daughter lives. Because whatever substance this reality is made of, it’s the one where there is a little girl whom he loves with all of his heart. Henry Simmons sells the hell out of the moment, both the shock of the reveal that this really is a place of ones and zeroes, but the emotional turmoil at the prospect of leaving young Hope behind. He won’t do it. He can’t do it. And as much as that pains Daisy, as much as she tears up and tells him there’s people on the other side who love him very much, she understands.
(As an aside, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that they find a way to bring Hope to the real world using Aida’s crazy body-making machine.)
She has to understand. If there’s one thing that the characters of Agents of Shield have done, through good stories and bad, it’s put themselves on the line for the people they love. If you love someone, the notion of abandoning them, even with questions as to what’s real, is unthinkable. Mack will stay where Hope is. Yo-Yo will fly freezing in vulnerable in the hopes that he’ll return. And Simmons will face a brutal version of the man she loves to try to get him to snap out of it. It’s a powerful idea as our heroes return to the real world, reeling from what they saw, what they were, in the artificial one.
(Oh yeah, and Aida can teleport people now…so that’s a thing. More Darkhold powers? Matrix within a matrix? Scooby Doo villain-esque trick? Who knows!)
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-05-03T14:24:06Z
[8.1/10] Most of us have someone we would do almost anything for, a person who is so vital and important to our lives and our well-being that we would make any sacrifice to save or keep them. Thankfully, when you’re not a secret agent in a comic book universe, those sorts of sacrifices tend to be fairly prosaic. But when you’re an Agent of Shield, they mean turning a gun on an old man, nearly freezing to death on a superjet, or choosing to stay in a digital reality rather than a real one.
These are the sorts of unusual choices our heroes are forced to make in an episode that provides a major turning point in the “Agents of Hydra” arc that has, so far, proved to be one of the show’s best ever. When Daisy uncovers a “back door” to send anyone in the Framework back to the real world (assuming they have a body in the real world to go back to), a number of big decisions have to be made about who goes through it, and how willing and able they are to do so.
But “Farewell, Cruel World” also gives us our first look at Yo-Yo and company since they helped strap Daisy and Simmons into the Framework. I’ll admit, it’s not always the best-acted series of scenes, but the adventures of the Shield B-team serves two purposes.
The first is that it adds a sense of urgency to our heroes escaping from The Framework. The Shield jet needs to refuel, the people flying it are freezing, and Ivanoff is liable to attack at any minute once the cloaking goes down. That means it’s all the more vital that Daisy and Simmons complete their mission before it’s too late.
But more than that, it shows that there’s something in the real world for the good guys, especially Mack, to come back to. Yo-Yo is willing to put her life on the line to save her friends, particularly the man she loves, and it makes his decision at the end of the episode all the more poignant.
Yo-Yo’s not the only one in the episode willing to go to extremes for the man she loves. Simmons gets pretty hardcore when she discovers that Fitz’s dad (who we learn is named Alistair) is alive and shows up to FitzDad’s house brandishing a gun, in the hope that a hostage situation will get Fitz to talk to her. I love when Agents of Shield let’s Simmons be a badass like this. There’s a great quality they’ve shown in both sides of FitzSimmons that, for the most part, they’re still better as lab techs than they are as field agents, but that when one or the other is threatened, they find their inner hero and go to work.
Of course, things go more than a bit awry. FitzDad tells his son “the fugitive” is in his house rather than play along. In a hilarious moment he throws a phone at Simmons, and in the ensuing scuffle, Simmons shoots Alistair. Meanwhile, Radcliffe has become a turncoat at the promise that Aida’s new organic body machine could be used for him as well, and he agrees to take Fitz to the backdoor to stop the good guys.
It leads to a harrowing moment where Simmons faces Fitz and tells him to snap out of it, that she loves him. Fitz’s response is to put a gun to her head and declare that she means nothing to him, that he is there to take vengeance on the person who killed the man who’s always been there for him. It is an unnerving scene, with the tension only broken by Radcliffe revealing that it was all a feint on his part, and that his cooperation was a ruse to get Fitz to the backdoor, and he makes good on his intentions to send “The Doctor” back to the real world whether he wants to or not.
It’s a striking story because of its effect on the four characters at the center of it. Whatever his other faults, Alistair is willing to put his life on the line to further his son’s ends. Simmons will take a hostage, face down a bullet, just for the chance to plead to the most important person in her life to wake up. Radcliffe will likewise put himself in harms way to save Fitz, and tells Fitz that this was all Radcliffe’s own fault, not his, showing a similar fatherly affection. And Fitz himself wakes up, aghast at the blood on his hands, both real and digital, shed in the name of his affection for “Ophelia,” and cannot help but wonder if he his a bad person. It is a charged series of scenes, one that shows how those sorts of strong feelings pull people in the same direction, albeit to different ends.
(Oh, and there’s a subplot about Coulson convincing May to take a “leap of faith” that’s pretty undercooked, but gets by well enough on the chemistry between the actors and the sense that they too have a connection that persists in any universe.)
Still, the most affecting moment in the episode belongs to Mack. When Daisy figures out how to quake the portal to the real world open, she herds her compatriots in one at a time. (And she quietly explains to Trip that it’s not a place where he can follow – and Trip’s humorous asides about everything not only make me wish he could come back, but that he would have never left.) But Mack refuses, even after Coulson’s trip through the wormhole reveals that they’re living in a world of pixels.
He refuses because this is where his daughter lives. Because whatever substance this reality is made of, it’s the one where there is a little girl whom he loves with all of his heart. Henry Simmons sells the hell out of the moment, both the shock of the reveal that this really is a place of ones and zeroes, but the emotional turmoil at the prospect of leaving young Hope behind. He won’t do it. He can’t do it. And as much as that pains Daisy, as much as she tears up and tells him there’s people on the other side who love him very much, she understands.
(As an aside, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that they find a way to bring Hope to the real world using Aida’s crazy body-making machine.)
She has to understand. If there’s one thing that the characters of Agents of Shield have done, through good stories and bad, it’s put themselves on the line for the people they love. If you love someone, the notion of abandoning them, even with questions as to what’s real, is unthinkable. Mack will stay where Hope is. Yo-Yo will fly freezing in vulnerable in the hopes that he’ll return. And Simmons will face a brutal version of the man she loves to try to get him to snap out of it. It’s a powerful idea as our heroes return to the real world, reeling from what they saw, what they were, in the artificial one.
(Oh yeah, and Aida can teleport people now…so that’s a thing. More Darkhold powers? Matrix within a matrix? Scooby Doo villain-esque trick? Who knows!)