3x20 Emancipation

I bought that Lincoln wanted to get out of the old SSR base. I bought that he believed in Daisy, and that after seeing Talbot and the way he was being treated by Shield, that he would be more amenable to breaking out and chasing after her. I believed his puppy dog eyes and his anger and his "I was only ever hear for you" routine.

And that's a good thing! Too often, this show's beats, plot developments, and even lines are too predictable. It's pleasant to have a show like AoS be able to successfully misdirect you now and again. Granted, part of that stems from the fact that Lincoln has been written as something of an idiot who would be the exact type of person to get suckered in by a feint from Daisy, but still. That's using the audience's expectations in your favor, and that's a good thing.

The downside is that at the end of the day, I just don't care about Daisy and Lincoln as a couple. Does anyone? There have to be some people out ther who think it's a good idea, right? I just can't get over their lack of chemistry, or the way it feels like the two of them are just going through the motions. This was the most convincing Lincoln has ever been in his affections for Daisy, and it was all, ostensibly, a deception. Now maybe you can handwave it based on the principle that he was using his real emotions about missing Daisy to deceive her, but still, it's tough to center the big twist in an episode on a relationship that the audience has trouble buying into.

What's strange is that the show has done particularly well at setting up other relationships. Fitz and Simmons barely get any time to be romantic with one another in this episode, and yet even Fitz's little comment about whether Simmons is free for an hour is just cute enough, and their chemistry is so perfect, that it's enough to buoy an otherwise tense moment. At the same time, Mack and Elena have probably spent a grand total of about 15 minutes on screen together over the course of three episodes, and yet I'm truly rooting for them.

Part of that is just the alchemy of two actors finding the right vibe together, and you can't coach that or write it or direct it; it just sort of happens. But much of it is in the writing and the performances. We see Mack and Elena coming from different places and having common ground. We see Mack being something approaching a Shield lifer, whereas Elena is just getting started. We see Elena being a woman of supreme faith, with Mack questioning his. Nevertheless, they clearly have empathy and affection for one another despite their differing points of view, and it makes them feel closer and more relatable for it.

Coulson and Talbot, on the other hand, are not especially close. Talbot is finally let into the new Shield HQ without being blindfolded or otherwise hoodwinked on his way, as Coulson let's him see behind the curtain. Talbot, of course, doesn't like what he sees -- a hotheaded Inhuman, a monster kept in a box, and lots of information about Hive and Daisy that Coulson isn't particularly forthright with.

In the wake of all of this, we get a bit of Civil War redux. It's a laudable attempt to meld AoS with its cinematic counterparts, even though the film side of the MCU has little interest in coordinating with the plebs on the boob tube. Again, you have to more or less handwave why The Avengers aren't involved with Hive, but that's firmly within the confines of acceptable willing suspension of disbelief, and having Talbot as the effective representative of the Sokovia Accords is a nice way to, at a minimum, inject some of the ideas and themes of the latest Captain America film into the show.

Talbot, for his part, represents some legitimate concerns. The Inhumans have done some pretty severe damage. Not being able to keep track of powered people means that folks like Daisy can be out there and dangerous with no supervision and limited control, putting everyone, even the highly trained Shield agents, at risk. On the other hand, Coulson's not out of line when he says that he's kept lists like that in the past and he's seen where they lead, and that by the time the government cuts through all the red tape to approve a mission, it may be too late to stop someone like Hive. He even does a good job of trying to distinguish Shield from The Avengers by noting that the more prominent superhero team is a very public group, whereas Shield is, at least nominally, supposed to operate in the shadows.

Sometimes that type of operation leads to taking steps that the higher ups in the government wouldn't appreciate, like sending one monster to take out another. The whole Lash thing has been pretty hit or miss in my book. I love the dichotomy of Andrew Garner having to balance his real persona with this force within him, and yet having a roided up Sonic the Hedgehog roaming around with his chintzy forehead prosthetics didn't do much for me. The idea that every Inhuman has a destiny and a purpose and that Lash's was to save Daisy makes me wonder why he had to kill all of those other Inhumans to achieve that goal. It also makes me wonder why he didn't make more of an effort to kill the guy who was making more Inhumans before he went all Florence Nightingale on Miss Johnson.

But that, I suppose, would have deprived us of two more episodes where we get to see the Shield team do battle with Hive and take on his "primitive Inhumans" who seemed like mild versions of the Putties the Power Rangers used to fight. It would also deprive us of a brief but emotional scene of May mourning the man she loves, and of Shield getting its protagonist back on the side of the good guys where the big villain (not to mention his Gambit-inspired henchman) are still out there to fight.

But that's the other side of the twist. Surprises are nice, but if you look back at them and discover that the narrative loop-de-loops were just a means to move the pieces around the board so that they're ready for the next big event, the twist still seems cool, but also a bit hollow. It's nice to see some growth from Lincoln, that he can be a team player even when it involves his girlfriend and he's smart enough not to trust someone under Hive's "sway" no matter how much he might want to. It's nice to see Talbott at least halfway understand Coulson's position and give him enough leash to do what he needs to do. It's nice to see Elena hand Mack the infamous necklace (in what's probably a fake out) that seems to spell doom.

At the end of the day, however, this all has to amount to something. Too often, Agents of Shield is just a series of semi-cool moments and action movie trailer one-liners, without enough connective tissue or narrative momentum to hold them together. I enjoyed those moments for the most part in this episode, but I'm still waiting to see if they'll add up to something greater.

Man, as much as I love the show, I really don't like that the writers seem to keep coming up with new ways to make the characters miserable. I know that season 1 is generally considered the weakest, and story-wise season 3 is a lot better, but I'm one of those people who care more about the characters than the plot. Remember when those guys used to laugh and prank each other? Good times. I just want them to be happy for 5 minutes, without some big threat of someone dying and the world ending constantly hanging over their heads. Couldn't they at least brighten things up a bit? Why are the lights in the base so dim? Why do the characters only own black, dark blue or grey clothes?

Let's start with the good stuff: Lincoln's not as stupid as I thought he was. The plan was awesome, I didn't see it coming (mostly because I was sure that Lincoln was really that naive). Daisy's back, which is great, but let's face it, this is AoS, she'll probably suffer and feel guilty. I just want to wrap her in cozy blankets and keep her safe. Fitzsimmons working together is always nice. I can't wait for the rest of the team to find out that they are a couple. Lash vs. Hive was epic. I expected it to happen at some point (why else would the showrunners keep Lash around?). I'm kind of disappointed they didn't save it for the finale, though. Mack and Elena are adorable. I really like her character.

Now the slightly less good stuff: stop foreshadowing with that goddamn cross! And you let James kill Lash? Really? You have a super powerful Inhuman who's immune to Hive, and he gets killed by some dude with a chain? Are you kidding me?

The stakes on this show are ridiculously high. An evil, ancient being is about to turn half of the population into zombies whose only purpose is to serve him, and he's planning to use a warhead to do it, and yet the only people fighting to stop him are about a dozen Shield agents. I know they can't get all the movie stars to appear on the show, but that's some Avengers-level crap. Their little feud in Civil War seems a little irrelevant in comparison. Then again, the movies seem to pretend that this show doesn't exist, so I don't know why I even expect some acknowledgment from them anymore.

2 more episodes to go. I'm not ready for the finale. I should probably start meditating or something, because this show stresses me out more than school, and that's saying something.