5x10 Past Life

I hate the fact that we're going on a 4-week break now. We had to wait until goddamn December for this show to return and we still have to deal with a mid-season break? This is bullshit.

I loved this episode. It was so satisfying in so many ways. Kasius getting what he deserved (and holy shit, Jemma using that implant on him left me with my jaw hanging open! It was such a powerful moment!), humans taking control of the Lighthouse, Tess and Flint planning to rebuild the Earth... Season 5A was absolutely incredible and I think they tied up the space arc very nicely.

I legit thought Deke and Daisy were going to kiss (and I already began to roll my eyes at the predictability), but nope! Surprise! I loved how he said all those beautiful and profound things to her and then 5 seconds later they were back to bickering. I think I would've liked to see a little more of their relationship (it could've been such a good brOTP), but alas, Deke made a heroic sacrifice (and bitched about it 'till the very end, which was perfectly in character). I'll actually miss him. And my boy Enoch! I enjoyed him so much. Every word that came out of his mouth was gold. RIP, Plastic Man.

I swear, the writers are about to catch these hands for coming up with the idea of Coulson dying. It came out of nowhere and we saw no indication of it before this episode. I hate it! Leave him alone! The entire premise of the show was built around him coming back from the dead and now they want to try and kill him again? Seriously?

I liked that subtle dig Deke made at gun control. His reaction to firearms in general was hilarious.

Daisy Johnson, you beautiful, brave, selfless soul. Words cannot express how much I love this girl. I would protect her with my life (not that she needs it). I get why she wanted to stay in the future (and I don't even want to think what would've happened if she had - I mean, that future would get immediately erased if she weren't there to quake the world apart in 2018, right?), but I'm so glad Coulson knocked her out. We're not leaving anybody behind!

Yo-Yo being the Seer wasn't really surprising, it was actually one of the first theories that I thought of after last week. But the scenes between the two Elenas were absolutely heartbreaking. And Mack was so broken when he thought she was dead... I got super emotional.

I almost thought for a second that they were trying to set up a FitzSimmons conflict (which we've already been through 5 billion times, the entire season 2 was one giant FitzSimmons angst fest, I wish they would let them be happy), but maybe (hopefully) I was wrong. The shocked and disapproving look Jemma gave Fitz after he beheaded the Kree (which was totally sick and awesome, by the way) was what made me afraid for a hot minute, but then it was Jemma's idea to eject the other Kree into the vacuum of space, and it calmed me down a bit. Also, Fitz calling Jemma his fiancée made me smile. It sounds good coming out of his mouth.

So, that's it, then! Next episode we're back to normal (whatever the hell that means on this show) and the fight to save the world from destruction (and a Kree invasion, if I understood Kasius correctly) begins. I'm very excited! See you all in 4 weeks!

[7.7/10] A perfectly good mid-season finale for Shield, albeit one that leaves a lot in the air and tries to pack in a whole hell of a lot into one episode.

Let’s start with the bad. Kasius is awful here. He has no end of overwritten, overacted monologues that are just terrible. It only gets worse when he takes his Kree berzerker serum and starts howling and grunting his way through the standard boasts. I guess AoS is going for the big and faux-Shakespearean here, but it just comes off lame and weakens the emotional impact the finale is supposed to have.

What doesn’t lose any of its emotional impact is Yo-Yo running into her past/future self. So much of that rests on two things: 1. A dynamite performance from Natalia Cordova-Buckley who communicates the hollowed-out desperation and disorientation of past-Yo-Yo and 2. The implied horrors of what the character has seen and been through. There’s no greater sense of hopelessness or challenge to what our heroes are hoping to accomplish than seeing one of their own so thoroughly devastated and unsure if anything can be done. (And it pays Kasius’s “I have my own seer” bit very nicely.)

I also like Enoch and Deke working together to send our heroes back to the past. Deke and Daisy have some unresolved romantic tension that the show will, no doubt, magic its way into exploring at some point, but for now, it lands better than anything with Ward or Lincoln ever did. And seeing Enoch be his usual stone-faced self, while Deke is characteristically irascible, only adds to the sense of off-kilter poingancy when they sacrifice themselves to make this all happen.

There’s cool smaller moments for everyone else. Fitz gets a kind of scary moment where he creates a device that slices off the necks of a bunch of Kree (which calls to mine the dark side he showed in The Framework.) Simmons gets to not only show her skill at guiding inhumans with Flint (something she showed earlier) but saves one of her fellow high class servants and turns the ear device around Kasius. And Mack fights the good fight, offer Flint a home on Earth, and gets to take out Big Blue.

Flint himself gets some nice moments, both resolving to stay in the fight with Tess, and using his geokinetic powers to take out some guards and form the monolith. It feels like we’ll see the two of them again, but who knows.

Last but not least, this is a surprisingly strong Coulson/Daisy episode. For one thing, there’s a great little moment between Coulson and Tess, where Coulson tells the understandably shaken resurrectee that he’s been through the same thing, and that the people you come back to make the return from the dead worth it, however difficult it may be. For another, it’s full of interesting stands from the characters and noteworthy reveal.

For one thing, Coulson is sick and/or dying, which leaves him wanting to make sure the vacuum of his leadership will be filled. (Presumably it’s something involving the whole Ghost Rider deal?) We see Daisy take a stand, saying her going back to their Earth is not worth the risk of all of this happening, and Coulson going a little cold and a little sentimental by icing her and taking her back against her will. (Presumably to make sure she’s there to lead in his absence?) The way these scenes are intercut with Yo-Yo talking about the choices Coulson made in the past/future are artsy enough that the whole thing, boisterous as it is, manages to land.

There’s a few mysteries left, like who Kasius’s oft-mentioned father is. (Thanos? Ronan the Accuser? Boo Berry?) And we still don’t know who exactly made it to the monolith in time and who’s stuck. But Agents of Shield has enough balls in the air to at least make these interesting questions.

Overall, a good, if a bit overstuffed mid-season finale (that could have used considerably less/different Kasius)