5x06 Fun & Games

Hell yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!

The Coulson/YoYo/Mack part of the episode was the less interesting one, so let's deal with it first: I liked the story of how YoYo discovered her powers and it was great to see her act as sort of a mentor for Flint. The team's reaction when Flint didn't know what tacos were was hilarious. Also, a dude named Flint has rock-based powers, which made me roll my eyes a little. Tess is dead, which is sad, but not exactly surprising. Grill, on the other hand, got exactly what he deserved. Overall, it wasn't bad, but the other storyline was on another level entirely.

And now, the good stuff: Fitz played Kasius like a fiddle. Iain proved once again what an amazing actor he is. But I can't believe he had the guts to call May "ancient has-been". I know it was part of the plan, but shit, that boy's getting bitch slapped so hard when they meet again.

Speaking of May, guess who's not dead! I can't wait to see her on the surface. Roaches have nothing on her. Plus, maybe she'll find those people the team's been trying to get in touch with.

RIP, Ben. It's a shame we only got two episodes with you.

Daisy Johnson strutting into the pit in a hooded cloak like the bad bitch she is made me squeal with glee. I would've liked to see more destruction (Kasius really thought some force field would stop her? Come on), but that moment at the end where she used her powers to lift herself off the ground? Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique. What an absolute icon.

Jemma slashing Kasius' throat without even flinching was so incredibly satisfying and powerful. A woman getting to kill the man who enslaved her? I am here for it!

"- Here we go again.
- Us against the world."

Just... freaking kill me while you're at it, would you? You can't do that! You can't say stuff like that and expect me not to ship it! Come on!

Fitz: a beautiful proposal and a grand speech 70+ years in the making
Jemma: Yo, what up? Let's get hitched.

I'm happy for them, I really am. And what a relief that Fitz finally got over that idiotic "we're cursed" stuff. It was getting old real fast. And of course they bickered while hauling a half-unconcious Daisy and running from the Kree. Of course.

My questions after this episode: how is the Lighthouse society going to function now without Kasius? Is his brother going to take over? What will happen to Sinara? And where's Enoch going? The surface, I assume? Does he have some other agenda that we don't know of?

[8.4/10] It’s hard not to enjoy an episode where so much happens. A good chunk of this season so far has been about establishing the new premise and setting. We needed to know where our heroes were, what this ecosystem was about, and what the deal was with the others populating it. Now all the pieces are on the board, the show can proceeding to moving them around and even knocking some of them down.
Which is to say, there are a surprising number of deaths in this one! Grill gets crushed by a giant rock. Tess gets taken out by the Kree. Mauve-shirt Ben gets killed by Kassius’s ball-throwing lieutenant. And a whole host of folks, including Kassius himself, meet their makers in the Shield team’s surprise assault in the middle of the gladiator fight. Granted, this is Agents of Shield where folks come back from the dead more often than an extra in a zombie movie, but there’s still some sense of stakes her from the very fact that the show is letting named characters (seemingly) be killed off.
But it’s also introducing new ones! We meet Flynn, an instantly-endearing young orphan kid, who goes through terrigenesis and turns out to be an earthbender. The show leans into the whole “powers manifest when you’re super emotional” trope, which is a cliché but not unwelcome, and it’s particularly sweet how Yo-Yo takes a shine to him and tries to counsel him through this difficult time and transformation. Yo-Yo’s been a standout from the start, and she’s particularly great here as the empathetic Inhuman who’s been there.

(My crazy prediction for the show: just as Daisy is apparently the “destroyer of worlds” for quaking the Earth open in the past, Flynn will be the “healer of worlds” and use his Inhuman earthbending powers to put the planet back together.)
The episode also featured more cloak and dagger material with Fitz pretending to be a Marauder along with his detached alien counterpart, bantering with Kassius and a space version of Howard Hamlin from Better Call Saul in trying to bid for his friend. Everyone recognizing Fitz but not wanting to say anything so as not to give him up made for some nicely tense moments and intrigue.

Plus, we got some good old fashioned Fitz-Simmons romance! The way the two independently propose to one another (a nice use of Simmons’ enforced deafness) is heartening as all hell, and Fitz’s monologue proves to be a spirited rebuke of the “we’re cursed” theme the show has been toying around with concerning its main couple.
We all get a little more shading on Kassius (no pun intended), learning that he’s been effectively banished by his father, disrespected by his brother, and sees Quake as his way out of this hellhole. I’ve warmed to Kassius a bit; it’s an outsized role, but the show’s embraced its comic book cartooniness at times, and so it clicks with the tone of the show.

There’s also some solid action with May fighting Ben the psychic Inhuman, and winning, in a nice twist, but fighting on instinct rather than strategy. Quake vs. the ball-throwing woman is exciting as well, especially when it erupts into the escape plan mid-fight.

Overall, this was a consequential, exciting episode of Agents of Shield that’s paying off much of the setup it did in the prior five episodes.