6x12 The Sign

[7.2/10] I like Agents of Shield better when it’s trying to be a fun show than a serious show. I think the portions of the episode with FitzSimmons and Deke speak to that, and how the show can actually be more emotionally impactful when it’s not laying it on so thick. There’s a really hilarious dynamic between the three of them, with Fitz and Deke being exasperated with one another, and Simmons trying to smooth things over. There’s a lot of outsized but enjoyable comedy in that.

But it also justifies it when Deke is tired of not getting respect from people, and those closest to him not valuing him, to where he takes the courageous risk of using the jump drive on himself to go save their buddy. It’s the right mix of nobility and stupidity, in him doing something he hasn’t thought through but with good intentions. The mix of disbelief and support from FitzSimmons is a nice touch, and Deke brings a nice element of panic to the “run from the zombies” portion.

I will say that for a penultimate episode of the season, this one was surprisingly light on action. The whole zombie schtick is an easy thing for an action show to introduce, but AoS winked at that fact nicely with Deke’s comments about making a zombie videogame. At the same time, the bit with Quake, May, and Sarge fighting the rage zombies was convenient but still well done.

The show was less interesting when it was Mack, Yo-Yo, and Flint trying to hold off Izel in the Indiana Jones temple. It’s nice to get a little closure on Flint, but he mostly seems like a plot device for Izel to be able to create the monoliths here. Still, Mac and Yo-Yo’s concern for him, and defense of him as a real boy is worth something.

I will say that I apprecicated the fact that Daisy is skeptical of Flint while Mack and Yo-Yo defend him despite his being recreated by the monolith, and Mack is skeptical of Sarge despite Daisy assuring him that there’s some Coulson left in there. It’s a nice instance of characters not taking things at face value, and each of them having some decent points. Plus Henry Simmons gives a really strong performance at the end there, which is high volume, but full of earnest conviction.

I was less crazy about the May/Daisy/Sarge portion of the episode. Aside from the action, which as I said, is solid enough, it’s all focused on an uber-serious debate over whether Sarge can become Coulson. The show is very grave and severe about the whole thing, and I’m sad to say that Clark Gregg just can’t really pull off the “I’m a brooding tortured soul so stop trying to get close to me” routine.

I’ll admit that I was surprised by where the episode went with that, but I also wasn’t crazy about it. The whole unexepcted stabbing and sending of someone into a hell dimension feels like a funhouse mirror version of a noteworthy Buffy the Vampire Slayer finale. I’ll give the show points for the surprise, with the whole “remember who you are! That pain is love!” thing being turned on its head. But it’s also hard for this show to shock me anymore since it so often goes back on its major consequences (if that’s the end of May, I’ll eat my hat), and it can’t quite earn the emotional resonance that a show like Buffy does for that sort of moment.

Overall, this is perfectly fine prelude to the finale. I can’t say I’m especially invested in Izel as a Big Bad, and I’m still kind of meh on the chronomicons as the cavalry, but there’s some surprise, some legitimate disagreements and, in the FitzSimmons family material, some good laughs that make the more dramatic shifts land better than the straight drama in the episode.