7x08 After, Before

Honestly the fact that we only have 5 episodes left now makes me wanna stab myself in the foot (but it's fine, I'm fine).

I loved seeing Dichen Lachman again, this time sans scars and homocidal tendencies. I really hope she and Daisy will get to interact when she shows up again. Also, when she called Cora her daughter... I assume she meant that in a spiritual sense rather than biological, but still, Daisy Johnson has left the chat.

YoYo and May are just a delightful duo. I love that they decided to use sparring as a way for Elena to get in touch with her feelings. And I guess she's just a regular speedster now? That's neat, I always thought the bouncing back thing was a tad lame. They could've done that a little earlier on in the show though, just saying.

FitzSimmons never catch a break. They've beaten the odds so many times, from being stuck on the ocean floor and running out of air to Jemma getting transported to an alien planet to Fitz becoming kinda evil and then literally dying... And the writers keep finding new ways to separate them and tug at our heartstrings. I swear, if these two don't end up in some cottage in Scotland with three children and a dog...

Speaking of romantic relationships, they want us to ship Daisy and Sousa, right? Otherwise, why would they make a point of Daisy telling Coulson that she's glad Daniel's with them? What other explanation is there for that scene with Sousa dutifully sitting down by the healing chamber to watch over Daisy while she got her rest? I'm torn because I like that pairing a lot - it totally came out of left field for me, but I'm loving it - but Enver Gjokaj is only listed on IMDb through episode 10, which I realize might not mean anything and he could very well stick around until the finale, but I don't wanna get my hopes up in case he actually does leave at some point. But like I said, why would they give them so many scenes together with so much romantic subtext if they weren't going in that direction?

Can Daisy just kick Nathaniel's ass already? I hate seeing him with her powers. They are a part of her in a way that he could never fully understand or hope to achieve. They're embedded in her DNA while his came from a syringe. I hope we get to see Daisy unleash a completely new level of destruction when she finally confronts him. Tear the bitch apart, babe!

Next week we're going to have a Groundhog Day timeloop situation with Daisy and I am LIVING for it. I loved it when Legends of Tomorrow did it and I can't wait to see the SHIELD version.

And now it's time for what might be my favorite episode of the show:
4x15 "Self Control"
When I said I SCREAMED while watching this... Season 4 is my favorite season and the sheer power of this episode is absolutely unmatched. Fitz and Simmons trying to figure out which one of them was an LMD was easily one of their top 3 tragic scenes and one of the best acted of the entire show. The range of emotions they both went through in a single scene was insane. The general consensus in the fandom seems to be that Iain is the best actor on the show, which I agree with, but Elizabeth is right up there with him. If either one of them were a lesser actor, that scene and FitzSimmons in general would never have worked. The way they bounce off of each other so beautifully is what made the magic happen. And aside from that, we got all that wonderful Daisy and Jemma content (their friendship gets overlooked so often it's not even funny, so the whole Framework arc and "us against the world" gave me life). Also robot May sacrificing herself. This episode >>>>>>> literally all the MCU movies (and I say that as someone who really likes the movies, but Endgame wishes it had half the emotional impact of this masterpiece).

[7.7/10] A May and Yo-Yo buddy adventure? Count me in! I’ll confess that I don’t remember much about the season 2 finale of Shield, but it’s still cool to see Jiaying and a young Gordon in play. The show’s gone big on continuity (can Daisy’s dad and Grant Ward and Mockingbird and Lance Hunter be far behind?), but they’ve done interesting things with it. The prospect of our crew not just randomly running into Jiaying and/or Afterlife, but instead seeking out their help in order to help cure Yo-Yo makes for a good reason to cross paths. The fact that they need Yo-Yo’s powers to work in order to stop the time drive from sending them into oblivion provides a good excuse and the right stakes for the adventure.

That said, I both like and dislike the Yo-Yo story here. On the one hand, I do appreciate that, in the end, it’s a psychological block rather than one caused by the shirke. There’s something very human about that. At the same time, Yo-Yo and May make for a good pairing. The repartee between got plenty of laughs out of me, and the two working together to get the Inhumans’ help without tipping them off too much makes for a good setup. What’s more, the way they fight to process the emotion feels on brand for May.

But I don’t really like the solutions to the problem. For one thing,Yo-Yo’s childhood memory comes out of nowhere. Sure, it’s harrowing, but presumably Yo-Yo’s been laboring under that bad memory for a long time, not just now, so it doesn't really account for why she’s hit this mental block. You can argue that the shrike incident dredged it up as vaguely similar, but it’s a stretch. Likewise, her epiphany that she “doesn’t have to bounce back” and is, instead, just a regular speedster, feels pretty convenient. There’s the hint of a psychological connection to the childhood memory of going in and out of the closet where she and her cousin were hiding, but again, it’s pretty thin.

Still, it’s cool to see her and May interacting so much with the folks in Afterlife and dealing with a premature Hydra invasion. I continue to like Nathaniel Mallick as a baddie, and him linking up with Kora, the Inhuman who can’t seem to control her powers, is interesting albeit sudden. Still, it connects nicely with his own story about being controlled by a cult-like organization and trying to assert one’s own independence and freedom.

Likewise, there’s some cool business on the Zephyr in light of the tightening jumps. I don’t know why it seems like the show wants to throw Daisy and Sousa together at the last minute, but whatever. Simmons’s video message to Fitz is sad and sweet in the ways you’d expect. And Coulson’s recovery is weird, but self-consciously so, in a neat way.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that there’s some cool directorial choices here. The show depicts the time jumps well with interesting slow-mo effects. There’s a vertigo-like visual presentation for Yo-Yo trying and failing to use her powers which helps convey the struggle. And there’s even some neat fight choreography, not only when May and Yo-Yo are sparring, but when Li uses his knife summon skills.

Also, it’s worth noting that this is an episode of a network show where the plain focus was not only on people of color, but women of color in nearly all of the major roles. That’s eminently laudable and nice to see.

Overall, this is another winner of an episode, even if it takes some shortcuts with what is otherwise a very engaging story centered on Yo-Yo and May.