Tag Archives: The Inhumans

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Agents of SHIELD – S2E16 – Afterlife – Recap

The episode opens on a used car lot. A low rent Buddy Garrity is trying to get Coulson in a muscle car. When Coulson says he more interested in a SUV and points one out that he’s like to pay cash for, the salesman says he has an even better SUV for him. Hilarity ensues when Hunter drives up in said SUV. The salesman threatens to call the cops, which leads to him being iced/night-nighted by Coulson. Side note, the icer made a bang noise when Coulson pulled the trigger. Maybe I was wrong last week about the first Real SHIELD agent who fired at Skye. Maybe he was using an icer. Shaved head jerkface was totally firing a real gun though.

Speaking of Skye, she wakes up nearly naked on a table, with glowing acupuncture needles sticking out of her. Ooo, you usually have to pay extra for the glowing needles. She wants to go, but she can’t move. Gordon and a new guy named Lincoln walk in. Lincoln explains terrigenesis to Skye. Over the course of the episode, Lincoln goes deep into explaining terrigenesis to Skye. Here’s what I took away from his talks:

  • Skye is the first person in a VERY long time to go through terrigenesis with a diviner in a Kree temple.
  • Usually candidates for terrigenesis are selected by a council. They don’t choose for themselves when they’re worthy.
  • Skye cutting the terrigenesis line has some people if not angry, then at least intrigued.
  • The process is irreversible.

Skye is really unhappy about that last point.

At Coulson’s base, now home to Real SHIELD, Gonzalez and Bobbie are discussing the end of last week’s episode. Calderon is down. Finally, I can stop calling him shaved head jerk face. Gonzalez calls Skye a thing. Bobbie defends her, but Gonzalez is clearly paranoid about superhumans.

Fitz wants out of SHIELD. He wants no part of Real SHIELD if it means hunting down his friends.

Coulson and Hunter heads to Banner’s Bunker and survey the scene. Hunter is shocked when he sees Gordon in action. Real SHIELD shows up at the cabin. Hunter is shocked as I am that Coulson invited them there. As Hunter is gearing up, Coulson says “Icers only.” The people coming for them are still SHIELD agents. Hunter doesn’t like their chances. Coulson tells him not to worry, he has reinforcements coming, well a reinforcement.

Lincoln sets Skye up in her room and gives her a tour. They’re somewhere in the Himalayas from the looks of it (and from knowing my Inhumans history). Only Gordon knows exactly where they are. The name of the place is Li Shi, which translates roughly into Afterlife (Hey, that’s the episode title!). I was really hoping it would be called Attilan. For those of you who don’t read the comics, Attilan is where the Inhumans live. No one actually lives in Afterlife. It’s more of a way station. Lincoln is from Ohio. He only popped in to help out with Skye’s transition. Skye spots a building like the one she was in. Lincoln says that’s another transition room, but one that they don’t use anymore. Uh-huh, sure Lincoln. It seems even money that either Skye’s dad, or a porcupine faced former Hydra employee is in there.

Lincoln’s power is electricity. He’s like a more suave Electro. He can make Skye float, literally. He uses static electricity to make her levitate off the ground.

Gonzalez meets with May. He wants to know if she’s loyal to Coulson or to SHIELD, but to May, Coulson and SHIELD are one and the same.

Bobbie convinces Simmons to help Real SHIELD open up Fury’s toolbox. Apparently, there’s no hard feelings about Simmons knocking out Bobbie in the previous episode. When Fitz finds out that Simmons is helping Real SHIELD unlock the toolbox, he flips. He marches up to Simmons and goes off on her, telling her that she must have known this betrayal would seal his leaving. Simmons gets overly harsh on him and basically tells him that maybe he doesn’t belong there anymore, kind of a you can’t quit, I’m firing you. Watching this scene, I couldn’t help by get the feeling that FitzSimmons is playing RealSHIELD.

Real SHIELD breaks into the cabin and finds Coulson and Hunter playing cards. Wait, they’re holograms! Phil Coulson must be a big fan of the Christopher Reeves Superman movies, because this right out of Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor’s playbook. Just switch out cards for chess.

Crazy Kyle is still in the room Gordon left him in a couple of episodes ago. His hands are bloodied. He’s been trying to escape, unsuccessfully.  When Gordon ports in, Crazy Kyle screams at him. Gordon cuts him off, telling Kyle he’s lucky they kept him alive, and that not only has Kyle sealed his own fate with his behavior, but he sealed his daughter’s fate as well. Ruh-roh.

Coulson now pulls from the Wizard of Oz playbook, as Hunter and he dress up as Real SHIELD strike team members. They get caught faster than Dorothy and friends did. Luckily, Coulson’s back up arrives. It’s Deathlok! Whoa, I did not see that one coming! I thought we were being set up for another Lady Sif guest appearance. Deathlok’s costume and abilities have both been upgraded. He doesn’t look like the comic book version of Deathlok, but he definitely looks cooler than he did in the first season.

deathlok afterlife

When Gonzalez finds out about Coulson’s escape, he says he has “one last bargaining chip left. Bring me The Bus and Agent May.”

Skye and Lincoln are getting their flirt on. Is this a new love interest for Skye? How many love interests has Skye had in this series so far? I’m not judging. You do you, Skye. Lincoln brags that he once warmed up a pool with his powers. Skye is both unimpressed and gets the best line of the episode when she tells him, “Any five year old can warm up a pool.” Lincoln’s game is squashed when accidentally reveals that Raina is in Afterlife. There’s nothing like saying you’re housing one of your date’s worst enemies to kill the mood. And then we get the holy shit moment of the episode, when it’s revealed Skye’s mom is also at Afterlife.

agents-of-shield-afterlife skyes mom

Skye confronts Raina. She starts to quake out, but is calmed down when Jah Ying, aka Skye’s mom, shows up. Jah Ying defends Raina’s right to be at Afterlife as much as Skye’s. Skye wants out, but Jah Ying offers to be Skye’s guide. Lincoln looks legitimately surprised by this, and I can’t quite figure out why. Is it because he thought he was going to be Skye’s guide? Is it because Jah Ying is so high up on the totem pole that he wouldn’t expect her to be Skye’s guide? It would be like Nick Fury being a new agent’s trainer. Or maybe it’s a little of both reasons. Jah Ying does not tell Skye that she is her mother.

afterlife raina

Once Skye is calmed down, Gordon takes Jah Ying to Crazy Kyle. She calls him Cal. Right, I can never remember his name. I think this is only the second time since his first appearance on the show that someone has called him Cal. Jah Ying hugs Cal. I expect her to knife him during this hug, but that doesn’t happen.

Gonzalez meets with May in the conference room of an aircraft carrier. I did not know aircraft carriers had conference rooms. I’m not saying I don’t believe they do, I just never gave it much thought. Gonzalez slides May a gun. He says she can shoot him if she likes, but he would like her to sit on the Real SHIELD board instead. With Coulson in custody, Phil will need someone to look out for him. May accepts and slides him back his gun, saying there was no need for theatrics; she knows he knows better than to give her a gun that was actually loaded. Gonzalez surprises May when he pulls from the gun a full clip and a bullet in the chamber.

MING-NA WEN, EDWARD JAMES OLMOS

Fitz leaves. Real SHIELD security pats him down. THEN Simmons slides his backpack on him. Even I can see this is some lax security. Hand the guy a bag after he goes through security? Real SHIELD…smh. Fitz leaves.

Deathlok tells Hunter and Coulson that he’s been trailing someone named List, a Hydra head. List is looking for people with powers. Have we met List before. I don’t think we have. Coulson wants to find Skye before Hydra does, so he needs the one person connected to both Skye and Hydra…Grant Ward. Oh boy.

Simmons can’t open the toolbox. Fitz gets in a cab. In his backpack is the real toolbox. I wonder when he realized Simmons was playing Real SHIELD. Was it when he pulled up the 3D schematic while he was packing? And how did Simmons make such a believable copy of the toolbox? It has to be more than just 3D printed and painted, right? That would only buy her so much time. More importantly, FitzSimmons is back! Yes! This is punctuated by Fitz also finding a prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich with just a hint of pesto aioli from Simmons in his bag. FitzSimmons forever!

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Agents of SHIELD – S2E15 – One Door Closes – Recap

Tonight’s episode is told in two time periods. We have the ongoing conflict between Coulson’s SHIELD and “Real” SHIELD in the present, and in the past, we see where Bobbie, Mac and Gonzalez were during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

We open in the past. Mac is bloodied, on his knees with his hands on his head. Other agents are too. We’re in the middle of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Bobbie breaks in and is a one woman wrecking crew. She takes almost everyone out. Lucy Lawless gets the last guy. Remember when Lucy Lawless was on one episode of SHIELD this season and then died? Well, she’s back! Probably just for this episode, but still, she’s back! This scene is shot in a weird blue light, as if to yell, “Hey! This is the past!”

The lighting gets normal and we jump to the present. Bobbie returns to Coulson’s base. She’s up to something. She installs some hardware int he server room. While she’s doing that, Coulson is letting Mac work on Lola, supervised of course. Coulson confronts Mac. He asks Mac who he works for. Mac, not lying, says SHIELD. But Coulson thinks he’s being difficult.

Skye and Simmons are getting in the FaceTime session planned last episode. Simmons explains how the gloves work, but doesn’t mention any side effects, which is weird, because Coulson said last episode that the glove would have side effects and that Simmons would explain them to Skye.

Bobbie laser drills into where Coulson is hiding Fury’s toolbox. She steals the toolbox. May catches her in the act. They fight, and I have to admit, as soon as May walked in, I was looking forward to this fight, as both characters have been in some of the most athletic fights on the show. This fight was a bit of a letdown as Bobbie quickly flees. When May catches up to her, she sets off an EMP, which gives her and Mac the opportunity to escape.

In the past, Bobbie and Mac are on an aircraft carrier. The pace is in shambles. They find Gonzalez. His leg is badly messed up.

injured gonzalez one door closes shield

In the present, Bobbie reports in to Gonzalez. Gonzalez wants Skye. Why?

At her cabin, Skye tries on her power dampening gloves. The gloves are making her woozy. She calls Simmons, but gets her voice mail. Skye notices a blue wire under her desk and follows it to the wall. It’s a hollow panel, which she pries off. Under the wooden panel is reinforced metal that looks like the wall of her cell on The Bus. There’s a giant fist print in the wall. Did The Hulk stay here?

hulk hand one door closes shield

 

Skye is startled by something outside. She’s freaked out. If I was alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, I’d be freaked out too.  Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door. Skye and I divert over how to handle this. She answer the door. I would have ran and hid under my bed. Gordon, the blind teleporter, is at the door. Well, he’s not really blind. He can kind of see. I’m guessing he has a radar sense similar to Daredevil. He and Skye debate about the nature of her powers and why she should join him and his group. She’s not interested. He eventually takes the hint and leaves.

agents-of-shield-one-door-closes-gordon

Back at the base, Bobbie runs into Simmons, who doesn’t know what’s going on. Simmons thinks she can fix the power outage. She just needs to find the right tool in her bag. She hands Bobbie a bunch of stuff, one of which stuns Bobbie. She basically takes Bobbie out in the cutest way possible, and then draws her gun on Bobbie. It reminded me of Hooks from Police Academy. Well played, Simmons! Her espionage game has grown so much since she awkwardly infiltrated Hydra at the start of the season. Coulson retrieves the toolbox from Bobbie. May searches her locker and finds a gas mask. Ruh-roh.

hooks police academy

In the past, Bobbie and Mac need to move Gonzalez. Mac distracts Gonzalez with a story about his childhood coin collection so that another agent can pop Gonzalez’s leg into place. This aircraft carrier has too many secrets on it to fall into Hydra hands. Fury ordered Bobbie to sink it. Bobbie tells everyone to escape. Gonzalez argues that somehow them joining her will mean she’s be able to get out faster. Not sure how a severely injured old man isn’t going to slow things down, but I only have Level 7 clearance.

Fitz finds Bobbie’s device in the server room. Mac finds Fitz. Mac tells Fitz he isn’t going to hurt him. Fitz, rightly so, doesn’t trust Mac. gas starts filling the entire base. Mac pleads with Fitz to move away from the wall. Mac jumps on Fitz, saving him as the wall explodes. Gonzalez, Weaver and that shaved head guy who only plays jerks in movies burst in in gas masks.

In the past, Lucy Lawless goes all Xena on a bunch of Hydra agents.

In the present, everyone on Coulson’s team, save May, is captured. Gonzalez sends the shaved head jerk and a bunch of agents to “the house that Banner built” to retrieve Skye. Bobbie insists on going. It’s clear that she doesn’t trust these guys to not kill Skye.

Speaking of Skye, she decides to take the gloves off. She washes her hands and unitentionally makes the water spiral out of the faucet. It’s a cool effect.

At the base, FitzSimmons silently reconcile. This is broken up by Agent Weaver. You might remember her as the former head of the Academy, aka SHIELD Hogwarts, aka SHIELDwarts. She lets them know what went down at SHIELDwarts during Winter Soldier. They don’t show anything, but I’m guessing it’s similar to the Death Eaters’ invasion of Hogwarts in Harry Potter 6.

Gonzalez is meeting with Coulson in Coulson’s office, now Gonzalez’s office. Coulson gets the best line of the episode when telling Gonzalez he has good taste in offices and “you haven’t even dived into the record collection.” Gonzalez doesn’t plan on staying. He has the toolbox. He wants Coulson to show him how to use it so that he can hunt down superhumans. Coulson, unsurprisingly, refuses.

May gets to a comm and warns Skye that SHIELD is coming for her. She tells Skye how to escape the cabin’s security features. Bobbie and company show up at this time. Bobbie orders icers only, but shaved head jerkface definitely cocks a gun right after she says that. I’m pretty sure you don’t cock a night-night gun.

In the past, Mac wants to save the ship. They’re successfully fighting back, even if Hydra has them severely outnumbered. Gonzalez says they need to follow orders and blow the ship. Bobbie chooses to save the ship. Gonzalez says, “I hope we don’t live to regret this.” Xena says, “Let’s just hope we live.” Sorry, Xena…

Hartley-Bobbi-and-Mack-fighting hydra one door closes shiled

In the present, Gonzalez really lays into Coulson, practically accusing Phil of being Fury’s Frankenstein Monster. Gonzalez thinks Fury had too many secrets. Phil responds with “Fury’s secrets didn’t bring down SHIELD, Hydra did.” May ends the debate by icing Gonzalez and his guards. May helps Phils escape the base and immediately surrenders. She’s staying behind to make sure nothing happens to the team.

Skye and a “Real” SHIELD agent fight. He fires on her. Definitely not an icer! Bobbie and the shaved head jerk find Skye. Shaved head jerk then shoots at Skye, despite Bobbie saying not to. In an act of self defense, Skye unleashes her vibration powers on the bullet…and on the surrounding area. She destroys the area. Trees are powdered. I have no idea what her power is doing to Bobbie and shaved head guy’s insides. I think they might be dead. Skye looks like she’s worried they’re dead too. She whispers, “Gordon, help.” Amazingly, Gordon immediately appears. How did he hear that? He ports her out. Bobbie gets up. She’s okay, but looks shocked by the devastation Skye caused.

skye on the attacks one door closes shield

In the final scene, Coulson is at a tiki bar on the beach. There are palm trees in the background. Hunter joins him. They’re officially a team. Phil and Hunter vs. Real SHIELD. I can’t wait.

 

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Agents of SHIELD – S2 E12 – Who You Really Are – Recap

The episode starts in Portugal. Some dude is explaining s’mores to another dude on the beach when Lady Sif emerges from the water. She’s looking for someone named Carver. The people on the beach, one who looks like Josh Jackson, don’t know who Carver is. One of the guys tries to hit on Sif. Big mistake. She punches him across the beach. She also has amnesia. Now that’s how you start an episode!

sif on the beach who you really are

At Coulson HQ, May and Skye are training. It’s intense. Do they do their own stunts? Skye flips May and pins her. May tells her that she should have gone for a finishing blow. Skye makes a Mortal Kombat joke. Skye is worried about letting loose, and hurting her friends if she does. Fitz interrupts training to get May to back off Skye. May doesn’t like training being interrupted and offers for Fitz to come back and train one on one with her if he wants to interrupt training so badly. Unsurprisingly, Fitz declines.
Bobbie and Hunter are post-coitus. It was either really energetic sex or they’re both secretly in terrible shape. Hunter tells Bobbie that Coulson offered him a permanent position. She seems hesitant for him to take it. It seems like Hunter is doing this for Bobbie, but I wonder if Bobbie wants him there with what she and Mac have planned.
bobbie and hunter who you really are
Speaking of Mac, he’s meeting with Coulson. They’re doing inventory. Coulson wants to upgrade Mac to field agent status. Mac’s hesitant about it. He passes himself off here as a bit of a pacifist. May coomes in to tell Coulson about Portugal. The Portugal authories have Sif in custody. Coulson and company make a beeline for Portugal and Sif, who asks if Coulson is Carver. Coulson tells her that he’s not Carver, but rather Son of Coul. Ha. He shows her a still from the last time she was on  he show to show her that they’ve worked together before. It turns out Twitter is the answer to the mystery of what happened to Sif. Someone posted a video of her in a sword fight with some dude. She doesn’t remember this. The team theorizes that this mystery man is a rouge Asgardian.
The rouge Asgardian seems at first glance to maybe be an Absorbing Man-like guy. It’s not the Absorbing Man from previously in the series, but he seems to have the same powers. He shows up at a hospital holding what looks like a large metal screw and is changing colors to match the screw.
Coulson deduces that Sif was undercover. Sif doesn’t remember anything, but when May mentions Thor, Sif smiles, but doesn’t remember him.
Hunter, Mac and Fitz are checking the pier. Bobbie and Skye check the hospital. The rouge Asgardian beats up Bobbie. Skye draws her gun on him, and then loses it and shakes the place, knocking down shelves. In the confusion, the rouge Asgardian escapes. Skye fills Coulson in on the rouge. He might not be Asgardian at all. He was using Nitrogen to turn his blue skin pink. Skye things he’s a Kree. I’m now on the same page as Skye, as the Kree are the resident blue skinned aliens of the Marvel Universe. Sif notes Carver isn’t just a name, it’s the Kree work for keys.
the kree
Hunter walks in on Skye and Fitz talking about Skye’s secret. He doesn’t hear anything. Speaking of secrets, after Simmons finishes checking on Bobbie, Mac meets with Bobbie. Mac wants Bobbie to convince Hunter to leave. He says, “I don’t want him here in case he takes their side.” Just who are these two really working for? Mac wants Hunter gone to preserve their friendship with Hunter when they betray Coulson. Aww, Mac is the traitor with the heart of gold.
Skye doesn’t want to be on the Kree mission. She’s worried about hurting her friends, and them finding out her secret.
The Kree dude pulls out a Kree inscribed lock box. Coulson’s crew ambushes him. Coulson shoots him with an electified net. The Kree’s name is Vintac. He sounds like he was named after a floppy disk company. Also, the Kree have these V-shaped brow ridges.
Hunter stops by Bobbie. She gives him the cold shoulder and tells him she needs time to figure them out. She wants to slow things down. Awww man, she’s totally Call of the Wilding him. Don’t believe her Hunter. She loves you!
Sif wants to know how the truncheon works. FYI…the truncheon is that large screw thing the Kree guy is carrying around. The Kree says it only works when its in his hand. To prove this, he kicks the truncheon out of Coulson’s hand, grabs it and hits Sif with it. He then immediately backs down. He just wanted to prove a point. Being hit with the truncheon restores Sif’s memories. Sif immediately punches Vintac in the face. Apparently the Asgardians and Kree have a longstanding feud.
The Kree mentions terrigenesis. Terrigenesis! For those of you not familiar with the comics, terrigenesis is how the Inhumans get their powers. The Inhumans are an offshoot of humanity who were experimented on long ago by the Kree. When an Inhuman is exposed to the terrigan mists, he or she goes from baseline human to Inhuman, gaining random superpowers. It’s kind of like mist activated X-Men. While the mutants in the X-Men have their x-gene activated when they hit puberty, the Inhumans need to be exposed to the terrigan mists to gain their superpowers. While Sif and the Kree explain terrigenesis, FitzSimmons are examining a crate taken out of the pit. In the crate are spots for 6 diviners…but no actual diviners. Who has them? Hydra?
Back at base, Fitz stupidly leaves his analysis of Skye’s DNA on his iPad right where Simmons can pick it up. She’s impressed by the work and the results and wants to know whose DNA it is. He flounders.  He says it’s a simulation. Simmons is amazed at how real it looks.
The Kree and Sif both want to take out anyone affected by terrigenesis permanently. This gets Skye a bit worked up. The whole base starts to quake. May is the first one to realize that it’s Skye doing this. Sif wants to take Skye to Asgard. The Kree thinks she’s too dangerous to live. Coulson throws himself between Skye and the Kree as May runs with Skye. Coulson tries bringing Sif on his side, but she sides with the Kree. Mac and Bobbie intercept the Kree. Mac gets a punch in before being flung across the room. Hunter doesn’t do much better. It’s Bobbie’s turn. She’s a much better fighter than the two of them. She might not last long, but it might be long enough…long enough for Fitz to blast him with a gun borrowed from Cable. It’s huge. Bobbie zaps the Kree with his own truncheon.
skye shakes who you really are
May tries to talk Skye down. They’ve locked themselves in Ward’s old cell. Sif cuts through the energy wall with her sword. That’s not helping calm Skye down. Skye shoots herself with the knockout gun. This convinces Sif that Skye wants to get better. She agrees to leave Skye with Coulson, though she still doesn’t think it’s the best move. Since being hit with the truncheon, the Kree guy doesn’t remember anything other than that he’s Kree. Sif is going to return him to Hala, the Kree home world.
May has the best line of the night when Sif leaves. “Not a lot of laughs that one. And when I say that…”
Simmons is getting on Fitz’s case for not telling her about Skye. Fitz didn’t want people to treat Skye differently, like they did him. Mac ironcialy says that secrets don’t help anybody. Bobbie joins in. The irony continues.  Skye walks in just as Mac yells that they’re the ones who need protection from Skye. Fitz is the only one on Team Skye right now. Skye’s bag is already packed. She doesn’t bolt, but she does confine herself to her bunk? a cell? That was a heavy door, so i’m guessing cell.
In the final scene, Mac is working on the Bus. Hunter marches up the ramp and confronts him. He wants to know what’s up with Mac and Bobbie. Mac responds to his questions might knocking him out. So much for staying friends…
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Tuesday Night Comics Podcast #13

In the latest episode of the Tuesday Night Comics podcast, Billy and Dave discuss new comic books being released on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 and review the past week’s comics. Billy explains the Terrigan Mists to Dave, while Dave explains the current state of the New 52 to Billy. Billy learns to how to pronounce Madureira and Dave learns how to pronounce basilisk.

basilisk

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