Welcome to the Legion!

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Before Looper, 12 Monkeys, Terminator, or Macbeth, there was Oedipus Rex — your classic Greek tragedy about a man who tried to change the outcome of a fate predestined to him, and failed miserably. It’s a classic tale that gets retold every few years. The stories may be different, but there’s always a constant: you can’t change fate no matter how many clues you’re given. Charles Hinton is this week’s Inhuman whose power resembles that of a harbinger of death to whomever touches him. As soon as Daisy comes into contact with him, she sees an outcome that seemingly predicts her own death, possibly at the hands of Phil Coulson himself.

The struggle may be as old as time, but when executed as well this week’s episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s damn fun to watch from beginning to end. With this type of story, the entertainment relies heavily on watching the inevitability unfold (exactly as Daisy saw them) despite the characters’ best efforts. The only skeptic is Fitz. He tries to explain just how fruitless everyone’s endeavors will be by demonstrating the tricky concept of peering through fixed points in spacetime. Immovable fixed points. Still, Daisy believes that she’s meant to save Charles from his death (presumably caused by Hydra who is now holding him captive); however, there are other details of her future vision that give her pause: Coulson shooting straight at her, and Lincoln’s face covered in blood. Coulson’s reaction to this, then, would be to take Daisy off the board completely and replace her with May, not carry a gun at all, and keep Fitz-Simmons out of the snow (Daisy sees them holding hands in the snow). Perfect, right? Oh poor, sweet, naive Director Coulson. What part of “immovable fixed points in spacetime” do you not understand?

As Daisy walks everyone through every detail of her mission, it seems as though Coulson’s plan to keep her out of the picture might work after all. But unforeseen variables are thrown into the mix to make sure things play out exactly as it’s meant to happen. With very little effort, May gets pulled off the mission entirely when ex-hubby Andrew turns himself in to S.H.I.E.L.D. He announces to the team that he has very little time left before he turns into Lash for good and he wants to have one more conversation with May before that happens. Their exchange was a genuinely touching period to end their relationship, and it adds more weight to the pain when Lash forces himself back to the surface. Don’t worry, Andrew puts himself in a cell within his slightly bigger cell before that happens.

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With May saying her goodbyes to Andrew, and Bobbi gone, Daisy has no choice now but to step up and take her rightful place in the unfortunate events to come. But we can at least keep Coulson from carrying a gun and Fitz-Simmons from standing in the snow, right? Well…

There’s still Gideon Malick and Hive to worry about.

The rest of Team S.H.I.E.L.D. is monitoring Daisy from HQ via hacked security cameras. Everything is five-by-five…until they spot Mr. Giyera talking to Ward. Well, time to roll out and help Daisy. Now all of the pieces of Daisy’s future vision is falling exactly into place. Because Fate. What a stubborn biyotch.

Speaking of Fate, it has its own plans for Malick, which, as most narratives likes to point out, always ends badly for guys trying to control a power they can’t possibly understand. Malick, whose family has spent generations trying to ensure a specific outcome, wants even more power than he already has to rule the world — political and financial. He wants something that puts him on the same pedestal as the Inhumans. How ironic, then, that the very force that would help him in this endeavor is usurping him instead? Of course, Malick isn’t aware of Hive’s manipulation over him yet. Or does he? Near the end of the episode, Charles touches Malick to distract him from killing Daisy. We don’t get to see his vision, but we know it isn’t anything good. Does he see his plan to control Hive failing miserably, resulting in his own death? It seems like the most likely scenario. The very next thing he does after getting away from S.H.I.E.L.D. is calling Mr. Giyera. Before Hive, Giyera was loyal to Malick. If Malick saw himself die because of Hive’s machinations, it would behoove him to at least try to remind his chief of security who he’s really working for. Alas, Giyera is beholden to Hive. Bad luck, man.

As for Daisy and her inevitable outcome, it turns out it was never her death that she saw when Charles first touched her. It was Charles’. After saying a few sweet parting words to one another, Daisy touches Charles’ hand again and sees a future we’ve already seen — someone in space, possibly dying from blood loss. And since Charles’ visions are typically from the point of view from person touching him, we can easily assume that Daisy is in that shuttle. Then again, her first vision caught glimpses of two scenarios she possibly couldn’t have seen herself (i.e. how Lincoln’s face gets blood all over his face, or Fitz-Simmons holding hands in a flurry of ashes mistaken for snow). So technically it’s all still up in the air. But for argument’s sake, we’ll say it’s Daisy bleeding in space.

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Another interesting concept was introduced this week that I’m sure will be explored in the episodes to come. Lincoln says (again) that Inhumans seem to be getting their powers not at random but to fulfill a certain need. It’s not understood right away, or sometimes at all depending on the perceiver, but Lincoln’s foreboding statement perfectly parallels with Lash’s warning that they are fighting for a cause no one understands yet.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

  • I forgot to mention last week that Hive now has a big ass bomb in his possession.
  • I didn’t need the credits to tell me that Kevin Tancharoen directed this episode. We’ve seen enough of his episodes at this point to recognize his usual beats — excellent kinetic cinematography, especially during action sequences.
  • Lincoln: “I never saw the original Terminator.”
    Coulson: “You’re off the team.”
  • Coulson still accidentally calls Daisy Skye. Slip of the tongue.
  • “That’s a dumb question.” Melinda May ain’t got no time for your nonsense.
  • “Maybe some things are inevitable.”

 

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Christina E. Janke

Christina is the co-host of “Intro to Geek” on Shauncastic and Editor-in-Chief at Agents of Geek. Her love of all things Mass Effect knows no bounds. She also carries an obsession with comic books, video games, and quirky television shows. Her heroes are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gail Simone. She hopes to be just like them when she grows up.