gingerly

indigo sunrise

Yay! Looking forward to this one, and hopefully getting some questions answered! Not sure yet if I'm going to watch live, I usually stay up for it (it's on at 2 am where I am) but I'm super tired today so we'll see if I fall asleep before it starts...

KeepThisaSecret

Ward is back!

gingerly

Kirk Achevedo is in this episode! I suppose it was about time.

Raonaild

I'm also looking forward to this one, but unfortunately I'll have to wait longer than usual to watch it as our last curling game of the season is tonight.

Logan

Oh no she didn't with Grant ...

indigo sunrise

I made it

First of all, man this episode was so funny? Especially pretty much all the Talbot bits had me Adrian Pasdar is so good in that role. But there were some other good lines. Hunter's Hufflepuff line was great too. The line about Fitz wanting a dog now cause it's more realistic than a monkey was also great

Speaking of Hunter, I have come to love him so much, which I never expected when he was first introduced. I'm so glad he got away! I hope he makes it back to team Coulson.

I have to say I felt really uncomfortable during the 33 as Skye scenes. Great acting from Chloe (and also great voice work from Ming-Na) but yeah. I feel for Agent 33, but I still don't trust Ward at all. I don't get the feeling he genuinely is doing what he's doing to help her, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. I know they're playing up his ambiguity on purpose, and it's working.

I'm surprised May was suddenly so adamant about sending Skye away. Also I'm really worried about what the side effects of those gloves might be. Simmons seemed very hesitant to give them to Coulson for Skye to use in the first place, I have a bad feeling about this. (also, while watching I totally thought the cabin was the same cabin they used for the interior shots for Cabin in the Woods I just checked and it's not though. That would have been cool.)

As always, I'm sure I'll have more to say after my rewatch. Overall, I liked this episode a lot

DR76

Why are they tormenting us with this Ward/Agent 33 crap? Why are they still alive? They're . . . oh my God! I don't know how I was able to endure their scenes. They practically dragged this damn episode. Dear Mutant Enemy . . . get rid of them! Fast!


Robert Gonzales is coming off as a one-note potential villain. Another SHIELD authority figure whom we're supposed to dislike, hate or question. I was about to say that Phil Coulson is the only SHIELD leader whose authority was never questioned. Then I remembered how Jane Foster disliked him so much in "THOR". Of course, most fans dislike her for being so hostile toward SHIELD. And I guess we're supposed to dislike Gonzales for his hostility toward Fury and especially, Coulson.

beautiful connection ♥

I didn't catch what Hunter said about Hufflepuff. I looked away for a sec, heard the word "Hufflepuff" and it caught my attention.

Wild Pikachu

1. That is definitely not how I pictured Skyeward happening...though I'm sure Brett and Chloe had a blast filming those scenes.

2. Does anyone have any idea what Ward and Kira (Agent 33) are up to? It seems like they want to turn Bakshi into their puppet, and probably it's to get control of HYDRA. This is also one of those episodes where the meaning of the title wasn't really apparent to me...it was obviously a play on "Love in the Time of Cholera," but I didn't feel like trying to find the parallels...

3. So Gonzales and his cadre don't know Fury's alive, which means they don't know that Fury personally handed the toolbox over to Coulson and tasked him with rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. But they don't seem to think highly of Fury anyway, so I don't know what difference finding out would make. Though it might sway some of them.

4. I really liked Kirk Achevedo in Fringe, but not thrilled with Agent Calderon, just because he's too much of a stereotype.

5. Really liked the FitzSimmons scene, and hopefully what Fitz said to Simmons about her fear hit home.

6. I've been up and down on Talbot, but he was both funny and credible in this episode. And I imagine they're setting things up so that when the inevitable S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. battle happens, the U.S. military will come down on Coulson's side.

Raonaild

I thought there were a few funny moments, but generally found it a bit depressing.

The Hufflepuff line was hilarious, I love Hunter and the way he resorts to humour in even the worst situations.

I actually liked Hunter from the start. From basically his first line - "The mystery I'd like to solve is, why should we be paying you so much? This looks like a box. Sorry... a picture of a box... a picture of a box you don't have."

I found everything with Agent 33 pretty uncomfortable. And Ward seemed a bit more normal in this ep, less psychotic. I found odd that they were a bit ambiguous about the terrible things he was doing in this ep ... like we assume he killed that guy that fixed the mask, but oddly they didn't really show it. And I wasn't expecting him to give up on Skye the way he seemed to in this ep - the way he was obsessed with her before, I wouldn't think that a few bullets would be enough to change his mind. I'm curious to see what game the two of them are playing.

I'm not too surprised about May. I am a bit surprised that Coulson took Skye and just left her there. He was nice about it and all, but I'm also a bit suspicious of those gloves. I was at least happy that Simmons seemed to be concerned about giving him the gloves.

But mainly, I hated the interaction between Fitz and Simmons in this ep. I hate that there's nothing I really like about Simmons at the moment. And I didn't like how Fitz lashed out at her in the lab either, I get that he was upset about what happened to Skye but it seemed kinda nasty the way he attacked Simmons for it. For me that was probably the most uncomfortable scene this season, and not the good kind of uncomfortable. And AGAIN she didn't try to defend how she reacted to Fitz changing when he called her on it. I mean, at this point, are we supposed to think that Fitz is right, and that Simmons really can't deal with him changing? I want to believe that she's better than that.

They feel like they've been stuck in place since Simmons returned from Hydra, having basically the same conversation over and over, with the main new twist being that Simmons problems with Fitz have been extended to Skye as well. Maybe being betrayed by Mack and Bobbi and the business with this other SHIELD will shake things up and break the impasse between them. I hope so, anyway.

Yeah, it seemed from the way they were talking that Coulson's connection to Fury was actually one of the problems. Even though Coulson has been noticeably different from Fury in a few instances, which Bobbi herself pointed out.

I've seen the actor in a few things (Walking Dead is the one I'm most familiar with), and so far I've only seen him play the same, angry character he did in this ep.

Another thing - I was happy that May and Coulson didn't buy Mack's story. Better late than never.

Mistified

I liked seeing Ward back though I was grossed out but Ward and Kara. I like that he told her no, at least he is realizing that would be insane. I believe Brett when he says that Ward is just truly doing this for Kara.

Fitzsimmons is just becoming repetitive and they have poor communication. I don't agree with Jemma but she has been through so much and I feel bad for her.

I love that Skye is on her own because I think the team right now is toxic. I can't wait to see her by herself and handling that.

indigo sunrise

I'm really starting to get sick of them having the same conversation every episode, and it's not really getting anywhere either. I also don't like that we only get to see it from Fitz's perspective mostly, even when Simmons tried to tell him this episode why she was acting this way he was quick to tell her she was wrong and that that wasn't why. Jemma Simmons is my favourite character on this show, and it's frustrating that we only keep getting second hand information on how she's feeling. Would it hurt the writers to actually show some of her motivation for once instead of just alluding to it through how others feel about it? We got her talking to Bobbi a couple times, but even that was really superficial and not really about her. At this point I can't see why they're treating her this way and not really making an effort to get the audience to sympathise with her unless they're setting it up for her to choose the 'real' SHIELD over team Coulson eventually, which wouldn't surprise me at this point, and that makes me super sad.

Raonaild

There's just so much wrong with this scenario.

How are her friends supposed to help her out there? Although there's apparently a video link to the Playground, Coulson didn't want to even tell Fitz she was gone, so are the two of them cut off now? That doesn't seem good for either Skye or Fitz.

And then there's the fact that Coulson's claims that she's "safe" ring a bit hollow. SHIELD isn't the powerhouse it once was, there's a limit to what they can do to protect her out there. If anyone else finds out she's out there - the other SHIELD, her father, Ward, Raina - she's alone and vulnerable.

And last, though Coulson doesn't realize this yet, he might actually want her close by if things get ugly at the base with the other SHIELD. He has few friends left, and he just exiled one of them.

The problem is, when she does talk, it's all focused on Skye and people with powers. It's never about her and Fitz. Half the time when she's tried to talk about the two of them, she gets cut off before she can say anything. The other half the time she doesn't even try to explain. I could understand why things were very awkward between them at the beginning and why they couldn't have that conversation at that time. But why can't they have it now?

I just can't believe, after Fitz almost died for her in last year's finale, that things have broken down so badly that I don't even know why they'd like each other anymore. Most every interaction they have is very unpleasant, and they seem to disagree on everything.

I also want to see more of her perspective, we don't get nearly enough of that.

I really wish she wasn't taking this position right now, although there is logic to justify it she's clearly on the wrong side from the show's perspective. I don't want to believe that she'd go so far as to go against Coulson, even if she might sympathize with the "real" SHIELD's arguments. I hope we're being set up to believe that she might choose them, but then she chooses her friends instead. I want to believe that the end game to all of this is that Coulson's team, as divided as they are right now, will come back together to fight a common foe.

At this stage, I'm wishing I could have waited until the season was over and watched it all at once. Because I think this will all work out in the end, but waiting for them to get there is very frustrating.

Mistified

The issue with Fitzsimmons is that both have become secondary characters and the writers care more about plot than character development this season and Fitzsimmons and May have suffered from that.

We barely get Jemma's point of view and her and Fitz continue to have poor communications between them. I seems that they don't want to work on things.