Mazza d'Evill

Yeeeeahhhhh, if you haven't seen the episode yet... I was willing to consider it a misdirect too. There were a lot of possible misdirections though Banks, Andrew...

Fogh

I'm not sure anyone other than Hunter knows about their side-project.

Mazza d'Evill

But why would Hunter know but not the rest of the team? They seemed pretty open about it. And Hunter is definitely not the first guy I'd tell something like this

Fogh

I base that on the fact that the rest of the team hasn't mentioned anything about it, haven't questioned it. Maybe they have just been busy with the ATU, Lash and Ward but I also don't think they want especially Coulson and Daisy to find out. Hunter is different, he is Fitz' friend and a guy's guy. Fitz probably appreciates his insights as he is the opposite of him.

indigo sunrise

Aaaahhhhhrrrgghhhh!! ... I typed out a really long post about everything, even copied it before I hit reply because you never know, but then while it was posting (or so I thought) I stupidly went to another tab and without thinking about it copied a link to something else that I wanted to post... after which I went back to this tab and saw I got a proxy error here booooooo.

Uhmmm okay. I might try again in a bit but right now I'm too annoyed

Forwood4Bamon

I saw twenty minutes.

Mazza d'Evill

Arghhh, that's annoying yeah... I understand if you don't wanna retyp it right away, I've been there before
The forum is really acting up again today...
Think today I'm gonna write every big post in notepad first

indigo sunrise

Okay… second try this will probably be a bit shorter and without some of the passion thrown in cause I had to type it all up again

I was already about 98% sure that Andrew was Lash, but it’s always a bit of a mixed feeling when something you’ve been theorising about actually happens… On one hand you feel validated, but on the other hand there’s a bit of a ‘wait, that’s really it?’ feeling

I don’t think there’s a twist, though, and that he really is Lash. I agree that von Strucker/Hydra probably has no idea who Lash is, so if he was making it up that would be the biggest coincidence ever. But the mystery now is still… why is Andrew as Lash doing what he’s doing? I find it hard to imagine at this point that he could possibly be redeemed, because he has killed Inhumans and is still hunting them, and he seems to be aware of it as Andrew too… but I’m still very curious to find out his exact motives, and I hope we get some flashbacks to explain it fully.

All in all I really liked this ep. It had some seriously funny moments, and also moved the story along pretty nicely.

Hunter’s behaviour didn’t really bother me, yeah he was being a reckless ass but I think it was pretty in line with his character, especially with the state of mind he’s in at the moment. He’s never been one particularly bothered by playing it by the book, as long as he kept his own moral code intact. And he did get stuff done. I just hope he’s not going to spiral any further in this kind of behaviour, to the point where he’ll get reckless enough to put himself or others in danger (again).

I liked the scene with Fitz and Simmons, especially that she made it clear she’d understand it if he’d back out, and him making it clear that he was going to help her do it. But I’m also glad he’s researching Will behind her back, I think it’s only natural he wants to check up on this guy and who he is, not just because he’s the guy who got the girl he’s in love with, though I’m sure that also plays a big part. I’m curious to see if he will find out anything that doesn’t add up, maybe. I did think Will possibly looked a little bit younger in the picture, but it could have just as easily been cause he was a bit more clean shaven. It definitely wasn’t a big enough change to make me less suspicious. But good to know he at least really was an astronaut and the mission did happen

I loved the scenes with May and Bobbi. The undercover bits were great. Also very glad to see Bobbi back in the field.

I do agree with previous comments that Daisy was a bit quick to jump to conclusions about how Coulson felt about what he was seeing in ATCU. I get that it’s a very personal matter for her and it must’ve been pretty horrible to see, and that she’s very distrustful of Rosalind in general (as am I, I still trust her about as far as I can throw her tbh), but yeah, what was Coulson supposed to do? He’s trying to gain their trust, so even if he really didn’t like what he was seeing, I doubt he’d stand there raging about it to the very people who were doing it.

Uhmmmm I think that’s pretty much all I had written down, albeit a bit less elaborately

ETA: yes I totally wrote this in TextEdit first

Mazza d'Evill

Very smart

I agree Daisy was a bit quick to jump to conclusions, but at least that's also in line with her character Even though she's grown a lot, she does still have troubles seeing the bigger picture sometimes, and how skilled Coulson is at playing people. I do think she's right to doubt Rosalind's motives though, and doesn't want Coulson to fall into a 'trap'.

DR76

Who is Powers Boothe portraying? He can always portray first rate villains.

Raonaild

Yeah, if Hunter knows, everyone else will know as well because Hunter isn't going to keep it quiet. And Fitz didn't seem surprised Hunter knew, and he didn't react in a way to suggest he was trying to keep it a secret from anyone else.

It's true that we haven't heard what the rest of the team thinks about it yet. But Fitz didn't seem to appreciate Hunter's insights on the situation at all in this ep, he literally told Hunter to go away, and there was no suggestion in their scene together that this was something only Hunter knew because Fitz confided in him.

I certainly have a hard time reconciling the Andrew we've seen up to now with someone who would be okay with killing Inhumans under any circumstances. Or that he's been casually deceiving SHIELD for months while he's been doing this.

That's the thing though - by going after Banks, Hunter was potentially putting Coulson in danger, because he was with Rosalind at the time. That's why his behaviour bothered me, because at least when he risked Andrew's life with Ward he had a strong personal reason for doing so. And even though Hunter was wearing a mask, of course the ATCU are going to suspect that what happened with Banks was due to SHIELD, and he risked complicating their dealings with the ATCU in the future.

I also don't trust her. Coulson and Rosalind are like the perfect match, you can never be sure exactly what they're thinking, they're exceptionally good at reading and manipulating people, and they both have contingency plans for everything. And even if we could take Rosalind's story about her husband at face value, and the only thing the ATCU was really hiding was that they were keeping Inhumans in stasis (neither of which I believe), she still has a pretty mysterious past of constantly changing identities for no reason that's been explained yet.

indigo sunrise

He was in The Avengers as one of the World Security Council members, but we never learned his name. For AoS, he's credited as Gideon Malick.

Oh right I forgot to comment on Hunter knowing about Will/them reopening the portal. I also took from that that after she told Fitz, she/they told the rest of the team. And from Fitz making sure to tell Hunter that while he had the monolith files open, his priority was the current mission, I take it they probably told them it was okay to work on, as long as it doesn't get in the way of more pressing matters.

Fogh

Hunter just got back from his mission. I don't think the Will rescue mission is office gossip. He went to Fitz because he was sidelined and thought he could help him out in the lap. Maybe he saw the simulations before the scene and Fitz told him or he deducted it during the scene. I'm positive the others (cept Bobbi) doesn't know. They would have said something, especially Coulson and Daisy. I can even see a conflict arise between Daisy and Jemma about opening the portal again.

Also there is this



I believe Fitz told Hunter to go away because 1) he was distracting him while he was working on the ID's. 2) because Hunter is voicing what some part of Fitz is thinking and he is trying to keep that voice buried. One of the reasons I think Fitz likes Hunter and his insights is because Hunter tells it like he sees it and is very direct.

Mazza d'Evill

But I think Hunter would've made a bigger deal out of it if Fitz had just told him about Will and everything while he was working on the IDs. I know in an interview Elizabeth said they were keeping it on the DL, so I'm not saying I fully understand.

But this gave me the feeling they were at least not keeping it a full on secret. Maybe they haven't told everyone about the circumstances at length, but at least they're not actively keeping it a secret. Maybe that's the difference, maybe that's why Hunter knows while maybe Coulson and Daisy (and co.) didn't know about it (yet).

Raonaild

So even if it actually went down this way (though none of this was confirmed onscreen), Fitz was very casual about that information, nothing in his manner suggested he was trying to hide it from anyone. And it wasn't just that Hunter saw the simulation, he knew about Will as well. Fitz could have explained away the simulation without explaining that part of the story.

If they were really trying to keep it a secret, then why would Fitz tell Hunter about either the portal or Will? Because even if Hunter was the first to know, he's not going to keep it a secret. Even if he's the only one who knows at this moment, everyone else will know soon enough.