REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Wake Up"
There are action episodes, and there are talking episodes. This is the latter. It’s ironic that I’m starting with that point-blank statements since this episode felt about 75% dialogue with about 20% of May kicking. It’s also ironic since the cardinal rule of anything on screen is that showing is multitudes better than telling. But rules can be broken, and an episode with answers, good answers, is better than one without any at all. Points for below average story-telling.
Let’s start off with the brief but touching moment between Mack and Yo-Yo. What started as an episode that just had me looking forward to Yo-Yo in a pantsuit later ended with the revelation that Mack once had a daughter with a woman he loved. This is one of the times when talking can work since it prevents what could have been an awful plotline of misunderstanding and break-ups and half-hearted getting back togethers. Instead, we get an actually touching scene that also answers a question left up in the air. See how easy that works?
It’s also seen a little bit in the interaction between Daisy and Mace, though it is less important. What is important is just reminding us that these characters have knowledge and personalities. Actions speak louder than words, but you can’t exactly act out Daisy and Mace getting a little closer without a little dialogue. This is a more dramatic version, but I think it’s enough to point out for the explanation.
Also, thank goodness Fitz wasn’t being stupid. Secrets still suck, but at least they aren’t questionable anymore. Heck, at this point the only real secret is the LMD May, but that’s not something I can blame character regression for this time. It’s another thing that benefits from talking since it’s the only difference between awful decisions and saving the day. Hooray for talking!
Of course, we also get the other quarter of the episode being May’s fight scenes as well as the LMD discovering her robotic origins. I guess I should just call it a “reveal” since nothing here was really new, save for the brief return to Bahrain at the end. Ironically, that probably made the fighting the lower point of the episode if it wasn’t for the fact that fighting is fun. I don’t necessarily blame the episode for that feeling though since it clearly has its goals in mind where it did succeed (talking) as opposed to areas where it usually succeeds (fighting).
A downside of that has to be the fact that this episode does indeed end on a low point. May is still gone, the team lost their mission, and Mack had a daughter that only lived four days. Those things are miserable. They seem to want to fix it next week, but that only adds to their patented how-on-earth-are-they-going-to-get-around-this scenario this week. An extra point to the writers for actually making a senator a villain who does win, albeit with help. That doesn’t make her too compelling, but they do know how to kick our heroes.
On a side note, it looks like Philinda might be a thing after all. After three years of otherwise ignoring it, I’m not quite sure what to think of the possibility anymore. The feeling becomes even more compromised when it involves an LMD rather than the real May, so what does that even mean? At this point, I’m just relying on the few pairings that can work like Mackelena or even the fact that FitzSimmons is no longer on life support. At least those were always possibilities.
One last thing to mention is the slight revelation that Radcliffe is working with the senator. Is it surprising? No, not really, but since the show doesn’t really treat it like the biggest news even this season I won’t harp too much on it. It’s better than the idea of another traitor in the team’s midst since they did that plotline twice. It does make me wonder how easy is it to make those LMDs? Radcliffe could make AIDA on his own without trouble, but he needed Fitz’s help to make it work. Now he can just whip out a random one for his own use. Inconsistency is definitely this episode’s lower point.
As a talking episode, this is definitely on the lower side, probably one of the lower ones in this half. I appreciate this variety for now, but even I recognize this won’t last the test of time. When I’m not even sure the show will last, I’m not willing to put that effort in a lesser episode.
