REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "What If..."
Welcome back to the new world order AKA Simmons always gets the worst end of a season, doesn’t she? This literal “what-if” scenario has actually had me excited for the final third of the season since it’s been one of my favorite sci-fi tropes that I never thought this show would be on long enough to do, but here we are. So how does this new Earth work? (don’t knock the term, it’s a Marvel one too)
Well, for a universe that is completely opposed to the one we know, there is significantly less exposition than there probably should be. And this is coming from a show that took three episodes to get used to calling Skye Daisy. Seriously, we probably get more mentions that Ward and Skye being a couple than how Hydra actually taken over after Bahrain. Unless, that’s what the show thinks is important in which case I do not approve.
Another thing I do not approve of: apparently Ward’s a good guy in this universe. The concept of him being a double agent even in the alternate world is funny, but I can’t escape the fact that this feels like a pander to the certain annoying group of fans who were way too attached to him to recognize murder. That coupled with the fact that he far outstayed his welcome even when he was still a character on the show that seeing him back and not dead feels like we went through all that wait for nothing. The only comfort I gained from this is remembering that he is supremely dead in the real world and Simmons’ constant quips at the notion.
And really Simmons does have the right to complain. This is probably the fifth time she’s been in a death scenario and pretty much everyone here is looking to kill her. Don’t get me wrong, her overcoming hardships despite her lesser field experience and her Britishness is a joy to watch, but you have to feel for her after a while. The least they did for her is get her a change of clothes, but either way, she’s definitely the MVP of this story so far.
Back to the actual plot, even if the show won’t mention it, everyone’s trapped in the Framework. And this will lead to some improbable means of escape predicated by some improbable means of having the team remember that they’re in the Matrix. Don’t worry, I’m not going to harp too much on that since as a sci-fi show I’m cool with clichés like having characters deep down remembering their true selves. I may have even enjoyed that last scene with Daisy and Coulson because of it.
My one question with the Framework is how every storyline is supposed to work. On the one hand, May’s situation has this interesting “Kill Hitler” scenario where getting rid of her regret led to an even worse future. That’s fine, but everything else is unclear. I can parse that Simmons is likely dead to not distract Fitz which is fair, but Coulson and Daisy have me baffled. This isn’t time travel where they have to connect everything, but a little sense would be nice. Coulson would want a peaceful life, though the Hydra praise makes little sense. And what’s with Daisy? How can they live in a world with a multitude of Inhumans if she never threw the supply of terrigen crystals into the ocean? Did she like being Skye? If she did, I may have to give up on this show.
Though I certainly wouldn’t be given up on the show for their effort to make things completely different down to the awful gray lighting. We get it, the place is bad. I will give props to the wig and costume department for pretty much making Daisy and Simmons identical to their season one selves even though almost four years have passed. They really shouldn’t look as close as they do, but the result in gray light is almost shocking.
However, since this is only one episode with a surprising lack of explaining things, there are still a lot of loose ends. We still haven’t seen Mack, Mace, or Radcliffe, so they’ll have to go back and add more confusing nuance. There’s also that note that the real world is still going on as they’re trapped in the Framework, so the risk of the world and their useless bodies should really be a bigger factor than it is. Again, this is probably something that will be addressed in the next few episode, so I won’t really fault it this time.
Aside from the few character choices, this was a good start to what can be a fascinating season ending. The threads are set up nicely in a world that really is backwards enough to keep you guessing, and there is some emotional stake that wasn’t present before in this season. With this being a third instead of a half, they might be able to pull this off with a little less Ward and a little more Simmons having one win (just one).
