REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Past Life"
Welcome to the team’s final stand 4.0 where another plan is made and another twist emerges. Since this is last episode before the hiatus, the twist should be that something happens. After watching the episode, I can honestly tell you that the twist is that I almost don’t care.
For an episode that’s trying to pull all the pieces together, somewhat literally, everything moves…very…slowly. I realize people in-universe haven’t waited two months to reach this point, though that doesn’t seem to stop them taking another two months to reach a new plot. It takes more than ten minutes before we get things rolling, and everything before that is exposition for things we already know. Right off the bat, this is not going to be my favorite episode.
It’s a shame since the plots and plans themselves aren’t bad on their own. We’ve heard them in the last episode, so we’ve had plenty of time to get used to the idea of the time rock and the apocalypse. It is far from the most sensible plot we’ve seen, but we can accept it after several weeks of just waiting for it. Except for the one that put Elena on her own because that one screams something bad happening, which is infuriating for someone who should have watched movies.
Speaking of Elena, we have to talk about that dumb scene of her talking to herself from the future-past being kept prisoner for information and blood. It’s another staple of time travel stories to have at least one encounter with yourself from the past, I understand that. For what it’s worth, I was actually hoping for it to an extent since I’ve seen it done in many interesting ways. As a final note, it is hard to roll your eyes hearing her talk about Mack.
Unfortunately, even when we get to a place to receive direct answers, we’re still subjected to pronoun games, dramatic statements, and an overwhelming sense that fixing the world is impossible. I have been saying this over and over again, we get it. The world is doomed, and they’ll somehow save it. Reminding us that it’s impossible only makes it more unbelievable, not more promising. Though I do appreciate the easter egg of her being armless. The ideas have to come somewhere.
As another aside, this episode is surprisingly violent for a rather uneventful hour. We got decapitation, throat-slitting, whatever that poison thing is. It can’t help but make me fell like it’s some form of compensation for people who get their kicks out of that sort of thing. I’m not opposed to some gruesomeness unless it serves a purpose. Showing dead people is not a real purpose.
Well, I’m not being entirely honest. Things do happen in this episode. For instance, they go back. They kill Kassius. Deke is dead. Those are all impressive things on their own too. With all of the depressing things about the future, it’s great to have a bunch of wins in succession to each other. That being said, it’s hard to judge how that’ll last with another half of a season to go.
In addition to that, there is the depressing development that Coulson seems to be injured and this destroyer plot is still going. It’s so ironic that this show feels so desperate to make me dread watching another episode since the future is just getting closer and closer. Not even the success of returning to Earth can be one hundred percent good. Still, another easter egg point to Coulson returning Daisy against her will to be a leader.
Here we have what has to undoubtedly be one of the most lackluster mid-season finales of this show. The only driving force at this point is returning to present day, but they managed to suck the fun out of that too. Now we have four weeks to prepare for a new plot and a slew of more newbies. What can go right?
