REVIEW: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "All Roads Lead..."
Well, last week got us off to a mostly okay start to the finish. That would hopefully mean that we build up to a strong end or at least something fun. Sure, we still have several weeks of plot to go, several unanswered questions still in the ether, and several plots that still don’t make a lot of sense, but there has to be a silver lining. I can say that there is one, but it is a lot smaller than you’d think.
So the story….basically can be summed like this: Ruby’s dead and aliens are invading. That’s about it. Don’t get me wrong, simple stories are usual better since they’re easy to comprehend with a lot of room for development, but that’s basically all to care about right now. It’s the only plot that has the least bit of sense to it and is given some time to begin and end. The other stories just feel there.
Anyone expecting the Talbot being a sleeper agent will be slightly disappointed since that takes up way less than a tag plot should for a future episode. He’s still alive, yet his story becomes more miserable considering all that effort for almost no real payoff. The same goes for Creel who’s given a brief appearance to remind people he’s falling apart as well. It keeps feeling like this half is playing hot potato with storylines, getting bored, and then quickly changing games in the middle of losing.
It’s getting to the characters that things are actually moving forward, though not all the way positively. Ruby has been killed by Elena which is somewhat satisfying in the irony, but not much else. She was honestly the more interesting villain of this season, and now that she’s gone, I feel almost nothing. She had a backstory and a reason for thinking the way she did even if the heroes didn’t agree with her or she liked chopping body parts. We’re now facing off against previously faceless aliens who just want to still the MacGuffin, so why should I care?
Also, Deke is apparently in love with Daisy now? I know the season feels a lot longer than time moves on the show, but…what? Why do we need to focus on that now especially when we have absolutely no time to develop it? They keep emphasizing that the world is in danger here, so these stupid hangups become even more annoying when given the slightest attention. Pretty much any form of relationship drama in this season has just gone from bad to worse with the exception of FitzSimmons if only because he put a ring on it (and even then barely).
But not all the characters are so savagely butchered this time. Daisy gets to show the tiniest bit of dare I say nuance in trying to approach Ruby in a sympathetic way. Even if it went nowhere, I appreciate this sentiment in heroes since it ultimately shows why they’re the good guys in the first place: that they’re BETTER than one would believe. Also, slight tension between FitzSimmons feeling conflicted over whether or not they’d be willing to die if it meant breaking the time loop is realistic even if the whole thing is nuts at this point. If we see more of these, the plots could be tolerable.
Plus, finally getting more action. Even though it’s clearly just for show, the Daisy and May fighting sequence gives us the tiniest breather where everything makes sense again. If you just tune out the plot, those couple of minutes of May taking guns and Daisy fighting as an agent and a superhero harkens back to the more interesting times. I see no problem in these moments. Why aren’t there more?
Going forward it looks like we’ll at least see more action sequences with an alien invasion on the horizon, unfortunately not related to the other alien invasion happening next week. I wish I could say it interested me, but the prospect of facing other nameless aliens sounds more exhausting than exhilarating. It’s more of something that’s there now, much like some of the characters.
So, yeah, this is probably a step down since last week, but still not enough to cross the threshold back into terrible just yet. We have more action on the horizon and the slightest bit of nuance from the characters returning. If only that pesky thing called a plot didn’t get in the way.
