Review 521: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 5)
After escaping the Framework and awakening in the real world, Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his teams victory is cut short when a mysterious man known only as Enoch (Joel Stoffer) renders them frozen. The next thing they know, Coulson and his team are onboard a ship... in space.Coulson soon discovers that some, but not all, of his S.H.I.E.L.D. colleagues, were taken with him and placed onboard the ship. As they come into contact with some of the vessels inhabitants, it becomes abundantly clear that something has gone terribly away and the team will need to figure out their role and delve deeper into this nightmarish mystery to try to right what has gone incredibly wrong.
With this season, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fully embraces the cosmic side of the MCU whilist also continuing to develop its own mythology.
The season is split into roughly two halves/"Pods" with each pod having a different emphases, but the whole season having an arc that ultimatly pays off in big ways emotioanly.
The first "Pod" picks up right where Season 4 ended with Coulson being transported into space where they try to save the remnants of humanity whilst at the same time trying to find a way back home.
Eventually they return to the present where they are once again labeled fugitives and try to save the world from what they witnessed which is what the second "Pod" focuses on.
At the start of the Season, we find Coulson and his team completely out of their element in a situation they have no idea what on Earth is happening or why it’s happening.
At the centre of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 5 is the strongly profound theme of Predeterminism vs Predestination: So much of the conflict during the second "Pod" stems from wether Coulson and his team can prevent the future depicted in the first Pod from coming to past and the Pod unfolds at a rip-roaring pace. Watching the decisions made by characters such as Yo-Yo Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) throughout the second pod, it becomes clear there’s a dangerous kind of fatalism at work in their belief that neither they nor Fitz can be harmed for the time being. Given that Avengers: Infinity War and the threat of Thanos was on the horizon and Marvel Studios have more films planned, one has to ask: By Season 5, when Coulson and his team went to the future and they’re told the Earth gets “Quaked” apart, did you buy it for even a second? Never mind, the question is not “Will they be able to save the Earth?” The question is “How” they’ll do it.
The season also explores the ramifications of the deal Coulson made with the Ghost Rider in the Season 4 finale as well as the groundwork laid by Aida to fear S.H.I.E.L.D. and Inhumans alike.
The emotional impact from the characters' experiences in the Framework are felt and resonate throughout the season, particularly with Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Mack (Henry Simmons).
Mack is deeply troubled by the love and affection that he had for Hope in the Framework
It's almost impossible to talk about the ramifications of Coulson's deal without getting into some major spoilers. Those ramifications are revealed in Ep. 12: The Real Deal (which is also the shows 100th episode), where it's revealed that bondfing with the Spirit of Vengence burnt off all of the Kree serum that's been keeping him alive these past few years, so he's now running on borrowed time.
It’s a game changer that shakes up the second half of the season emotionally to the point where nothing is ever the same and causes a ripple effect amongst the team.
Coulson has come to terms with it long before they’re revealed to the team. It’s actually something he came to term with a long time ago when discovering the T.A.H.I.T.I. Project and everything that has been done to him. He makes it clear to every member of the team (and us an audience to an extent) that he really doesn’t want to go through any of that again. He’s gotten to a place where he’s ready to let nature take its course and he seems very much at peace with it considering that there’s so much that he’s done in a world that thinks that he’s dead. I think Christina Roberts of Culturess said it best when she said "it’s an episode that hurts."
When Coulson and his team return to the present in the second "Pod", the public perception of S.H.I.E.L.D. is at an all time low following the Season 4 finale. In many ways, Team Coulson's situation is just like it was in Season One following Hydra's infiltraion; S.H.I.E.L.D. as they know it has been defunded and dissolved. This, together with the absence of its core members, means that there is no known version of the organization still around. Also, since this is the second time in a brief period of time that S.H.I.E.L.D. was dissolved, it might not come back again. The only difference, this time, is that the military isn't working to find every surviving agent, just them. There's no secret base of Fury's that they can hide in, but that's okay because the Lighthouse serves the same purpose.
They’re hunted by General Hale (The Shield’s Catherine Dent) who, since Talbot is in a coma, is now in charge. While Talbot was always hard on Coulson's team, he was at least trying to do good, in contrast, Hale seems to be corrupt and up to something sinister as she appears to completely lack respect for due process.
I was initially a little sceptical and weary of the show introducing yet another Hydra operative as an adversary for Coulson and his team as it felt like the show-runners were flogging a dead horse at this point but once her backstory was revealed in the brilliant Ep. 15: Rise and Shine which featured the surprising and welcome return of Daniel Whitehall (Reed Diamond) and what she was forced to go through all her dedication, cleverness and perseverance and she ultimatly ends up getting shunned to a meaningless job.
It's almost impossible to talk about the season's final Big Bad without giving away some major twists. Late into the second Pod, Coulson and his team are reunited with recurring ally Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar). Having gone through a major military career ending injury at the end of Season 4 and subsequently captured and tortured by Hale causes him to become very mentally unstable, even getting brainwashed by Hale in the process.
Even when he gets infused with Gravitoium, he really does have a higher calling in his own head and his intentions remain noble: Defending the Earth from Thanos' iminant threat (part of a tie-in with Avengers: Infinity War) and he fully believes that every action he takes, no matter how immoral or ill-conceived, goes towards saving the Earth from the Mad Titan.
His transformation from reluctant ally to villain can also be seen in a very tragic light considering all that he and Coulson's team have been through together
Overall, it was a surprisingly unexpected curveball and a nice payoff for Talbot's character who, for a few seasons now, had been used as foil for Coulson's team and comic relief.
Though the S.H.I.E.L.D. in Space Pod is mostly strong, some other elements weren’t such as Kree leader Kasius (Dominic Rains) not being a particularly standout villain. He just doesn’t seem to have much in the way of a personally other than being a stereotypically ruthless Kree leader.
Directors Jesse Bochco, David Solomon, Kevin Hooks, Stan Brooks, Brad Turner, Clark Gregg himself (making his directorial debut on the series), Nina Lopez-Corrado, Kate Woods, Kevin Tancharoen, Garry A. Brown, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Jennifer Lynch, Billy Gierhart & Jed Whedon's direction is
The production design (particularly for the space setting in the first "Pod" of the season) is splendid, the special effects are pretty spectacular (despite the shows reported budget cuts) and some of the best the show has produced. The space arc gave the effects team a real chance to shine just like Ghost Rider the previous season; there are some beautiful, film-level shots of the space trawler in flight as well as the “Quaked” Earth on par with James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films and the more recent Thor: Ragnarok.
Coulson has come to terms with it long before they’re revealed to the team. It’s actually something he came to term with a long time ago when discovering the T.A.H.I.T.I. Project and everything that has been done to him. He makes it clear to every member of the team (and us an audience to an extent) that he really doesn’t want to go through any of that again. He’s gotten to a place where he’s ready to let nature take its course and he seems very much at peace with it considering that there’s so much that he’s done in a world that thinks that he’s dead. I think Christina Roberts of Culturess said it best when she said "it’s an episode that hurts."
When Coulson and his team return to the present in the second "Pod", the public perception of S.H.I.E.L.D. is at an all time low following the Season 4 finale. In many ways, Team Coulson's situation is just like it was in Season One following Hydra's infiltraion; S.H.I.E.L.D. as they know it has been defunded and dissolved. This, together with the absence of its core members, means that there is no known version of the organization still around. Also, since this is the second time in a brief period of time that S.H.I.E.L.D. was dissolved, it might not come back again. The only difference, this time, is that the military isn't working to find every surviving agent, just them. There's no secret base of Fury's that they can hide in, but that's okay because the Lighthouse serves the same purpose.
They’re hunted by General Hale (The Shield’s Catherine Dent) who, since Talbot is in a coma, is now in charge. While Talbot was always hard on Coulson's team, he was at least trying to do good, in contrast, Hale seems to be corrupt and up to something sinister as she appears to completely lack respect for due process.
I was initially a little sceptical and weary of the show introducing yet another Hydra operative as an adversary for Coulson and his team as it felt like the show-runners were flogging a dead horse at this point but once her backstory was revealed in the brilliant Ep. 15: Rise and Shine which featured the surprising and welcome return of Daniel Whitehall (Reed Diamond) and what she was forced to go through all her dedication, cleverness and perseverance and she ultimatly ends up getting shunned to a meaningless job.
It's almost impossible to talk about the season's final Big Bad without giving away some major twists. Late into the second Pod, Coulson and his team are reunited with recurring ally Glenn Talbot (Adrian Pasdar). Having gone through a major military career ending injury at the end of Season 4 and subsequently captured and tortured by Hale causes him to become very mentally unstable, even getting brainwashed by Hale in the process.
Even when he gets infused with Gravitoium, he really does have a higher calling in his own head and his intentions remain noble: Defending the Earth from Thanos' iminant threat (part of a tie-in with Avengers: Infinity War) and he fully believes that every action he takes, no matter how immoral or ill-conceived, goes towards saving the Earth from the Mad Titan.
His transformation from reluctant ally to villain can also be seen in a very tragic light considering all that he and Coulson's team have been through together
Overall, it was a surprisingly unexpected curveball and a nice payoff for Talbot's character who, for a few seasons now, had been used as foil for Coulson's team and comic relief.
Though the S.H.I.E.L.D. in Space Pod is mostly strong, some other elements weren’t such as Kree leader Kasius (Dominic Rains) not being a particularly standout villain. He just doesn’t seem to have much in the way of a personally other than being a stereotypically ruthless Kree leader.
Directors Jesse Bochco, David Solomon, Kevin Hooks, Stan Brooks, Brad Turner, Clark Gregg himself (making his directorial debut on the series), Nina Lopez-Corrado, Kate Woods, Kevin Tancharoen, Garry A. Brown, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Jennifer Lynch, Billy Gierhart & Jed Whedon's direction is
The production design (particularly for the space setting in the first "Pod" of the season) is splendid, the special effects are pretty spectacular (despite the shows reported budget cuts) and some of the best the show has produced. The space arc gave the effects team a real chance to shine just like Ghost Rider the previous season; there are some beautiful, film-level shots of the space trawler in flight as well as the “Quaked” Earth on par with James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films and the more recent Thor: Ragnarok.
During the adventures in space, Coulson and his team meet scavengers, Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward), he is totally fine without them, this guy's a survivor, he can get people what they need, but at a price of his asking. With his sharp mind and quick wit, he is both a real asset in a tight spot and a hard man for S.H.I.E.L.D. to trust. Eventually, he ends up transferred to the present which leads to some truly funny fish out of water scenes of him getting use to life where he doesn’t have to be tough in order to survive. Deke proved to be a fine, welcome addition to the show
Chloe Bennett had numerous time shine throughout the season. She makes us as an audience feel Daisy's pain and stress of loosing Coulson, leading S.H.I.E.L.D. in his absence potentially being the "Destroyer of Worlds" in every word she says. But Daisy also has two huge burdens placed on her shoulders when Coulson decides he wants her to be the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after he retires Daisy makes numerous decisions based on emotion throughout the second half of the season clearly showing she’s not ready to lead. She’s also forced to deal with the possible reality that she’s the one that (potentially) destroys the Earth.
Fitz is arguably the one who suffers the most from Aida's manipulations in the Framework, becoming a more ruthless person as a result. him understanding and being aware of that moving forward is
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