Stewart here…
Welcome to the first of (hopefully uninterrupted) recaps of the final season of Agents of SHIELD!
The Story So Far: So, in case you didn’t watch last season (you’ve had a year and extra time in there to do that, so why didn’t you?), here’s the basics of what you need to know. Besides dealing with a planet killing god, our heroes discovered a new threat from The Chronicoms, an alien race that monitors time and space, and who are looking for a new home after their previous one got destroyed by said planet killing god. The bad part is they want Earth for their new home, and generally NO Earthlings on it, so their first plan is to destroy SHIELD to secure their claim. And our remaining team is not in the best place right now to fight this.
Coulson is still dead, May has been critically injured and put in stasis, Yo-Yo is still in recovery from an alien contagion, Fitz is hidden away somewhere, and Simmons has arrived to whisk our heroes away to the past to find the Chronicoms in a time machine enhanced Zephyr. Oh, and they have a new LMD ally ready to spin up: Agent Coulson?
That’s gonna NOT leave a mark.
New York City, 1931. We open with several Chronicoms walking into a deal for bootleg beer (this is still Prohibition times) with some crooked cops, and assume the cops’ identities…by erasing their faces and those Chronicoms putting those erased faces onto them! Eww. Meanwhile, the Zephyr has arrived in 1931, and if you remember, we were just introduced to the enhanced Life Model Decoy of Coulson, which Daisy just turned on. And LMD Coulson has a bit of an update to process since he was programmed with memories prior to his death, and before all that weirdness in the last season, so it’s quite a bit to take in (besides the whole “being a robot” now). LMD Coulson gets shut off for a bit while Mack and friends (Hey, Deke! Hey, Enoch!) converge to ask Simmons what the hell is going on.
From what can be figured out, the Chronicoms have made their way to this specific point in time via a “Tide”, a certain time and place when a specific past time can be entered, to do something, but we don’t know what yet. With the Chronicoms still in possession of Nick Fury’s Black Box of Secrets, who knows exactly what plans they have for SHIELD, since the organization didn’t even exist in the 30’s. So, a search team of Mack, Daisy, Deke, and LMD Coulson is set up to find answers, especially when news of those dead faceless people pops up. They arrive at the crime scene and investigate (thanks for the fake badges, Deke!), and it sparks a clue for LMD Coulson. This alcohol had a swordfish branded cap, which reminds him of a safehouse, a speakeasy mentioned in SHIELD history. Might be something.
Back at the Zephyr, we check on May, who’s still in stasis and being slowly healed up, while we learn YoYo is almost clear of the alien infection. Simmons has a little gift for her: new human looking hands, which she has some reticence in wearing, because…well, reminders and all of what happened to her. As for the search team, Daisy and Deke stay behind to examine the bodies while Mack and LMD Coulson head to the speakeasy. The Chronicoms head back to the scene of the crime though, after finding out the bodies were discovered earlier than planned, and learn that SHIELD is there too. Despite trying to split up Daisy and Deke so they can be killed off, the duo escapes with an unconscious Chronicom in tow.
Koenigs! Koenigs everywhere!
Mack and LMD Coulson are able to get inside the speakeasy, and have to find a helpful contact inside codenamed “Gemini”. After a little scuffle, they meet “Gemini”: Ernest Koenig, the grandad of the Koenigs. Through a chat where Mack and LMD Coulson wisely don’t reveal who they really are (don’t want to cause ripples in time, just waves), we learn why those Chronicoms are disguised as cops: the speakeasy is was procuring alcohol in that deal the Chronicoms interrupted for a party for Franklin Roosevelt, a year before he becomes President and who was responsible for forming the basis of SHIELD, the SSR!
After Deke and Daisy drop off that unconscious Chronicom off at the Zephyr to be interrogated, they head over to the big FDR party to help Mack and LMD Coulson find the Hunter Chronicoms in hiding. During all of this, Daisy apologizes for activating him when he wouldn’t have wanted to be brought back, and we learn that one of Ernest’s helpers, Freddy, is of some importance since we spend a bit of time learning about him. As Simmons does some rather nasty interrogation of that captured Chronicom, they hear that the target is “FDR”. But when Daisy and LMD Coulson arrive to save him, he doesn’t need saving. As the captured Chronicom melts down and dies, he utters the name “Freddy”, meaning the same “Freddy” our heroes just left exposed and out in the open!
Freddy is whisked a way by some lady contact, who says she knows his dead dad, and gives him some vials of a serum she claims will be important for him and “the future”. She gets shot by those Chroni-Cops, and Daisy and LMD Coulson arrive in time to save Freddy and knock out the Chroni-Cops. While the two heroes drag the injured contact back to the speakeasy, Freddy is still unaccounted for, with Mack and Deke driving him to deliver whatever serum he got to the people he made a deal with. LMD Coulson asks who Freddy is, and Koenig doesn’t know, only that he took the kid in after his father, Wilford Malick, died. If that name rings a bell, it should, because LMD Coulson put its together for us: Freddy is the father of Gideon Malick, their old nemesis who ran HYDRA. The Chronicoms want to destroy HYDRA to stop SHIELD’s creation, so our heroes…have to save HYDRA? “Great”, Daisy says, sharing our same sentiment.
Back at the Zephyr, Enoch discovers the stasis pod for May is empty. But if he bothered to look to the ceiling, he would spot her hanging up there, like she’s hiding…or waiting…
Welcome back, Robo-Phil.
–Welcome to the first of what will (cross my fingers) be regular recaps of the final season of Agents of SHIELD! As I’ve written about the show before for this site since it started (so yeah, it’s been a while), I’ll be here to take you through this summer of new episodes. Hope you enjoy it.
–So we still don’t know where Fitz is, only that Jemma is doing what she can to avoid contacting him or finding him right now, for fear the Chronicoms will find out what they know again. Well hopefully this is the last time these two will be kept apart by this show.
–While not too overt, we do have acknowledgement that Mack would not be treated with much respect in 1931 New York City. And let’s not mention that rather sexist remark against Daisy (which she is polite enough to threaten to hurt him for making).
–LMD Coulson does have some super strength, which comes in handy to help out Daisy in that fight with the Chroni-Cops. But what about his state of mind, specifically? Well, he’s being helpful to the team, but the way he puts himself in danger is a little unsettling to Mack. May want to note that for future reference.
–Canadian Mounted Police? Hey, LMD Coulson hasn’t quite worked out the art of improvisation, I think.
–That green serum looks rather familiar, right? I have my theories…
–“You stole a truck?” “Why me? There’s two of us.”
–“I’m already dead.” “Well, hell, I’m not!”
–“If you wish to live, do not come in. There may be screaming.”
–“1930’s baseball reference!”
–“(whispers) Why is no one talking?”
–“Dad jokes. It’s a glitch. Sorry.”
So, what did you think of the season premiere? Leave your thoughts below, and we’ll be back next week for the recap of “Know Your Onions”…
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What do you think?