S.H.I.E.L.D. in Space! The Season 5 Premier!
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5
Airdate December 1, 2017
Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen
Production Company ABC Studios & Marvel Television
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:
When we last saw our intrepid Agents in the Season 4 finale they had just escaped The Fraework and were sitting down for a slice of pie in a diner when a Creepy Bald Man in Black showed up with his small militia and kidnapped the team at gunpoint saying “We have 2 minutes until the window closes. When Coulson awoke he found himself staring out a window into an asteroid field in outer space.
WHAT YOU’LL FIND OUT:
(SPOILERS AHEAD!) Season 5 opens hours before the last scene in the Season 4 finale with the Creepy Bald Man in Black taking a swim and lounging in the sun. Then he gets up, goes into the house, and tosses his skin on a chair and goes into the shower.Through the shower’s frosted glass we see the outline of a tall thin alien-looking creature. Back in his skin suit, he gathers his mini-militia (some or all of which may be human) and they drive to the restaurant where they apprehend Coulson and the gang (except one). Wheeled out of the restaurant wrapped in plastic, when the team awakens they are standing before a stone monolith which liquifies and suddenly we are back to the present on board the spaceship. In a worn, rusty utility room Coulson, Simmons, Mack, and Yo-Yo meet a raggedy young man named Virgil who tells them he has studied them for years. A helmeted figure floats through the shattered window in another part of the ship. Virgil is showing the Agents a weathered old postcard but before he can elaborate a gnarly claw abruptly slices through his skull. A creature somewhat resembling an Alien Xenomorph chases the Agents out of the room into a corridor but as it pounces for the kill it’s blown to bits by Daisy/Sky’s quake powers.
In another compartment, Agent May is secured to a pole by a huge metal ring through her thigh. She is approached by Deke (Jeff Ward), a bearded human, a roguish type like we’ve seen in characters like Han Solo and hundreds of others. Naturally, he ends up in a fight with May not knowing, of course, that this is a very bad decision when it comes to Agent May (The Cavalry)! But he does end up subduing her long enough to cut a tracking device called a metric out of her wrist with a knife. Coulson, Simmons, and Sky-Daisy are captured and put in a cell while Mack and Yo-Yo and hung up for interrogation. The captors are revealed to be the blue-skinned alien race the Kree.
Deke shows up with May and cons the Kree into releasing everyone to him. Talking to Deke, Coulson figures out the team has not only traveled to space but through time as well…90 years! So Jemma and May hijack a space trawler but before they get away a yellow school bus floats by through the field of rocks and behind it is a cracked Earth with two-thirds blown away (hence the rocks). Simmons reads the back of Virgil’s crumpled postcard which says “I’m working on this–Fitz”.
In episode 502, part two of “Orientation”, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and Deke return to the main ship to avoid being smashed by the earth-asteroids. They encounter a group of humans and a young woman named Tess. Tess is afraid of Sharknadoes.
The Kree leader of the ship is revealed as a guy named Kasius. He has an entourage of human servants who dress in white gowns and have their heads painted gold. When one of them is stabbed and Jemma intervenes and saves him, she is taken to be his replacement.
Back with the others, Deke, who’s playing amateur historian, has pieced together what happened back on Earth and tells Sky-Daisy that the force that tore the Earth apart was her–Quake. As the episode ends, another spaceship shows up.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE FUTURE:
No Fitz this week. What does he know about his teammates’ plight? Why does the alien ship look like it was built on Earth decades ago? No, seriously, the interior looks glaringly non-alien. Natalia Cordova-Buckley gets a promotion to series regular as the speedy Yo-Yo so she and Mack will likely be getting even more cutesy as they take the romantic spotlight from Fitz/Simmons who haven’t really been going anywhere and are never together much. Watch for a great line from Yo-Yo about a quarter of the way in referencing the comics. The show has been moved to Friday nights which is never a good sign. With the damage done by the low ratings of The Inhumans, Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ratings may sink further and this could be their final stand since Disney will have enough episodes for a good syndication package…in spite of a “general” improvement of the show since dividing it into two story arcs last season.
Final Thought: Jed Whedon is not the writer his brother is. New characters like Deke and Tess are merely rehashes of stereotypes we have seen over and over. The show has never truly lived up to its potential for me. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been a broken agency pretty much since the show started. I would like to see them use some actual characters from the comic books like Jimmy Woo and The Contessa. Still, I remain a loyal viewer and do hope the series continues even if it’s only purpose seems to be to throw asides to the movies.
Rating: 7/10
