Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Leap (6x10)

Last week, I was a little miffed at all the plot threads that had ended abruptly. And honestly, I sort of stand by that criticism, in the sense that I think the story before this point could have been paced better. We could have had more time with Izel vs. Sarge to build up to this. But... I must admit, I'm very intrigued with how things are turning out!

Cons:

Like I said - the big reveal this week, about the monolith energy, and Coulson and Izel being the same species of body-less energy, is all very cool. But we should have had more build-up with the supposed rivalry between Izel vs. Sarge. I love the idea that they have some sort of relationship, and that Izel wants Sarge to be on her side. Very cool. But we went from the mystery of Sarge, to meeting Izel, to finding out that Sarge hates Izel for "taking his family away from him," to the revelation that he has no family and that he's getting weird imprints from Coulson's memory... and all of that happened so quickly. There should have been a more organic buildup.

I'm wicked sad about Davis, I guess, but I also feel like they decided to give him more screen-time this season for the sole purpose of making it sad when he died. This is a problem that The Walking Dead is always falling into, and I point it out a lot in my reviews of that show - escalate a background character for a bit, just so the audience has more of a connection, before killing him. It was done okay here, and I do genuinely feel bad about Davis, but imagine how freaked out we'd be if Izel had killed a top player instead? I don't know. Maybe I'm nitpicking at this point.

Pros:

This is a super random way thing to include in this review, but I'm just realizing that with Coulson being dead, Fitzsimmons are the only white member of our core cast. Sure, we've got Davis, Piper, and Deke, but they're sort of second-tier, if you know what I mean. We've got Mack, and then three women of color - Yo-Yo, Daisy, and May. I don't know, I think that's pretty swell.

I've been saying all season that they might have left well enough alone and let Coulson actually stay dead. I do stand by that, but at the same time I must acknowledge that they've come up with a pretty darn cool excuse for having Clark Gregg stay on the show. I love the idea that Sarge isn't a body that looks just like Coulson's, but rather a formless being who inhabited an echo of Coulson's actual body. So he has these flashes of connection to May and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, because it's Coulson's body. That's pretty traumatic and cool, and makes it even more twisty and sad for the rest of the team. In some ways, there is a part of Coulson inside of Sarge.

The scene where Izel was switching from body to body was really well done. It reminded me of the great Simmons-centric episode where nobody was sure who was real and who was an LMD, and poor Simmons and Daisy had to fight their way out alone. There's that fear, that inability to trust anybody, and then the rapid-fire way Izel was able to use everyone against the rest of the team. Shooting Piper in the hand, killing Davis, holding Mack hostage from within his own body... all very chilling. It was so smart of Mack to lock Elena and Daisy up - if Izel had access to their bodies, and thus their powers, things would get so much worse. That whole scene had a great amount of tension and suspense to it.

Deke and Fitz - cutest thing in the entire world. Deke has been getting on my nerves in recent weeks, but this time around, with him being so awkward and desperate to make Fitz happy, and Fitz being innocently kind to his grandson, while still weirded out by the whole thing... this dynamic is giving me LIFE. Poor Deke just wants his grandpa to like him SO MUCH, and was so hurt by Fitz's irritation the first time around. And Fitz, who is still obviously insecure about the other version of himself and all he missed out on, ends up giving Deke exactly what he wants, without understanding what a gift it really is. I love the two of them doing the fast-talking science thing that we usually see with Fitzsimmons.

As the episode ends, we see Izel take control of Yo-Yo, the exact thing that Mack was hoping to avoid. Izel commandeers one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ships, but Mack, unable to let Elena leave like that, decides to go with. I loved that moment of Daisy being so freaked out by it, but May respecting Mack's choice - he's choosing to trust his team to save the day.

So there you have it! I don't necessarily think I was wrong with my complaints last week, in terms of the pacing. They spent time setting up Sarge and his crew, and we only just met Izel, and then the status quo changed so much that a lot of that setup felt wasted. But, I think I like the new status quo better than the old, so I really don't have a lot of room to be upset. I can't wait to see Sarge grapple with Coulson's memories and emotions, while trying to make his own decisions about what to do next!

8/10