Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: As I Have Always Been (7x09)

I am feeling some kind of way right now.

Cons:

Missing Fitz hours continue... especially in light of Certain Events. I wish he could have been there.

Also... like... while I was watching Daisy and Daniel being adorable, I literally said out loud to the screen: "oh no, they're going to make me like this, aren't they?" and they DID and I DO, but I refuse to let go of the cold bitterness in my heart over the way Peggy Carter was treated by the MCU as a whole. I'm just quietly seething about it forever and ever amen. Setting that aside, I do think Daisy/Sousa works, and I can let go of my rage if I just ignore the other stuff and focus on this as its own universe with its own version of Daniel's fate. To be slightly critical, though, I feel like Daniel taking things in stride makes a certain amount of sense given who he is as a person, but I do wish we'd seen him do some more grappling with his new reality. Does he not want to go and see if any of his friends are still alive, decades older, now? Does he not miss ANYTHING about the life he left behind? Suffice to say, I'm feeling conflicted!

So is Kora actually Daisy's sister? We saw that little scene at the end there, with the Inhumans still getting up to shenanigans... I have to confess that this is the part of the season that feels the least tight and well-developed so far. We've only got a few more episodes left, and it feels a little late to be adding in these new elements. Time will tell, I'm ready to be convinced otherwise.

Pros:

Time loops are so fun and I know they've been done to death, but I don't care! The creativity! The comedy! The high drama! I love that this setup gave Daisy and Coulson a chance to bond, and the varying stakes and ticking clock involved in the scenario. The way it works, Daisy is stuck in the loop, and so is Coulson, but every time Daisy dies in a loop, she wakes up and has to start over, not remembering anything, and Coulson is getting more and more frustrated. Also, the loop itself has finite time to it, but the real ticking clock is in the form of a vortex. The ship gets closer and closer to it in every loop, and they need to break the loop and get away before they reach it. I love how there are various setups and stakes embedded in this version of the time loop, so when Daisy wakes up Coulson for the "first" time we learn that in actuality Daisy has already been doing this for a while, she just forgot because of her death.

I also think time loop stories work well in science fiction, especially in a story like this where time travel is already a thing they've all gotten used to. That way, when Daisy barges into the room, already knows that Mack is going to get hurt, can cue the entrances of various people and predict exactly what they'll say, it doesn't actually take long to convince the others. They're on board, doing what they can to help. We get the fun moments of Daisy having to explain things, but it's not belabored. My favorite comedy moment is when Enoch fights them all off and they're all lying there in a pile, and someone says "Deke's dead?" and Daisy says "very." And someone says "do we need to be sad about that?" and Daisy says "we do not." That made me laugh out loud!!

To get back to the Daisy/Daniel thing... I mean, how can you not swoon at Daniel's little speech? I love how much he loves being supportive. His love language is acts of service and he will quietly and stoically sit by your bedside while you convalesce, he will trust you immediately when you say you need help, he will risk his life for you, no questions asked. He's a DREAMBOAT, and Daisy deserves a bit of love. I hadn't really been expecting a love story for her in this season, but honestly, the inclusion of an already-familiar-to-me character really helped to sell it.

Then there's the ongoing mystery of WHAT exactly Simmons made herself forget, with the implant, that was so important she'd be willing to die for it? She'd be willing for her friends to die for it? I love the escalating mystery here, even though Fitz's absence is a frustrating thorn in my side. When Simmons remembers how to save the ship, she ends up saving the day. But then, right before the time loop resets, she starts freaking out and saying "what have I done?" Obviously there's something big that Simmons intentionally made sure she would forget, and I'm dying to learn more!

Enoch's death was honestly really well done and I felt the weight of it. In some ways, death on this show has been muted/made less powerful because of all the resurrections. This isn't even the first time the show tried to make us think Enoch might be gone forever. But still... I like that Coulson was there, able to give first-hand perspective on what it's like to die. And Enoch's words, about how having human friends taught him about belonging, but also taught him about loneliness... that really fucked me up, I gotta say! Of course Enoch was willing to give up his life to save his friends. It's who he is, who he's been for a long time. I thought it was a stunningly good example of how to do a self-sacrifice moment right. It hurt, but it made sense for the journey and the tone and the story. I will miss him so much!

That's about all I've got for this one. I'm a little worried that the stuff with the Inhumans, and Daisy's... sister, is going to come in and be the prominent end-game plot, which doesn't feel particularly earned at this juncture. However, there is so much to love about this last season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I have faith they can stick the landing!

8.5/10