Not knowing where they were headed plot-wise, I spent most of the episode rolling my eyes. “C’mon man, everyone is being replaced by robots?”
Then when I finally realized it was all a setup for an interesting alternative reality in the Framework where everything is topsy-turvy, my view of the preceding 45 minutes changed completely.
:smack:
So could someone help a guy out?
I was catching up with this episode on my DVR, and apparently our local ABC affiliate had the interns working Tuesday night … as we got near the end of the episode, where Jemma and Daisy and the three musketeers were boarding the Zephyr, the station started running ads and news promos over the show. They caught it, went back to AoS, then threw in another interruption before they finally quit.
So - I saw part of the Maybot-Coulbot convo in the tunnel, when Maybot asked him if he was afraid to die. I didn’t see the conclusion of that scene - did Maybot blow the tunnel? The entire base, Fitzbot, Macebot, all the Daisybots and all (including the snoozing SHIELD agents)? I have to assume a scene that starts with someone sitting on barrels of explosives would end with a big boom, but I didn’t get to see it.
I don’t think I missed anything else. Saw the Zephyr blast out of there, and saw the scene where Simmons and Daisy got hacked into the Framework. But if I can just get confirmation (“there was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!”), I would be grateful.
Yes, Maybot set off the bomb. It’s not clear if it destroyed the entire base or not. We also didn’t see what happened to other agents, but it’s implied they were all woken up first to escape.
Really great episode. And what a montage at the end. I have to admit the logo being Hydra really blew my mind. As it was pulling back I expected it to be the Avengers headquarters. Then I realized it was Triskelion and then…wow. This has been a great run of episodes.
Ok, finally caught up with this episode and I’ve got to say I liked it a lot. My favorite of the whole series. The drama of figuring out if Fitz or Simmons were LMDs, Fitz tricking Simmons and then her turning the tables on him was very well done.
I suspect the blast didn’t destroy the whole base, or at least not the Army of Daisys. I can’t see them setting up that plot element and not putting it into action.
I like that they’re incorporating other agents as incidental characters beyond just generic background filler. I’d notice this in another recent episode. It feels like a more real, fleshed out universe when there are minor characters doing things. Instead of, for example, when Kirk, Spock or McCoy do every task, solve every problem, etc.
The episode impressed me enough that I immediately went to check who wrote and directed. It was the second one Jed Whedon’s written solo (he’s co-written eight of them), and the first that he’s directed. Actually, aside from two video shorts, it’s his very first directing credit. Quite impressive!
I can’t wait for the show’s return to see where it all leads.
I’m not sure what makes logical sense. They said if you die in the Framework you die for real. But what if you are already dead?
I finally got caught up and watched last week’s episode.
If the first season of this show was just half as good as this episode, I would have never given up after the first season.
Hope it gets renewed.
Yes, enalzi is right. If Aida didn’t put you in the Framework, you didn’t have your regret rewritten.
I’m certain that each person’s new situation is not merely (perhaps not even mostly) the result of their own rewritten regrets. It’s going to be: Person A’s change has an effect on the lives of Person B, Person C, Person D, and so on. Think of it like the Sci-Fi Classic It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey was never born, so he couldn’t have been there to save his brother from drowning as a child, his brother didn’t live to join the war effort, didn’t save the lives of other soldiers. Remember that Radcliffe was distressed at noticing changes happening in the Framework while Aida was rewriting it based on the regrets of the new inserts.
I think a lot of it will come down to Coulson’s change. If for instance he never joined SHIELD, another agent might have been in charge of the operation in New Mexico. That other agent may have continued to have non-powered Thor detained, or killed even. Loki succeeds in taking over Asgard, there’s no Avengers. Or Thor’s redemption and Loki’s defeat happen much the same way, then Loki comes to Earth as he did, but without Coulson’s connection with the individual Avengers, without his death as a unifying event, the Battle of New York goes differently. Loki is still defeated but Steve Rogers dies. No Steve Rogers, no stopping Hydra coming out of the shadows.
…and that’s just speculation on the HUGE effects of Coulson’s choices. There’s no end to the smaller personal implications for the rest of the team.
I’m inclined to believe he joined SHIELD as he originally did but then chose to leave at some later time. If he had never been in SHIELD then Daisy and Ward would never even have met- just one example.
I think you are all overthinking it. This is a world designed by an AI with no real understanding of human emotion, under the influence of an evil grimoire. It doesn’t have to be logical or consistent, it only has to be what Aida *thinks *is logical and consistent. It’s not an alternate universe - it’s a dream universe, a nightmare universe, a looking-glass universe.
The erasing of characters’ biggest regrets is a plot device designed by human television writers to deliver a narrative message. We’re the sum of our choices, even the choices we regret. When you’re writing a story about characters having their biggest regrets erased, those characters are going to get slapped with some literary irony.
Oh, I agree completely, and I expect a Helicarrier-load of irony. I’m just coming in ahead of people saying “But it doesn’t make sense that Coulson would…” by saying that it doesn’t have to make *logical *sense, so long as it makes *dramatic *sense.
I just thought of something - I know the elder Whedon isn’t really involved with the show any more, but I have a feeling that we’re about to embark upon a very Joss storyline: almost all of his series have climaxed with some sort of mass mind control. In Angel it was the Jasmine arc at the end of Season 4; in Serenity/Firefly it was Miranda; and in *Dollhouse *it was the Epitaph One and Two mind-swap apocalypse. To me, it looks like the Framework is going to be a variation on the same theme of an entire world gone crazy.
To quote Captain Kirk: “I need my pain!” 
The bad things that happen in our life are what make us who we are as much as the good ones.
Interesting article on who we should see in the Framework - Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 15 Characters We Need To See In The Framework
I disagree with Fury and Maria Hill; they’re not interesting to me. But I would love to see Trip, Bobbie and Lance, and Rosalind Price. Who else should make appearances?
Hear, hear! My wife hated the ghost rider arc, and I merely tolerated it (though there were a few standouts like “Deals with our Devils”). But the LMD arc is killing it, and this last ep was really awesome
I thought Daisy gave the order to the awake redshirts to round up anyone unconscious and put them on the plane.
Any idea why there was an army of Daisies? (Other than to set up the super cool scene with her hiding from Mack amongst them.) All the other LMDs only got one copy each (aside from Aida herself).
And why did Daisy have to touch Gemma to prove her powers? Couldn’t she just quake a box or chair or something?
The “Superior” remains a weak link. Dunno if it’s the “pretty boy” casting, or what, but I’m not getting a real great villain vibe from him. Maybe he’ll get more interesting now as a self-hating remote controlled robot version.
But aside from those quibbles… amazing episode.
It’s a good point that Daisy and Gemma’s situations may be the result of the others’ regrets being undone, rather than their own, because they hacked in. Maybe without Coulson and Fitz in SHIELD, Ward kills Gemma in the ocean, and survives. He never get revealed as HYDRA by Koenig’s lie detector, (Coulson sent the team there) so Daisy (Skye at the time) never leaves him.
(Before reading enalzi’s post, I’d thought Gemma’s regret was leaving her boyfriend on the alien planet, and that her grave on earth was an empty one)
Can’t wait for April. So good!
So that they could show us a whole roomful of Chloe Bennett in her underwear? Otherwise I got nothing. An equally good question is how did they build so many Daisy LMDs so quickly, and how did they get them in there without anyone noticing? Of course, I’ve always been a little fuzzy on the exact manufacturing process of the LMDs.
On the other hand, it did lead to someone on Previously.tv referring to that scene as “a field of Daisies,” which is a pretty good joke, so maybe it was worth it.
Weren’t there at least two Coulsons? One got destroyed by Daisy in the fight and a new one showed up with Maybot.
No it was the same one. Only Mac got destroyed.
Yeah. Building one would be a feat, and I can see building a couple more with the help of the Darkhold, but a platoon of Daisies? Where are they building them?
The plan, as I understood it, was to alert the known inhumans and say something like “You’re in danger. We’re going to send Daisy to get you and bring you back to SHIELD to wait until it’s safe.” At which point, they’d send out the army of Daisys (Daisies?) to each inhuman to kill, capture, or otherwise incapacitate them. With the multiples, you can do it all at once. One at a time, there’s a bigger chance that one (or more) might find a way to alert the others that something’s up.