I would agree. Fitz and Simmons are becoming fully fleshed characters now. The show, as a whole, has been getting stronger.
As it turns out, there WAS an extraction planned. But the underpaid, overworked functionary in charge of entering into the system all of the information displayed on the big, flashy S.H.I.E.L.D. screens just forgot to check the “YES” button on the form. It was right at the end of his shift, and after a long day of being a cog in the system of a gigantic world peacekeeping force, he was in a hurry to get home, grab a beer and watch cartoons.
If only he had a sandwich…
Actually - the way Hand talked - they figured that Coulson would extract his team - that’s why they didn’t plan it.
I almost think it was entirely a test to see how the team would react to being ‘in the dark’.
Answer: Not according to Hoyle.
I liked it. Loved that Fitz and Ward had good moments together and were really effective, enjoyed the pathetic Scooby gang attempts of Simmons and Skye on their own; “I shot a superior officer in the chest!” :smack:
“Go get May - tell her it was an accident”
(thats a conversation I would have loved to seen)
Actually, he was playing Galaga.
Oh, well played, my friend. Well played. 
Must have been reassigned from helicarrier duty to a desk job at The Hub for dereliction of duty. Guy just can’t catch a break…
Levels within levels. Hand could have told Coulson he was going to have to handle the extraction back when the mission was being planned. He presumably wouldn’t have objected too much - his team usually is self-sufficient (as was shown earlier in this episode).
The claim that Hand counted on Coulson extracting his team members without being told to do so seems too much like a Batman Gambit. How could Hand count on everyone disobeying orders in the exact right sequence? We saw through the show how much arguing went on over whether or not to trust Shield. What if a single one of those had gone the other way?
There’s also Hand’s claim that they couldn’t do the extraction because they didn’t have the resources. That seems implausible. Shield’s a huge organization. But everyone was busy that day? All of those people we saw running around the Hub - none of them could be spared?
Another factor is that Coulson has no idea this was Hand’s plan (assuming it actually was). What he took away from this mission was that the upper leaders of Shield were willing to sacrifice his team if he hadn’t disobeyed. If there was a secret agenda here it was to make Coulson suspicious of Shield. I think this supports my theory that what we’re seeing here is some kind of coup in the making within Shield.
The funny thing is that, even if we accept the World Security Council’s premise that New York City was lost, it was still silly to nuke Manhattan when they did. There was no reason to believe that the nuke would close the portal, and Chittauri forces were still arriving in Manhattan. So long as the Chittauri were still more-or-less focused on consolidating their hold on the island, or even the city writ large, the correct course would be to let them keep reinforcing their local forces, and only start nuking once you saw substantial movement beyond the beachhead. If the enemy want to concentrate their forces in one spot that you can reach, let them. Use the city as a trap.
Or, to put it another way - if you’re writing off Manhattan, or even the whole city, make damned sure you’re taking as many invaders as possible with your civilians when you nuke the place. Make this a painful moment for the bad guys.
I’m pulling this out of my ass but how much time travel goes on in the Avengers story lines? Could this be one of those ‘days of future past’ type deals where events had to be recreated in a certain way?
As was also shown later in the episode. To echo Lightray’s point from upthread, imagine this episode had just been the team getting tasked with a mission as usual: Ward still has the skills and contacts to get Fitz in, May still handles the extraction with push-button convenience from her comfy chair, and Skye and Simmons spend the episode waiting for something to do. Coulson is carrying a sidearm he won’t need to draw this time, owns a flying car he won’t need to fire up this time – the episode is over in thirty minutes!
I don’t know. Normal military tactics would be to secure as large a perimeter around your invasion site for this very reason - you want to expand large enough for defense. If the council had given the Chitauri a day or two to consolidate, they would have advanced out of Manhattan to seize more ground. They’d want to form a forward defensive zone in the Catskills and Connecticut and northern New Jersey so they can bring their reserves in securely. Now instead of blowing up New York City, you’d have to nuke a substantial portion of the East Coast. Defensively, your best bet is to hit invaders at the beach when they’re most vulnerable.
They may have taken Manhattan quickly enough but they would have been lucky to get past Brooklyn, North Jersey and of course the South Bronx. I mean lets be serious.
Harrumph. I see no reason for the pointless destruction of a perfectly fine sammich. Otherwise, another fun episode.
Well, there are certain sections of New York, Loki, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.
Is it a given that a nuke would have taken out the tesseract device? Because if not, all nuking the city would have done would have done would have been to clear a path, right?
I’d be surprised if it could take out the Tesseract – not only is it a sort of legendary item of power, but it was also surrounded by a shield that (according to Jarvis) was completely invulnerable to any attack. But, that may have been in regards to anything that Iron Man or the Avengers could dish out, and Jarvis may not have taken a nuke into consideration.
At any rate, the nuke would not have had to destroy or disable the Tesseract, per se. All it would have had to do was penetrate the shield, and disable or destroy the device which was generating the gateway.
wouldnt bringing down Stark Tower have atleast moved the gateway? - maybe unicorns would have come thru instead.
Or those critters from the ocean.
Sharknado? :eek:
I was thinking something more pacific - but yeah - those too!