# Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D S03E02: Purpose of the Machine **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 7, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769 "2015-10-07T00:17:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/41 "2015-10-08T16:49:57Z")
And the voice of Mr. Ping in everything associated with _Kung Fu Panda_. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/42 "2015-10-08T16:59:08Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > James Hong plays May’s father. He has a ton of acting credits, including things people should have seen. He played the villain Lo Pan in _Big Trouble in Little China_. He was the maitre de in the _Seinfeld_ episode where they spend the entire time waiting in line at a Chinese restaurant. He was in _Blade Runner_, which everybody should have seen at least twice! The correct response was “Shut up muldoonthief! You are not put upon this world to get it.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/43 "2015-10-08T17:13:38Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > The correct response was “Shut up muldoonthief! You are not put upon this world to get it.” Now this really pisses me off to no end! ---
**Author:** ![Gothic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Gothic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gothic)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/44 "2015-10-08T17:37:17Z")
He can reprise this role now with no make up. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/es1vQl_S55Y/hqdefault.jpg "Lo Pan - "Now this really pisses me off to no end!"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es1vQl_S55Y) ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/45 "2015-10-08T18:46:41Z")
I was really hoping his name would be James Woo. [http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/James\_Woo\_(Earth-616)](http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/James_Woo_(Earth-616)) And then they’d cast a young Asian actor to play rookie SSR agent Jimmy Woo on Agent Carter. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/46 "2015-10-09T00:32:18Z")
The Skrull was waiting patiently under the sand for the monolith to deliver another victim so it could dig itself out, kill the hapless visitor and take her form… Classic skrullduggery. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/47 "2015-10-13T08:12:31Z")
Did they use carbon dating on sand? Sand from another planet? I think I’d rather they used meaningless technobabble than misapply real science. But maybe they used their whole technobabble budget talking about how the portal worked. ---
**Author:** ![emarkp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/48 "2015-10-13T15:26:26Z")
Yes, they did use ‘carbon dating’ on sand (on a foreign planet with a different ecosystem, carbon content, etc.). That hurt. But these moments I just shout for my kids, “comic book science!” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/49 "2015-10-13T19:31:17Z")
I cringed a little at that, too. Carbon-dating in itself is only good for ~50-60,000 years, other radio-isotopes are used for longer periods, and of course if the environment is utterly alien, there’s no baseline to which a sample can be compared. The worst example, as I recall, was in _Timecop_ when someone carbon-dated some gold bullion. Better to have just said they found some minerals in the sand that never occur naturally on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/50 "2015-10-14T02:01:11Z")
Well, as of now it looks like it is Jemma, rather than a space phantom. I suppose she has an appropriate amount of PTSD for having lived on the local flora of a distant planet for months. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/51 "2015-10-14T23:47:48Z")
Didn’t get a chance to post to this Thread when it was current, but since it was active as recently as yesterday … > [@pricciar](#): > > So, Ward’s Hydra has access to the Baron’s fortunes again, but also a new young evil doer to mold to do his bidding. My favorite little touch from this episode: Ward returns once the kid has beaten the Hydra tormentor, the kid has passed “initiation” as it were. Ward has brought tacos. He even says in response to the kid’s anger, “I brought tacos.” When Garrett returned to retrieve Ward from the woods, Ward having passed the initiation that Garrett had set for him, Garrett brought tacos. In response to Ward’s anger, he says “I brought tacos.” Ward uses the same inflection delivering the line “I brought tacos” as Garrett did. The graphic on the take-out bag even matches, shows that it’s the same taco place that Garrett went to (this detail, I thought, was overkill). But with that one little detail they’ve set up a parallel between the Ward/StruckerKid relationship and the Garrett/Ward relationship. I liked that. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/52 "2015-10-15T14:57:58Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Didn’t get a chance to post to this Thread when it was current, but since it was active as recently as yesterday … > My favorite little touch from this episode: > Ward returns once the kid has beaten the Hydra tormentor, the kid has passed “initiation” as it were. Ward has brought tacos. He even says in response to the kid’s anger, “I brought tacos.” > > When Garrett returned to retrieve Ward from the woods, Ward having passed the initiation that Garrett had set for him, Garrett brought tacos. In response to Ward’s anger, he says “I brought tacos.” > > Ward uses the same inflection delivering the line “I brought tacos” as Garrett did. The graphic on the take-out bag even matches, shows that it’s the same taco place that Garrett went to (this detail, I thought, was overkill). But with that one little detail they’ve set up a parallel between the Ward/StruckerKid relationship and the Garrett/Ward relationship. I liked that. I missed that callback. Thanks for posting it! ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769/53 "2015-10-15T15:43:19Z")
Me, too. Cool. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-s03e02-purpose-of-the-machine/733769.md?page=2)