After four weeks of Framework-set shenanigans, SHIELD’s finally found its way back to reality. Well, the show’s version of reality. Listen, I’m not about to give someone an existential crisis right now.
I talked a bit in my last SHIELD post about how I felt the Frameworks storyline got stale as the weeks went by, even though I can’t deny I was still entertained by it. These past two episodes, however, provided a far from stale ending (of sorts) to our time there AND an awesome look at the repercussions of the trip.
“Farewell, Cruel World!” opened by presenting Daisy,Simmons and Coulson with a difficult objective: convince May, Mack and Fitz that the Framework reality wasn’t real, and then convince them to leave and come back to the real world. No pressure.
This problem lent quite a bit to the episode’s suspense, especially in Fitz and Simmons’ case. These past few weeks, it’s been made pretty clear that getting Fitz back to reality would be tough, not only in convincing him to go, but also because of the inevitable guilt he would feel once he returned. Luckily, Simmons was willing to take the risk and, whoops, she shot his father. This led to a quite intense confrontation between the two, one which I was genuinely unsure of what the outcome would be. Iain De Caestecker gave played Fitz in such a sadistic, desperate way in that scene that I was concerned that he would actually kill Simmons. It was such a jarringly different way of seeing those two together. Good thing Radcliffe stepped in at the last minute.
The entire escape sequence, including the aforementioned FitzSimmons scene, had an awesome, cinematic feel to it. There were the emotional moments, including Radcliffe’s apology, Coulson taking the risk and jumping through first and Mack’s choice to stay behind, and then there were the technical aspects: the harsh lighting, Bear McCreary’s score, the visual effects, the editing. They all worked together to give us another edge-of-your-seat climax.
Then everyone (except Mack and Radcliffe) is back in the real world, Fitz is freaking out (as expected), Aida/Ophelia’s turned herself into a real girl (now with INHUMAN POWERS™), leading us into “The Return.”
The most surprising part of “The Return” was how Aida was handled. Just as Aida was struggling to comprehend newfound feelings, including empathy and sympathy, I was feeling empathy and sympathy for her. A lot of that is thanks to Mallory Jansen’s performance(s). Her earnestness to do good, and her seemingly realizing that what she did was wrong, was convincing enough that when the penny dropped and she snapped back to evil Aida, I was a bit shocked. A bit. I mean, come on, it couldn’t have been that easy to turn her good, right?
In the wake of escaping from the Framework, we got to see Coulson, May and Fitz grapple with their actions there, and the fact that they have memories from two separate lives. It was actually pretty fun in regards to Coulson and May…but tragic for Fitz. We saw at the end of the previous episode that Fitz wasn’t taking what he did as a HYDRA leader so well, and “The Return” allowed him and Simmons to work out what the heck happened separately. After some heart-to-hearts with their friends (Fitz’s talk with Aida turns particularly deadly), it was satisfying to see the two reconcile in a perfect, wordless moment.
Coulson and May didn’t deal with their other selves as head-on as Fitz did, but, as I said, they glossed over it in an admittedly fun way. The most interesting parts of this part of the story were the smaller, lighter things. Like Coulson’s “seeing this with his own eyes” line, realizing that May hasn’t spent this much time in reality since the midseason finale (yeah, really), Coulson getting cold feet about telling May that he kissed her LMD doppelganger, and May getting pissed that Coulson drank their booze. Oh,and Coulson slicing that Robo-Superior’s face off with his shield. Pretty sick. All that being said, I hope we get to see Coulson and May deal with their time in the Framework, and the elephant in the room concerning their relationship, either in the finale or in Season 5.
Oh yeah, that’s right, we are indeed getting a fifth season!
And, oh yeah, GHOST RIDER’S BACK.
Noah
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