Time is running out for the agents in their fight against Nathaniel Malick and the Chronicoms. Even when it seems they achieve a victory, a big setback occurs. Last week the agents managed to liberate the captive Inhumans, but the cost was the kidnapping of one of their own.
Warning: There will definitely be spoilers for Season 7, Episode 11 of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD below.
(All images courtesy of ABC Studios).
Sister, Sister
Daisy watches the monitors as the Zephyr with Simmons and Deke, hijacked by John Garrett and Nathaniel Malick, disappears off the SHIELD satellites. They realize the Zephyr must have gone above radar.
Coulson, Mack, and Yo-Yo arrive with Kora and the other prisoners. The Inhumans have been dropped off at a hospital to get checked out. Kora starts talking to to Daisy, but she immediately pins her against the wall demanding to know where they’re taking Simmons. Mack orders her to stand down. Kora insists she wants to become an agent of SHIELD.
When Coulson questions Kora, she says she’s the perfect candidate to become an agent. Their goal is to reduce suffering. They’ve seen the future. She apologizes to Mack about losing her parents but points out that’s the proof they needed. Coulson says it’s proof this is a new timeline. Kora says it’s a brand new day. Now they can make SHIELD the best it can be. When May asks how Kora plans on doing that, Kora replies, “Killing.” Mack says that’s not the SHIELD motto. She elaborates that she can give thirty names of people they can kill now to save thousands of innocents. Coulson says it sounds like Project Insight with a fancy new bow.
The Man Out Of Time And Quake
Daisy wants to talk to Kora alone. She wants to know why she’s really there. Kora just says she always wanted a sibling. They talk briefly about childhoods, and Daisy suddenly leaves. Sousa runs into Sousa in the hall after she grabs a bag. He knows she’s going to do “something stupid” on her own. He goes with her to a quinjet. She plans on taking it even though she’s never flown one. She says pretty much everyone has flown one, so how hard could it be? Sousa points out flying out to space will use all their fuel. Daisy says they’ll float and hopefully reach the Zephyr. Then Mack comes on board. He asks how she expects to get the hangar doors open without the Director’s authorization? He also knows the only way to defeat Sibyl is to be unpredictable. He opens the hangar. “How’s that for unpredictable?”
When they reach space, Sousa is in awe. Daisy and Mack talk. She asks him if he thinks their original timeline is still out there. She fills him in on Enoch saying they’ll survive this mission, but it’ll be their last. Mack points out they can always call each other on the phone like people used to do in the 80s. She says she can’t see them turning into people who just used to worked together. They’re her family. She doesn’t know who she is without him and starts choking up. Mack says she knows exactly who she is and catches her taking a glance at Sousa. He calls her on that.
Daisy tells Mack she and Sousa kind of kissed during the time bubble, but he doesn’t know anything about it now. Mack says that’s messed up. He starts smiling because now Yo-Yo owes him twenty bucks. Later when Daisy is sleeping, Mack asks Sousa what his intentions are. He’s not sure what Mack is talking about then says he doesn’t have any intentions with Daisy. Mack tells him he better get some and quick because of how things are going. He points out Daisy’s been hurt, and it’s great she’s ready to dive back in with him. He tells Sousa he’s a good man but quickly points out he’s not about to let her get hurt. Sousa says he gets that he’s threatening him. Mack clarifies it’s not just him; it’s every member of the team. They also have technology he’s never even seen. Sousa makes it clear he would never hurt her.
Mack chuckles over the idea of “The Man out of Time and Quake.” He says it sounds like a comic book. Sousa is confused by what he called her. Mack says they call her Quake. It’s like her superhero name. Sousa asks him if he knows how hilarious that sounds. Later Sousa teases Daisy by referring to her Quake name over and over. He says they should put it on her utility belt so people know who she is. Mack chuckles as they tease each other.
May And Kora Talk
May tries talking to Kora. Kora tells May she knows who she is. She’s the Cavalry. Kora is appalled at what May did to “that Inhuman girl” and starts getting angry. When May tells her to calm down and control herself, Kora demonstrates control by unleashing her hand and a blast against the wall. The result is all the power in the Lighthouse goes out.
Coulson notices power failure also shut down their firewall. Now Sibyl can access their systems. He says Sibyl is basically just code now, and he knows what that’s like. May asks him if he can read Sibyl’s code on the computer screen. He can see she’s looking for a communication file.
The power outage opened the door to the prisoners’ cell. One materializes a blade and walks up behind Yo-Yo. She grabs him and zips him into the communications room along with the other prisoner. She tells them he tried to cut her throat. The guy replies he was just following orders. Coulson tells Kora these are the lives Malick is saving, not heroes. These are hitmen who owe their lives to Malick. Kora fires up a beam and shoots the guy, creating a huge hole in his chest. She asks Coulson if that’s better?
Yo-Yo asks Kora what the first name on her list is. If she’s going to kill, they might as well point her in the right direction. May starts talking about consequences to any death, but Kora interrupts by loudly saying the name, “Grant Ward.” After a fraction of a pause, Coulson says he’s just a kid right now. She looks at May and points out May isn’t against killing a kid. She says May could be with Andrew, Coulson could have Rosalind back, and Daisy could be with Lincoln. Coulson then asks if she’s going to kill Malick’s right hand man John Garrett next since he’s the one who turned Ward. Kora claims without Garrett, Ward would have been worse. Coulson counters that they saw a world (in the Framework) where Grant was good. People can change if put on the right path.
Kora tells them this is who she is and who she’s meant to be. Someday she’ll even show her mom. May says Jiaying is there. Why not show her now? May takes to to another area and says she’s going to give Kora something no one’s given her in a long time–the truth. Kora sees her mother’s body and says she should be able to heal. Maybe she just needs a little help, and she tries giving some of her energy. Kora realizes Jiaying’s neck is shattered and assumes it was Daisy. May tells her it was Malick. Kora then suggests Jiaying must have attacked Malick or he was protecting her. May clarifies that Jiaying died protecting Daisy from Malick.
May says Jiaying wasn’t perfect, but she knows they loved each other. She felt it. May says Nathaniel is just using her. Kora claims Nathaniel saved her and taught her to live again. They start fighting, and Kora unleashes a big blast that May narrowly misses. When she tries telling Kora to calm down again, Garrett arrives and teleports her away.
Fitz? Who’s Fitz?
Deke was immediately captured on the Zephyr. Simmons is lying on a Chronicom device, and Malick is frustrated because he should be able to see any memory of hers that he wants. He’s angry she’s blocking him somehow, but she says she’s not. Deke is brought in to provide more incentive for Simmons’ cooperation. Garrett starts hitting him in front of Simmons. When the beating doesn’t do anything, he threatens to crack Simmons’ skull in order to dig around in there. He notices three glowing lights on her neck and realizes she has an implant.
Simmons tries explaining she’s the only one who can use the device, but Malick ignores her. They both go into the Chronicom device, and he starts to see memories of Simmons and Fitz. She says the more he digs, the deeper Fitz will go until he disappears completely.
Malick sees a memory of Enoch’s Chronicom friend telling them they have to act, and this will be the hardest thing they’ve ever done. Malick skips ahead. Now he sees Simmons and Enoch studying her brain. Fitz comes in to talk to her alone. He says they don’t have to rush once they get the time device to work. They can take some time to live before heading to the temple to save the others. They can just live together and not worry about the end of the world. Simmons asks if this has anything to do with “the blood work,” but Fitz just wants to take some time alone. Malick wants to see their final memory together.
Malick sees Fitz and Simmons arguing. She’s saying this isn’t what the implant was built for. She was just supposed to forget his location, that’s all. Fitz says that was before they knew. She has to be strong. If she remembers, she won’t be strong enough to do what needs to be done. Malick is upset because none of these memories have given the location of Fitz. He gets out of the machine and says she and Deke have scored front row seats to the greatest show on Earth. He leaves and Simmons goes to check on Deke. Deke asks if she’s okay. He gathers that Malick didn’t find the location of Fitz. Simmons looks at him and says, “Fitz? Who’s Fitz?”
The Beginning Of The End?
Coulson continues working on the computers to see what Sibyl is doing. The last thing she accessed was the SHIELD bases. He suddenly realizes what she’s up to.
Malick sees a bunch of Chronicom starships suddenly appear in space. He radios them and says they may fire whenever they want. They begin to fire on Earth.
Coulson calls The Hub (one of SHIELD’s bases). The person he talks to is a little confused because he thought the Lighthouse was decommissioned. The radio cuts out. On the big screen, they see other SHIELD bases start to have communications cut off. Coulson knows they’re destroying SHIELD. The Triskelion is shown getting hit by a beam and blows up.
Malick watches from space. Garrett is happy because he always wanted to be part of something bigger. Malick says they’re just getting started. He sees Kora and tells her he couldn’t have done it without her. He starts to kiss her and she reciprocates despite the fact he killed her mom.
Thoughts
This week’s episode finally addresses the timeline issue. They are no longer in the regular timeline. That is the only logical explanation at this point. Too much has been altered which would affect the entire Cinematic Universe. You can start to give yourself a headache trying to figure it all out. For example, if they are now in a different timeline, does that mean they just ceased to exist in their original timeline? Can they even return to that timeline? What exactly will happen to the team to make this their final mission?
We finally get some information on Fitz. I can’t help but be curious if there was a reason why he couldn’t or didn’t want to play a bigger role. It doesn’t seem likely the writers just decided to not write a bigger role for him.
There are a couple interesting things to be taken from the scenes with Fitz and Simmons. She mentions something about “the blood work.” My immediate thought was she was pregnant. We don’t know how much time passed between those memories Malick spied on. In one, Simmons had bangs. In the other, her hair was pulled back, which wouldn’t be possible with bangs. She was distraught about having to forget more than just Fitz’s location. Is she forgetting that she’s pregnant or that she already gave birth to their child, Deke’s mom? At first I was confused when she asked Deke who Fitz was. That must mean the implant was still in her head and hides more of her memories the more it’s pushed. Because Malick kept digging, it seems she’s lost all memories of Fitz.
Kora must have something planned for Malick. She could have easily doubted May’s explanation that Malick killed Jiaying. It seems more likely that Kora is going to play it cool and get her revenge on him when the time is right. She seems to be good at deception. She claimed to want to be with her sister and part of SHIELD when she was really there to give Sibyl access to SHIELD’s computer system.
Will Daisy and Sousa find happiness? Hopefully she won’t have to lose another love interest. It still seems weird she will no longer be part of a team with “her family.” This is why we need a Quake spin off show. She can go off and do her own thing while Mack and Elena settle down. Maybe May and LMD Coulson would try heading back to the beach.
The unfortunate thing is we have one more week of Agents of SHIELD. It will be a two-hour finale with the final two episodes. It’s just weird to think I’ll be sitting in front of the keyboard writing about these characters one final time…
What the Heck is going on?!? 