Agents of SHIELD

[yendi]

So about two thirds of the way into the show, I mentioned to shadesong the possibility of a "Whedon Swerve." Not that Jed or Maurissa are the same as their brother/brother-in-law, but it's a thing (and a comics thing in general). And sure enough, we had Tripp dying and Mac surviving. Both relief and heartbreak. And, of course, everything about the casting implies that if any character was going to die, it would be Lance, since he's the love interest of Mockingbird (who clearly won't die given her "major Marvel character" status, although given the death of Victoria Hand, that's probably not 100% assured), with Mac (who barely has a comics analogue) a close second. Tripp has ties to the classic SHIELD agents from years before, so you'd think you'd keep the one piece of continuity that will tie into Agent Carter, right?

But this is about shock and heartbreak. Killing Tripp literally just as Skye (aka Quake, we now learn) gets her powers? Talk about a way to tie two events together. The fact that Tripp is one of my favorite characters doesn't make this easy, but I think that's the point here. We also got a secondary Whedon swerve in the form of saving his life two weeks back, of course.

Of course, Mac surviving means that whatever story's going on with him and Bobbi will continue. And Mac will get more scenes with Fitz, I hope.

And there was just so much going on here. The death of Whitehall, for one. I'm still not sure if he's permadead -- I mean, he's absorbed the powers of an Inhuman -- but if he is, it's a quick "pull the rug" moment that's well-played, and Coulson stealing the moment from Cal is brilliant. Hell, every scene with Cal was brilliant, because Kyle MacLachlan was amazing.

And we know that Skye/Daisy/Quake is an Inhuman now. But what's Raina? It looked almost like a quill was growing out of her, and I suppose Quill's a minor enough character that they could use that concept, but I'm not sure where they're going with her.

And Agent 33 -- a character I'd figured would die this episode -- running off with Ward? God, I can't wait to see where that goes. Likewise, Skye shooting Ward, and his look of "I'm the enemy?" was just awesome.

Gah. I do NOT want to wait until March.