Week 48: 4722 Hours, Among Us Hide...

4,722 Hours: Much better! I knew that an episode was coming that focused solely on Simmons surviving alone on what seemed to be a rogue planet, so I kind of had my hopes up for a Martian-style science-based survival story, and this hour partially delivered. I was disappointed at the arrival of Will and the inevitable love triangle that it promised, but I can forgive the show a bit for its limitations; broadcast TV can only afford to be so ambitious and probably couldn't have done an episode without anyone at all for Simmons to talk to (nor one without those opening credits that obstruct the dramatic footage of Simmons sizing up her new extraterrestrial home). The haunting images of Will burying his teammates and the shape-changing evil approaching Simmons in the sandstorm will stay with me for a long time. This affirms my belief that AOS is better off focusing on one story at a time. (7/10)

Among Us Hide… I wish I hadn't been spoiled that Garner was Lash, because that could have been a really fun reveal. (Was it for you?) What I didn't know until seeing this was that Garner was aware of his duality and consciously controlling the transitions; I thought it was more of an unconscious Jekyll-and-Hyde kind of thing where Garner truly had no idea. I would have preferred it that way, because Garner up to this point has been refreshingly different from other AOS characters; he has no use for the spy-business nonsense and respects rules and acts more or less like a normal person. Slotting him into the show's good-guys-bad-guys dichotomy makes him just as boring as everybody else.

Also revealed here, which I didn't know: Powers Boothe is back as his character from the World Security Council, last seen giving orders to Nick Fury in The Avengers, and he's revealed to be one of Hydra's last holdouts. (How many times has this show claimed to have exterminated Hydra only to have revealed still more well-heeled operatives out there in the world? I get that surviving extermination is kind of Hydra's whole deal, but the show should stop pretending that Hydra is finally dead for real this time you guys.) Too bad he's written to be just as dull as everyone else on this show; imagine what a veteran actor like Powers Boothe could do with really sparkling dialogue.

I demand answers: Is it even possible for Morse's batons to carry that much electrical charge? Why does the show keep doing stories about Coulson being distracted from his S.H.I.E.L.D. duties by something extracurricular when Coulson's devotion to S.H.I.E.L.D. was once his defining quality? There is no way that Banks doesn't realize that he was iced by a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent when he wakes up, right? I'm biased because I have criticized the production design's lack of specificity before, but was the show making fun of itself when it depicted the ATCU facility as a long white corridor with endless empty shelves? (5/10)

Ethics debate: Is the ATCU's treatment of "enhanced" individuals more or less humane than S.H.I.E.L.D.'s? To refresh, the latter imprisoned them extrajudicially and indefinitely if they proved dangerous, but otherwise allowed them to live normal lives, albeit with regular check-ins and a requirement not to use their powers in public.

Also, how about that moment where Coulson holds up his artificial arm and refers to himself as not completely human? Yikes. I bet a lot of people with disabilities were fuming at that.

Also, what's with the scene where Hunter argues to May that he was right to take the shot at Ward even though it likely cost Garner his life? So revenge against an enemy is more important than the lives of innocent people? I'm getting very tired of asking this, but S.H.I.E.L.D. are still supposed to be the good guys, right?