Week 70: Parting Shot, Watchdogs

Parting Shot: Nice title. The whole ending scene at the bar was nicely done, in fact. Normally I take silent farewells as a sign of unimaginative writing, but this show's loquacious spies only stop talking for something important, and it was earned. I don't believe that Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter would have quit the team so easily, a double-sacrifice that felt abrupt and unnecessary; it only makes sense if you know that Marvel was trying to set up a spin-off series for the pair that sadly never happened. (Release the pilot, Feige!) I assume that the song playing in the bar scene was also intended as a reference to the spin-off series.

Other thoughts: The mushroom soup bit was fun. Did anyone else get the sense that the epilogue with Stephanie Malick was tacked on because the episode ran two minutes short? I did not care for Melinda May's hypocritical sanctimony in her confrontation with Hunter, but at least the show resolved their conflict with an apology. The spy mission at the center of the episode was clumsily written: During this ultra-secret meeting between heads of state, how are so many agents able to sneak up on them that they double the number of people in the room without anybody noticing? (6/10)

Erik, you asked recently if the "zero matter" from Agent Carter would come up again. Here it is, in the form of this Russian officer who can manifest his shadow into physical form. I don't know about you, but I thought it was neat.

Watchdogs: There is so much shit here that I don't understand. The Watchdogs oppose government secrecy about Inhumans because they don't like the idea of anyone running around free to use dangerous, violent powers without oversight, and they choose to express this opinion by using dangerous, violent, impossibly high-tech weapons to implode a building without oversight or exposure of their identities? Alphonso Mackenzie's brother Ruben is mad about predatory corporations and "late-stage capitalism" (not his words; I'm just tired of that overused cliché), so he makes the very logical next step, hating Inhumans? Jemma Simmons blames herself for letting out Lash to kill Hydra soldiers and May insist that their deaths weren't her fault even though YES THEY FUCKING WERE MAY? Ruben's pissed after discovering that Mack is an anti-Watchdog government official and waits for him to come home to explain, but then refuses to let him talk and walks out the door immediately after demanding an explanation? Daisy Johnson says that S.H.I.E.L.D. is about saving lives no matter the cost in civil liberties, and, wait, yes, actually, that part tracks with the rest of the series, never mind. :-(

For once, a character on this show (Mack) raises an objection to S.H.I.E.L.D. violating everyone's civil liberties, and THAT'S what I want to see a ton more of on this show. Daredevil is far from perfect, but its characters question whether they're doing the right thing and whether their moral compromises are worth making. This show's protagonists (I hesitate to call them heroes) plow ahead with terrible plans and little or no sense of ethics and almost never question themselves. For a show that so often spins its narrative wheels because it's hard to churn out 22 episodes every year, it sure seems to me like there should be plenty of time for conversations like the one that Mack initiates.

The writers seem to be of the opinion that the shotgun ax running joke is one of those "so stupid it becomes funny" things. I'm not a fan, though I do appreciate more humor in the show. The shotgun ax reminds me of a tabletop RPG campaign, where one player's dumb idea in character can take on a life of its own as a running joke forever after.

Once again, Daisy refuses to follow a direct order from a superior officer at a critical point during a mission and makes everything worse. I don't know how she keeps getting promoted, let alone sticks around at all. Do you remember the final episode of M*A*S*H, when Hawkeye and B.J. decided to show some respect to the departing Colonel Potter by doing something that they'd never done before, and saluted him? I hope that this series ends with Daisy finally obeying one of Phil Coulson's orders as a final tribute to him.

Other thoughts: Did anybody check to see if someone was working in that imploded building, like a security guard? There were two nice callbacks to other MCU shows in that scene, one being the return of Howard Stark's implosion-causing nitramene from Agent Carter, and the other being the news chyron's reference to the Hell's Kitchen gang war happening in Daredevil. If little brother Ruben is called "Mini Mack," does that make big brother Alphonso "Big Mac?" (4/10)

Parting Shot: The farewell in the bar actually almost brought a tear to my eye. I thought that maybe this was going to be another fake-out departure. We'd see them back somehow in an episode or two. But the way it was done makes me think that maybe this is for real... or they sold it real good.

After reading Scott's comments on the episode, however, I guess they're truly gone? Or at least as series regulars.

Regarding General Peter Pan's shadow: I agree that it was an interesting concept for an inhuman power. Is it the same as Zero Matter, though?

I get that Fitz and Simmons are super smart and everything, but it's a peeve of mine when someone on a show can just immediately surmise the structure and source of a brand new phenomenon. I loved the Stargate series, but it was a point that irked me quite often that Captain Carter in that show somehow always had a theory of how to confront every brand new threat they encountered. I know, these shows would become mind-numbingly dull if every time a new threat appeared, they would cut to a "Let's do the research!" montage. But, at least some hint that they needed to at least do a Google search would be nice.

Watchdogs
Scott, you summed it all up pretty well, and I don't know that I have much to add.

My first thought when they imploded that ATCU facility was, how the hell did an ATCU facility not have some sort of surveillance on their own facilities to know that a bunch of masked people were standing around outside wearing masks and carrying guns? It's not a secret facility. The news even said it was a federal building. It would stand to reason that there would be some sort of security around it. Hell, even the local Post Office seems to have more awareness of the goings-on than this ATCU facility did.

Yep, that was the end of Morse and Hunter as AOS characters. I don't mind that Most Wanted never proceeded if it was truly going to be bad, but I am dying to see how the unaired pilot episode turned out (sometimes the worst programs have a way of being fascinating), and I hope that it eventually gets released on Disney+ in the spirit of "hey check out this weird little thing we made once" like the Team Thor shorts.

I like your points about FitzSimmons making intuitive leaps and shoddy ATCU security. All sorts of things like that bug me in AOS. When I start to complain, Kelly tells me "you're overthinking it," and she's right. The show does not deserve more consideration from its audience than it got from its writers and studio. :-\