Week 76: Ascension, The Ghost

Ascension: I liked this overall. Seeing Hive's true form made a big difference for me in connecting with him as a character, and it's a shame that it took so long. I have complained about the character's somnolence as recently as last episode, but the calmness with which he accepted his inevitable death while floating in zero gravity with Lincoln Campbell felt like the right tone, and contributed to one of the best scenes of the season, though it would have been nice if they could have sprung for the money to show his true face one last time in that scene of all scenes.

Lincoln should have been made an agent posthumously, symbolically completing his arc. If I were the writer, I'd have added a line to his final conversation with Daisy Johnson in which he said that if Phil Coulson still wants to give him what he offered a few days ago, he'd be honored. He wasn't much of a character, but he was growing on me, and I'm disappointed that he won't be around in the future; his romance with Johnson did little for the series, but his tension with Coulson added more, and it's too bad for Coulson that two of his best scene partners, Campbell and Lance Hunter, departed in the same season. Speaking of Coulson, I'm glad that the "Jerkass Coulson" of earlier this season seems to be gone for good; that guy was very unwelcome. Daisy said near the end that "Lincoln's paying for my mistake," and Coulson replied, "No he's paying for all of ours," but Coulson should have said, "No he's paying for mine," to be clear that Coulson understands how much responsibility he personally bears for what happened, and not just in a dotted-line sense as the boss.

The idea of the Primitives being blind in higher temperatures was a little silly but just effective enough for the usual chase-each-other-around-the-base game that this show likes to play. The epilogue was neat, too, quickly setting up all kinds of new stories for a fourth season while also having a nice callback to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s obligation to the Hinton family. I don't know how I feel yet about Johnson (apparently) going rogue at the end, since it feels misplaced: I've spent most of this series frustrated that Johnson never faces accountability for her many, many mistakes, and now she's going out of her way to take responsibility for things that are not her fault because she was mind-controlled at the time. Bad writing of Johnson continues to undermine the series overall, but now that we're at the halfway point, I know that I want to see how the rest of it plays out. (7/10)

season rating: 6/10 (It was ok.)
best of season: "Many Heads, One Tale"
worst of season: "Closure"

Team Thor: Man, I remember when this came out, how fresh it seemed. In hindsight, it's clearly an attempt to prime the audience for Thor's reintroduction as a comedic character in Thor: Ragnarok (this short was written and directed by Taika Waititi during production of that film), and served that purpose very well; mission accomplished. But today, the jokes fall a little flat; the novelty really made the difference. (6/10)

The Ghost: I've known since before starting the series that some version of Marvel's Ghost Rider would become a part of this series. His debut was impressive as an action sequence, but given that the character belongs to the old-fashioned tradition of superheroes having secret identities, I'm honestly surprised that the series didn't introduce Ghosty's human form much sooner, to give us a chance to become surprised when he makes the transformation into a flaming skeleton. Then again, fans probably would have guessed it from the character's name alone.

How did the Aryan Brotherhood get rocket launchers? Should I bother asking? Another question of the same futility: Will the show make anything out of two non-white heroes fighting off the Aryan Brotherhood together? Oh well. The demonic faces as seen from Melinda May's perspective were neat. (5/10)

Regarding Lincoln Campbell: I like him too, more for resisting Phil Coulson's overtures than for his lifeless romance with Daisy Johnson. The show needs more outsiders like him who see S.H.I.E.L.D. as the dangerous paramilitary cult that it is and want no part of joining it. Too many of the show's characters are all-in without question. (For some reason, I'm reminded of Deep Space Nine, the first Star Trek series to take outsider perspectives seriously, in the form of Kira, Quark, Odo, and others who were wary of Starfleet and the Federation instead of reverent towards them. That was such a refreshing and illuminating new perspective.)

Regarding Team Thor: Yeah, the part with Tony Stark recruiting Bruce Banner was inconsistent. But hey, so was Banner being on Earth at this point in time, when he should have been on Sakaar, according to Thor: Ragnarok. Some fans argued that this was further proof of the shorts not being canon; me, I simply considered it a plot hole on par with Tony trying to get Abomination to join the Avengers at the very end of The Incredible Hulk, an inconsistency later repaired by another short.