AoS season 2 ep 5

[shapinglight]

Watched this and...

Spoilers behind cut



...I now have an icon, as you can see.

However, I was disappointed by what happened in this episode. First, the whole Hunter/Agent Morse (is it?) squabbling exes does nothing for me, which I suspect is not going to change, and second I thought they could have done a lot more with Simmons working inside Hydra.

Instead, after only four episodes (because episode one doesn't really count, as the real Simmons wasn't in it), she has to be extracted.

And just as I was enjoying her 'friendship' with Derek (or whatever the bloke's name was) in a Fred/Knox sort of way, and enjoying the tension of how she would get away with pretending to be evil this week.

Oh well, there was stuff I liked, including the Raina/Coulson stand off, and the way Mr Bakshi speaks all the time through gritted teeth.

That's going way above and beyond to make sure the audience understand you're evil.

Comments

[liliaeth]

Honestly, my biggest issue with Simmons scenes is the whole bit where she mentions that millions are going to die, and her co-worker actually seems gleeful about the very idea of it.

And I'm like... why would anyone sane want to join an organization like that? It's just over the top. One of the things I liked about Winter Soldier was the way that the guy in charge (whose name I can't remember for some reason) genuinely believed he was doing the right thing and was supporting something worth believing in. He believed he was making the world a better place, and that all the evil he did was just unavoidable to create the perfect kind of world.

But what does Hydra stand for in AoS? What are they fighting for in this episode. I wouldn't mind them being willing to sacrifice tons of people to achieve a goal, or see them as an affordable loss. Hell, I could see a scientist getting excited about the scientific possibilities of the weapon. But to be actually gleeful about the murder of people, just because ...?

It felt a bit one dimensional.

[shapinglight]

And I'm like... why would anyone sane want to join an organization like that? It's just over the top.

The problem will all evil organisations. Why would anyone join them, when they clearly don't give a damn about their employees?

Anyway, I thought the scene you mention was just included to make the audience realise that they shouldn't feel sorry for Simmons' co-worker when he was dragged away to be made to feel 'uncomfortable' by Mr Bakshi.

[liliaeth]

But that's the thing, in pretty much most if not all cases, people who join evil organizations do so because they get something out of it. Either they believe in the cause the organization stands for, because it gave them a family, something to stand with, because it allows them freedom of scientific exploration, or purely for power or money...

But even then, there's a reason they're there.
I get what you're saying about the show using this as a reminder. But really, they could have done that just as easily with him geeking out over the science, without giving the death tole a second thought. But instead they made him actively happy about all the people they were going to kill.

[shapinglight]

I agree it was OTT, unless the guy was a frustrated spree killer.

[next_to_normal]

Yeah, this exactly. Him being gleeful about killing people was way too much of an anvil, and overall they've made Hydra too "evil for the sake of being evil." The most interesting bad guys are the ones who think they're the good guys.

[shapinglight]

The most interesting bad guys are the ones who think they're the good guys.

This is true. Hydra might as well change their name to Evil Incorporated.

[next_to_normal]

First, the whole Hunter/Agent Morse (is it?) squabbling exes does nothing for me

This mostly disappointed me because I was looking forward to Clint/Bobbi being squabbling exes in the MCU. I like them in the comics, and I thought Jeremy Renner and Adrianne Palicki would be fun together (plus it would mean Bobbi making an appearance in the films at some point). Hunter does nothing for me so far - I wish they'd just made Triplett a regular instead.

I do think there was a lot more to be gotten from Simmons being inside Hydra, although she's been established as a TERRIBLE liar, so it was stretching things a bit to think she'd learned to be that good that no one would catch on.

[shapinglight]

Hunter does nothing for me so far - I wish they'd just made Triplett a regular instead.

I want to like him because he's a Brit character using his own accent who isn't a baddie, but I don't think Nick Blood is a very good actor and so far they haven't sold me on way Hunter's there at all.

I knew we were bound to meet Hunter's wife at some point, but I actually hoped it would turn out to be Raina. He did say his ex wife was a demon.

[dalmeny]

I pretty much have to agree with you entirely this week.

[shapinglight]

Yeah, my least favourite episode so far. I hope it's not the start of a slide downhill into season 1 awfulness.