Anyone who knows me knows I like the eighties. The clothes, the music, the movies, etc.; I love it all. So I was pretty excited to see the team stuck in this decade for a two-episode stint. However, “The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D” didn’t feature much in the way of any of the things I loved to see in films of that era. I mean besides the Chopping Mall robots and Deke singing his rendition of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” there wasn’t too much in the way of ’80s references.
Honestly, my favorite part of the episode was seeing the shotgun axe return. Unfortunately, it was underused in the episode and I didn’t see one glimpse of it in the following episode when Mack and Deke reunite with the rest of the team. Oh, and Coulson escaped death which I think we all knew he would. It is definitely his superpower now.
Although episode 7 did include some good character building moments between Deke and Mack, I found “After, Before” to be the better episode of the two. We got to see the whole team (except for Fitz!!!) argue and interact, as well as see May and Yo-Yo embark on their own personal mission… which brought Jiaying, Daisy’s mother, back for a guest shot. It was great seeing a younger version of Jiaying help Yo-Yo come to grips with her inhuman powers, though it was May in the end who helped her learn not to always bounce back. So Yo-Yo is now essentially a speedster which takes away a bit of what made her power so interesting, but is a good development for the character.
Speaking of character development, you know who’s lacking in some? FITZ! Where is he? I was under the impression that Iain De Caestecker was only going to miss the first six episode due to a scheduling conflict. The season is now more than half over and we still haven’t seen a glimpse of him. I would like to see the full team reunited before the series finale!
However, I have a theory about where Fitz is an what he might be planning. As we saw in “Before, After,” May gave Jiaying and a young Gordon a watch with coordinates and a timer for where they have to be for the next time jump. Now if that watch continues to reset it’s possible that Jiaying and Gordon could have a future role to play in the season. In fact, I think that the season (which is setting up Nathaniel Malick as the big bad) will culminate with an Avengers: Endgame like moment that sees past heroes and allies from the show plucked from their timelines to help defeat Malick and his burgeoning team of rogue inhumans.
Imagine seeing Ghost Rider, Grant Ward, Tripp, Mockingbird, Lance Hunter, Lincoln, Deathlok, Victoria Hand, maybe even Lady Sif and Maria Hill step out of portals ready to fight Malick. It would be epic! The season is definitely looking to shift away from the Chronicoms by incorporating more inhumans in the back half which I think is a smart move as the inhumans were always some of the best storylines the show dealt with. Seeing all the fan favorites appear in the last episode would certainly make the show go out with a bang!
To wrap up this random stream of thoughts I will add that Sousa has definitely been the best part of this season (asking Yo-Yo what powers she had was a great moment), but I am unsure of the relationship with Daisy the show seems to subtly be teasing. I would definitely choose Sousa over Deke, but I hope the writers aren’t just doing it to have Deke have some petty jealousy against Sousa.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 7 continues tonight with episode 9 “As I Have Always Been,” directed by Simmons herself Elizabeth Henstridge.
What were some of your favorite moments from these two episodes of the season? Which characters do you hope to see return during back half of the season? Tell me down in the comments!
