View Log: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "FZZT"

"FZZT," huh? That's the same sound my drink made when I opened it at the beginning of the episode. Said drink was some kind of strawberry daiquiri wine-cooler-type-thing, so I was not watching this episode entirely sober, but not technically drunk. I wake up wishing I were dead if I have more than one. I might be a lightweight, but I make up for that by weighing a lot. Heh, you might say I typed a View Log on an episode called FZZT while buzzed. Don't know if that's ironic, and I don't much care! Let's begin!

Actually, quick tangent first. So, Cablebox, you thought “Uh… Oh… Ah…” or whatever it was had a stupid name? At least those are sounds that the human mouth makes! I mean, “FZZT”? You might as well name the episode “Pkhkh.” Um, that’s the sound of a gunshot or something as done by my mouth. And then typed. Poorly.

This is completely irrelevant to everything, but I wonder if the blue-with-white-gloves S.H.I.E.L.D. uniforms from the comics will ever appear. Oh, yeah, the episode. Let's talk about it.

I like how the civilian Boy Scouts at the beginning got in the truck right away when they saw a floating sparking cup. In a world with the Hulk and aliens and whatnot, floating cups are bad news. The truck should have also acted like a Faraday Cage when the lightning hit it, so the fact that it blew open a hole in the hood is a bit inaccurate to say the least. At least, that’s what I thought before they explained that it was the battery shooting out that did that. Oh well.

Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts got back out to look for someone, which was obviously a bad idea. Seriously, 0-8-4's should be standard Boy Scout training in this universe.

Why didn't any of the Agents suspect Thor with all this lightning? I mean, come on, you'd think that would cross their minds. Hmmm... does this take place before or after the latest Thor film? Is that significant? I don't know, I haven't seen the latest one. (Note: yes, I am now aware that an upcoming episode will deal with the film’s aftermath.)

Now let's talk about Coulson, who got a physical in this episode.

Coulson: "I don't sweat, I glisten."

You're a robot now, aren't you, Coulson?

Simmons: "...all that's left is the blood sample."
Coulson: "You should know, I'm not a fan of getting poked."

Or are you a bloodless robot?

Coulson: "Took a call from my physical therapist, asked how I was feeling, I said, 'a little rusty.' Next thing, I'm wired to this hamster wheel."

Yep. He's a robot.

Simmons: "Let's get you some electrolytes, shall we?"

Or do you mean ELECTRICITY!? Okay, I'm reaching with that one.

Coulson: "I died. Some say it was only for eight seconds, but I know it was more than that."

Yeah, long enough to build a robot body? Oh, and when he gets the results of his unseen bloodtest back?

Coulson: "A little heavy on the iron."

We get it, Whedon; Coulson's a Life Model Decoy! In a twist, Coulson ordered all the tests for himself because he feels "different" and May reveals that she died once too.

Here's my theory: Melinda May's a robotic duplicate of the original Agent May, and she was an earlier model of LMD. As such, she has no emotions. Coulson's a newer model. He has emotions, but doesn't know he's a robot. Expect eventual drama regarding this.

Let’s talk about the other characters now. Skye is back to normal pretty fast. She seems to have rolled with the events of the previous episode. The relationship between Skye and Ward took a hit thanks to the events of the last episode, but it's not dead.

We see a bit into Ward's psyche; the worst thing you can do to him is put in in a situation where he can't help someone he cares about. I liked the bit where Ward said his new gun was too heavy, leaves, and they do nothing to it while he's gone. He comes back, they say they fixed it, and he likes it now. In the costume shop at my college's theatre department, we call that a "French Alteration." It also got a really good callback at the end when Ward and Simmons are talking.

Finally, Fitz and Simmons get their own episode. Fitz doesn't like corpses. Heh. More than just the corpse thing, we see that Fitz and Simmons have different personalities after all. Simmons pushed Fitz into S.H.I.E.L.D. when he wanted to be stuck in a lab. By the way, I told you all that there'd be an episode where Fitz and Simmons get separated! It's only by a glass quarantine wall, and only for less than half the episode, but I'm counting it. I like how the show shows us that the events of the Chitauri invasion in The Avengers still impacts events in the show's present. In this episode, a New York firehouse kept a Chitauri helmet as a souvenir, and recently cleaned the "rust" out of it. Thing is, they picked up an alien virus that's making their heads generate super-lightning. The virus transmits through static electricity, which is how Simmons gets infected. She survives, of course.

The solution was a clever one. The Chitauri wearing the helmet didn't die (of the virus), so must have logically been immune. Using alien DNA scraped from the inside of the helmet, they crate a vaccine anti-serum. Well, they try to. It fails at first.

Whedon loves him some twists, and Simmons bashing in Fitz's skull in order to run away and jump out of the plane when it seems that the vaccine anti-serum failed was something I did not see coming. Ward got to jump out and play hero, skydiving in front of a mediocre green screen.

Miscellaneous Comments
I loved the moment where Coulson comforts a dying man. It was a beautiful scene. Go watch it.

The "Sandbox" was mentioned for the first time. It's where they planned to put the helmet. Apparently, it's full of hazardous materials. I look forward to its inevitable appearance. It's across the Atlantic, in a desert, because putting it in the middle of a city would be stupid.
Cough, Beware the Batman, cough.

Coulson seems to have a minor hate-on for the Chitauri, which makes sense, given the events of the film.

Well, that was a good episode. It contributed nothing to the overall plot, but it was a very well done character piece. Who knows? This show could end up becoming the must-watch show for seasons to come! I hope so.

See you next time!

(Originally posted on 11/7/13)