#retagged

[notinearth210]

Doc and his “Tells Me Who's Knocking at the Fedora”...

(Doc from The 7D)

[ryder616]

Beating the Odds

How the team messed up The Plan and saved two worlds instead of one (aka me trying to understand the S7′s time traveling plot)

The team goes back to 1931, ostensibly to prevent the Chronicoms from mucking up the founding of S.H.I.E.L.D., but in reality that's only a secondary objective.

The true main objectives, which they are kept unaware of for plot convenience mission security, are:

branch a new timeline to acquire the key resource they need to win in the OG Timeline (Kora)

plant Enoch in the past so he can craft the Quantum Bridge components and disseminate them through history to provide the means to travel between timelines.

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s continuous existence along the way will make it much easier to preserve Club Swordfish and have enough dedicated people to safekeep and eventually deliver the machine components but it's not as vital as placing Enoch in the past¹.

Note #1: FitzSimmons have the timestream device so I assume they chose this method of delivery for the QB machine because it had the highest probabilities of success while still keeping it all covert. However, this system has no redundancy: all the components are unique and the machine can only be fully assembled at Club Swordfish to allow Fitz to travel and by just one person (Jemma). So it feels like one more way they beat the odds.

As for the team, they just need to survive² to reach the 1980s to essentially do with Kora what they did with Sousa: save her life, pluck her out of time and bring her along with them. How they get there doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things, as long as it doesn’t mess with Kora’s existence (and survival) or the Quantum Bridge apparatus, because The Plan doesn’t include dealing with whatever fallout will result from the Chronicoms’ and the team’s actions in the branched timeline. The numbers are bad for that and FitzSimmons have faith in mathematics.

Note #2: not programming exceptions for the team in Enoch’s lethal security measures to prevent the removal of Jemma’s implant seems rather shortsighted (read: makes no sense other than it was needed for As I Have Always Been), as the team’s survival is just as crucial as protecting the secret of Fitz’s location.  

Keeping the team unaware of their true objectives assures (educated guess) that Sybil won’t be able to predict what those are - and if they’re captured, scanning their brains will reveal nothing - but certainly complicates matters for them. The fact that Fitz says “we hoped you’d survive this far” (7x13) hints at how much.

While preserving³ the timeline is not essential, it isn’t a mock objective either. The less changes, the less unpredictable dangers should crop up and the more accurate the prediction model likely is. This is true for Sybil’s prediction model as well, which explains why the Chronicoms initially went for a “surgical” approach, pulling a single thread to unravel the inconvenient parts of the future only (“We must be delicate with Time”, 7x03)

In practice, though, it’s ultimately a futile endeavour because the team can’t time travel of their own accord and their enemy knows a lot more than they do, so they have no way to get ahead, figuratively and literally. They can only react to what (they think) the Chronicoms are doing.

The team’s early successfull efforts to keep events more or less in line with the OG timeline prompt the Chronicoms to switch tactics, going for a wider range of radical changes that, in turn, causes more impactful actions - waves and not ripples - by the team, like bluffing their way out of Club Swordfish threatening Nathaniel’s life, which leads to his delusions of grandeur, or revealing the Z1′s position to destroy Project Insight without sacrificing Mack’s parents, which results in the timedrive being damaged and everything that will follow from that. It’s an escalation of consequences, until the branched timeline is completely screwed. Pardon my French.

Note #3: In hindsight, killing Wilfred Malick in 1931 while still delivering the proto super-serum, thus assuring the founding of the S.S.R. and later on S.H.I.E.L.D., might have been a safer way to deal with everything, unless Nathaniel Malick was the only - or the one with the highest chances - way to prevent Kora’s suicide. Which would also mean that what Daisy went through at his hands was part of The Plan and not a low probability scenario. Chew on that for a minute, especially if you’re not on the Kill All Malicks train.

Once the team makes it to the 1980s, still flying blind regarding what their actual goal is, Daisy was supposed to reconnect with her mother and, through her, form a bond with her older sister. Was she going to prevent her suicide instead of Malick or was Jiaying going to act as a bridge between them after he saved her and S.H.I.E.L.D. captured her, winning her to their cause? Or was Jiaying supposed to save her daughter (“She is pivotal”) in this new and changed timeline? It’s impossible to tell as we don’t even know how likely Malick’s emergence as a dangerous antagonist was in Fitz’s projections - according to Sybil in 7x06, he had only 22 % chances of successfully “implanting” himself with Daisy’s powers which points to “not likely”, but those are Sybil’s calculations at *that* point in time - or if the Chronicoms were expected to be dealt with successfully in 1976 and it was Sybil who beat the odds in that instance (Sybil didn’t see Coulson’s turn as a suicide bomber coming but Fitz might have).

However, it’s interesting that the last jump before the temporal drive starts malfunctioning brings them to 1982, over a year before Kora killed herself in the OG timeline. Were they supposed to hang around 1982 making nice at Afterlife for months until the 084s gathering signal went out?

Regardless, with Kora alive and on Team S.H.I.E.L.D., Fitz would have traveled to the branched timeline, as he did, to explain the whats, the whys and the hows, installed the QB on the Z1, and all together - no Deke left behind - they’d have gone back to the OG timeline to use Kora’s powers to give new directives to the Chronicoms attacking the Lighthouse in 2019. Ideally without any need for self-sacrificing heroics or quasi-Domino’s levels of probability-altering powers luck because Sybil and her allies would have been stuck in the branched timeline. In the OG timeline, there was just one ship⁴ orbiting Earth.

Note #4: In 6x13 Future!Jemma expected the temple to be destroyed and in 7x13 we see that the ship responsible belongs to the Chronicom fleet just arrived from the branched timeline. This makes the case for Fitz (and Simmons, if she hadn’t forgotten most of it) expecting the team would refuse to leave the branched timeline to the Chronicoms. However, Fitz didn’t seem to know a way to expand the Quantum Bridge’s energy field - without which the Z1 could have traveled back to the OG Timeline - until he started following Deke’s train of thought, which leaves the question open (and the possibility of a - gasp! - plot hole).

Going by Fitz’s surprise at Jiaying’s demise, there’s a gulf between the situation he expected to find and what actually happened, despite the fact that he had seen “countless versions of how it could unfold”, which mirrors Sybil’s frustrations with her human allies’ unpredictable bungles and the team’s ability to repeatedly beat the odds. Of course Jiaying’s death and Kora playing for the baddies are the only two known differences between the expected scenario and reality. We can only speculate about the others.

The biggest snag of all (though not necessarily surprising to Fitz), which almost completely torpedoes all of FitzSimmons’ planning, is the team’s unwillingness to leave the branched timeline to the Chronicoms. Choosing to save the world in both timelines decreases their chances of success by 85 %, causes Deke to stay behind to assure the Quantum Bridge has the power to drag the Chronicom fleet to the OG Timeline and Daisy to undertake a suicide mission to then destroy that fleet.

And, it bears repeating. Once they chose to save both Earths, they had, at best, a 15 % chance of success (likely less, since it’s doubtful the original plan sat at 100 %).

Always beating the odds, indeed.

[revengerevisited]

WIP Preview sketches for #VanquaWeek Day 3 - Merged

Vanqua Week is starting May 26th, please check out @voidgear-and-stormfall for details about prompts, under #vanquaweek!

[gold-foil-deerstalker]

Okay, but Sherlock trying to teach Rosie the art of deduction from the cradle, and then five year Rosie deducing that uncle Sherlock is her other dad but John and Sherlock don’t know about that yet. A scene of deduction, Sherlock and John blinking at her, realisation they were family all that time anyway, realisation of their mutual feelings, Rosie shipping them hard, child supervised love confession, fLUFF

[ryder616]

Rewatching Emancipation

“My first duty is to her, not S.H.I.E.L.D.” Andrew had stipulated way back in 2x13, when he had been re-invited aboard the crazy S.H.I.E.L.D. train. One year and one terrigenesis later, Daisy is still his priority.

Lash was hurting Hive more than anyone had managed since our unfriendly neighborhood octopus recovered his health - Fitz almost killed him with a flare gun on Maveth but he was severely weakened by the hardships of his exile - yet when Daisy shows up, nothing else matters more than her (I can identify with that 🤭)

I Don’t Think That Word Means What You think It Means:

“Their lives have been filled with such hatred. Now they’ll find peace with us. [...] Every human deserves a chance to be freed from his prison. Their emancipation will be my gift to you.” -- Hive

Hive puts no value in independence, freedom, individuality, so he’s quite satisfied with the Primitives, who have no discernible individuality at all.

The Inhumans he has enslaved still retain their core inclinations - if irreparably twisted, see how Daisy wanted to “help” her friends - and the capacity to act on their own, even if it’s completely in service of Hive’s agenda. They are also a diverse bunch, both as humans - two Asian-Americans, one Australian, one now dead South American - and as Inhumans, with their varied set of powers.

The Primitives can’t speak and while they retain the skills they’ve learned before their botched Terrigenesis, they’re otherwise the very definition of (mostly) mindless drones, all basically the same in both looks, behaviour and power (enhanced strength).

Overall, it’s a bit disappointing. Hive says he wants “connection” and a peaceful world but here he shows himself as nothing more than a tyrant who only wants a great number of obedient and thoroughly unremarkable minions.

May’s Boundless Badassary:

We don’t often get to see May using her brains without her brawns being involved, too, but we do here and as desperate measures go, hers are definitely the clever kind.

"You do whatever it takes to end this”, Coulson tells her, and she gets everyone to pitch in without them knowing it, save for Lincoln and Coulson himself (and Lash). It’s a gamble and a ruse and brilliant all around. If only Hellfire had gone to buy his beer some place farther away.😢

Wall of Valor:

I suppose in most ways Dr. Garner was gone when his transformation became permanent and there’s an argument to be made for Terrigenesis itself, given how fundamentally different what drives Lash appeared to be from what seemed to drive Andrew, a warm, compassionate man, genuinly interested in helping people.

Yet now the loss is complete.

One thing that annoys me is that, as far as I can remember, it’s a loss that won’t be openly discussed or felt beyond S3.

Sure, we know May feels responsible for him being involved in the first place (“Every terrible thing that has happened to you could have been avoided if you’d never met me” she told him in Spacetime) and it’s easy to imagine how Daisy must feel, as he was brought in to help her and then died saving her.

Still, it would have been nice and compelling to have May and Daisy talk about him at some point. And May and Coulson too, especially in S5 when Phil refused any attempt to save him and May had to relive it all.

Stuff that crossed my mind:

This episode is basically the last time a MCU movie (CA: Civil War in this instance) truly impacts the show, at least until we see what S7 will do with the whole Thanos and Endgame thing.

The Sokovia Accords are law of the land now. The Sokovia Accords can go diaf. #teamcap ✊

In our regular update on all the computer-related side jobs Daisy’s apparently been doing while we weren’t watching, we learn that she’s also responsible for the anti-subversion code that’s keeping the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s software safe from tampering and intrusions. Well, from other people’s tampering and intrusions, at least.

Your friends are very persistent. They keep fighting us, forcing us to move, wasting valuable time. If it happens again, there'll be no absolution. “Absolution”, huh? Funny you should use that word...

We destroyed all our work on the Hive cure, and now you have to spend all your time Daisy-proofing security. Is this what happened to the potential Terrigenesis vaccine, then, the one Daisy and Lincoln argued about in 3x12? All research data and blood samples destroyed? I had been wondering. 🤔

Don’t report our Inhumans. Some battles need to be fought with secret warriors. AoS, you are such a damn tease...

It's a protected list. It's highly classified.You had an index...-- Which is why I know nothing good ever comes from putting people on lists. Eventually they get misused or fall into the wrong hands, and then innocent people suffer. Well! I am *so* glad to hear you say this! Too bad this realization didn’t come a little sooner, say mid season 2?😏

The Sokovia Accords are a joke. We don't need registration. We need extermination. Aaand the racist canine cosplayers are back. Tell me again how gestapo Daisy was being in 3x14, AoS. I dare you.😡

Are you okay? -- Fine. Just feeling a little drained. I imagine seeing Daisy like this solidified Lincoln’s determination to go ahead with the plan because there’s no way a doctor couldn’t tell something was *very* wrong by how sickly pale she looks.

Do I sound brainwashed to you? I mean...just last episode you were planning to rip your friends’ hearts out if they didn’t agree to become Inhumans...if you think that’s your standard behaviour, you’re also amnesiac.

What’s he doing in here? Thought this was a germ-free zone. Ha! Good one, Lincoln!

I came here to fight, to save Daisy. 🤗 🤗 In S6 Elena will successfully save Daisy from Izel’s possession at the cost of her own.

Armaggedon. Whatever he's doing, is pure evil. I'm talking end-times Biblical evil, 2,000-years-of-darkness evil. Poor Mack. I think he needs something much, much stronger than a beer, Elena.

It’s about protection. -- Whose protection? -- Everyone’s. People need to be protected when one of you runs amok. Some of you need protection from yourselves. Unsurprisingly, Talbot’s “everyone” doesn’t include protection for the Inhumans from bigoted humans (and overreaching government agencies). The accords, and even more so their enforcerers, are hopelessly biased because they view the “enhanced” only as a problem and as the only problem.

But seriously, who follows a stranger down a dark alley dressed as pups? Racist scumbags with delusions of relevance, that’s who.

Do you really think he'd sacrifice [Daisy] just to make a few more Inhumans? With her powers, her knowledge, she's worth a hundred. Phil..he’s not you.

These are volunteers? Radcliffe’s enthusiasm for his new experiment is quickly waning as the enormity of what he’s being asked to do becomes more and more difficult to ignore.

Are you still confident? -- 100 % fairly certain. 🤣🤣🤣

Please rest. We may need some more blood. I’m really hating Hive right now.😡

Daisy fools the security door with a tape dispenser, a pencil, and a mirror. Add the containment rooms to the growing list of things S.H.I.E.L.D. will probably need to overhaul when she leaves.

Oh, my God. What have I done? The words “crimes against humanity” come to mind...

Hothead is loose, and he's getting help from Swazy Daisy. I generally prefer Mack’s style of nicknaming, but Talbot is great competition.

Actually, Daisy could fly him out. -- She’s nowhere near here -- If she hacked into the Quinjet systems and reprogrammed them for autopilot, she could fly him out from anywhere in the world. This exchange makes it sound like Daisy can actually fly a plane and later she will indeed fly the Quinjet back. But they must have meant on autopilot all along or the Zephyr One’s flying systems are somehow radically different from the Quinjets’ because she most definitely can’t fly the Z1.

Are you serious? These Primitives are an abomination of science...and a very poor reflection of my talents.🤣🤣 I know he’s being kind of awful but I can’t help it, he cracks me up. 

I’m thinking maybe I’m not the Inhuman whisperer. 🤣🤣

[The Primitives] are part of us. Our children, really, from our own flesh and blood, and we're gonna make more of them. So we'll need more blood. -- How much? -- All of it. I’m really, *really*, hating Hive. 😡🤬

Why do you think this Lash can defeat Hive? And who in tarnation names these things? Comic books writers. I thought that was obvious.😁

Ragtag base, come in.This is Agent Daisy Johnson. I'm coming home. Repeat... I'm coming home. First, she said “home” which, really, it says everything. Second, did they rename the base?

And the little Necklace of Doom starts making its rounds.Back in the day I freaked out every time the thing was being passed on. I didn’t want to lose anymore characters. 😟

[ryder616]

Rewatching Failed Experiments

“Why is everyone making this about themselves”, May complains, and it’s obvious who she’s primary thinking of.

After going just a little bit crazy last episode - a father worries, alright?😁 - Coulson is now valiantly reining in his feelings, refusing Mack’s hopeful reading of Daisy’s slip-up and trying to distance himself by calling her “one of his best agents”, which sounded a bit like when he insisted with Weaver, back in 2x21, that he was going after Skye for her usefulness.

Yet he’s still very much into “this is all my fault” mode and not in the “I’m the boss, so the buck stops with me” way. He killed Ward for personal reasons and that gave the dying Hive a fighting chance, but Octopus Face is the product of many evils, starting with the Kree’s abduction and torture of the mesoamerican hunter he used to be.

Then there’s Lincoln, who Dr. Dr. Simmons diagnoses as a “lovesick fool trying to make a grand gesture” and I think we can defer to her superior expertise on the subject. 😁

But seriously, poor Lincoln. Daisy is the one and only reason he’s with S.H.I.E.L.D. at all and without her he’s unravelling faster than a FitzSimmons when their other half is in trouble.

And finally Mack, whose hope that Daisy’s fundamental nature could break free from the parasites’ control is figuratively and quite literally crushed. He’s been beating himself up for not seeing what nobody else did, including people who have known Daisy longer and more intimately than him, and it’s a testament to how much he’s come to care for the girl he once felt he needed to be protected from. Sadly, here, he actually needs protection from her.

Which brings us back to May. Who, once again, has to tap into her apparently inexhaustible reservoir of pragmatic resolve and shoot someone else she cares about. Her expression watching Daisy writhing in pain in Hive’s arms shows very clearly how much it continues to cost her.

Prior to the beating, the exchange between Mack and Daisy is very interesting because what she says - how S.H.I.E.L.D. has been conditioning her to be something she wasn’t - has a ring of truth.

A part of unswayed Daisy must miss the anarchist hacker who noped at the idea of shooting people and while it’s a bit of a shame that this has never been explored, it does add another layer to her decision to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. behind at the end of the season.

Stuff that crossed my mind:

That poor hunter. Going about his day, getting a pretty great catch and suddenly he’s a lab rat for Alien Mengele. I’ve never understood this experimenting on live subjects while they are awake. Ethics aside, wouldn’t the squirming and screaming be detrimental during a medical procedure?

Okay, but, then, we find a way to test it. -- And who’s going to volunteer for that? Yeah, if only we had a lovesick Inhuman with self-sacrificing tendencies on the premises...

In addition to writing their security software, Daisy also reprogrammed a good chunk of the face recognition software. Mace’s people are going to have to wipe those servers clean.

So... to the moment at hand. -- [Hive speechifying] -- Does, uh, does that mean we can get started? 🤣 🤣

Piper!! 🤗 And agent O’Brien, who was in Bahrain and tailed Fitz back in S2.

Daisy would never want someone acting so recklessly to save her. Yes, but since she seems perfectly happy acting recklessly to save others, I generally heart anyone who does her the same courtesy.

Please tell me you're not pining over Stinkin' Lincoln. James has never left grade school, it seems.

Why are you just telling me [Hive’s blood won’t work to make new Inhumans] now? -- Ohh, I wasn't sure. I was swept up in the moment! I wanted to change the world! And besides, you're very frightening. Radcliffe’s entire set of motivations in one bit of dialogue. Nice.

May, Mack and their band of four land in Inhuman City while the sun is still up. I’m hardly a military strategist - videogames don’t count, right? - but wouldn’t this sort of infiltration work better under the cover of darkness?

Jemma dated a human Brussels sprout named Milton. Who, going by Fitz’s impression, sounds like someone I absolutely don’t want to meet, ever.

Lincoln does his lovesick fool thing in style, electrifying the entire lab. Prettiest Inhuman power ever.

I'm James. Single, 33, originally from Brisbane. I'm a Leo, with a little dab of Scorpio thrown in there for good measure. I like a decent drink, a decent meal, and an indecent lass, and not necessarily in that order. And you are...? -- Nauseous. 🤣🤣 🤣

Becoming Inhuman doesn't change your personality. Heh. I think May could make the case that sometimes the change can be that radical.

Aww, even hived, Daisy just wants the best for her friends even if her idea of what’s best is a little, well, twisted. And what if you fail, if they decide to turn on you instead [...] -- Then I would rip their hearts out. Er...ahem...ok, maybe “best” isn’t the right word, exactly.... 😏 😬 🤣

Coulson gave you a direct order, and you disobeyed. Oh c’mon, orders are more like suggestions when main characters are involved, right? 😈

I fought a Kree before. They won’t be easy to kill. Bobbi fought a Kree. You just stood there widening your big brown eyes and then you broke your own gun.

Like alien footprints, right? That's what we're talking about here? [...] The frickin' aliens just landed.We're not... We're not gonna take a moment and let that soak in? Piper freaking out about aliens may just be the most endearing thing on this show for me since Skye gave Mike her special version of the “with great power” speech.

Goodbye Alisha. Five slaughtered Inhumans for the price of one in less than 20 episodes. S3, the season that keeps on killing. 😩

Hived!Daisy is definitely a more efficient fighter than regular Daisy. She wised up immediately that hand to hand wasn’t gonna cut it and disabled the Kree breaking arm, leg and spine in less than five seconds. Her tolerance level for Radcliffe seems however on par with regular Daisy’s. That is, very low.

Bobbi was your partner once. How'd that work out for you? [...] They left S.H.I.E.L.D. because there was no reason to stay, because nobody else at S.H.I.E.L.D. mattered to them.It wasn't hard to leave. Zeroing in on the painful. When empathy works in reverse.

What happened to Bambino, the big plasma gun Coulson used in the Avengers and last seen, if I’m not mistaken, in 2x12? That looked potentially more effective against Hive than a rocket launcher.

Your immune system is completely shut down! And yet you’re not even wearing a mask around him? I’d make a joke about the scarcity of PPE supplies hitting S.H.I.E.L.D. as well but...it’s definitely way too soon for that. 😟

And so the “cure” saga is concluded. It didn’t work to stop Andrew’s transformation and it doesn’t work against the sway. And I suppose we’ll never know if it could have worked to immunize potential Inhumans against Terrigenesis. I wonder what happened to that data when Talbot and Mace took over.

It looked like John Hannah had absolutely no clue how to apply a bandage.

On top of everything else, now Hive is guilt tripping Daisy for the Kree blood debacle (dude, you fought a Kree, too, ever heard of backups?). And of course she overcompensates with a self-sacrificial proposal, offering her own blood. And he accepts because for all his talk about connection, she’s nothing to him but a resource to exploit.😡

[ryder616]

Rewatching Ascension

Yeah, sorry. I stole [the necklace] from you.

So...did Lincoln “steal” Daisy’s fate? Did he change the future or not?

I like it both ways. Retrocausality is super neat. The thing happens because they know the thing happens. Information “travelled backwards” in time, as far as the limited, 3D-only, human perspective goes, and Lincoln dies because he reverse-engineers the vision correctly and acts accordingly on this knowledge he received before the event happened in linear time but that is the reason the event happened(will happen) as it does. Because time is fixed and it isn’t linear, it only appears this way to us, like the little flat people would perceive height in Fitz’s example in Spacetime.

Or, Lincoln reverse-engineers the vision correctly, understands Daisy is going to die and manages to “trick fate”, as it were, inserting himself in her place. No fate but what we make kind of a deal. It wasn’t his “purpose” or “destiny” to die for the girl he loved and the world, “just” his choice.

I’m accepting fate.

Daisy’s actions don’t necessarily need any foresight.

She could have anticipated Coulson’s plan just the same - she’s smart and she knows how he thinks - and while the “vision” reinforced her inclination to do it alone and her state of mind made the foreseen outcome attractive, she could have, and I think she would have, made all the same choices even without knowing what was coming. And then elect to stay on board to prevent Hive from altering the Quinjet’s course.

Lincoln’s actions are much more dependent on his knowledge of the future: He might have tried to follow Daisy regardless (and again this feels likely), but would he have stolen the necklace? Or dragged himself to the cockpit, shortened the controls (which could have been vibrated out of commission just as effectively) and pushed her out? It’s still an argument for retrocausality but it leaves room for the possibility that the future was changed in at least one key element.

Either way, the vision had a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent on the plane, and a cross floating about, and Lincoln made damn sure that the agent wouldn’t be Daisy.

Wall of Valor:

Rosalind, Andrew, Lincoln.

Congratulations, S3, I believe you have achieved the Love Interest Fridging Triplete😁

The good doctor Campbell completed it with remarkable flair, even getting a Christ allegory for his troubles: “He’s paying for all our mistakes”, “to sacrifice for them with all their flaws”, a floating cross and all the previous comparisons of Hive to the devil. For a character who has been too often accused of blandness, it was a decidedly not bland way to go.

And for a guy who, just the previous episode, had said he wasn’t a true hero, he undeniably proved himself wrong.

Still, I think he could have benefited from a bit more development outside of his “Daisy’s boyfriend” role. Even his weakness - his former addiction - seemed tailored to fit her story.

Lincoln’s been namedropped a few times these past two seasons, most notably when Daisy admitted that she was still in love with him (5x20) and when we were informed (6x10) that she sends part of her paycheck to his previously unknown sister Amanda. There’s a spoilery theory floating around that speculates we might not have heard (or seen) the last of him. We’ll know soon enough!

She’s Got The Powers:

In her fruitless fight with Hive, Daisy uses her powers to directly augment her hand to hand combat moves, as she blocks and deflects blows with her vibrations. She will do it again against Sinara, ending their fight in the pit with a “vibro-punch” of a sort, and the most recent S7′s trailer shows off one mighty uppercut augmented by her trademark concussive blast. (*squeals*)

Then she flies. Kind of. She propells herself into a very high jump, safely landing on the roof of a nearby building.

And, after three full seasons, she gets her superhero name. Best origin story ever. 😎

Too Legit To Quit:

It’s finally here. The true Shotgun Axe. *Reverent Silence*.

Before fulfilling his destiny to wield the fearsome weapon against the forces of darkness, Mack shows off the knack for emergency surgery that will save Deke in S5, cauterizing Yo-Yo’s wound with a blowtorch. At her request. Proving once again that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are just too cool to be treated by actual doctors.

Daring Engineering:

Between Maveth and this episode Fitz built a cloaking device for small weapons (could be handy to still have around btw) and uses it to kill Giyera in self-defense and delayed payback for Jemma’s torture in 3x09.

Shame we didn’t get at least another fight scene out of Mark Dacascos but Giyvera had it coming and Fitz did tell him, a few times...😎

Stuff that crossed my mind:

It’s what that creature stole from you. He made you...impervious. *sends a silent, heartfelt thanks to Andrew*

You know, Daisy, this impressive if very heatbreaking display of raging raw power would be an excellent opportunity to really trash the Z1 so that it cannot fly...

Any idea how many Hive has infected? -- Everyone in Quadrant D, along with agents O'Brien and Marshall. -- That's something like 20 agents? -- It's 28. Please tell me Doug (3x15) wasn’t among them...🥺

Sir, there's been a malfunction in Daisy's containment module. Yes, it’s a malfunction called Daisy and her 1337 haxor skills.

It was either [creating the Primitives] or be eaten. I never would've created something so unsophisticated. I mean, the crudeness of these creatures is really quite... heartbreaking. Radcliffe can read a room. Eventually. 🤣 🤣

They’re in the vents. -- Lock down the armory. Ok, not that I’m surprised, but Coulson had ordered the base “sealed” last ep. What kind of “base sealing” protocol leaves human-sized vents accessible and the armory open? I am judging you, Phil.

Yo-Yo, what'd you do? She saved your life, going almost as fast as a speeding bullet. Or, just fast enough to divert a few.

We'll set the timer to blow the warhead at the optimal elevation...Dispersing the formula into the stratosphere. And by dawn, it will descend onto most of Europe. Crap. This is not how I have envisioned getting superpowers. 🤭

Hey, "Electric Company," can you light things up? A new nickname for Lincoln.

No. Mack. Right. Why have the doctor cauterize your wound when you have a mechanical engineer? It’s a blowtorch after all, not a scalpel. 👍 Big missed opportunity to have Mack go full McCoy and reply: “Dammit, Yo-Yo, I’m a mechanic, not a doctor!”.😁

This is very impressive. Is this the young Scotsman's work? And the wheels for AIDA start turning...

I thought the power was off. [...] the heating system's old school. It doesn't need electricity. Well, that’s convenient.

[Simmons] must've figured it out. [...] Clever girl. You betcha!

It's not a hunch. It's science. It's a science hunch. 🤣 🤣 🤣

You want to give up, live in a box? Go ahead. But that hurt stays in there with you. Believe me. Listen, I may not always show it, but I ... oh FFS, Giyera! Couldn’t you have waited like thirty seconds and let her finish? Go ahead, Fitz, cap him! It’s what he deserves, torturing Jemma and now ruining a Moment(tm).😡

[Fitz gives Daisy his jacket] No. No, no, no. Let her be cold. That jacket and its content are the harbinger of doom and I want them off the plane, stat!.*heavy sigh*

It's not up for discussion.You're agents, I'm the director.I brought Hive to this planet. It's on me to stop it. You are so tiresome. In the best way. 🤗

[finds the necklace in Fitz’s jacket] I know exactly what happens next. My panic level at the time? It was Defcon 1 at chez Rydér. Imminent nuclear war, all essential personel sheltered down in the bunkers, launch codes issued and verified...you get the idea🤭

Every Inhuman has a purpose. My fate is to do what I'm doing, to crusade for all Inhumans. Forget Hellfire, Hive’s the real blowhard. It would have been cool to get a good crusader for Inhumans, the right way, after Jiaying and Mr. Octopus Face here. I mean, it’s going to be Daisy for a hot minute in S4 but then the LMDs crashed the party and who knows what the situation is like with Inhumans *now*, in the “real” world. *grumbles*

We're two sides of the same coin, Coulson...commanders leading soldiers. -- The only difference is, when you give an order, your followers have no choice but to obey. But when I gave my team the order to stay behind, they just wouldn't listen. Well, that is not the *only* difference...btw nobody’s ever looked smugger and happier describing a (sort of) mutiny. *cheers*

Figured I could get an egomaniac who'd been alone for 1,000 years to chat. Plus, I always wanted to do this. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only...Classic Coulson. Of course he would be a Leia fanboy, the non creepy kind.

Did I ruin this? Us? -- I just think... we need to work on ourselves before we can talk about us. Uhm. Is this really the best time to tell her that? Sorry, I belong to the “hug them, tell them it wasn’t their fault and that everything will be fine“ school of talking to distressed people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know why you went to face Hive alone. [...] I know why you went to him. Like I said, I've been through it. I've hit bottom.I know what it's like to be so addicted to something...that you'd do anything to get her back. I didn’t remember this, but he says "to get her back”. Which I assume he means Daisy and the lengths he went through - injecting himself with an experimental drug, briefly torturing one of the Alishas - while she had been “taken” from him by Hive and it ties to what Hive told him to taunt him in 3x21. I’m not sure I appreciate the comparison. Actually, I’m pretty sure I don’t, but I may be wildly misinterpreting here.

We plan to end wars, remember? Bring peace. -- You mean absolute power. Well, not today. Sounding like herself again. I’m almost happy. It’s not going to last. 😢

You can't just die for me like this. It's ... It's wrong. -- I don't know. Saving the girl that I love and the world at the same time? Feels pretty right to me. [...] You... can't do this. -- I wouldn't have thought so, either, but here I am. That thing you said in 3x21, about true heroes and how that wasn’t you? Yeah, that was dumb 😭 *hugs Lincoln* I wish this self-realization had come at a slightly lower cost...😭

I can't just say goodbye.I ... I have too much I want to say. -- Me, too. Come to think of it, I just did. I mean, I tried, and we didn't even realize it. -- Realize what? -- A moment ago.The first time I said I lo... Naturally, this is when it cuts out. Well, congratulations AoS. You wrecked her. I hope you’re happy.

He's paying for my mistake. Shush. Your only mistake was not trashing the Z1 earlier. *hugs Daisy because someone should*

He’s paying for all our mistakes. That’s only marginally better. Can we blame Hive, Malick, the Kree, and the generations of zealots who thought Hive and Hydra were swell ideas instead?

So...is any of you guys going to hug her or did she stay like that alone until you landed...? *sigh*

Six months later. Nobody can accuse Daisy of laziness. Look at all those newspaper cutouts. That’s the press of one busy rogue vigilante.

I actually wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine. He has a practice near here. I think you'd get along. He likes animals, too. Ah Dr. Winslow, Cal’s new, T.A.H.I.T.I.-powered identity, of course. I don’t suppose we could see him again before it’s all over..? 🥺

Hold my calls, Aida. Today is a special day. [...] Today's your birthday. Right. One apocalypse averted, time to start working to bring forth the next one!

[revengerevisited]

WIP Preview for #VanquaWeek Day 1 - Ice Cream

Vanqua Week is starting May 26th, please check out @voidgear-and-stormfall for details about prompts, under #vanquaweek!