Last week, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD stunned the Whimsies into utter speechlessness, but this week they made up for it with spirited conversation. I was glad to hear that most of their comments were upbeat, though they did drift into an occasional moment of despair. Their talk went on for way too long for me to present the entire discussion, but here are some of the highlights.
TESSIE. Well here’s the good news. Yes, we have surprises this week, but none of them are…devastating.
TRIXIE. You mean like last week, when we find out Ward is one of the bad guys. Yes, that was devastating.
TILLIE. It was. But I think we’re all dealing with it pretty well now, don’t you?
TESSIE. It was a tough week…
TRIXIE. But we’ve had time to adjust. So yeah…we’ll be okay…
TILLIE. And I hate to keep saying this to you girls, when you keep trying to come up with ways that maybe Ward is not really evil—maybe it’s a Life Model Decoy, or a twin brother, or whatever, but honestly, we have to face the facts…he’s shooting people left and right. He’s evil.
TESSIE. (sighing) Yeah…I know.
TRIXIE. But, in a way, it’s kind of good that he’s evil.
TESSIE AND TILLIE. (flabbergasted) What???
TRIXIE. Well, I mean it’s good, because now we have a good story going. It’s good for the story. Not for Ward. And certainly not for Skye, or the other agents. But good for us. Sort of.
TESSIE. Very much ‘sort of.’ It’s strange, but I can see how you could say that…in a warped kind of way.
TRIXIE. Well, let’s think about it. What’s going to happen to him now? Either he’s a bad guy and he gets killed, or sent to prison, or he gets redeemed, and changes his mind, and becomes a good guy again.
TESSIE. (excitedly) Or there’s not need to “redeem” him, because he’s already a triple agent! And when all is said and done, he’s actually just a good guy, pretending to be a bad guy.
TILLIE. (sighing) Tess…I know how much you want that to be true. But really…I don’t think so…shooting people? Remember? Left and right…
TESSIE. (dejectedly) Yeah…I know what you mean…
THEY ARE SILENT A MOMENT, MOURNING THE LOSS OF WARD’S GOOD GUY STATUS, THEN….
TILLIE. (brightly) But what about Fitz? He was kind of cute this week, wasn’t he?
TRIXIE. When he said “Shish! Everybody just shish!!”
TESSIE. Yeah, that was cute.
TILLIE. Also, when he gave Trip that look….
TRIXIE. What look?
TILLIE. When Trip joined them on the plane, and Coulson at first didn’t want to let him, ‘cos he didn’t trust him, but Simmons stuck up for him. Then we see Fitz looking at them, and he’s all…not really sure he’s on board the Trip Train.
TESSIE. I know. I think maybe he’s a little jealous. He knows maybe Simmons and Trip are…you know…
TRIXIE. Ya think?
TESSIE. I think maybe. I think at least Trip likes her.
TRIXIE. And so does Fitz. He likes Simmons too.
TILLIE. But only as a friend. I don’t think he really has romantic feelings for Simmons. He likes Skye.
TRIXIE. Ya think?
TILLIE. Well, they hinted about it before.
TESSIE. But now Ward likes Skye, and she likes him.
TILLIE. Yeah, but we know THAT can’t turn out well…
TRIXIE. Well anyway, that’s next week, right? At least looking at the coming attractions, looks like we’ll find out more about Ward and Skye next week. But what about this week?
TILLIE. I thought it was a good episode for Agent Coulson. He had a lot to do, a lot to deal with. He had that ‘crisis of faith’ moment where he throws up his SHIELD badge, like he’s going to throw it away, but that’s how they discover the secret base.
TRIXIE. That was cool!
TILLIE. Yeah, it was like…saved by the bell!
TESSIE. I’m so glad they found that base! They needed some place to go! They couldn’t stand out in the cold like that all night!
TILLIE. True. They couldn’t. But didn’t they all look adorable in their winter coats?
TRIXIE. (giggling)And Agent Koenig…how funny was he? Going on and on about the lanyards!
TESSIE. I liked him. I’m glad they added him to the show. I hope they keep him around. As in: I hope they don’t kill him.
TILLIE. (agreeing) At least not any time soon.
TESSIE. At least not ever! Why do they have to keep killing people? I was just starting to like Victoria Hand, and then they kill her! Not fair!!
TILLIE. No, it’s not fair, Tess. But we knew what we were getting into when we started watching this show. We’d seen Buffy, we’d seen Angel. We knew how Joss Whedon likes to do things, and we chose to watch it anyway. So we have no one to blame but ourselves.
TRIXIE. The whole show is kind of feeling more and more like Buffy and Angel now, don’t you think? There’s the whole Scooby Gang thing going on, and the gang is growing and changing. And also, there were certain shots of Ward when he reminded me so much of Angel—
TESSIE. You mean Angelus.
TRIXIE. Yes! The Good Guy/Bad Guy. He was just like that.
TILLIE. Only Ward has made a decision to be a bad guy. He’s not the victim of a curse. He’s a victim of his own history.
TESSIE. Wow…Till…you sound like a…psychiatrist…
TILLIE. (shrugging) Jennifer’s mom was a psychiatrist. Well, she was a professor in the Psychology Department. We used to sit around at night with her sometimes and have discussions.
TRIXIE. Ward definitely has a “history” he could be a victim of. Remember him talking about a mean brother? I’m sure that has something to do with why he decided to be a bad guy.
TESSIE. And Garrett! He got to Ward at a young age and recruited him into Hydra.
TILLIE. Oh! I hate Hydra!
TRIXIE. Me too! Only, I also LOVE it!
TESSIE AND TILLIE. (flabbergasted) What??
TRIXIE. Because of the story! It makes for a good story! Now we have a ‘Big Bad’ that’s really big, and really bad, so there’s going to be a lot of action, a lot of developments!
TESSIE.(reluctantly) Well…I see your point…and I guess it’s good. As long as nobody gets killed.
TRIXIE. No guarantee of that. But one thing that is guaranteed: whatever happens, it will be EXCITING!!!
They went on and on like this, discussion each character and all the new developments, and what they think might happen next, and I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. The Whimsies are along for the ride, no matter what happens.
