(As usual, after going to bed, the Whimsies still had a lot to say about the latest episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. I only happened to hear a small portion of their discussion. Still, judging from the emotion and enthusiasm in their hushed voices, this was the issue of the greatest importance to them.)
Tessie. Well, the whole ‘people blowing up’ story was good and all that, but that wasn’t what this episode was REALLY about, you know.
Trixie. What do you mean? People who make fire and blow up….that’s not good enough for you?
Tessie. I SAID it was good. I just mean it wasn’t the most important thing that happened.
Tillie. Then what was?
Tessie. Well…all that stuff about Skye, obviously.
Trixie. (suddenly realizing) Oh…yeah!
Tillie. (nodding) Yeah…obviously! We find out so much about her.
Trixie. And it’s important stuff, to be sure. But to tell you the truth, I didn’t like the path we had to take to get to it.
Tessie. You mean because at first we think she’s betraying the others? At first we think she really IS still with the Rising Tide and she wants to do something bad to the other SHIELD agents?
Trixie. Exactly. That was so upsetting!
Tessie. (nodding) Upsetting…
Tillie. I know! It seems like every week they keep swinging us back and forth, back and forth, wondering what’s really going on with her, wondering if we can trust her or not.
Tessie. I know! When we saw her with her boyfriend, the way they were talking, my heart just sank and I thought, ‘Oh no! She really IS a double agent!”
Tillie. I hate to say it, but when I saw that, I started wondering how the heck we’re ever going to get out of this. I started wondering what the show would be like if Skye was still on it, but she wasn’t WITH them anymore, she was against them.
Trixie. You mean, what if she turned out to be one of the super villains?
Tessie. (upset) Don’t even say it!!
Trixie. Well, I don’t have to say it anymore, cos now it seems pretty clear that she really is good.
Tillie. She’s not evil, Tess. Not at all. She’s just a girl who wants to find her parents.
(They all pause a moment, reflect, and sigh…)
Trixie. I feel for her.
Tessie. Me too.
Tillie. (sadly) She’s an orphan.
Trixie. Like we are.
Tessie. Well, not really. We Whimsies don’t have parents, so technically we can’t be orphans. But we’ve all had times when we’ve lost something important in our lives. When we lost our… homes…
Tillie. Yeah. Even though we don’t have parents, we all know what it’s like to lose everything in our lives that’s important…everything that means something to us…
(Again they pause, reflect, and sigh…. At this moment they all seemed so despondent, I was about to walk in and suggest we all sit down to watch some Gumby and Pokey episodes together, but then I heard my name mentioned….)
Trixie. Did you hear Miss Chrissy talking with The Man about it? Did you hear her say she thought it was a little bit…hokey?
Tillie. Yeah, that’s what she said.
Tessie. What do you think she meant by that?
Tillie. I think she meant that maybe it’s….it’s been overdone. It’s OVER-sentimentalized. She said ‘ the sad little orphan story’ was just too easy.
Trixie. Yeah. I heard her talking about Annie.
Tessie. Who’s Annie?
Trixie. It’s that comic strip, that became a movie, about the little red-headed orphan. Miss Chrissy said, ‘What are we supposed to think? That she’s Little Orphan Annie?’
Tessie. I heard that, but I didn’t know what she meant. It’s a movie?
Tillie. It’s a really good movie! It’s a musical. Jennifer used to watch it all the time. I always liked it.
Tessie. I never saw it.
Trixie. We’ll have to find it and watch it some time.
Tessie. And then maybe I’ll understand what Miss Chrissy meant when she said it was ‘hokey’ that Skye is an orphan?
Tille. I don’t know if I agree with her that it’s hokey.
Trixie. Well, you do have to admit, it does make everything really EASY from this point on, doesn’t it? I mean, if she was a double agent, we couldn’t go on liking her, but now that we know she’s just an orphan who wants to find her parents, now we CAN go on liking her. In fact, I can’t imagine any other way that we COULD go on liking her.
Tillie. Yeah, that was pretty clever, I guess.
Tessie. And it sure does explain a lot. How can we find that Annie movie? I want to see it. You said it’s a musical? I love musicals!!
Trixie. So do I!
Tillie. So do I! We’ll start to look for it tomorrow. Maybe it’s on the shelf.
Trixie. I think I could enjoy a nice musical about now. Especially after that movie I watched the other day with Miss Chrissy! Did I tell you guys about Twilight?
Tessie. (alarmed) The one with the werewolves??
Trixie. There were no werewolves in this one. Well, wait. There was ONE scene, but Miss Chrissy warned me it was coming, and I closed my eyes.
Tessie. (still alarmed) Werewolves??
Trixie. Not a lot. Mostly…vampires.
Tillie. Vampires?? GAAHH!! Vampires are scary!!
Trixie. No, not really. At least not these vampires…
(After this there was a long discussion about Twilight and Trixie’s new boyfriend Edward Cullen. I went to bed, wondering if I had been too hard on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD for calling the “Little Orphan Skye” development “hokey.” I also made a mental note to find Annie and leave it out on the shelf for the Whimsies to discover in the morning.)
