Agents of SHIELD (SPOILERS)

[kalorama]

But it doesn't quite ring true because their relationship really wasn't developed to that point. As recently as last week they were still kind of at each other's throats. I can understand why her murder would make him sad and angry, but not off the wall. Also, not sure how Ward knew that they were that close (aside from seeing them having dinner together, which could have just been friendship or even business).

I assumed Malick had been keeping Rosalind under surveillance when he found out that she was working with SHIELD (sleeping with the enemy, as it were).

I also found Phil's reaction to her death a bit over the top. Ward's been murdering his way across the globe for the better part of a year, but now that he kills Phil's girlfriend, suddenly enough is enough? Now that he killed Price, Phil feels responsible. But he didn't feel responsible for all those other people Ward maimed and killed? The whole thing was contrived, but if it results in Coulson actually being an interesting character, then it's probably worth it.

[Iron Fist]

If Constance wasn't free, the episode before this gave perfect set up for her to leave since Coulson doesn't trust her. They could have had her leave to reshape the ATCU and just brought her back as a guest star now and then until her schedule frees up to do a better arch.

I was fine when Trip died, but Ros was a great addition and could easily have been the new Coulson had anything happened but now all that potential is gone =/

[Farealmer]

Ultimately Rosalind had to go, not because of fridging(although they did use that as an exit route) but because in agents of SHIELD Coulson is top dog. Everytime you get an ally coming in that has powerful presence they have to go. Just like the SHIELD councel last season. It would've been to unlikey for Rosalind to turn the ATCU around at this stage I mean even SHIELD didn't technically survive that level of Hydra infiltration. And as a regular around the base she would of been a threat to Coulson's authority(not in universe but in a meta sense). Coulson and Coulson alone is top dog in AoS and the show goes out of it's way to make it clear their can't be two kings. I was surprised it happened so fast, but not that it happened.

[lilyinblue]

Plus, imo, Coulson SHOULDN'T be the one to kill Ward anyway. Daisy, May, Bobbi, or even Fitz/Simmons would fit that bill far more and have far more reason to.

And if they really wanted Coulson to do it (because he is the star of the show, afterall...) he really didn't need more motivation. Ward has hurt almost every single person under Coulson's command... some indirectly, most directly, several quite severely and permanently. Brain damage does not go away. Lungs do not grow back. "I can't have you hurting my people anymore," would have been 100% acceptable to me.

I used to say ultimately May should be the one to pull the trigger on Ward. I also realize I don't have a good argument to support that. I think it's just because I like May. He's hurt a lot of them... it's hard to say who he's hurt the most. May, Daisy, Fitz or Simmons. Not Bobbi.

I say 'Not Bobbi' not because she doesn't deserve it - but because she doesn't need it. She isn't craving closure. I think she's in a much, much better place mentally/emotionally about her Ward-based trauma than anybody else. That's why she's able to be level-headed and rational about it and tell people like Coulson and Hunter that they're being stupid. I suspect there's two reasons behind that. 1) She was never on a team with Ward, so what he did to her doesn't have that 'betrayal' layer to it. Being hurt by a known bad-guy hits you in a different emotional place than being hurt by someone you thought was your friend/ally. 2) She won, damnit. It sounds really weird to say, "One of my favorite things AoS has ever done was torture my favorite character," but it is true. I think what made the whole Bobbi-Ward torture session so compelling is that she effectively won every phase of that conflict despite what happened to her physically. Yes, she was left with debilitating injuries... but Ward and 33 never got what they wanted out of her. They were seeking an emotional payoff... the physical violence was only a means to an end. But... Bobbi never broke, never wavered on her principles, never admitted to any wrong-doing, and sure as hell never apologized. Even at the end, they wanted to inflict emotional pain on Bobbi by killing Hunter... and instead she made the choice to sacrifice herself to save him.

... though because I love Bobbi and am totally biased, I did notice that when they were listing off all of Ward's sins last night, nobody said a word about what he did to Bobbi.

[AndrewCrossett]

However, I am looking forward to next week when Daisy, Joey and Lincoln finally get to cut loose as a team.

Yep, the birth of the Secret Warriors, right there. I understand we'll be getting Slingshot at some point, too.

Maybe now Daisy can *finally* get her code name.

[Sardorim]

They need more members for a Secret Warriors team.

I also worry for Lincoln as we all know what happened to Quake's lover on the team in the comics. Course comic Quake was a virgin before bedding the guy and younger, she was 18, while AoS Quake isn't a virgin and in her 20s. So maybe Lincoln dodges a bullet.

[rpmaluki]

I love Mack and Bobbi - they were the only voices of reason tonight. And I'm loving that Coulson was at least thinking clearly enough to put Mack in charge as Director. Mack I think is under appreciated (well I think Bobbi is too). And I loved his Pep talk to Joey and Lincoln. And then May's "Nice talk Director." Also, May kept calling him Director..and I think it was more to back him up than anything.

I ate so many cupcakes after that episode.

Coulson also called him Director when he answered the call about FitzSimmons being kidnapped.

[Reality]

Why bother going through the portal then.....If I was going to stop some Alien or Inhuman God to death with a rifle or blowing the portal it needs to enter our world....well I know I am just blowing the portal to kingdom come....I think ward is hoping to get some powers out of it.

Coulson went through to save Fitz. And maybe kill Ward. But mostly save Fitz.

As for Roz dying- I don't see it as fridging, because she was in a very precarious position anyway. She likely would have ended up killed by her Hydra bosses anyway. Sad.to.see her go, though. It sucks that they keep casting good actors and killing them off when they find more steady work.

[rpmaluki]

I am so sad to see her killed but I don't think it's strictly fridging. She wasn't long for this world when it was revealed she wasn't Hydra and I believe the ATCU arc is coming to a close anyway. And it didn't help she was a regular on another show, much like how they handled Trip.

[Punisher007]

She was killed off to give Coulson, her BF, reason to want "reevveennggeee" and go after Ward. That's pretty much the textbook definition of a "fridging." And yes, I DO think that that term is overused/misused at times, but it really fits here.

Also, this show needs to stop doing plot-lines involving,"SHIELD-like non-SHIELD groups," because they cannot seem to do them all that well. The "Real SHIELD" thing from last season was a gigantic waste of time, and now pretty much all of those guys are dead. And now pretty much all of the ACTU people are dead as well, too quickly imo.

[lilyinblue]

She was killed off to give Coulson, her BF, reason to want "reevveennggeee" and go after Ward. That's pretty much the textbook definition of a "fridging." And yes, I DO think that that term is overused/misused at times, but it really fits here.

Also, this show needs to stop doing plot-lines involving,"SHIELD-like non-SHIELD groups," because they cannot seem to do them all that well. The "Real SHIELD" thing from last season was a gigantic waste of time, and now pretty much all of those guys are dead. And now pretty much all of the ACTU people are dead as well, too quickly imo.

I've deleted and rewritten this post a few times without posting. I'm going to attempt to make some sort of point about fridging and other tropes... but I'm also really struggling to articulate what's in my brain right now. The only solid conclusion I've come to so far is that I haven't had enough coffee yet today. (What else is new?) So, bear with me...

---

After this episode, I was thinking, "Holy refrigerators, Batman!"

... on the other hand, I find that this show is usually very trope-aware. They do like to play with tropes a bit and sometimes turn them on their heads. So there's this part of me that wants to give the show the benefit of the doubt to see where this all ends up.

One thing that has bothered me a bit about this season is that every... single... person (except Mack, because Mack is the best) has been involved in some sort of romantic entanglement that has directly impacted their job. These people are all supposed to be top-tier professionals. They should know better. They should be better. (Some are more guilty than others, natch.) The reviewer/recapper over on TheMarySue pointed out that among all of this, there's been a ton of hardcore white-knighting. (Hunter going after Ward for Bobbi... everything Fitz has been doing for Simmons... and now Coulson losing his damned mind.) This has also bothered me. This show is usually excellent at their portrayal of their female characters, so the turn towards white-knighting is a bit odd.

... but it was pointed out that none of our white-knights have been rewarded for their actions. Some have even been punished.

- Hunter nearly got Andrew killed, and earned the ire of most of the team... including his princess. Finally, Princess Bobbi tells him to just plain cut it out. (And Bobbi was also the only real vocal resistance to what Coulson was up to here too.)
- Fitz has been going to crazy lengths for Simmons. He did get her back, but he didn't actually get her.
- Coulson... well, we'll see how it ends.

Given that this is such a rampant pattern this season so far... one wonders if they're trying to send some sort of message here.

My other thought is...

In truth it IS part of Ward's patterns to hurt his enemies' loved ones in an attempt to punish them. He tried to kill Hunter to punish Bobbi... didn't quite work out, but that's beside the point. He went after Andrew to get to May. Malick wanted Ros taken out. Inflaming Coulson was not a part of those orders, that was ALL Ward. I think Ward wanted to fridge her, if that makes any sense?

So, there's a part of me that wonders if they sort of did this on purpose... and it just hasn't gotten to the payoff yet.

...ugh. And I'm still not sure this is a coherent post, but I'm going with it anyway. I'll just say this, if Mack stays in charge... he really needs to look at better reinforcing some of the fraternization regulations... this is getting out of hand.

[Captain Smith]

How many people are in Shield now? They had a very large group with supercarriers, etc. Now is seems like a few dudes and some big plane that they got from God's knows where.

Fury is selling insurance in Omaha?

Perhaps, the Captain America movie killing off most of Shield really made them non-viable and so we get these personal, revenge plots. I'm having a hard time with Coulson as a fighter. When he takes his shirt off, he has the physique of the middle aged guy mowing the lawn down the street.

[hulahulk]

Fury is selling insurance in Omaha?

"You WILL take this #$%^&$@#^ Gold level health plan!"

Okay, I borrowed from other SLJ characters.

[Huntsman Spider]

I've deleted and rewritten this post a few times without posting. I'm going to attempt to make some sort of point about fridging and other tropes... but I'm also really struggling to articulate what's in my brain right now. The only solid conclusion I've come to so far is that I haven't had enough coffee yet today. (What else is new?) So, bear with me...

---

After this episode, I was thinking, "Holy refrigerators, Batman!"

... on the other hand, I find that this show is usually very trope-aware. They do like to play with tropes a bit and sometimes turn them on their heads. So there's this part of me that wants to give the show the benefit of the doubt to see where this all ends up.

One thing that has bothered me a bit about this season is that every... single... person (except Mack, because Mack is the best) has been involved in some sort of romantic entanglement that has directly impacted their job. These people are all supposed to be top-tier professionals. They should know better. They should be better. (Some are more guilty than others, natch.) The reviewer/recapper over on TheMarySue pointed out that among all of this, there's been a ton of hardcore white-knighting. (Hunter going after Ward for Bobbi... everything Fitz has been doing for Simmons... and now Coulson losing his damned mind.) This has also bothered me. This show is usually excellent at their portrayal of their female characters, so the turn towards white-knighting is a bit odd.

... but it was pointed out that none of our white-knights have been rewarded for their actions. Some have even been punished.

- Hunter nearly got Andrew killed, and earned the ire of most of the team... including his princess. Finally, Princess Bobbi tells him to just plain cut it out. (And Bobbi was also the only real vocal resistance to what Coulson was up to here too.)
- Fitz has been going to crazy lengths for Simmons. He did get her back, but he didn't actually get her.
- Coulson... well, we'll see how it ends.

Given that this is such a rampant pattern this season so far... one wonders if they're trying to send some sort of message here.

My other thought is...

In truth it IS part of Ward's patterns to hurt his enemies' loved ones in an attempt to punish them. He tried to kill Hunter to punish Bobbi... didn't quite work out, but that's beside the point. He went after Andrew to get to May. Malick wanted Ros taken out. Inflaming Coulson was not a part of those orders, that was ALL Ward. I think Ward wanted to fridge her, if that makes any sense?

So, there's a part of me that wonders if they sort of did this on purpose... and it just hasn't gotten to the payoff yet.

...ugh. And I'm still not sure this is a coherent post, but I'm going with it anyway. I'll just say this, if Mack stays in charge... he really needs to look at better reinforcing some of the fraternization regulations... this is getting out of hand.

I like the way you think, and that would be a very interesting and clever twist on that trope.

[The Cool Thatguy]

How many people are in Shield now? They had a very large group with supercarriers, etc. Now is seems like a few dudes and some big plane that they got from God's knows where.

Fury is selling insurance in Omaha?

Perhaps, the Captain America movie killing off most of Shield really made them non-viable and so we get these personal, revenge plots. I'm having a hard time with Coulson as a fighter. When he takes his shirt off, he has the physique of the middle aged guy mowing the lawn down the street.

I imagine Fury has a few billion set aside as a rainy day fund, but yeah, where the hell are they getting all these people?

Also, don't they have a warship from last season? Where are they docking that monster?