Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Paradise Lost
Season 3, Episode 16 Recap

9/13/2016

Image copyright Marvel Television and ABC Studios

In memory of Dan Schmidt, the founder of Across the Airwaves, who sadly passed away this summer. The tribute episode for him can be found here.

This is sixth in a series of twelve tweetcaps I'm trying to post before the premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s doubtlessly spectacular fourth season on September 20. So, I'm half way there! But I should have been half way there days ago. Now I have to scramble to get things done again. No matter. I enjoy this quite a lot. It's nice to have most of these already complete. It's almost like someone else wrote it for me and I'm just editing.

I can't believe summer is nearly over already. I can't believe it's season four already! And why do I have such confidence that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be so good this year? Because it always has been and it just finds these little, poignant moments to add more depth and these large ideas to flesh out the world. This series cares about characterization, because without that the rest doesn't matter. That's what Marvel has proven to do best, giving a heart to their creations and finding the actors who can make it beat. Anchored by Clark Gregg's pitch-perfect performance and the cool and commanding presence, but also lighthearted humor, of his Phil Coulson, everything else comes together.

I didn't expect to start writing about Coulson just then. I thought I was just going to say, "Blah, blah, blah, here's what I tweeted about Paradise Lost." But now I'm thinking of what I wrote about him on my so-new-I-haven't-even-linked-it-to-my-blog-yet MAOS store page a few days ago: We believed hard enough and brought our beloved Agent back to life. Having a heartfelt desire to fight injustice and the tenacity to lead his team through the toughest times, Coulson is vital to the survival of the organization and ideals he died and now lives again for.

That was another unexpected moment of inspiration, while I was just talking about a Coulson Lives t-shirt. I guess it's been so long since I've written about the show that words are just flowing easily right now. I would love to write about the rest of the cast, too, but then that would take over and I would never finish this. Suffice to say, they are all wonderful and I wouldn't have them any other way. The writers know what they're doing, they have proven that, and the actors have proven time and again how incredible they are together. And I couldn't love FitzSimmons more, even when they're having terrible communication problems, it's all the sweeter when they work things out.

Nope, I said I wouldn't do that. Almost started talking about Daisy (poor runaway Daisy) and then that would have led to Lincoln (poor *spoiler* Lincoln) and Ward (poor Hive-controlled Ward), and then I can't forget May (poor devastated May). Damn, everyone's been broken this year. I say poor Ward because he never really had a chance in life, and Brett Dalton only got to pretend to be part of the team. I'll miss him, but at least I can still follow him on Twitter, where he's much more of a delight than Hive. Having played three distinct characters on the same series, I can attest that he's quite a good actor, so I hope to see him in a new series soon.

Okay, here we go with the tweetcap. I almost just went into detail about the rest of the cast and there's no time for that if I actually want to get these out. That's always my problem, going into detail. Then I go on and on and I'm never happy and continuously edit. You know the story anyway if you've seen the series. If you haven't, then I don't know why you would be spoiling yourself by reading this. Take note that the italicized comments were added today, long after the tweets were read on Across the Airwaves.

ATA: "PARADISE LOST" TWEETS

Listen to Podcast Episode

Eek! Battery's going again. No long, annoying preamble for #AgentsofSHIELD this time. Darn it, I know, right?

I never had a chance to read the comics, but Hive doesn't seem too friendly.

Yup, you should have taken your daughter and skedaddled.

I actually thought before that Malick might not squeeze a guy's head until horrible things happened. I'm so silly.

Feel free to bleep the next comment and the one about May.

Kind of missed it. Will have to rewatch...if only to see May being all bad*bleep* again. [Edit: I never did rewatch. My summer was too busy. *sigh*

Powerful moment there with Coulson taking out his pain and frustration and anger and guilt (etc, etc) on that -- was it a pipe? Didn't get a good look. And earlier, when he was looking at HiveWard on the screen and his hand started glowing/sparking. [Edit: I'm loving going through these. There are so many things I forgot about. Clark Gregg plays these small but significant emotional moments beautifully.]

[Edit: Don't blame me. Blame Powers Boothe. He didn't have to show a glimpse of a human being under all of that deluded worship of an ancient evil nonsense and sociopathic coveting of power but he did, and that's the kind of thing that gives Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. its depth. People are given layers and are not often simple bad guys or good guys.]

If the series ended this way, I would be totally fine with that.

By the way, you guys are awesome for reading listener comments. Maybe this time I won't freak out when I hear my name. Sometimes I randomly get nervous and just can't listen to my own words.

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