Frenemy of My Enemy

[osprey_archer]

Why is Skye the only decent person on this show?



Did Coulson just threaten to erase Ward's memories? Did he really just frame it as a carrot to the stick of "being shot in the head"? I thought we had established memory erasure as ACTUALLY PRETTY EVIL in The Winter Soldier.

I hope that this is a prelude to Coulson having a "if you stare into the abyss, the abyss also stares back into you" moment where he realizes that he is being transformed into the thing he hates, because otherwise I don't even know what to do with him.

I am also filled with an unholy glee that Bakshi totally screwed them over, because it means that Ward's brainwashing didn't work nearly as well as Ward thought, so FUCK YOU, WARD, and also Coulson's attempt to use a brainwashed person as his tool totally blew up in his face, which frankly he totally deserved.

On the other hand, I was pretty much convinced earlier this season that I would never give tuppence for Cal, but at this point they've actually made me feel kind of sorry for him. Because who looks at a man who is so obviously a mentally unstable danger to himself and others and is like "Let's abandon him in a city! While telling him that we're just taking him there for a visit, so he will be filled with maximum rage when he realized WE LIED."

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Whoops, I shouldn't have read these spoilers! I seem to have thought I was more caught up than I was. But none of this surprises me at all, I must say.

Cal is the worst (and also the best; Kyle MacLachlan's scenery-chewing is one of my favorite things about the show) but the way he's been treated for at least the past few episodes is noooooooooot ookkkk; it's like they're trying to create a supervillain. :(

I love Skye so much. SO. MUCH.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I should have spoiler-tagged it. I was so gobsmacked by everything that I forgot!

And yes. I'm assuming that "create a supervillain" is not in fact their goal, but if it isn't then I'm not sure what is. Why is Skye literally the only decent person left on this show?

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it! I would have read it anyway, because I mistakenly thought that the most recent episode I saw was the most recent episode.

Well, the Himalayan transition-camp people have been telegraphing the presence of a dark undercurrent from the start, and SHIELD has always been a little to the dodgy side of "morally ambiguous," so. . . :/

I just wish Coulson didn't have such a likeable face, and so many likeable personality traits -- because it just makes it harder when he starts. . . threatening to erase people's memories?? Just like he was so mad about Fury et al. doing to him????? Oh, Coulson :( :(

The extra heartbreaking thing about Skye is how all her found families keep turning out to be horrible.

:(

Bless and curse this show for making me care too much. I'm sure I'll have more to say once I actually see this episode.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the writers of this show. Because last season there was HUGE! DRAMA! about Coulson chasing after his erased memories, and now Coulson is proposing to erase Ward's like that will solve anything? Even leaving aside the moral question, this is such a bad idea. If Coulson's experiences are any guide, Ward will chase his lost memories TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH and kill anyone who gets in his way.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

If Coulson's experiences are any guide, Ward will chase his lost memories TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH and kill anyone who gets in his way.

I know! It would be a terrible idea from a practical standpoint even if it were somehow not incredibly unethical.

I just watched this episode, and ugggggghhhhhh even with spoilers to soften the blow there was so much shouting at the screen. I mean, I KIND OF sympathize with the idea that the transition camp shouldn't have to bear the responsibility for Cal's . . . Cal-ness. But there has to be a better way of handling it than abandoning him in Milwaukee to revel in his tragic betrayal and kill anyone who steps into his orbit.

Skye really is the only decent person left :(

I am also filled with an unholy glee that Bakshi totally screwed them over, because it means that Ward's brainwashing didn't work nearly as well as Ward thought, so FUCK YOU, WARD, and also Coulson's attempt to use a brainwashed person as his tool totally blew up in his face, which frankly he totally deserved.

Cosigning all of this. Such a terrible plan from start to finish, along all possible axes of terribleness! Even from your bullshit worst-of-evils realpolitik standpoint, BRAINWASHING IS A TERRIBLE TOOL. GET A BETTER ONE, ASSHABERDASHERS >:(

>:(

Bobbi's still unsettlingly good-looking, though. No complaints there.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The whole cast is so darn good-looking, it distracts me from other things whenever I am not so angry that I'm actually shouting at the screen.

The entire memory erasing and brainwashing plotlines gave me plenty to shout about, though.

I learned recently that Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, the main players behind AoS, were also heavily involved in Dollhouse. This does not give me much hope that I will appreciate their handling of similar brainwashing themes in AoS.