May and Andrew battled their demons, Fitz made a breakthrough, and traps were carefully laid on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3×07.
Love’s labor lost
Surprisingly enough, nobody important dies in “Chaos Theory.” Still, the episode plays out like the purest and most painful of tragedies. Andrew Garner and his deadly alter-ego are the nexus of this drama, but it’s May who plays the role of both hero and victim.
Shaken to the core by von Strucker’s revelation, she hunts Andrew down and confronts him with what she knows.
To say that May is devastated is an understatement. “How could this even happen?” she demands, despair dripping off her words. The character is so rarely in such a vulnerable state that it’s easy to build a whole history into a sentence — how could another bomb go off in the catastrophe of her life?
Giving up, giving in
May, of course, has her own answer to this question. As she admits to Andrew in Hawaii, she does not believe she deserves to be happy.
It’s a quiet revelation, but a vital one. Virtually all of May’s behavior clicks perfectly in the context of constant self-recrimination. Whether or not this started with Bahrain, it’s easy to see that May has kept herself away from others because she feels unworthy of her own happiness.
This truth percolates through the episode (it’s even visible in May’s stiff response to Daisy’s adorable hug) and explodes when May is the one to force Lash into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s containment module.
(As a result, it must be noted, of Lincoln being kind of an idiot.)
Even as he loses his humanity, Andrew is the avatar of faith — both in May, and in the terrifying righteousness of his bloody work as Lash. (“I’m doing you a favor,” he promises Coulson.) In contrast, May is doubt personified. She gave up on Andrew, she tells him, and has suffered for it; and then she shoots the man she loves with a real gun.
Because that is what they both deserve.
Lash-ing out like the Hulk, Andrew survives. But it isn’t clear how much of May has survived with him.
Lost and found
But for once, emotional survival is looking slightly more likely for the other couples of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Puppy-like, Hunter yips at Bobbi to continue pursuing Ward — but to his surprise, Bobbi isn’t interested. Proving herself in the field has given Bobbi clarity, and helped her gain a more thoughtful perspective. An ongoing pursuit of revenge not only has physical risks, but psychological consequences as well.
“I don’t want to lose you… or lose ourselves,” Bobbi tells Hunter. “Become so obsessed with revenge that we turn into monsters, just like him.”
Meanwhile, Fitz has to face the music — by which we mean Will — when he rescues the data from Simmons’ phone. He is almost driven to abandon the project when a selfie of Simmons and Will flickers past, but Simmons’ recorded voice calls him back.
Not only is the horrific reality of the last six months painfully evident in Simmons’ recordings, but it also becomes clear that Simmons never lost her connection to Fitz. She muses hoarsely about their years together, and admits that she’s imagined them living in a little cottage in Scotland together.
“I’ll always be with you, Fitz,” she concludes.
Fitz cries. Everyone cries. Our keyboard short-circuits in a wave of tears..
Jolted out of his momentary self-pity, Fitz is able to connect the mysterious symbol in the Monolith chamber to the patch on Will’s jacket. Which is a “DUN, DUN, DUN!” moment if we’ve ever heard one.
Fitz doesn’t break this news to Simmons yet, however. Instead, he asks her about what he heard; she says that, even dehydrated and desperate, she meant exactly what she said.
So they watch the sunrise together, the warm light promising — maybe? — a more hopeful future for the two star-crossed partners.
The devil you know
Finally, survival on a grander scale — i.e., the human race — is what occupies Daisy, Coulson, and Price in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3×07. Or at least that’s what it seems like at first.
En route to a meeting with the president, Coulson assigns Daisy to show Price around Zephyr One. The two women argue about their respective treatment of Inhumans, and Price’s side is unnervingly compelling.
“People are their own weapons,” she tells Daisy, pushing home the point that every Inhuman is a potential catastrophe. (Yes, we hear your cries of “Civil War.”)
Daisy is deeply upset by this perspective, which is both understandable and a symptom of her privilege here. (Yes, we’re talking about Inhuman privilege, deal with it.)
Daisy is in love with one Inhuman, and nearly died at the hands of another, because of those very powers Price is so afraid of. It makes sense that she wants to isolate the idea of Inhumans as inherently dangerous, but she also enjoys a lot more natural resources to deal with the danger than normal humans do.
Coming together
Regardless of her inner turmoil, Daisy seems to come to a place of trust with Price, saving her life with her quake powers after Lash hurls Price through the building. Daisy also concedes that putting Andrew in stasis is the right thing to do, influencing May’s decision.
This growing cohesion between S.H.I.E.L.D., the Inhumans, and the ATCU seems really awesome.
Until Ward’s conversation with Gideon Malick, in which he giddily details his plans to murder Coulson (and thereby, S.H.I.E.L.D.), is interrupted by a phone call.
Rosalind Price is calling Malick.
She has spent the night with Coulson, and in his very presence assures Malick that she will bring Coulson in soon enough.
Does Price know that Malick is evil, or does she think he’s a normal politician? Is Malick really evil, or is he playing Ward — and the audience? Which way is the ceiling?
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