Agents of SHIELD season 5, episodes 1 and 2 review: Orientation

Reviewing the Season 5 premiere of Agents of SHIELD, a double-bill titled “Orientation” Parts 1 and 2.

Agents of SHIELD Season 5 has taken our team where no SHIELD agent has gone before. As we saw in the 17-minute clip released online, the episode opens with Coulson and his friends captured. It appears that their captors are aliens who live on Earth, and who give the team to a white Kree monolith.

“Orientation Part 1”

Coulson and his team emerge on what seems to be a space station, and Coulson is almost killed when he’s exposed to hard vacuum. Fortunately he’s saved by Virgil, who pronounces himself a “True Believer.” Less fortunately, Mack thinks Virgil’s a threat, and knocks him out.

It seems Coulson, Simmons, Yo-Yo and Mack have all been left in the same part of the station. May’s separated from the others, and was injured during the transportation. She’s found by Deke, who we gradually learn to be a mercenary hired by Virgil to hide the agents of SHIELD. To May’s disgust, she first sees Deke taking strange metal tokens out of the arms of those killed by ‘Roaches. Naturally, that means their first encounter is something of a brawl. It comes to an end when Deke uses a device generating a gravity field to pin May to a wall. He then implants a metal token in May’s arm, calling it a Metric.

The others barely escape monstrous creatures known as ‘Roaches, who kill Virgil before he can give them any answers. They’re then captured by the Kree, and Mack and Yo-Yo are taken to be tortured. Fortunately, Deke and May talk the Kree into letting them go, and Daisy heads off to rescue Mack and Yo-Yo. Meanwhile, Coulson sends Simmons and May to steal a spaceship and send a signal to Earth.

Matters come to an explosive climax as Daisy, Mack and Yo-Yo kill two of the Kree. They use the palm of one of the Kree to access a computer, and realize the truth; this is Earth. At the same time, Simmons and May take their stolen spaceship out of the debris field. To their horror, they see the broken husk of Earth. The planet has been shattered like an egg.

“Orientation” Part 2

Where the first episode settled for shock plot-twists, this one is all about world-building. It swiftly becomes clear that the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have been transported to the future. That said, the wreckage of Earth and the state of technology suggest whatever happened to Earth is imminent in their time.

Deke agrees to help the team fit in, insisting they have to lie low. A more willing helper is Tess, who used to be close to Virgil. She explains that Virgil was the last of the “True Believers,” a semi-religious cult who believed S.H.I.E.L.D. would travel from the past to save humanity. The rest of the True Believers were slaughtered by the Kree, who have saved the last of humanity on this space station.

It seems that something destroyed the Earth, and this space station was a last bunker carrying the survivors. The Kree arrived, and created a new society – albeit a brutal one. The Kree are ruled by Kasius, and Simmons unwisely comes to Kasius’s attention when she attempts to save a life. Intrigued by her physical perfection and lack of a Metric, Kasius demands Simmons become one of his servants. He implants a strange metallic liquid in her ear, leaving Simmons able only to hear his voice.

Kasius calls for a Metric inspection, to be followed by a culling in which lower-caste humans must kill one another. Coulson’s forced to strike a bargain in order to get Metrics inspected, but he, Mack, and Yo-Yo are almost killed all the same. Fortunately, May and Tess intervene.

Meanwhile, Daisy follows Deke into a virtual reality suite, where she learns he’s reconstructed the Framework. It seems the Framework is used to allow humans an escape, keeping them docile. Inside the Framework environment, Deke spots Daisy’s face on a news broadcast. He claims that she is the one who broke the Earth…

Putting Together the Pieces

• The term “True Believers” will amuse Marvel fans. Stan Lee coined the term back when he ran the Marvel letters pages, and used it to refer to followers of the comics.
• The ‘Roaches are actually a race of monstrous aliens from the comics, known as the Vrellnexians.
• Deke has recovered coding from the Framework, and used it to create a range of artificial realities. It remains to be seen whether or not he’s also inadvertently lifted people from the Framework too. If that’s the case, we may yet see the return of Grant Ward, or even Mack’s daughter.
• The Kree monoliths were introduced in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3, although we’d previously thought they only transported you through space. It’s possible that a white obelisk transports you through time as well. That said, because the previous monolith transported Simmons to a deserted planet, it’s also possible she traveled in time before too.
• If the monoliths work the same way, then we should expect there to be random portals triggering in Earth’s debris field. We can assume the S.H.I.E.L.D. team were transported at just the right moment, when the monolith portal aligned with the space station.
• No explanation is given for the mysterious group of aliens who abduct the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, nor are we given any insight into their motivations. No doubt future episodes will see Fitz attempting to track his friends down, and this group give him a way to do so.
• Kasius mentions Hala, the Kree homeworld. He’s also expecting guests, and we don’t yet know whether those are more Kree or not.
• The self-fulfilling nature of time travel won’t stop S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to avert Earth’s destruction!

Next: 50 greatest super heroes in comic book history

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns on Friday, December 9 at 9.00 p.m. ET on ABC.