Week six of Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. Season 7 came in with the explosive premiere of “Adapt or Die,” and we’re about to break down all the action as the show’s final season nears the halfway point! Going back to the last episode, the team had just traveled to 1976 and stopped the launch of project Insight by destroying the Hydra/Chronicom rocket. Deke also killed Wilfred Malick, Daisy and Sousa had been kidnapped by Nathaniel Malick, and the core team was trying to recover after giving away their position in the sky.

Once again, this season continues to put the S.H.I.E.L.D. team in absolutely crazy levels of potential danger and mayhem. Coulson and May have to handle the backlash from Rick Stoner about destroying the Insight rocket while Sousa and Daisy have to deal with being kidnapped by Nathaniel Malick, and that’s just the start of it.

The main story this week took a different turn as the team didn’t exactly have to keep some kind of historical world event in order; they had to focus on simply keeping themselves alive, and it made for probably the heaviest emotional episode all season. This week also had a huge focus on the idea of sacrifice, with nearly half of the main core team putting their lives on the line or giving up something desperately important to them in order to keep their mission from failing. Going further into that idea is the fact that three core members of the team are either dead or completely MIA for the time being, and that’s not even including Fitz, who hasn’t been seen all season. (Side note, the rioting WILL begin soon if we don’t get Iain De Castecker back in a timely manner.)

One of the biggest reveals this week is finally figuring out what in the world is going on with Simmons, who had herself injected with a Chronicom/biotech implant in her neck (nicknamed Diana) to keep her memories exactly the way she feels she needs to keep them. This helps keep Fitz’s location a secret, and it also seemingly helps her to keep track of how exactly the whole Chronicom and time-jumping shenanigans work. I just hope this doesn’t cause her too much trouble going forward, but considering that this is the same woman who survived a Chitauri-based virus way back in season 1, we should be concerned about her.

Her pact with Deke was a huge trust moment between grandmother and grandson as she made him swear not to tell any of the rest of the team about her condition. This is easily the most mature and level-headed moment Deke has had all season so far (even taking into account knocking out Enoch when he first saw what was happening), and it’s clear that he cares as much as anybody about keeping the team safe and getting everybody home again.

Going to Daisy and Sousa, they both have some of their toughest challenges this week after being kidnapped and drugged by Nathaniel Malick, who not only is alive longer than he was in the original timeline, but has his own evil plan. Even though he moved away from HYDRA, he still has been in contact with Daniel Whitehall from Season 2 and is convinced that both Daisy and Sousa are Inhumans after seeing Daisy’s powers firsthand and theorizing that Sousa simply hasn’t aged after over 20 years (similarly to the powers of Jiaying, Daisy’s mother.)

After experimenting on Daisy and basically leaving her to die, she and Sousa have an incredibly touching moment together as Sousa opens up to her and puts his whole heart into believing that she will be ok. The bond that these two characters have formed over what is probably only couple of weeks of knowing each other at most is so moving to me, especially considering how vastly different their personalities are. Daisy already knew about Sousa’s heroic tendencies, but seeing him learn about her and step in to protect her on multiple occasions just reinforces that he is a genuine bonafide good guy and the perfect person to help Daisy and the team do what they need to do.

Sousa also shows just how much of a badass he is even on only one good leg by using the glass shard from Daisy to take out Malick’s goon. As for Malick, even though he did end up with Daisy’s Quake powers, he had an unbelievably tough time controlling them as his face bled and his bones apparently cracked all throughout his body. It will be interesting to find out what happened to him when the next episode comes and seeing if he is truly dead; we also have no idea of what the status of his brother Gideon is.

The Chronicoms came in on fire this week by showing their intelligence and their skills at infiltrating the ranks of their enemies. By using their face-thievery skills to perfection and taking over the bodies of not only Rick Stoner’s fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but Mack’s own parents as well, they keep proving how formidable of a foe they are to Phil Coulson and the team.

In that same light, Coulson finally had a meeting with Sybil the Predictor, with whom he gets into a deep and philosophical discussion about the nature of both humans and Chronicoms. While Sibyl doesn’t exactly seem like the typical menacing bad guy, she is still someone standing in the way of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Coulson lets her know how difficult it is for him to truly die. Not only does he blow himself up to stop the Chronicom hunters from awakening, we ended this week losing two other members of the team in dramatic fashion.

The Zephyr time travels to 1982 before Mack just leaves on a bike to get some air, clearly in shock over both the death of his parents and the realization that he had been helping Chronicom versions of his parents the entire episode. Deke goes out to warn him of another time jump before Zephyr One LEAVES THEM IN THE FREAKING EIGHTIES!!!!!!

VERDICT

4.75 Chroni-Couslon Blow-Ups out of 5

This was one of the heaviest episodes this series has had in a while with so much of the team out for the count. With Deke and Mack stranded in the 1982, Coulson blown to smithereens, and Daisy temporarily out after being drained of spinal fluid and blood, the team is going to need some time to try to get back on their feet and figure out what to do next. I also have this sneaky feeling they will get to do that behind the scenes with the teaser for next weeks episode, “The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and the D,” promising a crazy 80’s adventure centered around Henry Simmons (Happy Birthday!) and Jeff Ward. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 7 continues to excel with only 7 episodes remaining until the end!

ONE-SHOTS

  • As much as I can’t wait to see May get back to being herself, her Mantis-like powers are seriously coming in handy picking the Chronicoms out from the humans
  • Patrick Warburton is a gem in literally everything he’s ever been in, and this show is lucky to have him as such a prominent guest star this season
  • Sousa hasn’t had a bad moment this season, and he continued to add to his incredible highlight reel by saving Daisy from her second Malick assault
  • Enoch is as pure of a soul as any that has ever been on this show, and he needs to be protected at all costs.
  • I cannot wait to see what comes of the tease for next week’s episode. Mack’s huge beard, Deke’s bandana, a hot tub in the Lighthouse and more?! Bring it on!!!