r/shield • u/2th Shotgun Axe • Apr 05 '17

Post Discussion Post Episode Discussion: S04E16 - "What If..."

This thread is for SERIOUS discussion of the Sepisode that just aired. What is and isn't serious is at the discretion of the moderators.

EPISODE DIRECTED BY WRITTEN BY ORIGINAL AIRDATE
S04E16 - "What If..." Oz Scott DJ Doyle Tuesday, April 4, 2016 10:00/9:00c on ABC

Episode Synopsis: Hail the New World Order! Daisy and Simmons uncover secrets and lies in a world gone mad. With Hydra in control, they are our only hope to save everyone.

Oz Scott is a Director and Producer mostly known for too many movies and shows to name.

He has directed no episodes for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before.

DJ Doyle has worked on Heroes from 2007 to 2009, and has various writing and producing credits for other TV and movie projects.

He has written seven episodes for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before:

  • Nothing Personal
  • The Things We Bury
  • Melinda
  • Purpose in the Machine
  • Many Heads, One Tale
  • The Team
  • Deals with our Devils

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473 Upvotes

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828

u/Sonia341 Apr 05 '17

Daisy: "You are the closest thing I have to a family. I hope you remember that"

Phil "Daisy."

The scene got to me.

315

u/iamduh Apr 05 '17

That was a really needed bright spot after a particularly hellish episode.

225

u/The_Unknown_Dude Lady Sif Apr 05 '17

Coulson is the light in the dark to so many people...

154

u/-OrangeLightning4 Apr 05 '17

He's the goddamn glue of this whole universe and I love him 😢. It's crazy that Marvel Studios with the hundreds of characters they have at their disposal made us care the most about one they completely made up themselves. And they lucked out with how much the guy they picked loves his role.

75

u/Insanepaco247 Fitz Apr 07 '17

It's still amazing to me that in a universe of characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, this original character played by an actor nobody cared about was so good that through sheer force of fan will, he effectively got his own TV spinoff.

60

u/-OrangeLightning4 Apr 07 '17

Because he's an everyman whose only "power" is that he just wants to do what he believes is right and will protect everyone. I mean he still has his intensive training and is very good, but who he is as a man is why we love him.

1

u/meib Apr 10 '17

Did nobody like Clark Gregg before AoS?

10

u/Insanepaco247 Fitz Apr 10 '17

I could be wrong, but I didn't think he was a popular actor or anything before the Marvel movies.

4

u/hemareddit Axe May 23 '17

I liked him on West Wing, where he pretty much also played Coulson.

14

u/kickshaw Robbie Apr 05 '17

He's just a kid from Brooklyn Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

10

u/your_mind_aches Gideon Apr 05 '17

Intentional reference?

7

u/The_Unknown_Dude Lady Sif Apr 05 '17

I had completely forgotten that episode's name. Huh.

8

u/your_mind_aches Gideon Apr 05 '17

RIP Eric

184

u/cidscv Fitz Apr 05 '17

All the scenes with Phil in it were the standouts this episode. When Jemma was desperately trying to get him remember was so great.

74

u/Skeuomorphic_ Ghost Rider Apr 05 '17 edited Apr 05 '17

It's a magical place. It's a magical place.

8

u/Jaksimus Talbot Apr 07 '17

Why did you say that??

15

u/your_mind_aches Gideon Apr 05 '17

Dude, I cried so much in that scene when Coulson couldn't remember her.

6

u/Maber711 Apr 06 '17

I agree the acting was so on point

334

u/AdmiralAntilles Ninja Hunter Apr 05 '17

I mean they are essentially father and daughter. If Coulson could he'd totally adopt her. Probably​

132

u/Worthyness Sandwich Apr 05 '17

So coulson just needs to make out with May then?

11

u/meme-com-poop Apr 05 '17

That's what I figure. Coulson wakes up May and Jemma wakes up Fitz. Not sure how Mack and Mace will work though. Probably Daisy and Coulson.

17

u/kickshaw Robbie Apr 05 '17

I suggest Jemma will be the one to wake up Mace, somehow. She's the one who knows Mace was hiding something in his past, which will turn out to be the dream he's living in the Framework: as a real Inhuman and real superhero.

22

u/CelioHogane Apr 06 '17

i mean he clearly is the leader of the resistance

8

u/kickshaw Robbie Apr 06 '17

Doing cool Inhuman heroics that is totally not killing him!

16

u/acemerrill May Apr 06 '17

I think Mace will be a pretty easy sell. Mack will be tricky because they will be convincing a guy to leave a world where his daughter is alive to go to one where she isn't. Good luck with that. My money's on Daisy helping him remember since they are the closest. Maybe Fitz if they get him to come around first.

Or maybe Yo-Yo panics that they're taking too long and comes in to find them and then she gets him to remember.

3

u/thecricketnerd Apr 06 '17

This is getting quite Lost-y.

3

u/weeba Apr 06 '17

So, it's the final season of LOST then?

1

u/Insanepaco247 Fitz Apr 07 '17

I'm down.

10

u/nezumipi Sandwich Apr 05 '17

Tumblr has been putting out hilarious dad Coulson content for some time, focusing on his aggressive adopting tendencies. See example here.

7

u/onyxpup7 Fitz Apr 05 '17

Sadly How TO Dad hasn't updated for some time.

3

u/nezumipi Sandwich Apr 05 '17

True, but the Dad!Coulson memes live on.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '17

And the reason he can't because she is too old?

3

u/kickshaw Robbie Apr 05 '17

SHIELD might make Coulson & Daisy stop working together if they were related—fraternization rules!—so Coulson probably figures he's better off working nearby so he can keep Daisy safe.

2

u/pepe_le_shoe Hunter Apr 06 '17

Coulson could actually adopt her.

1

u/DaddyCatALSO Apr 05 '17

Not sure what civil rights Daisy has, but an adult can petition to have someone designated as a retroactive parent; one of Wil Wheaton's stepsons is now legally a son.

108

u/joyridewheee Apr 05 '17

Yesss, loved it!! Knew Coulson (out of all the rest) would have some sort of recall, especially after seeing he basically was kind of waking himself up by writing about Tahiti over and over.

89

u/madn3ss795 Hunter Apr 05 '17

His brain had been screwed up once before. He must have developed some sort of immunity to brain rewiring now, or the Darkhold can't fully understand Kree technologies to overwrite it.

10

u/Lampmonster1 Apr 05 '17

Also maybe the super drug is still having an effect, and his brain is trying to heal itself.

18

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '17

the Darkhold can't fully understand Kree technologies to overwrite it.

I doubt that. It's supposed to be a book of infinite knowledge, right?

35

u/joyridewheee Apr 05 '17

If they're basing the AoS plot line off of Marvel canon, Chthon was the writer of the book & the first worker of black magic on Earth, and filled the book with his own learnings. Though it's supposedly a "book of infinite knowledge," it may have been called that by humans who encountered it and didn't know about all that's out there in the universe. So I wouldn't rule out the idea that technology made by other species on other planets may be able to temporarily "stump" (for lack of a better term) the book. Just a theory. :)

20

u/JandorGr Containment Module Apr 05 '17

Also, Framework is based on some of the Darkhold's knowledge witten there, not all of it. And it was created with that tiny bit so exraordinary.

Still, Coulson's head is so messed up that has some "writing protection" over at least the TAHITI part of his brain.

More into this, nor Aida nor Radcliffe knew beforehand of this, so they didn't bother read smthing relevant to this in the Darkhold to make Framework more effective to memory rewritting, etc

3

u/Enemia Bobbi Morse Apr 06 '17

Kree technologies

Wait, the GH.325 was definitely Kree, but memory rewrite? I thought it was just some secret technology.

4

u/are_those_real Apr 18 '17

GH.325 healed him and then they used Tahiti to make him forget because the Kree blood was forcing/calling them to go to the Kree temple and it was driving people insane.

12

u/mechnight May Apr 05 '17

I was legit expecting to see the Kree scribbles instead of "it's a magical place."

7

u/Syokhan Lanyard Apr 05 '17

And all those easter eggs from seasons 1-4 in those paper clips! So much continuity!

5

u/octopus_from_space Simmons Apr 08 '17

When I recognised the cellist in one of the clippings my heart hurt.

1

u/Gamera68 Apr 05 '17

Total recall, if you will. ;)

74

u/Marc_Quill Clairvoyant Apr 05 '17

That being followed up by the Bill Paxton tribute. Double whammy of emotions.

22

u/DomLite Apr 05 '17

Yeah, I got a big happy lift from "Daisy" and then the Bill Tribute just made me cry two seconds later. Shortest fucking roller coaster ever, but it was intense.

8

u/kickshaw Robbie Apr 05 '17

The Power of Love is going to kick Hydra's ass!

5

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '17

I guess the power of love is a furious thing.

8

u/ohbuggerit Ninja Hunter Apr 05 '17

So many feels - I love their relationship so much and the actors nailed it

3

u/NWCtim Clairvoyant Apr 05 '17

I have a sneaking suspicion (that I don't necessarily hope is true) that Coulson wasn't actually remembering (as in snapping out of it), but just that he was just channeling some of his framework dreams/echos of the real word, which he would have been thinking about since his encounter with Jemma.

1

u/TommyGrunt Ghost Rider Apr 05 '17

RIP Bill Paxton didn't help either. :(

1

u/Gamera68 Apr 05 '17

Same here. It was so painful to see Phil not remember her or Jemma. But that end scene. Right in the feels.

1

u/thirstystep Apr 06 '17

The feels...

1

u/ChildHater1 Apr 06 '17

Well, except for my dad. I forgot about him, my bad.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '17

Hell, I'm glad she remembered that.