nerd radio

Get ready for the new daily show

TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Agents of Shield Season 04 Episode 17: Identity And Change

April 12th, 2017 by Todd Black Comments

Ok…here’s my problem right now. At the end of last episode, they showed that Coulson had some memories of his actual life. Yet, when we arrive in “Identity and Change”, it’s not exactly stated why he and he alone has them. According to him, he only has “fragments”, but if that’s the case, why don’t the others? This is especially true of Fitz, who has gone so far into the dark side, I have no idea how it’s going to turn for him.

For the record, I’m not saying this episode was bad. Far from it, it was actually rather solid. But these questions just continue to form and it’s not making much sense. Also, if all it took was a look from Daisy to get Coulson to remember her, why didn’t any of Daisy’ chat with Mac rejog his memory? Especially since he was told her “real name” to try and trick her. Shouldn’t that have triggered something?

I do appreciate the writers diving deeper into this world of Hydra and show Aida’s motivations behind it all. Her desire to be real is so strong that she’ll do anything to keep it that way. And arguably more importantly, keep Fitz by her side. The scene with Fitz, Radcliffe, Agnis, and her was arguably one of the most chilling moments in the series history, as you had to wonder whether Radcliffe would get through to Fitz (again…why did that work for him? Especially after that “you crossed the bloody universe for her” line?) and prevent him from killing Agnis. Turns out, not so much! And then he tortured Radcliffe afterwards.

I was happy to see Mac interact with Hope, as his place in this world makes perfect sense. He just wants to be with the daughter he lost and protect her at all costs, which is why he “betrayed” Daisy. But…then he just “happens” to know a SHIELD drop zone? Yeah…not so much.

It was good to see Skye and Simmons at least try and adapt a little more to this world to convince the others to cooperate, though I wonder how much longer they can keep this up.

In the end, “Identity and Change” was another good look into this fake world, but, they need to speed things up, because some inconsistencies are really breaking the illusion, and if this goes on much longer, it’s going to be ridiculous.

4 out of 5 nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!