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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Agents of Shield Season 7 Episode 5: Trout In The Milk

June 25th, 2020 by Todd Black Comments

Agents of Shield has often played fast and loose with the rules of the world. It was when they decided to just not care at all that we got some of the best and worst storylines of all. The question became what would Season 7 be? We’re 5 episodes in, and I have a bad feeling that we’re starting to lean towards the latter.

The reason for this is simple, the Chronicons have decided that they’re going to accelerate the destruction of Shield in a truly terrifying way. Which usually would be quite awesome. But in this case, they decide to get Project Insight from the Winter Soldier movie up and running…40 years ahead of schedule.

Add to that, because of the interference, Wilfred Mallick is alive, and so is his son Nathaniel (who if you recall Gideon sacrificed to the Hive in order to be in sole control of Hydra). Which means the timeline is basically shot and this raises many questions about what exactly is going to happen next, and not in the good way.

We know from Season 6 that Infinity War and Endgame just…didn’t happen for AOS, but they still somewhat followed the MCU, even when it was clear they really weren’t. But this? It’s almost like they’re trying to setup a new timeline for themselves…and that’s not really cool. It feels like a copout.

The reason I’m saying this is that if Shield has the tech to make Project Insight now, and then it gets blown up, why didn’t they just try again in the 80’s, or 90’s, or 2000’s? Especially if their leader (Mallick) mysteriously dies and they felt it was his “dying wish” to see this project happen? As for the Mallicks, with him gone, who takes over? Gideon or Nathaniel? Especially now that one of them might get powers via Whitehall (Season 2 callback)?

And there’s the FitzSimmons problem. Fitz’s presence is severely missed, and now that Gemma is appearing to be not…well…human…it makes me wonder what else we don’t know about.

Putting all that aside, the episode did do a good job of making the plot feel really important. Including the callbacks to legendary Shield agents and Avengers like Victoria Hand, Peggy, Bruce, etc. Bringing back Rick Stoner (played of course by THE Patrick Warburton), Enoch showing up in hilarious fashion, and the May problem continues to get played in a fun way. Oh, and the Chronicoms kidnapping Mack’s parents to try and force their hand? Yeah, that was terrifying. As was Deke’s killing of Wilfred though I do feel that was a little too “easy” for him given what he felt the previous episodes.

I also liked Sousa trying to adapt to the new timeline and having trouble understanding what he didn’t die for when everything is a “Trout In The Milk.”

In the end, the episode brought a lot of drama and action, but what happens next? Well, let’s just say they better course-correct fast and there’s going to be problems on many levels.

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!