TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Agents Of Shield Season 06 Episode 04: Code Yellow

So close. This episode was SO CLOSE to being something much more compelling and dynamic. Granted, it was WAY better than the previous three episodes of the season. But just when it got close to being truly great, it doubled down on the wrong elements, and then killed off certain storylines too quickly. Forget “Code Yellow”, AOS is on “Code Red” right now in terms of this season.

We finally found out what happened to Zeke after his “disappearance” at the end of last season. It was ambiguous in terms of his fate, and now, we know that not only has he been on Earth, but he’s been thriving as the next Steve Jobs of sorts. He’s using his knowledge of the future and Shield to make his own version of the Framework, and other devices in order to make himself rich. Because of course he did.

While i do appreciate them trying to stick to character here (mainly Zeke looking out for No.1, himself), there are far too many questions here. Like, how did Zeke get the money for his startup? How did they create the technology for the Framework and other things that he wanted to make? And most importantly, Shield was watching him the entire time (thank goodness…), but they didn’t interfere because…why? They were shocked by what he did, and yet they had an agent watching him! That makes no sense that he wouldn’t have been picked up sooner after ripping off Shield tech.

Also, they were trying WAY too hard to be “hip” here. From things like “#Truth”, to Zeke’s girlfriend Sacoya being a literal social media freak (and then dumping Zeke for his bodyguard in the end credits…really?), it was all too much. And don’t get me started on that virtual framework where Skye is the “rough girlfriend”, this is why I honestly was happy Zeke was gone at the end of last season. But they keep bringing him back! WHY???

THANKFULLY…the rest of the episode was good. We got a LOT more context on what Not-Coulson is doing. He’s not just destroying worlds per se, he’s taking out creatures that don’t belong on Earth. Aliens from other realms or dimensions are seeping through, and Coulson is using tech to find them, and then kill them.

Which is cool! …except that means he’s not the bad guy per se, and yet he has a team of killers, and isn’t afraid to wreck everything in sight to get his goal done. Which means he is a bad guy…it’s confusing. And now he has May, and apparently wants to recruit her to his team. Ok…

Meanwhile, one of the aliens/creatures that Not-Coulson tried to kill infected Agent Keller, and when it got too much to control…Yo-Yo had to kill him. And I know I should feel more for this guy. But I honestly don’t. At all. We had like two episodes of them saying they were together, but we honestly never saw it. I think they maybe only kissed once, and the rest of the time they were worried about the others finding out about them. If they were going to kill him, it should’ve been after they fleshed out more of their relationship.

On the plus side though, the fight between May and Snow was fun and brutal. I dig it. I just wish the episode more on these good storylines and less on Zeke and his “dream job”.

“Code Yellow” was easily the best episode of the season. But in comparison to the other episodes…that’s honestly not much of a compliment.