Stolen

With just a few episodes left of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., every remaining episode is likely to feel like "the beginning of the end." Certainly this one did, as it toppled some narrative dominoes that seem near the end of the journey.

Returned to 1983, our heroes attempt to rescue Inhumans from Afterlife. But Nathaniel knows they're coming and is there to capture them. Plus, he's recruited a new lackey with a personal connection to the team: the younger version of John Garrett. Meanwhile, Sousa pushes Daisy to connect with her mother Jiaying.

From a narrative, bookend standpoint, it makes great sense to revive the character of Garrett, the traitorous agent from season one played by Bill Paxton, to appear in the final season. And it's more clever still to cast in the role the actor's real-life son, James. Still, I'm not entirely sure I like the way the character was written here. 1980s Garrett was written like 1980s Bill Paxton, a sort of mash-up of behaviors taken from the characters he played in various films of the era (chiefly Aliens and Weird Science). It let James do a polished impersonation of his father, but I'm not sure I believed this is who the character we met in season one would have been decades earlier. Hard to say, I suppose; a lot about a person can change in 30+ years.

In any case, it's good to put Garrett in the mix for the potential personal connections, as Nathaniel himself continues to be one of the less interesting villains of the series. The bar there is perhaps a bit high; even amid seasons that weren't as exciting (say, season six), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has still managed to have interesting villains (Izel). It's a shame the series is stumbling in this respect right at the end, but perhaps Garrett and Kora are going to step up here in the final episodes where Nathaniel is falling short for me.

The primary emotional thread for now, though, was between Daisy and Jiaying. They got a second chance at a first meeting, and it was interesting how it played with these highly unusual circumstances. Daisy seemed to feel jealous over the affection her mother showed her other daughter. It also served to show that this version of Jiaying could forgive a lot and love unconditionally. They got their reconciliation in some small measures... just in time for Nathaniel to.... kill her? Jiaying's "doesn't die easily" powers seemed easy to overcome here. But if we take what happened at face value, then a loud message has certainly been sent about what the time travel rules here are: either our group is insulated from changes to history, or "it's all going to work out in the end." I guess we'll know soon enough.

Just as I'd been beginning to suspect/worry that Fitz was dead, the show itself raised this possibility. So, phew! That's surely not the case now. But we were left in a place where, at long last, we seem to be on a course to find him. And Deke is set up one more time to play the unlikely hero, hiding out to potentially mess with the villains who stole the Quinjet, Die Hard style.

I'd give this episode a B. Perhaps not the strongest on its own, though it does seem to set the stage well for the last few episodes.