Our season three showdown was bundled into a 2-hour finale that refused to quit playin’ games with my heart, featuring the usual blend of fist pumps, emotions (soooo many emotions), bursts of thoughtfulness, and, yeah, the occasional raised eyebrow, too. There’s a whole lot to talk about, so let’s get right to it.
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Er, spoiler alert?
The political boulder Civil War threw into the MCU pond ripples down to the small-screen this week, highlighting the difference between public officials and private citizens as well as the tenuous balance between security and freedom. It’s tough for me to discuss certain aspects of this episode without bringing in at least general details from Civil War, but since the film hasn’t even been out a week, I’m going to skirt around that conversation for now. Maybe once Season 3 wraps up and I’ve had a chance to see Civil War a second time, I’ll do a longer write-up on the conversation the two stories are having with one another.
The point is, if you’re an AoS-only viewer, you can read on without fear of Civil War spoilers, like how the North wins but Abraham Lincoln still dies at the end. What a twist!
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There’s more than one civil war brewing in the MCU.
There’s a possibly game-changing MCU film on the horizon, but our SHIELD team doesn’t have time to press pause and set the stage for that. No, they’ve got their own set of small-screen problems that increasingly feel like they’d fit right at home on a big one: Alien invaders, super-powered battles, strained loyalties, and two sides moving ever closer to an explosive confrontation. Bring along your camping gear, team. This one’s intense.
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Past the point of no return?
Hive’s endgame is revealed, his army grows, and the gang find themselves with a major victory totally eclipsed by their more recent failures. Oh, and a ‘ship long in the building sails with a flourish out of SHIELD harbor. Why does that make me even more nervous?
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My God, it’s full of Sailor Stars!
And so we come at last to the end of things. As is tradition, I’ve got a Stars retrospective after the recap, with general commentary on the season as a whole. As for any overarching thoughts about the entire series and my two-year trip through the Mooniverse, I’ve decided to save those for another post tentatively scheduled to go up the first week of May.
For now, though, we’ve got a finale to tackle!
Did somebody order the red herring?
After a few weeks of table-setting, Agents of SHIELD promptly flips that table, leaving silverware and glasses scattered all over the floor as we head into our final season arc. In the process it gives us one of its tensest and most entertaining episodes to date, packed with intrigue, false leads, and enough twists to fill a 1960s dance hall.
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We have a tendency to go into a bit of a mid-season slump with AoS in terms of story fluidity and general writing, a trend that began last episode and continues into this one. I wouldn’t call it bad so much as uneven, as there’s some last-minute backstory insertion and lazy character writing happening in Hydra, but then some really good (and much-needed) character work going on around Team SHIELD. Throw in the promise of a Secret Warrior mission, and while I might not be terribly high on this one, I’m already bouncing in my seat for next week.
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When you wish upon a star seed…
The plot is everywhere, and its devices are right there with it. My ongoing struggles with Stars continue into its penultimate episode, alas, but overall I was far more invested this week than I thought I’d be, thanks to some heart-wrenching character beats and a surprisingly layered backstory for our previously 2-D antagonist. Compelling antiheroes and sympathetic villains? Yep. Some of the magic might be missing, but it’s still Sailor Moon, all right.
Now in eye-popping 4-D!
Because spending last week commenting on hate groups and the fine line between protecting the peace and abusing one’s power was just a little too simple (pfft), AoS spends this one debating the nature of time, determinism, and the limitations of (In)human perspective. The results are mixed thanks to some rushed, transparent plot-moving coincidences, but I’ll give ’em full marks for effort, at least.
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I’ve never been so happy to write the word “season” instead of “series” into a post title before.
In case you missed the good news, Showa Genroku is getting a second season, something I never thought I’d be writing and am positively giddy to be doing so. Given that the manga is scheduled to wrap up sometime this summer, it’s likely the production staff had this planned out as a complete, two-part adaptation right from the start. Thank the anime gods for risk-takers and passion projects, that’s all I can say.
Knowing we’re only at the halfway point takes a lot of pressure off of me, too, as I don’t need to try to tie it all together or judge it as a complete work just yet. There’s lots of story left to tell, and while SGRS Act I set up one complicated, tragic stage, this season finale injects a powerful shot of hope into our story, suggesting that Act II may just find a way to give its current players a more optimistic ending after all.
The Josei Next Door 