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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
Tracing more reckless roots of horrifying history can cause commotion. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s third episode of its final season is titled “Alien Commies From The Future!;” it is written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman Fringe, Haven), and directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado.
Some spoilers ahead for those who are not up-to-date with the series or not caught up with this episode. If you haven’t done either, get to that now, then return to this article!
This episode gets its title from the SHIELD agents’ contact with Cold War Era Americans, and the differences between the then-present reality and that of the future. The writing for this third episode calls for an introduction of mid-20th century technologies, the chilling truths of social politics, and the important fictional figures connected to both.
In this 1955 plotline, the team arrives in Groom Lake, Nevada — the apparent “home of Area 51.” SHIELD agents Daisy Johnson/ Quake (Chloe Bennet), Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), and Chronicom Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) infiltrate the base as they continue their fight against the enemy Chronicoms. Meanwhile, agents Melina May (Ming-Na Wen), Elena “Yo-Yo” Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley), Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward), and Director Alphonso “Mack” MacKenzie (Henry Simmons) make attempts at interrogating a high-ranking agent they had captured.
This story of the season takes place during the Cold War and involves the creation of top-secret science-fiction innovations like a communicator watch and more realistic inventions such as the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) discharger. Most important in this episode is the organization’s Project Helius, which Simmons says “was an earlier attempt at an ion fusion reactor.” With the intervention of the Chronicoms, Shaw says that in the future, this can be “used to power the big weapons shipped to ship killers.” The future SHIELD agents use the EMP to cease the activation of the reactor, shutting down any technological devices — including Chronicoms and Coulson — in the process.
The episode relates the post-World War II environment of the 1950s to our current events. In the previous two episodes, which took place in 1931, Director MacKenzie has become victim to racism by individuals of that time period. While Coulson, Johnson, MacKenzie, and Rodriguez are eating at a diner in 1955, the SHIELD director receives a discriminatory look from a white waitress setting down his plate of food. (Although as this happens, Mack suggests to Yo-yo that she [Yo-yo] is “recovering [after being] infected by an alien.” The term “alien” might have meant “illegal immigrant” in the eyes of the white woman.) Coulson then rejoices at their being in this time period, to which Johnson points toward the diner’s restroom, where the signs “WHITES ONLY” and “COLORED ONLY” indicate just one evidence of segregation. Mack, Yo-Yo, and May later interrogate the high-ranking agent (and self-proclaimed patriot) who doesn’t budge, and they ask Shaw — the white male agent of their group — to use his white privilege to his advantage. The ’50s agent holds nationalist beliefs that what is happening in his time is “America’s continued dominance and unparalleled excellence.”
Agent Simmons impersonates Agent Margaret “Peggy” Carter using a fake identification card and meets the woman’s former partner Daniel Sousa (guest star Enver Gjokaj), establishing the much-anticipated crossover between Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter. This historic moment between the two series is similar to the concluding act of Men in Black 3, which also takes place in the Cold War Era but in the year 1969. The antagonists of both stories intervene in order to win in their respective fights against humanity.
The group’s arrival in the Zephyr is mistaken for “a flying saucer,” which was all the rage in the 1950s, having published fake news articles and tabloid papers.
As a whole, the episode develops Rodriguez as she further hesitates to use her abilities as well as May when a similar circumstance occurs, both feeling they cannot rise to the occasion; this comes to show that even the latter has a weakness. The performances of the whole cast are excellent, and no one actor falls behind.
“Alien Commies From The Future!” continues the time travel mission on which the Agents and the Chronicoms both set off to do. Yo-yo teases some sort of conclusion for the series in her line about when the agents “know when the mission is done.” Coulson makes a point about this era’s life-changing technologies when he says, “Look around. We’re at the precipice of this space race. It’s a golden age of innovation.” However, with the rise of creations during this time period comes the conceit and collapse of America. Having come from a post-World War II historical event, the world faces sociopolitical challenges, and here we see that patriotism/nationalism has become invested into “The American Way.” Yo-yo (a woman of color) tells the high-ranking agent (a white male) that “that arrogance is putting lives at risk.” Like the Americans and their pride and hubris toward their culture, the Chronicoms are deindividuated. That is, they have lost their subjectivity and have grown to become an objective hivemind. When the “loyal” Americans, Chronicoms, cyborgs, robots, etc. do not get their way, “that’s what they do when you win — they self-destruct,” as per Yo-yo. Such is the case when the high-ranking agent discovers that he has been in contact with other-worldly beings. He runs back into the diner and exclaims what he has experienced, and everyone inside sees him as crazy. This sets him apart from the others because now he has a new way of viewing and interacting with the world.
This episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. demonstrates that in order to travel into the future, we as a society must require of ourselves authentic progress. Our machines and devices may evolve, although the way we act with one another has remained the same, and this is what needs to change.
10/10
What do you think? Have you seen this series? If not, do you plan to binge it sometime in the near future? Let us know! For more Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., action, science-fiction, and Marvel-related news and reviews, follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_).
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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