'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D' Recap: 'All the Comforts of Home'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

​Sometimes, the short breaks that a television show will take in the middle of their season, turn out be quite excruciating to the say least, because of the fact that the show in question has left us with some lingering questions or a cliffhanger that simply blew our minds. We simply have to know how this story is going to end and delaying it simply drives you mad and, in all honesty, that’s precisely how I feel about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. taking a month off after dropping an amazing cliffhanger in our laps.
 
After all, we simply had no clue who made it back to present day safely at the end of the last episode, but thankfully last night’s tale, ‘All the Comforts of Home’, answered that burning question quickly, in that, everyone made it back to 2018 just fine, and well, this episode actually gave our characters, and the audience, a moment to catch their breath for a change as the team once again acclimated to the world they briefly left behind. In fact, this story took things so slow, we were even introduced to General Hale’s daughter Ruby and we learned of her love of Quake and the show even took this opportunity to drop a little comic relief our way since Deke also made it back to our time and took full advantage of the creature comforts we all enjoy before getting thrown in jail for being stone cold drunk.
 
Which of course meant that Daisy had to save him, but that moment of levity was in fact, the last real joy we would experience in this episode. Because Coulson and the gang did have a world to save after all and well, one of the first clues of the trouble to come that they learned about in the future, was already on display. A beacon from above was blasting down upon St. Louis, but upon further investigation, Fitz and Simmons came to realize that this signal was in fact created by the same device used by Hive to contact the Kree, and it wasn’t receiving a signal, it was actually broadcasting one, prompting the team to head to St. Louis to figure this mess out and after running into an old friend in Piper, our intrepid Agents came to learn they had walked right into a trap.
 
Because shortly after shutting down the device, a strange being and its robotic assassins arrived to subdue and capture the team, revealing the fact that Piper betrayed her compatriots and struck a deal with General Hale to ensure her safety and well, despite Piper eventually going back on her deal with Hale to make sure her friends were safe, this entire operation ended in disaster. Because the mystery guest had quite the skill, in that they could toss bladed discs with flawless accuracy and in order to save Mack from being sliced and diced, Yo-Yo stepped in to save the day, and in the process, lost both of her arms, signaling what could be the beginning of the end for mankind since we saw Yo-yo in the same state in the future, and to make matters worse, we found out the mystery being in question is Hale’s daughter after all, and her hero worship of Daisy, appears to be nothing more than an unhealthy obsession…
 
If anything, this episode deserves some serious credit for being able to manipulate the audience so well. This truly seemed like a grand setup story for the back half of season five, but instead it turned out to be quite the harrowing experience and after watching this one, there’s a single moment that continues to stick out in my mind. Specifically, where Mack and Yo-Yo were discussing future Yo-Yo and whether or not she was telling the truth and suddenly, I’m starting to wonder if that’s going to come into play later on down the road, because what if saving Phil Coulson is what changes the future after all? I guess time will tell, but in the here and the now, there’s a sense of urgency hanging over this storyline and it’s hard to say how much time the team has left before all hell breaks loose on planet Earth. Until next time. 

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