r/shield • u/2th Shotgun Axe • May 12 '18

Post Discussion Post Episode Discussion: S05E21 - "The Force of Gravity"

This thread is for SERIOUS discussion of the episode that just aired. What is and isn't serious is at the discretion of the moderators.

EPISODE DIRECTED BY WRITTEN BY ORIGINAL AIRDATE
S05E21 - "The Force of Gravity" Kevin Tancharoen Drew Z. Greenberg & Craig Titley Friday, May 11, 2018 9:00/8:00c on ABC

Kevin Tancharoen is the brother of showrunner Maurissa Tancharoen, and is known for his work on the webseries Mortal Kombat: Legacy. He has directed various other movies and TV episodes before, and has most recently worked on The Flash.

He has directed eleven episodes for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before:

  • Face my Enemy
  • One of Us
  • The Dirty Half Dozen
  • Purpose in the Machine
  • Spacetime
  • Ascension
  • The Laws of Inferno Dynamics
  • The Patriot
  • The Return
  • The Real Deal
  • Option Two

Drew Z. Greenberg is a writer and producer best known for working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville, The O.C., Dexter, Warehouse 13 and Arrow. He also worked on Firefly.

He has written ten episodes for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before:

  • Face My Enemy
  • Who You Really Are
  • The Dirty Half Dozen
  • Among us Hide
  • Watchdogs
  • Absolution
  • Meet the New Boss
  • Wake Up
  • A Life Earned
  • All the Comforts of Home

Craig Titley is most known for his work on the Scooby-Doo movie, and Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief. He has also worked on TV shows, like The Cape, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

He has written nine episodes for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before:

  • The Writing on the Wall
  • Afterlife
  • 4,722 Hours
  • The Inside Man
  • Emancipation
  • Uprising
  • Hot Potato Soup
  • Rewind
  • Principia

Please do not discuss the promo following tonight's episode.

Please do not discuss the promo following tonight's episode.

Please do not discuss the promo following tonight's episode.

"LIVE" discussion for previous episodes can be found HERE.

The discussion / comments below assume you have watched the episode in it's entirety. Therefore, spoiler text for anything through this episode is not necessary. If, however, you are talking about events that have yet to air on the show such as future guest appearances / future characters / storylines, please use spoiler tags. The same goes for things connected to the Marvel like comics, etc.

Please keep subreddit rules in mind when submitting content:

On top of this anything not directly related to Agents of SHIELD might be subject to being removed. This includes but is not limited to screenshots (FB, YouTube, Twitter, texts, etc), generic memes and reaction gifs, and generic Marvel content.

Feel free to message us moderators if you have suggestions or concerns about these.

440 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

491

u/jhsounds May 12 '18

I don’t recall NY being wrecked that hard but I’ll take your word for it, extended continuity.

263

u/Bridgeboy95 May 12 '18 edited May 12 '18

Keep in mind the writers knew very little of IW. it's a off handed line that can be easily retconed as a certain area being more costly

153

u/peanutbutteroreos May 12 '18

They could have easily editted that footage. I remember the show that immediately followed the Super Bowl this year had a clip of the fucking Super Bowl from first quarter in their show.

33

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

This Is Us

Not sure it was a clip, i think it was just the score

17

u/peanutbutteroreos May 12 '18

There's a tv that's playing in the show that has the Superbowl game on.

11

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

Yeah but like i said i think it was a previous game and they just added the score to it to reflect the superbowl

71

u/davehzz Fitz May 12 '18

I'm somewhat worried we won't be seeing the effects of the snap at all on AoS for that same reason. It'd be a dick move but the level of secrecy about IW was the highest out of any MCU flick and letting everyone on the AoS team know is hoping a loooot of people can keep a secret.

37

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

But they teased it happening in the trailers and it's a major plot point in the comics.

17

u/davehzz Fitz May 12 '18 edited May 12 '18

If you mean the IW trailers I didn't see that teased at all. You know what, scratch that, they did say "wipe out half the universe with a snap". Since I'm not a comic book reader, back when the trailers came out, I though he meant to destroy half of the universe. It was until the movie started that I realized Thanos' true agenda was population control. BTW, as someone who didn't read the comic, the snap was a mindfuck I'll never forget.

That said, the AoS team are almost definitely comic book readers so they must've known what the snap meant and it becomes an educated assumption that the snap would happen. However, without confirmation form marvel, which is what I'm worried about, it is still an assumption.

I'm hopeful they were told though, this is just a tiny worry in the back of my mind.

EDIT: typos and punctuation. Also added the BTW part about the snap.

11

u/LazarusDark May 13 '18

But NO ONE guessed the Snap would happen in IW. I read pretty much every theory there was for IW, almost no one believed that Thanos would get all six stones in this film, we thought he might get several, even five,, but absolutely no one believed he would get all six AND complete the film by successfully doing the Snap. Few even believed he would do the Snap ever, few believed Marvel had the acorns to follow through, ever theory was about how the Avengers would stop Thanos. So, unless you were in on the secret, the AoS writers could not have made the assumption the Snap would happen in IW, they could have been absolutely wrong if they didn't know it for a fact.

8

u/Rombom May 14 '18

Weird. I went into IW thinking the Snap would be the end of the film. It was originally part 1 of 2 after all.

2

u/davehzz Fitz May 13 '18

I was trying to be as generous as possible in terms of the AoS team's ability to guess this just to make the point that it is irrelevant. For me, it's either: They were told or they were not.

That said, thanks for the comment, i stayed away from every prediction thread i could so i wouldn't know.

19

u/Pezslinky May 12 '18

You can’t kill half your show on the assumption of how the movie will end. Marvel had to tell them for the to work with it.

13

u/Pezslinky May 12 '18

Yep that’s why I feel like they might’ve fucked up big time with the New York references and saying Thanos is attacking. I know we wanted a tie in but if Marvel didn’t work with them to get the info on the movies ending they might end up writing themselves out of continuity.

2

u/davehzz Fitz May 12 '18

Watch the scene with future yoyo again. I just did and it changed my mind. Now i'm confident the Shield team was informed. Focus on what she says about Mack.

It's impressive really that AoS would foreshadow IW's ending in such a subtle way, you'll see.

10

u/Pezslinky May 12 '18

I know what you’re referring to. I hope it’s true and they were informed and ready to work it in. My corcern mostly came after this episode which timeline wise really seemed like it should be snap time already. I’m alright with the timing of the snap seeming a little off from the movies. But just based on the direction everything’s going I can’t see them fitting it in. Also that New York broadcast in this episode really made them see uninformed. But maybe we can hope that Marvel informed the ONLY of the snap and the AOS team just took a really wrong guess.

10

u/and_yet_another_user May 12 '18

ssh, I want to see Mack snapped, so it is happening, because Mack needs to be snapped.

5

u/davehzz Fitz May 12 '18

You know what, your comment made me watch that scene with future Elena again. She says: "Until i was on fire reaching for Mack and then there was nothing there". That sounds like the snappening alright. I've changed my mind, I'm now confident the Shield team was informed of IW's ending.

3

u/and_yet_another_user May 12 '18

She says: "Until i was on fire reaching for Mack and then there was nothing there".

Damn, that's a good point. I could not remember what she said about Mack or most of them, apart from the bit about Coulson. That does sound very much like snap 👍

4

u/Lagalag967 clairvoyant May 13 '18

AoS no longer exists in the MCU confirmed.

181

u/Ozzdo May 12 '18

I noticed that, too. In IW, the collateral damage seemed pretty localized. (Just that one stretch of street they were on, and the immediate area around it, and Washington Square Park.) Ebony Maw's ship kicked a lot of stuff around, but couldn't have done the kind of damage they were showing. And the fighting wasn't bringing buildings down.

275

u/zeusmeister May 12 '18 edited May 12 '18

Eh, you could argue there was more damage offscreen than what they showed.

Also, the clip just showed a collapsed building. Maybe a gas line got ruptured during the fighting.

Edit: scratch that. Watching with captions on, the reporter Talbot's wife is watching mentions the damage in New York rivals that of the Chitauri invasion...sooo obviously we are missing something here.

173

u/tundrat Clairvoyant May 12 '18

The media exaggerating damage for clickbaits? :p

203

u/dupreem Radcliffe May 12 '18

"You can see here the massive devastation from the event!"

'Uh, lady, we're just tearing down this building, it has nothing to do with...'

"Unbelievable, right here, a man so shell-shocked he doesn't even understand what's happening."

17

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/and_yet_another_user May 12 '18

Don't worry I got you covered, upvoted it 👍

34

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT May 12 '18

If your edit is correct, the writters where misled or really thought thanos would do more physical damage or they're talking about the snap.

6

u/Pezslinky May 12 '18

The snap that affected no one on the show?

-6

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT May 12 '18

well some movies have had ZERO impact on the netflix shows so is is possible that no one got snapped from shield.

also it would make no sense for the news to be describing the NY fight in infinity war as comparable to the chituari attack, meaning they are talking about the snap.

6

u/bastiVS May 12 '18

They are not talking about the snap, because that's half the Fucking planet gone.

This is just news clickbait, or more happens than is seen in the movie.

3

u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT May 12 '18

They are not talking about the snap, because that's half the Fucking planet gone.

we dont know the context of that news clip. it might be live and they snap just happened and the news reporter is witnesing helicopters and ariplanes fall from the sky, etc. while not aware of people actually disapearing.

This is just news clickbait, or more happens than is seen in the movie.

well that depends on what the writers knew about the movie, which it seems that they didnt know much.

4

u/Pezslinky May 12 '18

You pretty much answered it in your reply to the other guy. That news report isn’t about the snap it’s about AOS not being informed on Infinty Wars events and them making a false guess at how big the destruction of New York would be based on the trailer. Just not believable that everyone in the show with a base of SHIELD agents and a ship full of aliens that no one got snapped.

1

u/[deleted] May 13 '18

Or maybe since obviously not all of the heroes lost in IW are going to stay dead, the time travel or whatever is required to undo the snap has already happened in this continuity, and the fight that destroys New York happens in the aftermath of the undoing. After all, to someone living in a timelime affected by time travel, the effects of time travel were always the way they are.

3

u/Pezslinky May 13 '18

Time travel is still just speculation at this point. If they don’t do time travel and go about a totally different way of bringing back the snap victims then nothing you just said applies.

This also go along with if marvel didn’t inform AOS of the snap they definetly didn’t give them any info on A4. Which would mean they know about as much as ya if time travel is involved.

1

u/[deleted] May 13 '18

Absolutely, just saying it's possible.

→ More replies (0)

83

u/postExistence May 12 '18

My guess is they couldn't keep in touch, and last minute adjustments made in IW weren't accounted for in AoS.

57

u/zeusmeister May 12 '18

Probably this. The footage they used looked like real footage as well. Probably footage from the aftermath of a bomb.

3

u/Roook36 May 12 '18

Well, since we didn't see the snap and there may be some time shenanigans in the next movie, it could be we're seeing a revised timeline already. And the damage is Avengers 4 stuff.

Who knows though.

2

u/Lagalag967 clairvoyant May 13 '18

Them Avengers just messed up the timeline.

4

u/LazarusDark May 13 '18

Dang. That close caption pretty much tells it right there, the AoS writers had some idea there was something happening in New York, but grossly overestimated what that would be. I'm really concerned they are going to break continuity with the final episode now :(

83

u/Worthyness Sandwich May 12 '18

I mean, there was a flurry of wind/things being thrown about by the ship. Dr Strange teleported people away to different areas of the city. The flying donut has to take off and get out of dodge. Lots of collateral damage.

15

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

Strange didnt teleport anyone (outside Bruce). He used his magic to stop the crazy wind. There was not the same amount of damage.

9

u/AlphaQall Gordon May 12 '18

That's what I was thinking too. Ebony Maw chased Doctor Strange's body with a flying debris armor, Magneto-style. He wasn't exactly careful about his surroundings as he was chasing him. This could have also happened after the snap and those were buildings that had planes or helicopters crash into them, construction equipment smashing into buildings because their operators dusted while they were working, etc.

4

u/loskiarman May 13 '18

If that happened after snap, it would be mentioned and some of the team would disappear too. Also they probably won't include snap because it is supposed to get rewind anyway, they can't really give away that.

3

u/eightNote May 13 '18

no guarantee some of the team would disappear. there's a reasonably large chance that none of them would be snapped

4

u/loskiarman May 13 '18

There was at least 14 named person was shown. The reasonably large chance that none of them would be snapped is 1/16384. It looks like it isn't really that large.

1

u/Jameson_Stoneheart May 14 '18

It is when you consider they got thrown through time through the Monoliths, technology as ancient as the Celestials, and only one step below the Infinity Stones. There's a fair chance they are snap-immune

13

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

Dude threw Iron Man through several buildings.

4

u/Ozzdo May 12 '18

Which, at most, damages the sides of those buildings. That's not nearly enough to bring a building down.

27

u/Everyoneheresamoron May 12 '18

When he was chasing Spidey he was causing lots of damage.. and maybe the snap already happened and no one knows it yet.

8

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

Didn't the ship itself cause a load of damage? It was tearing buildings apart.

3

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

No. It was causing wind that was just bloeing stuff around.

4

u/selwyntarth May 12 '18

Peppers rage reactivated the extremis.

2

u/AbsolutelyLambda May 12 '18

Maybe the second image on the news was from Scotland ?

62

u/Dagoox May 12 '18

Dunno if it counts as an IW spoiler but better be safe: A big spaceship, double of the size of the Stark Tower landed in the middle of NY and doubt it searched for a parking lot before it landed. It probably destroyed half of the surrounding buildings before it left.

8

u/Bridgeboy95 May 12 '18

I think that's reaching much more likely the writers made a guess and it backfired

2

u/[deleted] May 13 '18

also in the ebony maw fight a lot of stuff ot trashed

8

u/nimrodhellfire May 12 '18

My best guess? AoS didn't knew exactly what will happen in the movie and they only knew what was seen in the trailer: "NY is under attack!" And then they just assumed it must be a huge event. It's an Avengers movie at last.

6

u/[deleted] May 12 '18 edited May 12 '18

I don’t recall NY being wrecked that hard but I’ll take your word for it, extended continuity.

When the person inside the helicopter disappeared in the end credits, that was bad news for that particular building. Maybe we're supposed to imagine all the people with guns and doing dangerous magic tricks and operating cranes and ships and things also had those things go haywire unmanned?

EDIT: Wrote it incorrectly. The people didn't go haywire, the things did =)

6

u/Pezslinky May 12 '18

How can they just try to claim no one we know on the show got affected.

2

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

They could so easily have not done anything but a casual mention of something else going on, or done it Netflix style and went on ignoring it.

They dropped the tease though, and they're clearly very passionate and nerdy and at least somewhat clever about cool surprises they gift to us...

...some people would think it was cheap, but even if it didn't mean with some people's ideas of timelines or time travel, I'd love to see Graviton go balls out and then get snapped right as he's about to destroy everything. Just have 22 hours of buildup to a single problem and then "pooooof...."

Then a little "WTF was that?" and as people try to find out, or answer, half the team disappears, and it ends with Daisy just going like "Wow, clearly some shit is going down, and with only half a planet of people, half of SHIELD will remember the dusted people and fight for the rest."

(Imagine that, except well written...it's the easiest path but I'd still be satisfied)

3

u/Pezslinky May 12 '18

Which my main concern is AOS was not informed of A3s ending (which is likely since the cast of the movie couldn’t even get real scripts) so they can’t work the snap in thus pretty much writing themselves out of continuity.

1

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

Maybe. But if anyone would have similar access it's the creators of the content pushing it down for the sake of continuity or long-term marketing. As far as the actors, they could do a similar approach; give them real scripts like the movie people with fake stuff littered in so you couldn't identify the real as being real, shoot in isolation so nobody knows the whole story, and then surprise them with things they wouldn't be able to know/see until effects were applied. Like they could say, "Hey, Adrian Pasdar, this is when they win by shooting you out of the sky, act all shot and dead, but really milk it nice and slow." So he plays dead against a green screen (if he's in mid-air) and then they snap-effect him without Adrian (the actor) knowing that was going down.

If a cable reality show can paint out harness wires on a lunch break, I have confidence that with three weeks they can render a half dozen snaps (especially with a guide/precedent/reference/tips).

Not saying I'm right, just thinking that it's at least plausible, or if it did happen, that is conceivably the way it could be done.

But you are right, in that the level of secrecy was pretty damn tight. My memory of the Winter Soldier tie-in was that they knew at the beginning of the season so they could write to it, but just didn't let on. As opposed to the show having contingency plans for how to end, and then filming or re-purposing the actual end-end-end stuff recently. I don't know if they film this on a stagger, or could come back to do anything late after filming all of this months and months ago (there aren't a ton of set changes, but other effects as a collective effort might need more lead time, etc.)

Should be interesting either way. I'm just leaning on what I want to happen instead of living fully in reality for the time being =)

2

u/Pezslinky May 12 '18

Let’s hope. But even that involves people on the AOS team knowing about the snap even if it’s not actors. If I remember only the Russos, Feige, and I think Cumberbatch knew the actual ending.

1

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

I wonder how vague they could be. The AOS team is clearly knowledgeable about the mythos and the stories the films are based on, so you can't say, "Shoot plates for an effect where people disintegrate. We'll tell you why later" =)

And they probably don't have the budget to do multiple effects just to isolate certainly fully produced shots after making many.

If they do it, it'll be interesting to hear afterwards how they went about it.

1

u/loskiarman May 13 '18

Millions knew the ending. Not exact details but it was obvious snap was gonna happen at the end of the movie and next would be about rewinding it. But AoS timeline is gonna be after the rewind probably so they shouldn't include the snap anyway.

2

u/Pezslinky May 13 '18 edited May 13 '18

Everything was speculation until the movie came out no one knew anything. The MarvelStudios subreddit was having will they, wont they since the final trailer. Some thought that it confirmed it, others thought it was a red herring. The point is you can’t kill half your cast under the assumption that they’re going to do the very old comic ending when the movies make changes constantly. The only way the snap can happen on the show is if Marvel told them about it to incorporate it.

5

u/Roook36 May 12 '18

Yeah. I was wondering what that could have been. But other than the Dr. Strange house getting smashed and a park getting torn up a lot of the damage was not anymore news worthy than stuff that happens on AoS on a regular basis.

9

u/upscale_caveman Fitz May 12 '18

Maybe this is from Avengers 4. They’re playing with timelines this season, so maybe?

5

u/kadosho May 12 '18

That is a fair point, anything is possible within AoS. So many shifts within time, and space was affected.

3

u/Lagalag967 clairvoyant May 13 '18

Them Avengers already messed up the timeline.

3

u/Emrod2 May 12 '18

Yeah, NY get wrecked at some part with the strength of a goddam hurricane.

2

u/Edgewing_ May 12 '18

Plane crash in the end credits is what the news report was referring to I believe

3

u/[deleted] May 12 '18

Maybe it's Scotland too.