 |
| Image Courtesy www.marvel.com |
The Marvel Cinematic
Universe has always excelled at bringing in other genres through its movies,
and that’s only going to increase with this year’s Ant-Man (comedy
heist) and next year’s Doctor Strange (horror). However, Doctor Strange will not be
the first MCU installment to make use of horror elements; that honor goes to Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D., which used horror elements, in several season 1 episodes,
the first of which is “FZZT” (1x06), the next episode in this “retro-review”
series.
The episode begins
with a group of Boy Scouts clustered around a campfire in the middle of the
woods late at night, listening to one of their leaders tell a ghost story. Their Scoutmaster suddenly hears a buzzing
noise and goes off to investigate it. However,
just after the Scoutmaster, Mr. Cross, leaves, they notice that his cup has
started to levitate. The cup buzzes with
electricity before falling to the ground, and the spooked scouts run to their
car and get in. Just as they get in, a
bolt of lightning zaps the car, frying the battery and sending it shooting out
through the hood. The scouts go to
investigate (when is that ever not a mistake in a horror movie?) and
discover Mr. Cross hovering in midair and buzzing with electrical energy. I really like the spooky opening to this
episode because it sets the episode apart tonally from the more traditional
“spy-thriller” episodes which preceded it.
 |
| Image Courtesy www.facebook.com/AgentsofShield |
Our first look at the
team is on the Bus. Simmons is giving
Coulson a physical exam, and gives him a clean bill of health. By the end of the episode we realize that
Coulson ordered the physical himself because he feels like there is something
different about him. However, he cannot
figure out exactly what it is. All of
the hinting at something being different with Coulson in this episode actually
feels very natural. Considering the case
they are investigating—its cause and its results—it makes sense that Coulson
would be thinking about the incident that led to his death and resurrection.
The team is called in
to investigate Mr. Cross’s death, and initially have no idea what could have
caused it. Ward suggests some kind of
weapon, while Skye suggests that someone from the Index might have done it. While investigating, Simmons gets a little
too close to examine a burn mark on his forehead, and she gets zapped. I was a little surprised that they didn’t
take that more seriously, but I think that fits into the horror genre: things that would normally be considered very
serious get ignored.
Back on the Bus, May
clears the other scout leader of any involvement while Skye checks up on Cross
using the internet. She is unable to
find any motivation for murder; the guy is a teacher, coach, Scoutmaster,
volunteer firefighter—he’s literally a Boy Scout. Without anything to go on, the team is stuck
until Fitz’ equipment identifies a large electrostatic signal building up in
the area. Coulson, May, and Ward go to
investigate, and arrive just after it pulses and disappears. They find a dead man hovering in midair
inside a barn that was barred from the inside.
He is alone, the doors are shut, and it appears that he was terrified
and going for his shotgun when he died. While
Fitz is scanning the body with one of the Dwarves, an electrical pulse from the
body shorts out the Dwarf, and both fall to the ground. Yet again, I like how the episode really
plays with the horror elements and themes.
 |
| Image Courtesy www.facebook.com/AgentsofShield |
Skye realizes that
both of the victims were members of the same volunteer fire department, and
went to New York with a group of other firefighters to help with the recovery
effort after the Battle of New York.
While in New York, the firefighters found and brought home a Chitauri
helmet as a souvenir. However, one night
when they were bored, three of the firefighters took out the helmet to clean
off what they thought was rust (when has that ever been a good idea in a
horror movie?). While cleaning the
helmet, all three contracted an alien virus, which had already killed two of
them; the third is at the fire station.
When Coulson, May, and Ward arrive at the firehouse, Coulson immediately
notices that the third firefighter does not look well. He quickly clears out the firehouse after May
discovers the Chitauri helmet, while he himself sits with the firefighter,
Diaz, and comforts him that he knows what’s on the other side, and “It’s
beautiful.” This is when it becomes
clear that Coulson suspects that the story they’ve told him about his death was
inaccurate. He knows that he was dead
for longer than 8 seconds. However, how
long that was is still a mystery to him.
His words are a comfort to Diaz, who tells him to leave about a minute
before he emits an electrostatic pulse and dies. I really like this scene for how it drives
all of these events home for Coulson.
This is the first time Coulson has actually said “I died” in the series;
before now it’s been “I stopped breathing.”
His desire to figure out what is wrong with him becomes a driving force
for several episodes following “FZZT,” culminating with his discovery of what
Fury did to him in “A Magical Place” (1x11).
Following Diaz’s
death, the team returns to the Bus and leaves to take the helmet to the
Sandbox, a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in West Africa. While en route Simmons discovers that the
virus can be transmitted from person to person by electrostatic shock
(forgetting that she herself had received one of those at the beginning of the
episode). However, while she is
explaining her discovery to Coulson, he sees a piece of lab equipment start
floating behind her, and quickly leaves the lab and locks it down, realizing
that she has contracted the virus. Though
Agent Blake (a senior agent who first appeared in the Marvel One-Shot “Item
47”) gives him the message that the Chitauri helmet must be delivered to the
Sandbox and that “If you have infected cargo, you need to dump it,” Coulson
chooses to ignore him to give Simmons time to find an antiserum for the virus.
 |
| Image Courtesy www.facebook.com/AgentsofShield |
I think the best part
of the episode is the scenes with Fitz and Simmons in the lab trying to create
the antiserum and starting to go through the stages of grief. Right after Coulson locked down the lab, the
next scene is of Fitz and Simmons sitting in almost identical positions with
their backs to each other on opposite sides of the glass door. At this point Fitz seems to be in the
“denial” stage while Simmons is starting to experience the “depression”
stage. Simmons tests a couple of
possible antiserums on lab rats, but neither test succeeds. The next scene is of Fitz and Simmons arguing—the
“anger” stage. Fitz is angry with her
for dragging him into the field where they could be killed by things they
couldn’t understand. She calls him
“pasty” for having been stuck in a lab all those years, which he throws right
back at her, saying that she was in the lab right beside him all those
years: “You’ve been beside me the whole
damn time.” And then he stops—and I
think this is when he realizes just how much Simmons means to him. This would be the “bargaining” stage. Simmons explains that the firefighters’
antibodies aren’t strong enough to create an antiserum, and realizes that the
Chitauri carrier was able to live with the diseased and that her antibodies
would be strong enough. Fitz runs to the
containment room, grabs the box with the helmet, runs back to the lab, and goes
in to join Simmons. The two of them
create an antiserum using skin cells from the helmet, and test it on a lab rat,
which emits a pulse and seems to die.
Though Fitz is still trying to improve the antiserum, Simmons has
accepted her fate—the “acceptance” stage.
She knocks Fitz out, lowers the cargo door, and falls out while Fitz
watches. Fitz realizes that the
antiserum worked when he sees the lab rat is alive (it was just knocked
unconscious), so he recharges the antiserum and starts to grab a parachute,
which Ward grabs out of his hand, jumping out himself to save Simmons. Ward catches her, administers the antiserum,
and opens the parachute, saving both their lives.
This episode was very
Simmons-centric. We saw her go through
the whole range of emotions—and I actually liked her performance. After seeing this episode, it’s clear just
why Fitz and Simmons work so well together:
they know how the other thinks, and the one’s strengths make up for the
other’s weaknesses. When Simmons is ready
to give up, Fitz keeps her on track. I
think this is the most character development that either of these characters
has gotten in the series. Before now
they were both either happy and smiling or stressed out. In this episode they experienced all the
negative emotions together. It also gave
us some hints into their shared back story.
Thus far none of these
episodes have been without fault.
However, I think that the early episodes of season 1 get unfairly
criticized for not showing a lot of superpowers and not pushing the season plot
forward enough. The goal of this particular
show was not to introduce a ton of superheroes or show a lot of superpowers; it
was to explore the MCU and how regular humans cope with a world of superheroes. I like how this episode uses the events of The
Avengers with the Chitauri helmet but moves past The Avengers and
touches on its impact on a smaller scale for the regular humans who had to
clean it up. It’s a lot like the
firefighters from around the country who responded to 9/11 and contracted
respiratory infections from all the contaminants in the air.
What did you think of
“FZZT” when you first saw it? What has
been your favorite “tie-in” episode with a Marvel movie so far from Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
If you want to get an
email whenever I publish a new article, go to the top of the page and enter
your email address in the box labeled “Subscribe to Mostly MCU Reviews” and
click “Submit.”
No comments:
Post a Comment