Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Premiere Recap: Orientation (Part 1 and Part 2)

On Friday night, the fifth season two-hour season premiere of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired on ABC, finding Coulson and nearly all of the team – basically – lost in space. While it seemed for most of the first hour they were simply out in space, it was soon enough determined that they were actually lost in time and the Earth as they knew it no longer existed.

Here is the official, albeit short, description of the two-hour premiere entitled “Orientation (Part One and Part Two)”:

“Coulson and the team find themselves stranded on a mysterious ship in outer space.”

Join Roz, Karen and Rueben as they discuss what happened:

Did you get the Peter Quill feel from Deke?

Roz: Actually no. By the end of the episode he was far creepier than Quill ever is to me (Ego’s bad enough), but I think the whole situation is FUBAR so maybe everything will be bad. And after the Framework, everything feels bad.

Karen: I did, although not a dead-on Quill feeling. Qull + The Collector, or if you want to go back further, Han Solo + Lando Calrissian. I think the latter is more apt, since it’s the reluctant helper + the ally that might turn enemy. Right now he’s not developed enough to feel him out completely, but I hope we learn more about him.

Rueben: When he first came onto the ship with that very Quill-like space mask, yeah maybe, but as the episode went on, I felt it much less so. Especially when Daisy discovered his opium den that leads to a doctored version of the Framework. A much, much darker Quill, for sure.

Where in the future do you think they are?

Roz: I think it has to be some future in between when we last left and what is coming in Avengers Infinity War (see here for more details)

Karen: Jed and Jeff have gone on record to say it’s between 70-100 years from now.

Rueben: Okay so that helps a lot as I just wasn’t sure. Thanks for the links, ladies, as those will definitely help those like me who missed them and are novice to the Marvel Universe.

How dangerous do you think this Kasius go really is given all he has done so far?

Roz: He looks creepy enough as is. I think he was able to temporarily or selectively make Jemma deaf, which says something wicked this way now!

Karen: Firstly, he’s gross, and creeptastic. And on top of that I think he’s sinister enough to be pretty evil. Do I think he’s the big bad? Probably not. He’s A big bad.

Rueben: I agree with you both. He is creepy as hell, and while he may not be THE big bad for the season, he is certainly a big bad. I guess we’ll find out just how big and bad he is soon. I really didn’t like what he did to Jemma with that silver substance that caused her to be deaf unless he is talking directly to her.

All these survivors seem to have forgotten what Earth was like, but given how gloomy everything is, do you think they’d appreciate the hope that SHIELD was to Virgil?

Roz: I think they all wanted to forget – hell look at how well the Framework does as a means of escape – but this situation is like my worst imagined ideas of Firefly’s universe – and that means an escape is welcome, or willful ignorance.

Karen: Well, the Kree wants them to forget, that’s for sure. They want everyone to forget and lose hope so they’re broken and resigned to their fate. They’re still human, and that means they’ll still be curious – which is why there are people out there like Virgil.

Rueben: I’m hopeful that there are more people like Virgil out there, who had just resigned themselves to their fate; but maybe now that the SHIELD team is onboard the ship, that perhaps they’ll start to believe.

The ship seems pretty unstable and yet we see Daisy freely being Quake. Is her power too dangerous yet again?

Roz: Why do we have to keep doing things to Daisy? She was our way in and now it’s hard to recognize the hacker for what she provided to the team. But she can’t always be the big bad inhuman with her powers or this is going to be old very quickly.

Karen: Where the “lower class” live is where it looks dirty and unstable. The Kree wouldn’t live somewhere that’s truly falling apart. That doesn’t mean they’d care about making the rest of the place livable. I also think the whole “Daisy killed the Earth” thing is a false flag. The history was wiped out, and he only had fragments of the framework – Deke doesn’t know for sure.

Rueben: I don’t believe that Daisy’s power is the reason that the Earth is nearly destroyed. I have a feeling that history will prove that she wasn’t the cause. As for the ship, I think the Kree are keeping everyone else on the fringe of survival deliberately, and making sure that only those lower sections are falling apart. They would never let anything happen to that ship because they have to be on it.

Gemma is now one of Kasius’ personal attendants. Do you have thoughts on her storyline? How will it play out?

Roz: Gemma’s spent far too much of the last few seasons away from the team, so I don’t want this to last long, and I hope it doesn’t get too creepy. She’s always away from the rest of the team and that can’t be good – especially since she’s also away from Fitz at the same time after all that drama.

Karen: I’m actually hoping they don’t linger on that arc. I like when Gemma has a lot to do, but I prefer that it be with our team, working in her environment. I have a feeling that they may use her in a “message” storyline, and I hope they tread carefully.

Rueben: I want Jemma to figure a way out of this situation quickly because I don’t like seeing her in this position; and I’d love for her to get the better of Kasius.

Half of the Agents have Metrics, and half don’t. Predictions on things that might happen with that?

Roz: It won’t end well for someone if the Metrics are that necessary. But the team is forced to work towards the same goal from different angles and that might work well in the end.

Karen: Well, May is in the half that doesn’t, so there’s going to be a BIG issue there. She will HATE that Coulson made the bargain with Grill in order to get the Metrics installed. On the other hand, it will mean that Coulson, Mack, and Yoyo can go undercover and do recon while May and Daisy cannot. Gemma is in a whole different pickle, and I’d love it if she can get some intel on her end as well. The whole hearing loss thing is definitely a detriment of course. Ugh. Can they just stop with the beating up of Gemma and Fitz?

Rueben: Oh, Karen, that’s a great idea! Gemma getting intel on her end and using that to help the rest of the team to get those damn things off. Perfect!! Perhaps these Metrics can be the way to get Daisy back into the hacker mode by working with Gemma to figure them out.

What are your thoughts on the two-hour season premiere? Please share them below.

The next new episode of the fifth season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will air on ABC on Friday, December 8 at 9/8c.