Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 4: A Life Earned Review

Keith NoakesDecember 15, 2017n/a8 min

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: Coulson and team learn their captors’ true intentions. (IMDB)

Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg

Director: Stan Brooks

Rating: TV-PG

Running Time: 45mins

If felt like the last episode was simply planting seeds for the future and this episode was no different but it also revealed a potential endgame to the future arc while giving us a very satisfying reveal at the end of the episode.

At the end of the last episode, Deke sold out Daisy to Kassius. This episode started with Kassius making the usual villain speech to Daisy where he sort of explained his plan to her and how her presence only helped him. With the money he can make by selling her, he could finally leave the station and destroy it in the process. He also wanted to know how she and Simmons got there and if there were any more of her people, threatening to harm Simmons if she didn’t comply, but she refused to give them up.

Daisy had a sample of her blood drawn before she was then taken to the Inhuman fight club and met a mind-reading Inhuman named Ben (Myko Olivier). He came to terms with what was happening. However, the other Inhumans didn’t know what was going on. He advised Daisy to play the long game and wasn’t going to take it easy on her. Daisy and Simmons reunited with Kassius using Ben to determine whether both were telling the truth about how they got to the station in the first place. With Ben’s help, Simmons was able to corroborate Daisy’s story by bypassing Kassius’ mind control earwig.

Also in the last episode, the rest of the team discovered evidence of possible human life on the remnants of the Earth’s surface but now they needed to find a way to explore the surface. They also wondered where Daisy was. Meanwhile, Grill tasked Mack to rough up someone for him. Coulson overheard Grill mentioning a restricted level which may contain advanced Kree technology. He set out to try and gain access, hoping that it would contain what they needed to explore the Earth’s surface.

Coulson and May turned to Deke for Daisy’s whereabouts and later help to access the restricted Kree level. He lied about where Daisy was interested in helping them when he heard the transmission from the surface. Mack was conflicted about the group’s current actions. Both Mack and Yo-Yo and Coulson and May simultaneously learned that babies have become a commodity within the station seeing that the human population were sterilized.

In the station, babies were created in a lab in the hopes that they become Inhumans that they can later sell. The man who Mack was supposed to rough up was receiving a package that was actually the baby the others found but Mack didn’t know that before he threatened to destroy it. The man took a few shots at Mack’s parenting skills and his ability to love which Mack took especially hard, remembering about Hope and losing her twice.

They also learned the truth about Daisy and how Deke sold her out. They dispatched a few Kree with May offering to take on Sinara (Florence Faivre) and her balls so Coulson and Deke could get away. Their fight was fun to watch but ended too quickly. Deke revealed to Coulson that it was his father’s voice in the transmission and that he wanted them to succeed so he could see him again although Coulson was skeptical of his story and rightfully so.

The big reveal came in the final scene where Kassius showed off Daisy to a group of potential suitors. One stepped forward and revealed themselves to be Fitz!

Overall, this was another good episode that was still doing a lot of setting up while giving us some more answers about the station and a potential endgame. The problem with this is that I’m still not quite invested in the new setting and characters. It’s nice to see Mack be the moral center of the group, however, it kind of felt out of place. With May probably a prisoner along with Simmons and Daisy, it’s only inevitable that they will be saved but will it come at the expense of finding out the truth about the transmission and the prophecy about them. How did Fitz get to the station? Based on the preview for the next episode, we will know soon enough. This season has been building towards something so hopefully it’ll all be worth it.

Score: 8/10

If you liked this, please read my other reviews here and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram, and also like me on Facebook.

3 comments

  • ljones1966

    December 16, 2017 at 12:10 AM

    It’s nice to see Mack be the moral center of the group, however, it kind of felt out of place.

    How did you come to this conclusion that Mack being the moral center of the group was out of place?

    • Keith Noakes

      December 16, 2017 at 12:29 AM

      It felt out of place in the episode because it didn’t get as much focus as everything else going on this season which made it more of an afterthought. None of the characters have had a moment to stop and reflect about everything that’s happened to them so when it happened here, it took away momentum from the episode.

  • Pingback: Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 5: Rewind Review – Keithlovesmovies

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