Agents of SHIELD (7×03) Alien Commies from the Future! Review

For our review of the last episode of Agents of SHIELD, click here.

Synopsis: A surprise leap forward in time strands Enoch in 1931 and lands the team in another unfamiliar decade; in order to stop the chronicoms from launching their future-dismantling plan, the agents must infiltrate one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most secure bases. (IMDb)

We’re getting back on track on this week’s Agents of Shield as it heads off for a fun sci-fi romp.

Alien Commies from the Future! began with the team following the Chronicoms to 1955 near Area 51 (all the Areas were SHIELD bases) as the latter were in pursuit of technology used to build a space weapon capable of destroying their ship. As far as the team was concerned, they wanted to get ahead of the situation for once so they found their mark in the form of a pencil-pusher named Gerald Sharpe (Michael Gaston) for which they could use his identity to enter the base (Simmons posing as Peggy Carter was a nice touch) where the current scientific advancement seemed primitive. Meanwhile, we got a glimpse of who appeared to be the leader of these Chronicoms, a female named Sibyl (Tamara Taylor) who was a predictor rather than a hunter (the warriors wanted to destroy SHIELD back in the 1930s but that would have surely launched a chain of events that would have led to their forming anyway).

Sharpe wasn’t as much of a pushover at it first appeared (and also casually racist and misogynistic not to mention obnoxious). Deke and his white privilege took a shot at him. Sharpe revealed that the technology the Chronicoms were after didn’t work though they could give it the boost it needed, creating an explosion that could eliminate the brain trust of SHIELD. Meanwhile, the Chronicoms have already infiltrated the base so it was up to Coulson and Simmons to figure out who was which. Prompting emotional responses on the part of the scientists to prove their humanity was hilarious. Daniel Sousa’s arrival proved to complicate things as he immediately stopped Simmons. Meanwhile, Coulson interrogated the high-ranking SHIELD member VIPs that arrived at the base (his robot nature made things interesting). Eventually, Sousa stopped him too (Coulson was also a big fan).

In the end, to face feel-less killing machines, the team needed one of their own which gave May the chance to finally return to the field. Meanwhile, Daisy helped with the Sousa situation. May was overwhelmed while Yo-Yo froze once again (they both had things that they didn’t want to talk to the other about), leaving them incapable of handling the female Chromicon hijacking the controls. They then followed it to a testing site where the female Chronicom hooked itself up to the device while Daisy, Simmons, and Coulson tried to stop the launch from back at the base (they also met the other Chronicom while Sousa escaped the cell he was left in). The latter group triggered an EMP blast that took out the Chromicons as well as Coulson.

The last scene saw Deke and Mack leading Sharpe to believe that he was merely abducted by alien communists from the future thus giving the episode its title.

Now this was a fun episode that was still in service of the overarching plot. Sousa was a nice cameo but he doesn’t appear to be done just yet so hopefully he stays for a little bit longer. Though it’s still unclear what the endgame is, this episode redeemed the last, however, that tonal balance is a fine line.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.