Agents of SHIELD (7×09) As I Have Always Been Review

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

Synopsis: A time storm ravages the Zephyr, propelling it toward destruction while simultaneously forcing Daisy and Coulson to relive their failed attempts to save the team. (IMDb)

Live. Die. Repeat. We have reached peak time travel in this mostly standalone yet still satisfying episode of Agents of SHIELD. Nevertheless, it will likely still have an impact on wherever this final season ends up with 4 episodes remaining after this one. Meanwhile, to give the reigns of such an important episode to first time director and original series cast member Elizabeth Henstridge is a big vote of confidence but in the end, she delivers both behind the camera and also in front of it.

As I Have Always Been began with Daisy waking up from her pod to an awaiting Sousa just in time for the time drive to overload as the zephyr was in a time storm while being pulled into a vortex. Now the target of radiation, it was chaos but before she could fully realize what was happening, Daisy woke back up from the pod before reliving that same sequence. To her credit, it didn’t take her long to figure out what was going on. She seemed to be the only one affected. It would take her a few loops to activate Coulson who had also been in a loop for longer than Daisy was though unlike her, he remembered the events from each loop (they were both in pods which was presumably why they were unaffected). Suffice it to say that Coulson was annoyed at having to reexplain everything every time (he had experienced dozen more loops than Daisy).

The way to fix whatever was happening was to fix the time drive. However, it wasn’t a matter of simply repeating until they did it right since every loop brought them closer to the vortex. After a while, Daisy and Coulson just ignored the script and brought everyone in (though they would have to reexplain themselves every time). Fortunately, the information on how to fix the time drive was in Simmons’ suppressed memory. From there, it was only a matter of removing the implant for which that would prove to be difficult seeing that in doing so, characters start dying under mysterious circumstances. Every following loop saw characters dying in different ways while Daisy’s connection to Sousa grew (he was waiting by her side for a reason), ended with them kissing. Eventually, they figured out that Simmons may have been the target because of what she knew until it was discovered that Enoch was the one killing people as a result of his programming directing him to protect the implant at all costs.

Now from that point, it was all about removing the implant before Enoch could intervene which proved to be difficult as well. This would cue plenty more exciting and entertaining loops as the characters devised ways to distract him then overpower him. Meanwhile, seeing his friends die so many times throughout all the loops proved that maybe LMD Coulson had a soul after all as his little speech lit a fire under Daisy who in turn was not over seeing Coulson die so many times (their connection was still very strong). In the end, what was essentially Enoch’s heart was the key to fixing the time drive. What was a hard concept to wrap their minds around was an easy one for Enoch as it was the right thing to do. He had no problem sacrificing himself to save the others, not that it wasn’t hard for him to do so.

As Enoch laid dying (Joel Stoffer was great here), a tearful Daisy and Coulson were at his side as they contemplated what death meant for not only him but also for those he left behind. Before he left, he revealed that the team would not survive by the end of their mission (the series is ending). The time drive repair was successful.

The episode would have been better if it stayed on the zephyr but the last scene reminded us that there was still conflict on Earth as Nathaniel Malick helped Kora unleash her powers.

What was mostly a standalone episode still had some standout emotional moments between the characters. Enoch may be gone but he definitely is not forgotten. Speaking of forgotten, Fitz had to come back. Either way, it’s going to be an interesting final stretch

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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.