Hmmm . . .

Of course, the idea that Fury wouldn't have someone reporting back on how Coulson was doing is ludicrous, now that I think about it.

Of course, the idea that Fury wouldn't have someone reporting back on how Coulson was doing is ludicrous, now that I think about it.

That may have been shown by the end of this week's ep. Except it seemed like a log, rather than a transmission.

Huh. That was... disappointing.

1. I've seen this episode before, it's an SG-1 episode called "Hathor", and at least in that episode the female characters take down the evil alien queen without needing any of the men to help. They get themselves and the rest of their team out of trouble.

2. As in "Hathor", one of the men on the team is raped by the mind-controlling alien queen and nobody ever comments on it.

3. 600 years? Why not just kill her, if you're going to imprison her for that long, and she is apparently irredeemable? That is, I have to say, inhuman.

4. I would have preferred Sif not to have the jealousy-backstory, frankly. And I would have preferred the show not go to the Ward/Skye place.

5. And once again the characters don't seem to be worried about the fact that they killed those two guards who were just doing their jobs. Not even Skye, who you would have thought would be at least a little freaked out.

6. I did find the May reveal a little intriguing, but then I should have expected it, given how much she was badgering Coulson to talk about whatever he saw. It was unlike her to be so persistent.

I saw it as a "even though you've got a personal stake in a matter, duty comes first" thing--Sif not letting the jealousy apply, Coulson not letting his own questions overrule the job. Never saw that SG1 episode, so that issue doesn't apply for me.

They did say "people died for this," but I'm not too worried that they're not angsting about the guards. The guards were given the opportunity to put down the guns. Yeah, a less violent method would have been to use the sleepy time gun, but they were not in a kinder, gentler place. I don't hold my comic book shows to a higher moral level--except the very first Batman movie, where he blew up that factory full of people, because Batman doesn't kill.

Also, and I can't believe I forgot this: The whole thing with Lorelei's powers was just so heteronormative and gender-essentialist. That plot, those powers, come out of a universe in which gay and lesbian people do not exist. And in which men are fundamentally slaves to their hormones.

There's no reason for Lorelei's powers not to work on women, except for plot contrivance.

Very annoying. I wanted better.

I think it would have been really funny if she tried her powers on a gay man and it didn't work - for example.

That would have at least brought some genuine amusement.

I thought it was ridiculous that they didn't have extra-special no-touching orders, especially holding the night-night guns.

That was...not good. I don't mind predictable overplayed plots if they're well executed, but this was really not.

I don't buy Coulson being so wigged out by the alien body. New drugs come from all kinds of weird places, and this has been established as a universe where two alien species have visited Earth already...I'm with Skye, this is not something to get that worked up about. Magical regeneration blood is not a new idea in sci-fi/fantasy.

I do not think you get to keep using "Men died for this!" as a reason why a thing is important if (a) you are the one who killed them, and (b) especially not if you bring up the night-night gun as a plot point five minutes later.

It's ridiculous that SHIELD would send Coulson's team to deal with Lorelei, knowing that May was the only female fighter on that plane. So stupid.

Yeah, I am Jessica.