Agents of SHIELD: Adapt or Die review S7 E6

Adapt or Die was another really good episode though some of the events left me worried too much has happened to leave any lasting impact.

The Chronicoms say they must continue to adapt as they bring out hunters. As a Resident Evil fan the threat of Hunters is serious. While not quite the one-strike decapitators as the video game version, these were almost as bad.

While Stoner interrogated them, May told Coulson that Stoner’s agent was a Chronicom. Yes, we’re supposed to play along, but how many missions this season would been ruined if May wasn’t an emotion reader?

Sousa and Daisy are prisoners of Nathaniel Malick, who wants to turn himself into an Inhuman using her powers. Shockingly, this doesn’t work out well for him as his bones quickly shatter after the infusion.

This was the weakest part of the episode in part because Nathaniel sounded like a 90s movie villain with his endless chatter and weird charisma.

Simmons, Deke and Enoch have to fix the ship after the Chronicoms spray it with missiles from the SHIELD base. Deke sees Enoch using some device on Simmons and rightfully zaps him. I don’t disagree with that choice after all the body swapping that’s played out this season. It’s not quite at the same level, but this season is creating some solid paranoia like way back in Season 1 when Hydra got outed.

Enoch was only helping Simmons get her memory back. When she and Fitz concocted this plan to fight the Chronicoms, he had to stay behind in a vulnerable place if anyone knew his location. Since she did, Simmons had to zap some of her memory, but too much got damaged in the process. That’s great and all, but when do we get Fitz back?

Mack and Elena go on a separate rescue mission to retrieve his captured parents. I kinda feel like there weren’t a lot of young bald black guys during this time period… This interaction is fun with Elena having to help Mack remember he has to stay a stranger to them.

The Chronicoms track them down and Mack fights most of them off and gets a last-minute assist from Stoner and May. May’s reaction to the handshake from Stoner was hilarious. He clearly had some amazingly smarmy thoughts, right?

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Coulson meets Sybil, the Predictor, in the Chronicoms virtual lab. After a little verbal sparring, Coulson obliterates the Hunter factory and himself — but as May said, he always come back. That’s true although that probably shouldn’t be the calling card for Coulson on this show.

On the flight back to the Zephyr, May realizes Mack’s dad has been swapped with a Chronicom (see what I mean?). But it’s actually both of them. Elena and Mack destroy them and launch them out into the air.

This is a gut punch for Mack, but like all time travel stories it’s starting to get confusing. Does this mean Mack’s parents died in this new history? And going further with this destruction of Project Insight does that mean Hydra is playing like the Empire and just repeating the same one really good idea they had in 2014?

I guess nothing has been irreconcilably changed to the point it’s going require a magic wand wave at the end, but it’s feeling close. SHIELD has earned enough trust that I’ll go along for the ride without worrying. Much.

In the stinger segment, the team warps and Mack rolls out on his bike. Deke goes to check on him, but the Zephyr has a problem and ports away again leaving Mack and Deke stranded in 1982. This should be interesting…

Rating: 9 out of 10

Photo Credit: ABC