Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Aftershocks": INHUMANS! And thoughts on Trip (Warning: Spoilers Included)

Last nights episode of S.H.I.E.L.D. asked more questions then it answered. HYDRA is pretty much done. Coulson's plan for Hydra to destroy itself was pretty great. By removing almost all the heads at once HYDRA is severely crippled. Baron Von Strucker is still out there, but that will be dealt with in Age of Ultron in a few months. Everything else is still up in the air though. How will Skye/Daisy/Quake deal with her new found abilities? Will she be accepted by the team? Will Raina come to terms with her metamorphosis and will she use it to wreck havoc on the world? Will Simmons relax about what happened in the Temple and rediscover her scientific curiosity? How will this new trust between Fitz and Skye evolve? And what the heck is going on with Mockingbird and Mack? All of these questions will remain unanswered for a while but I am extremely interested in seeing where they are going with this show now. The show started out being about a team without access to superpowers in a world with more and more highly powered people, but now those powers are part of the team and that will be an important issue going forward. I think using the Inhumans as a plot generator for S.H.I.E.L.D. is a perfect scenario. I always thought some of the main characters needed powers and by having Skye be the powered one, her character takes center stage and is now one of if not the most important characters on the show instead of being mostly a supporting character for Coulson.

Something that really bothers me is the discussions about Trip on the show. His loss was completely tragic and should play an important emotional role for the characters. However I would love for the characters to learn that Trip's death was entirely his fault. Tragic yes, but still his fault. And the team needs to learn this soon. The team never really knew what was the true purpose of The Diviner last fall and never tried to find out. They trusted HYDRA that it was a key to a weapon of mass destruction, never realizing that HYDRA didn't know what it really was and that Skye's father was manipulating everyone. Skye and Raina were being affected by the Mists, and Trip was not. He kicked The Diviner off of the pedestal and it shattered, sending two pieces into his torso. He was not an Inhuman, so the diviner turned him to stone. I firmly believe that if he had not done anything he would have survived and if the team had actually done its homework and figured out what they were dealing with they would have been more prepared. The information was available. Skye's father kept trying to tell them but they would not listen. Trip's death was tragic but completely avoidable. There was no possible epidemic. No weapon of mass destruction. Only a device that gives abilities to the Inhumans which had a self-defense mechanism. Trip caused his own death. He didn't save thousands of lives and he didn't save Skye. He died for no greater good. And that is why it is so tragic. If the team could know that, it would add a whole new element to the stories they could tell and give new motivations for Skye to use her new powers to make up for his loss. To try and uphold his values and to continue to fight against the forces of evil in his name. Playing the "Trip was a hero" card is useful, but I believe that the "Trip died for nothing, so I must make up for that" card is way more meaningful and powerful to the motivations of the characters of this show. It could be difficult and a little dark, but they need to go down this road. Make his loss meaningful, because right now I don't see a long-lasting effect in his death. They are grieving now, but that will end and then what? How will the tragic loss push the team if it doesn't significantly change the way the characters think, behave, and act? Maybe these question's will be answered in due time, and maybe they will use the "heroic loss" story as motivation. I just think that doing so would diminish the gravity of what Trip actually did. A tragic, pointless death can have even more of an effect than a heroic loss can.