The thing is, though, it is serialized. Very much so. You just don't realize it until later in. The whole show is about toying with your expectations initially. I remember I watched the first episode and my question was "Why are all these losers on Coulson's team?" Well, I was on the right track, but I found myself…

I think it does the show no favors that some of the stand alone episodes are certainly weaker, but I do feel it works best taken as a whole. The narrative is really super tight, I find it impressive, actually, the scope of what they achieved and how they connected everything. Even if some of the moving parts are not…

I find when I go back and look at AOS as a whole, and realize they were messing with our expectations out of the gate (I mean, the whole team exists to take down/fix Coulson if he loses it), it takes on an entirely new meaning. The only person who was not a part of Coulson's carefully orchestrated revival was Skye.

It's all speculation on my part based on him showing up in Avengers 2 and him and Coulson having a major geek out over vintage spycraft which felt very much like a Klot Secret Avengers moment to me.

He is on Being Mary Jane. How many times is Nick Fury on AOS?

Yes. I think very much so. Just go in knowing that they are going to mess with your expectations.

I love Skye and I love the way that the narrative of this show is structured and how everything is connected. I was dismissive of her at first, but the whole point of Skye isn't just about Skye. It's about SHIELD's monsters in the closet, why that particular team was assembled, and about Coulson being different after…

They said they're keeping Trip, but I think Trip is going to end up being Nick Fury, Jr.

Well, Skye designed most of the missions by the season's end and tracked down Garrett and Ward.

So Skye is Peter Quill's half-sister?

Yeah, I've thought that as well. Maybe Simmons will be going to the dark side in her effort to get Fitz back to himself.

Maximus the Mad? MacLachlan looks decidedly un-Karnak.

Agreed. They are both wonderfully ruthless together, kind of the same animal until Xanatos becomes a family man. Demona kind of experiences something similar with Angela, but she doesn't embrace it the way Xanatos does, he strangely turns more like Goliath in that respect, but then Xanatos', wife doesn't think…

From their perspective, do you ever see anyone around other than Owen? Elisa comes by to check on them during the day.

It's very defensible and the highest point in the city. It's a great vantage point. Until they are forced out it's a good strategy militarily. Xanatos is in jail and no one knows about them.

I think he'd rather have studied them and used them, but he had what he wanted which was their genetic material and the castle.

He wants access to their genetic material. He's into the mixture of science and magic, he's obsessed with it, in fact. The show covers this. He creates the robots simply as a defense and to help obtain his greater goals, which are long-term and further reaching. You realize this in these episodes when he's used…

One of the things I really like about Goliath and Demona is that Demona is a nasty, vicious creature. She's become exactly the thing she claims to hate. Demona sees Goliath's compassion as total weakness. It's obvious that even though she thinks Xanatos is a lesser life form that she does admire that he's cutthroat…

Does anyone remember the years and years of development hell that came after teasing a live action movie?

Ha. Totally write on. I felt the same thing.