I’m on my (third?) watch of Agents of Shield, currently on 2x08, The Things We Bury. And it just occurred to me how good the parallel stories are in this episode in particular, all centering around the title.
(This breakdown got a lot more in-depth than I was expecting, so I’m putting the rest under a cut)
Storyline 1: the backstory of Daniel Whitehall. Shortly after finding a person (Jiaying) who can survive contact with the Obelisk, Whitehall and his men are captured by the Allied forces (as seen in 2x01). After being interrogated by Peggy Carter, Whitehall is consigned to a Shield prison for life. But that is not his end - HYDRA members release him from prison decades later, where he can continue his research on the Obelisk, experiment on Jiaying, and work his way to the position he holds in HYDRA in the modern day.
Whitehall: We could learn so much together.
Peggy: Instead we’ll forget. Forget you, forget your work. When I leave no one else will come. No one to hear your stories, study your deadly artifacts. You’ll be buried.
Whitehall: I seriously doubt that. Nothing stays buried forever.
Storyline 2: Grant Ward kidnaps his older brother Christian to have an emotional confrontation about their abusive past. They go to the site of the well (from episode 1x08), where Grant forces Christian to unearth it. The entire time, the brothers accuse each other of gaslighting and manipulation, blaming the other for the events of that day. Once the well is revealed, Grant threatens Christian until his brother confesses to forcing Grant during the incident at the well. The storyline ends with a news story reporting the deaths of Christian and his parents.
Christian: The well. You still blame me for the well. We both know that it was you who nearly killed Thomas down there.
Grant: Do you sleep better telling yourself that?
Christian: You know, I don’t know what crazy lies that you have built up all these years, but the well doesn’t even exist anymore. It’s gone. Mom and Dad buried it.
Grant: (pause) Oh, no. They just covered it up.
Storyline 3: the search for the alien city. Taking inspiration from Fury, Coulson decides to one-up HYDRA by putting in place a series of dominoes that will gain him access to a satellite. This allows the team to locate the alien city,
Coulson: We may actually have a shot at finding the city.
Skye: Are you sure it’s something you wanna dig up?
Coulson: If we don’t, HYDRA will. We need to get there first.
I just love the juxtaposition between the three storylines! From figurative digging into Bakshi and archived Shield files in storyline 1, to literal digging in storyline 2, to the city in storyline 3 being underground, all are about the things that get buried (hence the title) but not destroyed. Usually “bury” implies a final ending, as in burying a body, but this episode shows that buried is not the same as forgotten.
Daniel Whitehall is able to gain a new life and new identity. The well is unearthed and the Ward brothers’ past is laid bare. The alien city, which was lost for thousands of years, is discovered. And to dig more into storyline 1, Whitehall’s background in 2x08 teases parts of Skye’s background - more past which was buried (redacted by Shield) that is now being revealed. Jiaying’s barely-living body is dumped in a ditch in lieu of a burial, and in 2B we learn she was nursed back to health. The buried live once more.
Season 2A is all about the past coming back in full force to influence the present, and this episode is chock-full of that theme. More specifically, parts of the past that were supposed to be hidden or forgotten, parts which are demanding themselves to be known again.
This right here is the Good Shit™️, aka my favorite part of this show, and I’m so fucking pumped!
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in every lifetime
happy good omens season 2 anniversary everyone <3
full comic and more under the cut
here are the existing panels i have posted: panels 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, and 9 of panel 2. i probably won't post the rest because i did them really fast (like 4 of them today) so they're not great lmaooo just don't zoom in. honestly just so gobsmacked that i actually managed to finish this i need to go celebrate
and this drawing was inspired by the greatest comic ever created:
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Loki and his severe self esteem issues
Something I don't think we as a fandom discuss enough is the moment where Loki casually says "my life was a waste of time" to Mobius in s2ep6, I kinda understand that bc the finale was so traumatazing to some people that they only watched it once and tried their best to not think about it for too long
But this moment stuck with me because he says it with such calmness, there's no bite in his words, no sarcasm, no irony, he truly believes that, he thinks his whole life was a waste of time and this is so incredibly heartbreaking, at that point he already spent centuries trying to fix the loom only to learn it was a failsafe, centuries of his life wasted on a mission that lead to nothing, he probably think his life on the sacred timeline was a waste of time too, I'm so sure he'd do everything different if he could go back there, I'm sure he looks at all the things he did with so much shame and regret, a life wasted with jealousy and bitterness and acting out to get attention of others while being desperate for his father's approval and wanting to be Thor's equal
Even though he only acted that way because of his own trauma too, abandoned as a baby, adopted by a man who had a political agenda in mind when he took him and who made Loki feel unfit and inferior his whole life, raised in a society that looked down at all the things that made him him (magic, tricks, preference for diplomacy instead of fist fighting etc), Loki grew up in a hostile enviroment that only made him insecure and alone, he has severe self esteem issues and all he wanted his whole life was to be accepted and loved by his people and most of all by his father, he chased that approval in the wrong ways and now that he's mature and wiser he understands that but it's still so sad to see him talking about himself like that
He dedicated centuries of his life to doing the right thing, to saving the multiverse and making sure everyone would be safe, he made friends, he became kind and selfless and somehow he still thinks his existence was a mistake, his insecurities are so deep and internalized that I'm afraid he'll never truly be free of them, I wish someone hugged him very tight and told him how amazing and important he is, that his mistakes in the past don't define who he is now and that they're proud of how far he came in his journey
Loki's existence was the greatest gift the multiverse could've asked for, without him everyone would still be part of hwr's schemes and the tva would still be taking away people's free will, I hope his mind changed after the making of Yggdrasil and that he starts looking at himself with more compassion and love bc he deserves it more than anyone at this point
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I've thought about Loki's smile and head tilt here a lot and lemme tell you that this is the reaction of someone being recognized and appreciated for who he really is. Odin and everyone else in Loki's life had always suppressed the mischievous part of him and treated it as something damaging and ruinous when in reality all he needed was a guiding hand telling him how to control those powers and use them to help and not hurt. All he needed was reassurance that he CAN be good, he CAN be praiseworthy. This scene is the first time anyone has ever called him "the god of mischief" without any implication that he is evil or wicked or disastrous. He is genuinely happy to be understood for once and for his powers to be considered as something useful and not just damaging. It's also Mobius's earnest behavior and support that made this reassurance possible because Loki is a deeply mistrusting person. Mobius accepted Loki for who he really is from the beginning and tried to guide him through it instead of ignoring that part of him and suppressing it.
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