Things happened on "The Other Thing"! We at least get some idea of the threat of what Team S.H.I.E.L.D. is facing on Earth, a resolution of sorts to Team Daisy's travels through the universe, and a showdown between Miranda and Sarge. Not to mention finding out a little more about the Chronicoms that have been hunting Enoch. So all in all, a thrilling week by Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. standards.
As far as the adventures on Earth, Marcus analyzes Keller's corpse and determines the crystalline spikes that grew from it are similar to those of the monoliths. They've been going on about the monoliths for so long, I either forgot or never knew there were three of them. Marcus speculates the third one controls "life and death", and is tied to Pachakutiq. Which is an ancient Incan word, and the name Tinker (aka "the guy in the wall") was muttering. So, Marcus is off to Yucatan to investigate some ruins that are connected to the word.
Mack and Yoyo share a few moments over Keller's death. Marcus comforts Yoyo by saying he made a similarly tough decision when he had to shut off the ventilator on his brain-dead husband. Because it's 2019, dammit.
Sarge locks Miranda in a room on the Mad Max/Mystery Mobile truck, along with a knife and the body of one of the Shrike-possessed. It attacks her and then grows spikes, and she uses the knife to stab it. Despite seeing Sarge means business, Miranda manages to knock him and Snowflake (Brooke Williams) out. Interspersed with this is Miranda having dreams about her time in Tahiti with Coulson after they retired there when he found out he was dying for the second or third time. I've lost count. 
On the Zephyr, Team Daisy (and Team Jemma, and Team Piper, and Team Davis) are captured by Altarah (Sherri Saum), who is the Chronicom in charge of the hunters that have been after Enoch. Their homeworld was destroyed by the bird parasites, which we late find out are called the Shrike. So they've been hunting down Enoch to find out how he tampered with the universe via time travel. Jemma and Daisy explain about the time-travel monolith, and when the team is surrounded, Jemma surrenders herself as a hostage so Fitz will have motivation to develop time travel. This after Enoch tells Altarah that Jemma would make a good hostage.
Altarah reveals the Chronicoms want to use time travel to go back and save their homeworld from the Shrike. When she and Enoch have a conversation, we find out they shared Altarah's charging port and she accessed Enoch's data input. Hubba hubba.
The Shrike/Pachakutiq thing seems a bit strange. I thought they came to one world (and Sarge and his crew follow them to that one world) and used its Ley Lines to wipe out the entire dimension. But now we find out they've been wiping out planets in the "core" Marvel Universe. Presumably, we'll find out more about the Shrike's modus operandi in the future.
In the end, Enoch tells Fitz he told Altarah that Jemma would make a good hostage, because the alternative was Alterah killing Team Daisy because they were unnecessary. Fitz isn't happy to hear that since he wants Jemma safe, and Enoch assures Fitz he's his best friend before gassing him unconscious.
As an aside, I like Joel Stoffer as Enoch. His vaguely Data-like portrayal provides a lot of the comic relief on the show. Whether he's bemoaning his commission or scheming to keep Fitz and Jemma alive by kinda-sorta betraying them. Agents Piper and Davis have a mostly-hate relationship which one suspects means either they've been shacking up or soon will, but their bits are funny as well.
There's no sign of Deke (Jeff Ward), although he does get a brief mention as being in surgery and finally shutting up. And Sarge mentions his crew's hunt for him from last episode.
Overall, we got a bit of forward momentum five episodes into the season. We still don't know what Pachakutiq (gesundheit!) is, but it's big and threatening and wants to do something with Earth's Ley Lines. Whether it's a big Shrike, or some kind of Thanos-level bad guy and the Shrike are its servants, isn't revealed.
Sarge says he's been around for a hundred years, apparently establishing he's not Coulson or a clone or a shapeshifting alien. And Miranda says she knows Coulson's entire life and has seen a lot of it, so presumably he wasn't a fake, either. So, whether there's a connection between them, or they're the same person, remains to be seen. There's still lying, and implanted memories, and thought transfer, and whatever else the creative team wants to whip out, so they could be the same person. Time will tell.
Snowflake is still creepy-crazy. She comes across as a violent self-help counselor: "I want to help you emerge from your chrysalis of negativity."
Clark Gregg remains effective as both Coulson and Sarge. He gets more screentime as Sarge, but it's nice to see a reminder of the old Coulson in Miranda's dreams.
They couldn't or wouldn't pay for Lucas Byrant to come back, so Keller's corpse is conveniently covered throughout the episode. I'm still not feeling anything for the aborted Mack/Yoyo romance. Mack says some words about how he couldn't handle being the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and involved with Yoyo at the same time. But both characters act so dispassionate about the whole thing that it's hard to care. I suppose they're suppressing their feelings and all, but still, it doesn't work. It doesn't not work. It just sits there taking up space.
(I keep thinking if Mack was named "Holmes", they could ship "Holmes and Yoyo", establish John Schuck's Yoyo was an early LMD, and the ABC network would implode. But maybe that's just me.)
Overall, "The Other Thing" was an entertaining episode that finally brought a bit of clarity to the show. Which has been wandering a bit with drug-infused trips to the planet Kitson (named, presumably, after writer and story editor George Kitson) and creepy bird-parasites and "Is Sarge Coulson or not?" And then we get a heavily Fitzsimmons episode next week judging by the previews and press statements. So off they go again on another tangent. Hopefully, they'll intermingle that with the main plot.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Written by Gislef on Jun 15, 2019
My name‘s Melinda not Miranda!