That was maybe one of the more stressful S.H.I.E.L.D. moments I've experienced — which is saying a lot. This season has given us creepy dream sequences, depressing FitzSimmons tension, and the Ward Family Web of Lies. However, watching friends turn against each other as the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. send Mack to his death in the Kree city was heartbreaking. Not to mention Skye giving herself up to Ward while all of this was happening. I guess Ward is playing both sides against each other right now, but I can't bring myself to care. Is Mack really dead?
Here's what went down. The group approached the ancient city and figured out how to get in. Mack, who usually stays on the bus playing video games, went down into the ruins first. Big mistake. Huge. He touched a random button on the floor and started turning ashen with the alien map glowing on his palm. Mack didn't turn to dust like the diviner's victims. Instead, he turned mean. When the team pulled him back up, his eyes glowed red and he threw Coulson against the wall. The whole team sprung into action, including Fitz, who had to pull a gun on his buddy. Like I said, heartbreaking! Eventually, they threw Mack back into the city and sealed the door. Bobbi protested abandoning him there. Were they, as Mockingbird would put it, a "thing" once? Did you catch that little exchange? Coulson was not for it, insisting that he was no longer Mack.
We did not see him die, so don't make any assumptions. However, adventures like this need to have stakes and the stakes need to be tested. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't have red shirts to rely on like Star Trek. If Mack isn't dead already, this alien evil that's inside of him is just going to grow. Even if they don't kill him off, waiting it out and letting Mack do more damage as he recovers would cheapen the danger. I like Mack too! But it's not a good sign that Fitz and Simmons finally talked to each other. Mack was Fitz' coping mechanism and he's completed that story, as sad as it is.
Image: Kelsey McNeal/ABC
