The Walking Dead, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow: Three Things We Missed Last Week

The new episode of AMC's The Walking Dead has just wrapped up and we're all talking about [...]

The Walking Dead Rick on the phone

The new episode of AMC's The Walking Dead has just wrapped up and we're all talking about it... ...but we missed a little something last week. That's true of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., too, and Arrow--making it three for three that we noticed cool little things from comic book movies after the next episode was already on the air. We figured they were worth quick mentions here--starting with the earliest.

OldSTARLabs3

S.T.A.R. Labs This year's Arrow Season Premiere featured the first-ever mention of S.T.A.R. Labs on the TV series. That's relevant because Dr. Emil Hamilton, who appeared in Man of Steel--and Dr. Rip Hunter, who is expected to appear on the Booster Gold TV pilot if that ever materializes--have both worked for S.T.A.R. Labs over the years. The show didn't actually feature S.T.A.R. last year, though, and so the mention is particularly interesting because coming as it does at the beginning of the season, it seems likely they're laying groundwork for later. Maybe, perhaps, the super-scientists at S.T.A.R. can help with the first super-powered hero to hit the world of Arrow when Barry Allen gets speeed powers later? It was introduced by newscaster Bethany Snow, who was a supporting character in the Teen Titans, and an acolyte of Brother Blood in the comics by George Perez and Marv Wolfman. Nowadays, she can be seen appearing in the back of all DC Comics as one of the newscasters in the Channel 52 features. So...that seems to confirm that Alderman Blood is Brother Blood, in case you needed any confirmation...!

The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 1

Rick's taking advice from the voices in his head Last Sunday on AMC's The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes had three questions that he meant to ask poor Clara if she were to join their group. The questions were: 1. How many walkers have you killed? 2. How many people have you killed? 3. Why? During the Talking Dead after-show last week, actor Andrew Lincoln explained the reasons behind the three questions. "If they give any sort of answer we think is suspect or the way they answer it is suspect, then they don't come back," said Lincoln. "So it's basically just a buffer, a first shield, and then it's just a matter of proving yourself." It's a fair way of judging character in the world of The Walking Dead, certainly. But they were oddly familiar, too. Redditor mikedon11 sussed it out, and it's pretty cool: those questions were the ones that Jim asked Rick on the phone last season. As in, these questions have been rattling around in Rick's head as some kind of litmus test for the quality of a person's character for some time, and now...well, now he's got a more practical way of putting them into action than asking them of himself. Assuming, of course, that Clara's real.

diamonds-are-forever

James Bond, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This one comes to us via our old buddy Ben Grimm:

Back when Nick Fury first made the transition from "Howling Commando" to "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.," you wouldn't have been outta line to make a connection between what he was up to and the exploits of a certain MI6 agent, James Bond. As it happens, last night there was a call out to the James Bond adventure Diamonds Are Forever. Not the film, Diamonds Are Forever though, the original Ian Fleming novel, Diamonds Are Forever. You see, this-here plot point only happens in the novel. In this story, Bond has to impersonate a diamond smuggler transporting diamonds from England to the US via commercial air travel. How does he do it? Well, after he mentions to Tiffany Case that he happens to golf, she asks him what golf balls he uses. I think you can see where this is going. He transports the diamonds hidden in a set o' Dunlop 65's. Specifically, a set o' "six new Dunlop 65's in their black wrapping paper, and with the seals intact." I think you can see why Yours Truly got more than a little excited when Akela Amador revealed diamonds hidden in a dissolving golf ball. In my book, it's both appropriate and pretty thrilling to see a spy TV show like this paying homage in a covert sort o' way to the master spy novelist and his original works.

We'd have to agree: That's a pretty cool wink-and-a-nod to one of the better Bond books...and not a reference we'd have remembered, since it's been about a decade since we read any of the older ones. So...what are we going to miss this week? Send your observations along and let us know whether we missed anything big.

0comments