Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 7 finally fixed Yo-Yo’s abilities and subtly changed them.Marvel’s final season Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Mike and his team are locked in a loose time war with an alien race known as the Chronicles. But behind the scenes, another mystery continues to haunt the adventurers.
Yo-Yo Rodriguez is an Inhuman with the power of super speed. Her abilities manifest as “bursts” lasting as long as a heartbeat, and she traditionally bounces back to her starting point once that duration is over. But something went wrong with her powers, and so far in season seven, she’s been unable to use them.Most viewers thought it had something to do with the shrike, which influenced her Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 7, Episode 8 finally answers this question. SHIELD uses their knowledge of the past to travel to an Inhuman colony called Afterlife. There, they seek guidance from Jiaying, who is destined to become Quake’s mother. And, luckily for SHIELD, Jiaying was indeed able to repair Yoyo’s powers. But the ability to repair a yo-yo doesn’t come without consequences.
What’s wrong with Yo-Yo’s abilities?
Like most viewers, Yo-Yo is convinced that her power issues are caused by a shrike toxin infection in her body. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season six. However, Jiaying quickly deduced that the problem was not physical, but psychological. Over the past few years, Yo-Yo has suffered significant trauma, having had her arm chopped off by a young HYDRA agent named Ruby. Fitz was able to build a cybernetic replacement, and Yo-Yo later got her revenge, brutally ending Ruby’s rampage. But ever since, she seems to have been riddled with guilt, heightened by the memory of her failure to save her uncle years ago. This resulted in a mental disorder that prevented Yo-Yo from using her powers.
There is precedent for Inhuman powers requiring significant mental stability.When Quake first gained her vibratory powers Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. In season two, they initially backfire and damage her own bones. The effect of Jiaying’s teaching Daisy to focus herself emotionally and mentally in order to truly control them diminishes.Later, in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. In Season 4, a period of intense grief causes Daisy to suffer again when she uses her powers again. It seems that, like Quake, Yo-Yo will need to keep a cool head and deal with her deepest fears and regrets in order to truly claim her Inhuman legacy.
The power of Yo-Yo has undergone subtle changes
With the help of Mei Xin’s empathic abilities, Yoyo undergoes intensive therapy provided by the Inhumans. When the process ends, Yo-Yo regains her abilities, but they change subtly; she no longer snaps back to her original position when her burst of super speed ends. This development brings Yo-Yo closer to a traditional superspeeder like Quicksilver, but further away from her comic book inspirations. Fortunately, Mike has said that no matter what happens, he will still call her “YoYo” because in his opinion, the code name has less to do with her powers than anything she encounters in life. Related to the tendency to recover from events.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. team got a boost of sorts due to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season seven. Quake remains the most powerful Inhuman, although it’s unclear whether the effects of season five’s Centipede Serum will last. Agent May actually becomes superhuman in her own right, possessing empathic abilities that allow her to become a walking Chronicom probe. Now Yo-Yo’s power has lost its most important limitation. It will be exciting to see where they go from here.