Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 episodes 16-18 review

So, it's every series counting down to its finale now, so let's take a look at a few new episodes of Marvel's Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Afterlife

Well, this episode’s certainly interesting. There are things I love about this episode and things that make me scratch my head.

OK, I’ll start with what I love. DEATHLOK’S BACK! OK, they don’t call him Deathlok in the episode, given that it’s his villain form but we have a subplot that’s been brewing since the end of season 1 enter the fold here and man is it good news for our heroes. (Well, Coulson and Hunter anyway)

More on them in a bit… I liked the stuff they were doing in the mystery zone (the afterlife) with the inhumans. What Skye is going through is particularly interesting and I liked the confrontation with her and Raina, and I liked the new guy (can’t remember his name for the life of me, maybe it’ll stick a few episodes) (afternote: Lincoln) and I liked how they handled Cal

Meanwhile in S.H.I.E.L.D. (yes, I’m holding off on the stuff I don’t like, I will get to them, believe me) we see a bit of Agent May (her stuff is mostly being saved for next week, I can’t f*cking wait) but it’s mostly a study into Fitz and Simmonds as S.H.I.E.L.D. wants them to crack open Fury’s toolbox. Fitz outright refuses, but Simmonds uses a more cunning plan, which ironically uses elements done before in previous episodes. She uses her undercover techniques that’s she’s learned from her infiltration of HYDRA and deliberately sends Fitz away with the real toolbox whilst she works on a fake (there is a real similarity here to what Agent May did to Skye at one point, although I suspect Fitz might’ve already worked it out, unlike Skye)

We also see that Bobbi does care, she’s still supportive of Skye despite her actions. But then I come to my problems. I still don’t see what exactly they’re gaining from this strategy. Gonzales’ rationale is that a divided S.H.I.E.L.D. can’t stand a HYDRA attack. Except you can’t unite S.H.I.E.L.D. with a hostile takeover. If you really wanted S.H.I.E.L.D. united, you should’ve opened communication.

This plot point bugs me no end, because I really can’t see his rationale. And we still don’t know what this S.H.I.E.L.D. has done in the battle against HYDRA aside from saving a few agents. A throwaway line or 2 could’ve easily solved this problem, but it frustrates me that I completely side against Gonzales, because the methods chosen to complete his objective are moronic

And we have the revelation that Skye’s mother is alive. I have some questions about this. Starting with: what the f*cking hell!? How do you survive being cut to pieces? Do you have a healing factor better than Deadpool? If so how come Whitehall, who stole the same ability died from a bullet in the chest? Why did Cal want revenge against Whitehall? Was she in on all his plans? Did he know she was alive? Why didn’t SHE approach her daughter herself?  GAHHH!!!

Yeah, my feelings about this episode are mixed at best. Still, the setup is interesting, and the knowledge that Deathlok has found that HYDRA are hunting gifted people (which they sort of were before, but…) and that Ward may be their best hope (you realise, Ward doesn’t give a sh*t anymore, and neither does Agent 33) will keep my interest into next week’s episode

Rating 7.5/10

Melinda

So that’s why Agent May is called the Cavalry. Huh

I’ve got mixed feelings about this episode, mostly because it’s yet another move the pieces into place type of episode. The show is dragging its heels a bit too much now.

But I do like the character interactions this episode. Skye interacting with her mother, the interactions with the inner shield with at least some justification of why they’re doing this. Coulson’s mysterious Theta protocol. They suspect he’s gathering an army of people with powers.  Yeah, the problem is it’s highly doubtful that’s what he’s doing. Sure, Theta protocol means something… I hope we’re not kept in the dark too long as to what.

We also her interacting with her father. Briefly admittedly but interacting none-the-less. Seems the room needs some better security seeing as how Mitchell practically walked right in on them. Admittedly it was him working out the Raina is now clairvoyant, which I’m certain she’ll be happy about.

So yeah, you want me to get to why May’s the cavalry, but first we find that Fitz has managed to crack Fury’s toolbox and made contact with him. They want to meet but Coulson knows he’s being followed and has had to use a bathroom to crack the toolbox without being seen.

So, May’s called the Cavalry because she single-handedly went in to take on a metahuman threat, seemingly taking out 2 dozen or so enemies whilst she was there. I’m pretty certain some of them are the work of the little girl though, so maybe her reputation is a tad exaggerated.

So, it turns out a woman took her daughter through the mists (and she went herself as well, that wasn’t entirely clear) she got the power to leach off people’s emotions, particularly their pain. I think if her mother does have a power, she takes the emotions her daughter absorbs and turns it into physical strength. Seeing no other option May had to kill her.

May is clearly traumatised by the notion of killing a child, even despite the circumstances making it virtually unavoidable (and given that the mists had driven her insane, it probably was the best thing for her)

But it’s sad to say, couldn’t we have May’s backstory be about her rather than an excuse for Skye’s mother to be so secretive. *sigh*

Rating 7/10

The Frenemy of my enemy

It’s time for the payoff to start as HYDRA folds back into the fray, and Cal is kicked out of the afterlife.

So yeah, this episode was awesome. Things are starting to come together for our groups of protagonists as we finally have a villain to rally against. With the threat of HYDRA re-emerging in the form of Doctor List, who is now able to track down Gordon and will likely soon have the location of the Afterlife.

But the big story here was the banishment of Cal from the Afterlife. After an astonishingly short period of time, Skye has begun to understand him a bit better, even empathise with him. So when she hears that he’s to be banished from the after-life, partially from her empathy, and partially because of her fears of what Cal would do upon realising what had happened

So she agrees to try and soften the blow and come out with him for the day, and it’s a fantastic character building tour, with us reminded about Daisy’s own heritage, and the need to Cal to move past what might’ve been.

Meanwhile Coulson set up a meeting with Grant Ward, saying he can end the manhunt, if he gets them into HYDRA and has his memories erased through TAHITI (because we know how very effective TAHITI memory suppressants are) Ward agrees but obviously doesn’t care for losing his memories. But he does have an interesting piece, Bakshi, who seems to be possibly under their control but might not be.

Backshi and Deathlok manage to get to meet List in person, with Fitz monitoring their feed. They manage to track Gordon down and attack the building. Skye is told to run whilst Cal and Lincoln fend them off.

Ward sees Skye face to face again and it’s clear that he still has feelings for her, no matter how hard he tries to push them away for Agent 33. Skye is rescued by Gordon (who accidentally brings Cal along for the ride) but S.H.I.E.L.D. is forced to evacuate with an injured Hunter whilst HYDRA has an unconscious Deathlok and Lincoln to add to their arsenal.

In fake S.H.I.E.L.D. land Simmons confesses that she gave the real box to Fitz. May spins this to the others that Fitz has stolen it and Simmons was covering it, much to her annoyance (as much as they haven’t gotten along much this season, scenes like this say that she still really cares for him) but it might be over soon as Coulson surrenders himself at episode’s end for purposes that’ll likely be revealed in the next episode. No true reason why he wants that hotel though (could HYDRA be stealing their money, it’s clear they have an interest in powered people?)

Rating 8.5/10 

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