Season Two of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. concluded in explosive fashion as the Inhumans vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. conflict erupts in a two-hour finale that is filled to the brim with endings, new complications, and a hell of a lot more. The full story below.
Phil’s got a blueprint for the future, and so does the show.
(screencap courtesy of CTV.ca)
Previously on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
We learned that the much-discussed Theta Protocol was the construction of a Helicarrier for emergency uses. Said emergency arrived when the Helicarrier was used to rescue civilians from Sokovia during the Avengers’ fight versus Ultron. On top of that, Mack quit S.H.I.E.L.D.
Elsewhere, Commander Gonzales elected to visit Jiaying in Afterlife in an attempt to create peace between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Inhumans. In the meantime, Cal was placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. custody as a “peace offering” of sorts. Unfortunately, Jiaying did not have peace on her mind, murdering Gonzales with the Terrigen Crystal’s mist and shooting herself in an attempt to frame S.H.I.E.L.D. to prepare the Inhumans of Afterlife for war.
Recap (Full Spoilers Ahead!)
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Season One finale upped the ante by promoting Agent Coulson to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director and tasking his team to rebuild the organization that was devastated by the events of Captain America: Winter Soldier. The show’s Season Two finale – the two-part “S.O.S.” (presented on its original airdate in two hours) – raises the stakes even moreso and introduces even more elements that change things significantly.
The story picks up from the end of last week’s episode, with Jiaying’s crusade against S.H.I.E.L.D. in full swing, and her daughter Skye caught right in the middle. While Skye initially chooses to side with her mother and the Inhumans, a talk with Raina slightly changes the issue for her. However, her perspective doesn’t fully change until Jiaying kills Raina for her insubordination – an act that Skye sees first hand and allows her to make her final choice to side with S.H.I.E.L.D. in this conflict. Raina’s death is certainly not a surprise for people who keep up with television casting (her actress has been cast as a regular in the AMC adaptation of Preacher), and does provide a rather poetic end for a character first introduced as an untrustworthy figure. The fact that someone like Raina turned out to be an “angel”, in her own words, by helping Skye to open her eyes about Jiaying’s brutality, just magnifies the previously-mentioned notion.
Jiaying’s embracing of being the de facto leader of the Inhumans has basically exposed her true nature as a manipulative, murderous monster, evidenced by her treatment of Raina, the Iliad crew, and later, her own daughter. Gone is the motherly, watchful figure who calmly trained Skye in better understanding her powers and in her place is a militant extremist who will go to dangerous lengths to ensure that the Inhumans will no longer be the victim of apparent S.H.I.E.L.D. mistreatment.
Removed largely from the Inhuman/S.H.I.E.L.D. war is the plot involving Bobbi, Kara, and Ward, as the latter two try to wring an apology out of the former for Bobbi allowing Kara to be taken and brainwashed by Hydra via torture. These scenes are easily one of the highlights of the two hours, with Mockingbird continually refusing to let Ward and Kara have their way with her. This culminates in a battle where Ward gets his ass kicked (for lack of a better term) by Bobbi, until Kara joins in to help her would-be beau. On the other side of the coin, Ward and Kara’s twisted attempts at gaining closure are no doubt spurred on by the former, with the latter being used by Ward in a bizarre revenge scheme, much like how Hydra used her in their own scheming. But, Kara goes along with Ward’s plans anyway out of love for him.
Love also dictates Hunter’s desperate search for his former flame, joined in his mission by May, who promises to kill Ward the next time she saw him. Sure, Lance felt like he was betrayed by Bobbi with her spying for S.H.I.E.L.D. Beta, but there still exists feelings for her inside of him. It’s why Lance feels the need to save Bobbi from the clutches of Ward and Kara, and possibly why he might come along with her after she tells him vaguely that she “can’t do this anymore”. And speaking of May, it seems that witnessing how precious Lance and Bobbi’s love for one another and how it almost came close to ending tragically for the latter motivated her to reach out to ex-husband Andrew for a tender talk, then later deciding to take a leave from S.H.I.E.L.D. duty to see the world (but not without some firepower, apparently).
Last episode, Mack apparently split by telling Coulson that he’s leaving. That lasts as long as you might expect in “S.O.S”, but it’s beneficial since Mack gets a chunk of great moments as he reenacts Die Hard on the Iliad and with a ship full of Inhumans. Armed with only an axe, Mack gets a hell of a lot to do, managing to hold his own as a result. By the end of the two episodes, he’s placed in charge of alien artifact monitoring by Coulson, which works to his advantage due to his wariness of all things alien.
When it was revealed that the Doctor was the MCU’s version of Mr. Hyde, fans were anticipating when Cal would transform into his more monstrous form. In the first half of “S.O.S.”, we’re finally given a look at this transformation, but… the execution does leave a lot to be desired. However, it’s understandable that the show is working within a TV-sized budget, and the strength of Kyle MacLachlan’s manic performance while hopped up on the Hyde serum does more than make up for it. One of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s biggest strengths has continually been how strong the acting from recurring and guest stars has been, and MacLachlan has been a pure joy to watch as Cal.
The character arc for Cal has been an interesting one to follow from start to finish, and actually a rather satisfying one amongst the various developments that have gone down this season. When first introduced, we’re left to assume he’s just an evil figure with parental issues – to the point where Skye even dismissed him as nothing more but a “monster”. But, as we got to know Cal better, the layers were peeled back from his complex personality revealing a tortured soul only looking for a paternal bond with his daughter. This is precisely what dictates Coulson seeing the good embedded inside Cal, ultimately facilitating the Doctor’s face turn later on. Phil could’ve easily had him put down or sent to jail for his crimes, but he truly sees Cal as the one other person that shares a close emotional bond to Skye, aside from himself and the Team. Cal’s love for his daughter extends to the point where he decides to deal with the increasingly-vengeful Jiaying in his own way. He knows that it’ll torment him emotionally to have to kill his wife in order to save the daughter he never knew until now, but Cal still consciously makes that decision. This drive to do whatever he can for Daisy is also presumably why Cal agrees to undergo the TAHITI memory-wiping procedures, as evidenced by where he ends up at once the conflict dies down.
And while there’s hope for redemption with some people like Cal, seems as though that hope is clinically dead for one individual. By the time we leave Ward, he’s now unrepentantly evil and is looking to become the new head of Hydra, even wanting to form his own team of sorts. He’s noted that he’s past forgiveness, so this new direction for him is pretty much embracing that self-assessment full-on in his bid for what he deems is “closure”. Ward is aware that he’s slipped into full-on sociopath and he now simply doesn’t care on who he tramples on in his maddened search to apparently avenge Kara’s death (a death he himself is responsible of, even if by an accident).
More interesting is where Skye finds herself after all this: tasked by a one-armed Coulson to be a part of a new S.H.I.E.L.D. project involving something dubbed “Caterpillars”, which involves bringing in other Enhanced people as part of a team that functions kind of like the Avengers, but operating in the shadows. Of course, comic aficionados know where this is going (I’ll explain more below), but the possibilities on where this goes are indeed endless. Whether the show with established comic characters or invents new ones for the benefit of the program is anyone’s guess, but it is quite a bit to think about over the Summer.
And on top of that, you’ve got the cause of mass empowering in the form of Terrigen-laced fish oil pills. While it’s definitely a neat way to increase the MCU’s superpowered population, the way it’s presented at the end of the episode does make it admittedly silly, as opposed for the foreboding moment the show was trying to go for. Despite the somewhat contrived execution of this development, it opens up new storytelling avenues that can be worked in well in conjunction with Skye’s new Caterpillar duty.
I can’t certainly forget the episode’s tag scene, too, which shows a tender Fitz-Simmons moment abruptly interrupted thanks to the box of Kree goop (I thought Mack said that it wouldn’t be opened for a thousand years?) swallowing Simmons whole. Is she dead? Is she powered now? We’ll have to wait for September to get answers on that front. In any event, that scene might’ve been a gut punch, but it’s an effective hook to keep fans in anticipation for Season Three’s arrival in five months from now.
If there’s one thing that Marvel’s television division has been good at, it’s been ending their productions with a bang. Agent Carter had a very satisfying conclusion, as did Daredevil (it’s not on network TV, but it does count as a Marvel Television/ABC Studios production). And now, S.H.I.E.L.D. proudly joins the ranks with a season closer that delivers on the wildly satisfying excitement that the show deserves, even eclipsing the Season One finale in the process. While there are certain things that could’ve gone better with these final two hours of Season Two, there truly was never a dull moment from start to finish, again proving how valuable S.H.I.E.L.D. has become as a franchise for Marvel Studios.
Grade: 10/10
Notes from the Field
- While recovering on a hospital bed, Bobbi tells Hunter that she “can’t do this anymore”, which possibly would’ve been the way the two get written out for the spinoff-that-might-not-be. There’s reports that said spinoff is not dead, but for now, assume that the Bobbi and Hunter will be back on this
- The “ripple in the water” talk Daisy and Coulson had at the end seemed like a neat call back to the former’s origins as a hacker with the Rising Tide group (hey, remember them?).
- That part where Gordon is stabbed, but it looked like Fitz got stabbed was slightly undercut by having no blood on either of them, which sort of gave away that Fitz was okay.
- While the “Real S.H.I.E.L.D.” stuff kind of petered out, their version of the familiar S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle did look cool. I hope that gets used sometime again.
- One of my favorite fight sequences aside from the Mockingbird vs. Ward one is a brief skirmish between Skye and a multiplying Inhuman that features some fascinating camera direction on the part of Billy Gierhart (the episode director of the second half).
- Lincoln, the electrokinetic Inhuman, survives the skirmish on the Iliad and even reveals that he’s a good guy all along as he helps May in dispatching the aforementioned multiplying Inhuman. Will he be back for Season Three?
- So, the Caterpillars Project. What is it? Well, the name comes from the official designation for the Secret Warriors from the Marvel comic series of the same name. And yes, it’s the very same comic that S.H.I.E.L.D. has liberally borrowed from in terms of themes certain elements.
- I imagine sales of fish oil pills will go through the roof after these episodes.
- Season Three Educated Guesses:
- Coulson gets a robot arm, possibly one that evokes the Winter Solder.
- The Secret Warriors team will definitely include Lincoln as a part of it.
- No, Simmons is not dead. She’ll live, but will have some funky fresh powers now.
- Ward finally bites it at some point next season. He’s run out of lives.
- Top Five Episodes of Season Two:
- 1. S.O.S. I & II (counted as one)
- 2. Melinda
- 3. A Hen in the Wolf House
- 4. The Dirty Half-Dozen
- 5. Face My Enemy
- “Science, biatch.” (Fitz with arguably the greatest line ever uttered on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2.)
- “There’s a piece that Ward doesn’t understand. When I find him, I’m gonna kill him.” (Never, ever change, Melinda.)
- “The hell took you so long?” “It’s a big boat. With poor signage.” (What is it with S.H.I.E.L.D. and poor signage?)
- “It’s Gordon, right?” “And you are…?” “I’m the guy who kills Gordon.” (Seriously, do not mess with a man wielding an axe.)
- “Health Benefits That Will Change Your Life” (text on the bottles of Fish Oil Pills, now with added Terrigen Seasoning.)
Next Week
Wait! There is no new episode next week. And with that, my recaps end for the time being. I’ll see you all again in September.
Marc Quill just happens to cover shows aired on Tuesdays at 9/8 on ABC that are also based on Marvel Comics. He’s also very Canadian. You can reach him on Twitter @MarcQuill.