Danny Hale reviews the seventeenth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2…
This week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. flitted between our character’s current situation and Agent May’s past finally revealing why she is known as the cavalry. Previous information has revealed that during a mission in Bahrain May entered a building and emerged having saved a large number of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents against seemingly insurmountable odds but the exact details have been a much speculated mystery for fans since the first season. Why did May leave the field prior to the show’s pilot and why is she so cold when Coulson has previously stated that she was not always that way? As an audience we finally got to see that happier side of May and Ming-Na Wen did an excellent job of portraying this younger more innocent Melinda while never moving too far from the Agent May we know now. As a result I found it very difficult to watch May so open to love and in many ways the most vulnerable we’ve ever seen her knowing that by the end of the episode she would be forever changed. Of course the catalyst for this transformation was the little girl Katya. We begin with a Melinda who wants to have a child of her own, we then see a May who storms a building without authority, risking everything to save an apparently abducted girl and we end with Agent May having to kill this girl and not because she was possessed but because she was, at her core, evil. It brought May’s character crashing down to earth leaving her a cold shell of who she was and all in all it was a very effective answer to our question. Did the events in Bahrain justify Melinda’s change and did Ming-Na Wen take us on a believable journey? Absolutely.
I particularly enjoyed how May’s cavalry reveal tied in with Skye and Jiaying’s scenes in the Afterlife; it didn’t feel forced and thus the jump between the two timelines didn’t feel as jarring as I thought it might. I was also a little taken aback by how much the Afterlife story moved forward this week. I didn’t expect to see Skye getting a grasp on her powers so quickly or indeed hear Jiaying confess her true identity to Skye. As a result I started to feel a sense of unease about the Afterlife; if all of this information is out in the open already I can’t help but feel there are some bigger revelations bubbling under the surface.
I was glad to see Raina get some more screen time this week as I wasn’t sure about Ruth Negga in the show prior to this season’s return but since her transformation she seems to really have come into her own and I’m really excited to see where her story is going, especially given this week as it seems she may have some precognitive abilities brewing. Also the tension between her and Skye still simmers and I really hope it culminates in a showdown between the two.
The ‘real’ S.H.I.E.L.D. took a backseat this time round but Bobbi had a nice scene with May where she further explained why she is questioning Coulson’s actions and to be frank her speech got me thinking and for the first time understanding why Bobbi would have ‘betrayed’ the team. Mockingbird is a very promising character and one of the best things to come from this season and I’m delighted to see her getting to be more than just a fighter. As Bobbi’s words made sense to me they seemed to have a similar effect on May causing even her to question Coulson’s motives. She still trusts him, as do I but it was great to see the seeds of doubt begin to grow and May’s scene with Simmons in the lab showed just how important Coulson’s trust is to the both of them; they seem motivated to uncover the truth now, to truly understand Coulson’s actions. Agent Coulson himself meanwhile appeared mainly in the Bahrain flashbacks albeit the one short post credits scene where he appeared with Hunter and Fitz and despite its shortness I find myself awaiting Fitz’s storyline more than anybody else next week.
With May’s cavalry story finally revealed and I must point out how happy I am that they did it now and didn’t drag it out to the point of irritation, Skye’s quick progress in the Afterlife and Avengers: Age of Ultron hitting the big screen next week in the UK it feels like we’re about to enter the final stride of the season and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Danny Hale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=pnc360pUDRI&feature=player_embedded
Originally published April 17, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
