Danny Hale reviews the twentieth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2…
What an incredible build to this season’s two part finale next week; this week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. literally kept me on the edge of my seat for the full hour trying to pin point exactly who or what was going to jeopardise the mission. I’m so happy this season has remained so consistently strong and hopefully the show will start gaining the viewers it deserves. With so much great material in ‘Scars’ I’ll get my few negative points out of the way first.
Following the opening of Avengers: Age of Ultron last week its reference on S.H.I.E.L.D. was unavoidable. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. affecting the larger MCU but I feel our character’s current situation with the Inhumans resulted in Ultron’s tie-in being a little wedged in at the beginning of the episode. It was only a small issue really; the MCU as a multi-platform series is such an incredible feat as it stands that I can forgive small instances such as this. After all it sparked a great point made by Gonzalez comparing Coulson to Stark and actually made me stop and question Coulson’s plan of action. This is how you name drop and make it work.
This week’s episode did a great job of keeping me guessing. I didn’t trust Raina or Gonzalez and the writers successfully kept me looking the other way up until Jiaying’s treachery and Agent 33’s wonderful deception. Jiaying was a character I had been previously watching and pondering; she had been married and in love with Cal and as an audience we have seen how brutal Cal can be. Surely there had to be something lurking beneath the surface with her. Due to the strong script this week I actually found myself finally trusting Jiaying; her almost innocence with how to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D’s impending visit made me think that perhaps she was just a nice lady looking after her people. As a result I started casting blame around at Raina and Gonzalez. Raina has always been a manipulative character and giving her the power to see into the future is a great plot device as we really have no idea if she’s telling the truth or not unless we get to actually see one of her visions. I must state that it’s not entirely clear if Raina’s intentions were pure; I still fully believe she had her own agenda and I can’t wait to see where she ends up after the finale.
The Agent 33 double-cross was very nicely done and for a second I thought it was the real May turning on Bobbi. I love that Bobbi won the fight but only to be iced by Ward! Last week I had reservations on whether Ward leaving Kara behind was in fact as genuine as he had made it sound but with so much happening this week I had, at that point, assumed that our Grant was sitting the episode out. Well played.
Cal (once again) shone in this episode. I always figured we would only get the one season out of Kyle MacLachlan so when he offered to be handed over to S.H.I.E.L.D. as a peace offering I felt a little let down. I didn’t really feel this was an appropriate send off for his character as he’s been so relatively well behaved of late but on the heels of Jiaying’s point blank murdering of Gonzalez we see Cal, in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody with some suspiciously empty serum phials. If next week’s finale is going to be his last then it looks like he’s going out with a bang.
As the episode ended I was left reeling and desperately craving next week’s finale. I’m really glad we got to see some of the aftereffects of Simmons’ actions last week, even if it was just a small scene. Also Mack is leaving?! I really like Mack as a character and really hope he’s being written out of S.H.I.E.L.D. the organisation but not the show itself. With no official word on a third season and therefore which cast members are signed on to return I guess only time will tell. In the meantime, roll on ‘S.O.S’ parts 1 and 2.
Danny Hale
https://youtu.be/8HTiU_hrLms?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published May 7, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
