Agents of SHIELD, Season 2, Episodes 21-22: S.O.S.
It took me quite a while betwen my review of the other superhero shows season finales and Agents of SHIELD... mostly because my laptop ate the mammoth review I wrote for the two-part finale and I got so pissed off at losing it that I just kind of didn't do it for a while.
Anyway, I guess this will be fairly shorter than my normal TV episode reviews, mostly because I'll be a lot more concise compared to my normal self. So overall? This two-parter? It's basically an epic movie. And I love it. Agents of SHIELD arguably has one of the worst series of episodes around the first half of the second season, but it has slowly getting better and better after the season break, and its finale actually feels like something on par with some of the better Marvel Studios movies, and arguably a far more solid and satisfying watch compared to the messy Age of Ultron. It has a lot of interesting powers and action scenes, some really great character moments, and a lot of great lines.
The action is split up into two locations. A majority of the cast is involved in the Inhuman War aboard the Illiad and Lianshi, whereas a small cast -- May, Bobbi, Hunter, Ward and 33 -- are doing their own thing and dealing with Ward's insane machinations. And while I frowned at doing that last episode, the payoff for the Bobbi-Hunter and Ward-33 pair is absolutely well done and it keeps their outstanding character relationships from kind of bogging down the big Inhuman thing going on.
And it's wrapped up pretty well with a neat little bow, and had it not been for the final, assholish scene, it would even be a pretty good series finale. Season three is already confirmed, but this episode does wrap up most of the plot threads and character moments.
Skye finally gains full control of her powers, gets to resolve her conflict between her loyalty to SHIELD and the Inhumans, gets to meet and have absolutely meaningful moments with her parents and have a closure, especially that face-off with the clearly fanatical and insane Jiaying. Cal finally transforms into Mr. Hyde, shows that his love for Skye is indeed his defining quality, does a heel-face-turn to do the dirty deed and kill Jiaying -- a heartbreaking scene as Cal clearly doesn't want to kill his wife, but knows that she's gone off the deep end and he needs to be the one to do it instead of Skye -- before getting mindwiped courtesy of TAHITI. It's a bittersweet ending for Cal, who, despite being someone tolerable at best earlier this season, has developed into a complex character that's equal bits tragic and fun. He's taken out of the picture, but not killed off and that's pretty well done. I also appreciate bringing back TAHITI as a way to neutralize Cal.
Coulson regains control of SHIELD despite all the setbacks, and loses an arm. Fitz finally finds himself competent again, even managing to kill arguably the most dangerous Inhuman that's fighting against them -- Gordon -- and rekindles his old friendship with Simmons that got torn apart (badly) in this second season, with hints that it's blossoming into something sweeter. Simmons also remembers that she's a nice person and kind of forgets all those 'I'm turning xenophobic and evil' scenes from before. Mack decides that despite his hatred of the aliens, he is still loyal to his friends and helps out in the final battle, and gets instated in that 'the guy who distrusts the leader and thus will keep the leader in check' role.
Throughout this season the reason for May's robotic detachment is revealed and she finally gets to actually deal with it in this episode, and the end shows her rekindling her old relationship with her ex-husband and actually smiling genuinely. She also manages to end the little rivalry with Agent 33... who turned out to be a relatively more complex character than I thought she would be, being put into the role as Ward's protege, and Ward actually does see himself 'helping' 33 find her roots after she is freed from those controlling her.
Except, y'know, Ward's plans involve brutally murdering and psychologically torturing the one he blames for 33's condition. We saw Ward doing a similar thing with his brother back then, and now he does it to Bobbi for 33's sake... and because of that, during the ensuing battle Ward accidentally kills Agent 33, adding a layer of depth and tragicness to Ward, which leads him to go from Anti-Villain wild card into fully embracing the villain mantle as he takes over leadership of Hydra. 33 getting her end is pretty nice too... she's been kind of the weak link in most of the recent episodes, but she does manage to serve her purpose as Ward's insane motivation and twisted love interest, and the way she's taken out is pretty well done too.
Raina, a complex and fluctuating character throughout both seasons, who's struggling with identity in the past couple of episodes, finally finds out that she does belong with the angels, and manages to make Skye see the truth about Jiaying's evil, albeit at the cost of her life. Raina's weird and I could probably write an entire post dissecting her soul-searching character but let's just say she got a good exit and leave it at that. Lincoln is... well, no one is surprised to see him join the good guys.
Bobbi and Hunter's relationship has not been explored well throughout the season, though it's always a source of snarky humour. Bobbi's past of sacrificing things for the greater good comes back to bite her in the ass, which is nice. There's a distinct problem of 'you're keeping secrets from me but I can't help but love you' on Hunter's side, and this episode finally shows that Bobbi actually does love Hunter back, having her take a bullet for Hunter and that scene was wonderfully shot. Overall it ends in good stuff and neat conclusions for most of the main cast, with several foreshadowings -- Skye name-drops the Secret Avengers, and the Terrigen crystals have apparently found their way into fish oil, allowing a neat way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (well, Agents of SHIELD since the movies try their best to ignore the show due to conflicting creators) to introduce new metahumans whenever they want to.
If that god damned Kree monolith didn't just break out of its case and gloop up poor Simmons, because god damn it can Fitz-Simmons not be happy
Also, shame that despite giving Mack an opportunity to give Skye the nickname 'Tremors', he didn't actually use Skye/Daisy's comic book codename 'Quake'. Boo.
But overall it's a great episode, showcasing this big war between the Inhumans and SHIELD pretty well as the Inhumans take over the Illiad and the Kree weapon and wanting to use it against the humans and whatnot. We get some cool powers too... as mentioned before, Cal finally assumes his Mr. Hyde form, which is kind of disappointing though making it any more drastic would go on Hulk territory. We've got Gordon and Lincoln with their teleporty and electricity powers, and this new Inhuman hot chick (named Alisha, apparently. And less nicely, nicknamed 'Ginger Ninja' by Mack) who has Multiple Man powers. And Jiaying shows that her regeneration powers? Well, they're not just regeneration. It's full-on vampiric draining and she will drain the life of other people to heal herself, which was the reason that Cal and Jiaying massacred a village in the backstory.
We've got a lot of action scenes, of course, and I'm just sad that poor Deathlok missed all of the action this episode. May and Skye in particular got some pretty awesome fighting scenes. We've got Fitz and Skye remembering that they also have science and computer skills respectively, May caused Ward to take out his own ally with some smarts, and Fitz was absolutely instrumental in taking out Gordon -- both by creating the forcefield, and by stabbing him through the chest. The show almost makes it look like Fitz was the one that got stabbed, which I won't put it over the show-writers to do considering Triplett's sudden death. But no, Fitz survives, so yay.
But it's not just all the action... even throughout it all, we get some pretty cool character moments. We've got Coulson using his 'I just want to help you' schtick to befriend Cal, who has formed kind of a grudging respect over their mutual care over Skye, to convince Cal that he is just a pawn in Jiaying's games and finally use him to take out Jiaying. Hunter was snarking throughout his rampage in hunting down Bobbi, and the desperation in his voice as he searches for her is well done -- as is Bobbi, equally desperate, puts herself in the way of the crossbow meant for Hunter. That was a tense sequence.
It's not a perfect episode, of course, with several parts beying rather odd -- why would Coulson get Fitz and Simmons to revive Cal when he knows that Cal is sent into the SHIELD base as a trojan horse? I get that Coulson is nice and probably is banking on converting the crazy dude, but look at the amount of damage that Cal did! It's a miracle no one got killed. The torture scene with Bobbi went on a bit too long for my liking too. And as much as I enjoy Evil!Jiaying, Redeemed!Raina and Nice!Simmons, the sudden change seemed a bit jarring. Jiaying isn't quite that bad, since we actually got hints that she's not quite that nice thanks to her association with Gordon, we just don't know how far she is willing to go. Raina, too, is easy to look over, though her death kind of leaves a bit of a bad taste in the whole 'this is about Skye' thing. Simmons' sudden change of heart from being evil (trying to kill Ward in particular) and xenophobic into Nice!Simmons from season one was also abrupt, though a welcome one. I guess when she comes out of the Kree monolith we'll see what's up?
I've been rambling for a while, and overall it's an absolutely solid finale. Bring on season three! I could probably make this review longer, talk a bit more, but I need to review Ant-Man.
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