* Spoilers Ahead *
Marvel is winding down the second season for Agents of SHIELD and they are going full force into an Inhuman show down for the finale. This week they had to tie in with the Avengers movie and try to set the stage for next weeks two hour season finale episode and that left things a little clumsy. While there may not have been a big action scene or anything to leave the viewer's jaw on the floor, they did move the pieces around to set up a grand finish. Marvel is one of the best at setting up the audience for a big twist that no one sees coming, so tread carefully at guessing what will happen to Coulson and the team.
The show starts with answering the question of what exactly theta protocol was and why he was hiding it from everyone. (If you don't want spoilers for Age of Ultron stop reading this paragraph) It was a helicarrier that Nick Fury uses in AoU to help the Avengers save thousands of citizens. The revelation of the secret helps Agent Gonzales understand why Coulson was keeping secrets from everyone and Coulson offers to unite the SHIELDS with him as director and the board as an oversight committee.
The in house relationships between the team members remain a little more conflicted even with SHIELD reunited. Bobbi and Hunter still haven't even made eye contact according to her conversation with Mack, and May is still very untrusting of Coulson. Coulson seeked help from May's exhusband after he started having mental trouble from his infusion of Kree blood. May and Coulson having issues could drive a deep fracture in the team.
Ethan and Skye are both checked over by Simmons, Ethan wakes up with Skye watching over him and is initially unsettled by being in a SHIELD base. Skye reassures him that they are with friends and Ethan makes a snark remark that SHIELD isn't any different than Hydra, a comparison that isn't unusual in the comics. Ethan is released after being indexed, along with Skye, with the promise of a set down between Jiaying and Coulson.
Coulson takes this plan to meet before the board and is quickly shot down on the idea of him going to meet Skye's mother. Agent Gonzales takes his place and the team embarks to the After Life. Bobbi and Agent May go ahead in a quinjet to scout the area, when they start landing off course it is revealed that May is actually Agent 33. 33 and Bobbi get into a brief fight before 33 shoots Bobbi and lands the plane.
Raina warns Gordon that she has had a vision of SHIELD raining fire down on After Life because of the meeting with Jiaying. She suggest maybe she should meet with SHIELD instead and Gordon appears to consider this fact. When Gordon goes to Jiaying about Raina's vision they decide she is trying to overthrow power and hold Raina as prisoner untill after the meeting.
When Gonzales meets with Jiaying everything for the show changes, Gonzales play it cool and friendly and Jiaying kills him cold. She then shoots her self twice and incites a full war between the Inhumans and SHIELD which will be the focus of the season finale. It looked as though Gonzales would be the aggressor throughout the show but he kept his word to Coulson and Jiaying showed the cold blooded killer she really is by using a terragennessis crystal to kill.
The show ends with Ward tying Bobbi up and promising 33 that she would get more closure torching Bobbi for what she done to her than just killing her right away. During the fight 33 kept telling her she remembered what she had done. It will be interesting to see if Marvel kills Mocking Bird off this early.
Cal and Skye have a touching father daughter moment when Cal suggest they offer him up to SHIELD as a peace offering. Jiaying agrees reluctantly and before her show down with Gonzales a SHIELD team takes him into custody in a quinjet. Cal in the comics is Mister Hyde, a man who creates a special formula and turns into a monster. The final scene of Cal during this episode shows an agent asking him what was in several empty vials found on Cal. This hints towards him transforming into Mister Hyde which may happen in the finale.
Review:
Marvel has a ton of storylines entering the final episode. They have two hours to sort them all out, but even then its a good chance they have to cram more into two hours than they would like. Also, it felt a bit forced when they tried to connect the show with the events in Age of Ultron. It would have been nice to see SHIELD searching for any signs of Ultron, instead we get some news footage and a few lines. With two hours to fill next week the Inhumans are poised to make their first big splash into the MCU and set the tone for the movie that's three years away.