Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returned this week for its final entry into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe and season 2 with S.O.S. part one and two. With so many storylines occurring many were doubtful that the show could wrap them all up neatly and still keep the flow of the two hour episode going seamslessly. Even with the massive storylines the teams at Marvel pulled through once again, leaving viewers with a show that was capable of holding the viewers attention for two hours while developing all the story lines. Following are heavy spoilers about the episode along with what it all means for the T.V. series moving forward.
The Inhuman element for the MCU has been rumored to be the answer for Marvel Studios not holding the rights to Mutants, while this could lead to some lesson known mutants being retconned as Inhumans don’t expect the X-Men. During last week’s episode we learned that Jiaying had a hidden agenda to spark a war between her Inhumans and SHIELD. This week we see the fruit of her labor when she leads a small team onto Agent Gonzales ship with plans to lure the rest of SHIELD there and wipe them out all at once.
Skye, who is caught in the middle of all this, finds guidance from a very unlikely source, Raina. Raina tells Skye of Jiaying’s plans and when Skye doubts her she assures her that she will find the truth in the dark. While this at first seems like a classic psychic line that is vague, we quickly learn the truth when Jiaying cuts Raina’s throat on a bridge in the dark with Skye watching it all take place. Beyond just developing Skye and Jiaying’s relationship, this was a very intriguing development for Raina. For the first time in the series Raina made a sacrifice to do the right thing, she knew from her visions she would be killed by Jiaying and went anyways for Skye .Raina also told Skye that she was destined to lead the Inhumans and she was the only one who could bring peace and resolve to the situation.
Meanwhile, May and Hunter are searching for Bobbi who was captured by Agent 33 at the conclusion of the last episode. Ward and 33 are holding Bobbi prisoner while attempting to torture her for knowingly giving up the location of 33’s safe house that led to her being captured by Hydra. After being unable to break Bobbi, Ward decides to lure Hunter to their location in order to kill him in front of Bobbi for revenge. Once May and Hunter arrive their team is quickly under fire from Ward who is picking them off one by one as they advance through the building.
Ward has left Bobbi tied to a chair in front of a door with a trip wire on it set to trigger a riffle aimed at the first person who walks in the door. May distracts 33 and Ward by convincing 33 to steal her face and run to a location in the building away from where they are headed. Once 33 arrives Ward shoots her thinking she is May and breaks down upon the revelation that he killed 33, whom he claims to love. Hunter walks into the room Bobbi is in and she throws her self in front of the riffle at the last moment in order to spare Hunter. May and Hunter rush Bobbi back to the base in order for Simmons to try and save her life.
Cal also has a major character defining moment during the season finale. Cal has been sent to SHIELD with his Mister Hyde formula in order to kill Coulson and as many agents as he can along the way. During his attack on the base Coulson pins him with an armored car and talks him down and into helping SHIELD stop Jiaying from doing something that could endanger Skye. All these events finally lead up to one final show down on board Gonzales’ ship.
Once on board the ship Coulson and the team track down a box of crystals that Jiaying planned on using to kill or convert the entirety of SHIELD into Inhumans. Gordon gets trapped in the room with them once Fitz jams his ability to teleport outside with a device of his own creations. Gordon is killed by Fitz when he teleports into a piece of pipe he is holding. Gordon drops a crystal once he is killed and Coulson dives and catches it but the Diviner fragments inside cause his hand to turn to stone before Mack cuts it off.
Skye and Jiaying finally have their big show down after Ethan saves Skye from an Inhuman that can multiply herself. Skye uses her powers to destroy a Helicopter trying to take off with a load of crystals before her own mother starts to kill her. Jiaying absorbs other people’s life forces in order to heal her own body and she starts draining Skye’s with no mercy. Cal steps in and tells Skye he will live with the burden of killing Jiaying so Skye doesn’t have too. He then proceeds to crush her with his strength and start to cry while she passes away.
Review:
After it is all over and the full team is back on base we get our first glimpse at the future of the show, Bobbi is retiring from the business and May is taking personal time to find herself. While Skye and Coulson use the Tahiti project on Cal to give him a fresh start and a chance to be happy. Coulson and Skye at the end of the show also discuss a new project dubbed Caterpillar, The same team name used during the secret invasion event in the Comics that Daisy Johnson was a team leader of. Caterpillar was a SHIELD team composed of powered individuals and was top secret. Could this mean Marvel is ready to add more super heroes to the show?
Bobbi will be back next season and will find her way back to being a SHIELD agent if she ever leaves at all. She is Mockingbird and you get the feeling her character will find its way onto the silver screen before the end of phase 3. The Final moments in the episode came as a surprise to everyone except psychics; Simmons is swallowed alive by the Kree weapon the team recovered from the basement of Gonzales’ ship. While it isn’t very clear right now what her fate will be, we do know that the weapon has the ability to destroy Inhumans so she may be Skye’s first problem. The show is finally getting on solid ground heading into season three and hopefully keeps trending in this direction
Rating: 10