Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 2, Episode 20: Scars
I said last week and in my Age of Ultron review that things would be a little awkward this week. They mentioned Raina’s prediction being helpful, but I really don’t see where it came in handy since the inhumans didn’t do anything about that crisis. They didn’t even tell S.H.I.E.L.D. about it. It kind of just assumes you went to see the movie opening weekend and kept going. For people who haven’t seen the movie yet or are binge watching the show later, it’s going to feel like a chunk is missing. The connection with The Winter Soldier in season one was executed in a much better way. They simply paralleled events, this time they used the Theta Protocol as a McGuffin that led to the Avengers. If you did watch the movie it even makes it seem like Fury is still in charge.
This wasn’t the best episode of this show, but it wasn’t bad. I’m enjoying the relationship between Cal and Jiaying. Both of their actions this episode definitely show why she would love someone like him. He’s still a very brilliant man and fantastically the voice of reason in this episode. If anyone has been paying attention, they would definitely know better than to trust her. The interesting thing, is the fact that trusting her may have been the way to go here. Jiaying certainly wants war. It’s a little weird though, she’s been preaching peace and solitude this whole time, but now she wants an all out war with S.H.I.E.L.D.! I don’t know what to say about that, but it does seem inconsistent.
I am really really happy to see Gonzales gone though. The whole convoluted and not fully explained S.H.I.E.L.D. versus S.H.I.E.L.D. thing was more than a little tiresome and it definitely ended the way I predicted. One S.H.I.E.L.D. as the result of a conflict that didn’t really make much sense in the first place. Now that there’s no more Agent Gonzales, there’s no question as to who the leader is. Coulson can stop arguing so much.
I thought it was weird for an espionage agency to make a plan, send Skye and Lincoln for the first half, and then completely change the plan. Skye told Jiaying that Coulson was coming and that was the plan, so why would they send someone else? Why didn’t anyone mention that in the “Coulson is to close to this” meeting? It was a stupid move, but it works because now there’s no more annoying old guy opposing everything Coulson does. The beauty part is the fact that Coulson benefits from a situation that’s literally everyone else’s fault. He argued to be the one to go, but ended up taking their advice and staying. That resulted in the death of his pain in the a** and no one can blame him now.
Gonzales put himself into a situation he couldn’t win and now there will be war. I suspect Skye will have a major part to play in next week’s two part finale since she’s at the heart of both sides. She’s always been a pretty major focus and it’s made for some interesting character moments, so I expect that to continue. I like how Bobbi is more Team Coulson than Team Gonzales, even though she’s not one of his people and while he has become my favorites, I don’t really get what Ward was doing with Kara here. Hopefully that’ll be explained next week.
I like where all of the characters have ended up, opposed to where they began. Fitz and Simmons are drastically different from where they began. Fitz’s brain damage seems to be less of an obstacle now and Simmons is a much darker person. She doesn’t mind killing for the greater good and is more ashamed at her failure to kill Ward than the fact that she tried in the first place.
I do have to do my duty and mention the growing lack of color that comes with Mack’s departure though. He was another character with a lot of potential that’s leaving now. The same thing happened with Triplett and we never did get to know much more about his background or even which howling commando he was related to. If we’re lucky, maybe this won’t be the last we see of Mack.
The only complaints I have currently are the lack of explanations for so many things. What the hell is the rock that the inhumans are so worried about? What’s the deal with the Koenig siblings? I hope we see more of these things during the finale. Holes this big need to be plugged. This show is too good for these kinds of oversights to continue.
Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
