What They Say:
What They Become – Whitehall and Coulson’s forces take part in an explosive confrontation that changes everyone’s fate.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The series did a lot of groundwork the last time around in shifting up the dynamic by having Skye now with Ward and synced up with Whitehall’s Hydra group while also giving us some good time with Coulson’s group as they made their way down to where they believe they can get into the mysterious underground city. What’s been really fun with this season so far is in watching the group dynamic build up with the new additions, from those that were introduced during the season break, like Mack, and those that made their way in after a bit like Bobbi. The team feels more fluid, interesting and engaging at this point. And I’m glad that Ward is still on the bad guy side for the moment and hope that sticks for awhile with a potential reveal for him to be someone else.
With the cold open here, events put us back on the bus as we see May doing what she can to redirect things here now that the Hydra craft are obviously going to come back and destroy them. While Ward promised one thing, she knows better than to trust him and she comes up with a pretty creative approach with all of her skills to deal with it, which in turn pretty much freaks out everyone else on the the craft since she’s doing what she can to fake their own destruction. It’s a familiar feint to be sure, but it’s one that’s pulled off with some nice style here and a good visual presentation overall. Events do move quickly here as they reconnect with Coulson and his team, though Macks issues are sidelined for the moment since they know Ward is likely taking Skye to the Doctor and Hydra is on a fast track to getting to the underground city itself.
There’s a lot of pieces moving on the bus with what they’re trying to do, from Fitz and Simmons thinking about potential ways to save Mack to Bobbi feeling responsible, which has Hunter consoling her in a good way. We also get some decent moments in Koenig and Tripp figuring out ways to put the city itself down so that Hydra can’t get their hands on it. There’s also some really fun moments in seeing May and Coulson talk about the events and her feelings about what she should have done. Coulson’s big picture of course, but May also did what was right to save everyone on board, and the bus itself, which is good. As much as some fans hate the thing, I like the mobile base of operations and what it offers. Plus we get a Dum Dum Dugan mention along the way to make a lot of us happy.
The show takes a really good turn early on though when Sky finally gets to meet her father, which has its own set of potential tensions to deal with. It’s also just plain awkward with the way the Doctor is about it since he’s so excited, but we get the reveal of at least part of what his name may be as he introduces himself as Cal. Cal has some pretty rollercoaster moments here as he’s so emotional and happy to see her, then calm and collected before getting very intense over talking about how she was taken from him. We get a bit of Skye’s history in all of this as he talks about how she was born in China and how he was unable to be there for her. He plays the absent father in a good way here as, even though he may be crazy, it feels honest and earnest – from his point of view. But he’s also kind of got the crazy going on in his eyes as he makes it clear to her that she’s exactly where she should be because this is her destiny.
Cal certainly makes some bold claims in a big way here about Skye and how things are going to change now that they’re together, but there’s also some examining of the past as we learn, from his point of view, of how his wife was taken from them, how he had Skye left with SHIELD, and his own discovery of what happened to his wife. From his point of view, again, it’s a pretty terrible sequence of events he’s had to deal with, particularly in what we know Whitehall did to his wife in order to regain his own health and vitality. While Skye obviously isn’t won over by all of this, there are enough connections that she’s at least a little receptive to things. But there’s also that kind of fear that sets in when Whitehall summons Cal and Cal makes it clear that he’s going to go kill the man that he hates beyond all measure. It’s done with such nonchalance that you can’t but to love the way he says it.
It does end up turning into an amusing daddy/daughter moment after Whitehall has her pick up the Obelisk and we see that Skye doesn’t react poorly to it and tries to use it as a weapon – which has Cal making his move as well. Of course, they’re overpowered rather easily considering the forces at hand and Whitehall is the type that really thinks he has everything under control at all times – and often does. But there’s a lot of pieces in motion here and things are slipping up here and there. Which includes Coulson and his team now in San Juan, connecting with Bobbi and Hunter, in order to try and stop Hydra from getting through to the city using the plasma drill that they absconded with from SHIELD. It provides a nice action component to things to ramp it up a bit along with the tension since there’s also the plan to try and destroy the place.
With Coulson and May making their way into Whitehall’s facility, there’s a good bit of chaos going on as we see the situation change several times. The intensity of Cal in wanting to kill Whitehall is fun, especially since Kyle MacLachlan really delivers a subdued kind of crazy that really makes you root for him in a way that you likely wouldn’t most of the time. What’s most surprising is that his vengeance is denied because just as he’s about to kill him, or at least try, Coulson shows up and kills Whitehall and can’t understand why he’s not getting thanks for it. Nothing like driving a madman even more crazy. Coulson’s not quite up to speed on things, but it’s no surprise that it again kind of goes all over the place, especially with Agent 33 thrown into the mix as well. Coulson and Cal have a tense relationship since they first met here and that plays out as you’d expect as they definitely get physical with each other.
Skye’s time here takes some good turns as she has proven very capable this season, a reminder we get eraly on with Coulson reminding May that she trained her well. When Skye gets her hands on a gun again, the first thing she does is to shoot Ward a few times and reminds him that she learned well from him. When she ends up saving Coulson from Cal, she gives him the choice to stay and end up dead or to leave and live. Which he does choose, though not before revealing that her name is actually Daisy. This finally affirms the belief many have had for some time that Skye is actually Daisy Johnson, known as Quake in the comics and the daughter of the Inhuman named Mister Hyde. Daisy in the books isn’t an Inhuman herself, but that’s an easy change to make for the cinematic continuity. There’ve been enough clues for awhile so getting it firmed up is definitely great to see.
The city side of the story is really kept as a minor subplot here for a lot of it, but in the final act we get Raina making her way down into it with the Obelisk and has Mack serving as a bit of a guide for a bit before he essentially shuts down. There’s an amusing bit where we see where Raina has to take the Obelisk, and it’s a mix of Raiders and Fifth Element in a way, but the tension ratchets up nicely as Skye and Coulson have made their way down there as well to try and stop it all from happening. But can it be stopped? It all builds in a great way here with a race against time but it also focuses on Skye and Raina as the Obelisk is put into place in order to set things into motion.
What unfolds isn’t exactly the something beautiful that Raina expected as within the sealed chamber we see Skye and Raina turned to stone and Tripp getting caught up as well after he smashes the Obelisk. The process of change is at hand though and we see the two women start to break free of their shell and reveal what they are now, which is done in a flashy enough way for Skye, or should we say Daisy or Quake at this point, while we see that Tripp may not survive it at all since he got hit with a shard of the Obelisk in the gut. That has him falling apart into pieces, which is a real tragedy considering what a likable character he’s been since his introduction last season. Everything goes in a big way here and teases a lot of what’s coming, though it’s all very vague for those that aren’t quite sure what they’re seeing.
In Summary:
Agents of SHIELD takes a bit of time to get where it wants to go, but it fills a lot of that time with a lot of really fun things. The big focus here really is on Skye with the revelations that come from both her father and what happens down in the city. Thankfully, they didn’t keep to teasing this out for the entire season and have given us a fairly strong midseason finale that provides for some good changes, with the death of a couple of characters, uncertainty for others and some very different views of how you think about characters. There’s definitely a lot of things for comics fans to chew on and extrapolate with, especially if you’re forward looking with the Inhumans movie and what this is setting things up for, but you also know that they’re changing things up here too so that it’s not completely predictable. I’m definitely liking this season a lot so far and they’ve accomplished a fair bit in this first half. Here’s hoping to a strong second half when it returns in March with a largely unbroken run then. We’ll be back before that with Agent Carter though.
Grade: B+
