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| Image Courtesy www.comicbook.com |
Last night was the
midseason finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and it really didn’t
disappoint. There wasn’t nearly as much
superpowered action as I was hoping to see, and the 2 biggest twists of the
episode could be guessed pretty early on, but it more than made up for it with
the other twists! This was a
majorly-twisty episode, and I think it is pretty safe to say that S.H.I.E.L.D.
and Hydra are not going to be the same again after what happened in this
episode.
Let’s start with
everything that happened on the alien planet after Fitz, Ward, Coulson, and the
Hydra team went through the portal. We
start right off with Fitz pretending to guide Ward to the next portal
sight. However, Fitz tries to make a
play for Ward’s gun and promptly gets thrown down the hill, cutting his
forehead on the way down. This gets them
into position to see one of the more impressive and shocking sights of the
entire episode: a giant Hydra seal
carved out of stone. Seeing this statue
has a strong effect on Ward, who later tells Coulson that this is the first
time in a long time that he’s felt like he was part of something greater than
himself—greater than pure revenge.
Fitz leads Hydra
straight to the underground cave where Will and Simmons stayed during Simmons’
time on the planet, where Fitz discovers Will lying on a cot. At first Ward is planning to kill Will, but
seeing the NASA emblem on his jacket changes his mind. Ward then agrees to let Will guide them to
the exit point using his knowledge of the terrain. En route to the exit point, however, Will
starts behaving… unusual: When asked how
long he’s been on the planet, he replies “feels like forever.” He doesn’t seem overly surprised to learn
from Ward of the Inhumans or from Fitz of Hydra. Most uncharacteristically, he led the group
directly into the no-fly zone, where he did not need to use goggles against the
sandstorm. During that sandstorm he
killed 2 Hydra soldiers and he and Fitz escaped from Ward and the other Hydra
soldier.
Coulson meanwhile
wakes up slowly after hitting his head at the end of “Closure” (3x09), dreaming
of himself and Rosalind in bed together before she forces him to get up, which
was a very touching scene, especially if that is Rosalind’s send-off from the
series. Coulson follows the tracks until
he finds Ward and the other Hydra soldier, both of whom he shoots, killing the
other guy. Coulson then forces Ward to
lead him to the exit point (after shooting him again for good measure). The two of them have some interesting scenes
together, as Ward is now the one with faith in a purpose much higher than
himself while Coulson is being driven purely by revenge. The contrast between the two is absolutely
striking after Ward turned aside from his desire for revenge in order to do the
“noble” thing of leading the mission to recover IT last episode.
Ward and Coulson find
Fitz and Will just after Fitz discovers the truth: Will actually died when he fought IT so
Simmons could escape through the portal in “4,722 Hours” (3x05). The “Will” that Fitz has been bonding with
(which was a fun scene and something I had really wanted to see) is in fact
Will’s dead body which was reanimated by IT, which has the ability to take over
a body and absorb its memories. This
explains how IT has survived the millennia and why Hydra has been sending
“sacrifices” through the portal ever since:
new bodies for IT to possess. And
it also explains Will’s impressive knowledge of the planet’s history—it used to
be inhabited by a species with 9 advanced cities around the world but which
feared change, fought among themselves, and ultimately destroyed
themselves. This was actually a pretty
impressive reveal: even though a couple
of Redditers had guessed it, the reveal was not telegraphed until partway
through this episode when “Will” displayed a little too much knowledge of the
planet. This discovery leads to an
intense fight between Fitz and Will as the portal is opened, while Ward and
Coulson have their own fight as Ward defends IT and Coulson attempts to take
revenge on Ward. Fitz finally succeeds
in defeating IT/Will by setting him on fire with a flare gun, while Coulson
crushes Ward’s chest with his mechanical hand, which he then leaves on the
ground next to Ward’s dead body.
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
Back on Earth, Mack
leads the S.H.I.E.L.D. team in a last-ditch infiltration of the Hydra compound
in order to take control of the portal and rescue Fitz and Coulson (whom Bobbi
and Hunter informed him had gone through the portal). Before they can do anything, however, they
see on the scanners that Hydra had brought about a dozen new Inhumans into the
compound in their stasis gel chambers.
Though we learn from Malick that he has no intention of using the
Inhumans against S.H.I.E.L.D., Daisy and Lincoln (and Joey) are very interested
in rescuing the Inhumans from Hydra’s clutches.
Mack does not want to risk any more S.H.I.E.L.D. resources than
absolutely necessary because it is so heavily defended, so he decides to lead a
group of 7 agents into the compound. May
and the Secret Warriors take out the defenses of the compound while Mack,
Bobbi, and Hunter make their way to the portal room.
I really liked the
scenes with the Secret Warriors, particularly Joey’s fear and self-doubt. Lincoln and Daisy both comfort him by telling
him that he’s doing just fine and they’re both scared as well. Overall, this is the first real team dynamic
we get to see from the Secret Warriors, and it does not disappoint, though I definitely
wanted to see more of them actually fighting.
I did think they were setting Joey up to be killed off with this exchange—and
we even got the payoff a few scenes later when Giyera tried to shoot Daisy in
the back and Joey jumped in front of the bullets—but I was glad they decided
not to kill him off. Instead, he melts
the bullets with his power and the metal just sticks to his shirt. I’m not sure if melting a bullet midflight
would make it lose all that kinetic energy, but I guess we can’t really look
too closely at that when we’re taking it for granted that a guy can melt metal
with his mind! As an aside, does this
mean that Inhumans are effectively bulletproof?
This is the second time an Inhuman was shot at and used his power to
avoid death, after Daisy instinctively deflected bullets last season in “One
Door Closes” (2x15). I think if they’re
caught off-guard they can still be shot, but if they can see it coming they can
react on instinct to save themselves.
I was kind of
wondering just what Joey could actually do for the Secret Warriors, as his
power seems far less combative than Lincoln’s or Daisy’s, but seeing him stop
bullets and then reinforce the doors to the portal room definitely gave him a
purpose on this team. I really hope that
these 3 are not the final form of the team (and at least one new member is
rumored to be coming in the second half of the season), but I do think that
this is a good start. Didn’t I predict
at the beginning of the season that we’d see the team together for the first
time in the midseason finale? Yes, I (sort-of) did! Though I thought it would be more than just a
second iteration with 3 members; I was expecting something closer to the final
form.
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
We didn’t see Bobbi,
Hunter, and Mack fighting quite as much as the Secret Warriors (we didn’t see a
ton of fighting from either group), but they did get a couple of funny moments,
like Hunter waving his hands so they could pick themselves out on the infrared
scan and Bobbi leaving the two of them behind to crack some skulls. I did feel like they had a role to play in
the episode, but it really wasn’t a lot.
Of course, since that left more time to focus on the Secret Warriors,
which is who I really wanted to see, I was okay with that; after all, Bobbi and
Hunter cracking skulls is what Marvel’s Most Wanted will be about,
right?
Simmons managed to
escape from Hydra very creatively, by using that shiv she’s been carrying
around ever since “4,722 Hours” to cut through the zip ties holding her
hands. She then found the Inhuman stasis
pods along with the pod holding Andrew.
Though she was hesitant to accept Andrew’s offer to protect her, she
eventually gave in and released him when Hydra started to close in. Andrew almost immediately Lashed out and
killed the Hydra squad—we didn’t see them die, but we did hear the agonized
screams while Simmons listened and closed her eyes. When Simmons found May and told her what had
happened, May’s immediate reaction was fear (she did shoot him, after all), and
then going to find him. When she found
the dozen stasis pods all broken through by energy beams, it may have been one
of the most gut-wrenching moments of the episode. Of course, we should have expected that when
he was left alone with Inhumans, but the fact that Lash murdered a dozen
defenseless people really drove home his animal nature that much more. Malick’s reaction to seeing the carnage was
simply shock—but what was he really expecting?
I highly doubt that Lash would ever follow IT; he’d probably turn on IT
and try to kill IT!
In the end, Mack sends
the whole team back to Zephyr One while he and Daisy remain behind to wait
until the portal opens and hope that Coulson, Fitz, and Will come through
instead of IT. Daisy nearly passes out
from the vibrations of the portal opening, and we don’t see how they actually
get through, but Coulson and Fitz both survive and return through the
portal. Mack orders May to destroy the
castle while the four of them fly up to the plane in Andrew’s containment module. The episode “ends” on perhaps the happiest
moment possible, as May and Coulson are reunited, Daisy and Lincoln share a
tender moment, and Bobbi greets Mack.
Simmons is left disappointed that Will did not return, and receives a
consoling hug from Fitz. It’s very
bittersweet, but the best we could expect after that episode. Of course, knowing the show, was anyone
really expecting the end teaser not to be a shocker?
The teaser before the
credits shows Malick driving to the airport.
However, a figure stands in the road looking at him: Grant Ward, holding Coulson’s mechanical arm
and looking very much alive. We also see
something moving under the skin of his forehead, showing that he is most
definitely under ITs control. How did he
manage to get through the portal when it looked very close to closing when
Coulson and Fitz went through? We don’t
know; hopefully next half-season will answer that question. For now, all we know is that IT is now loose
on Earth!
I liked this midseason
finale: it wrapped up quite a few
storylines for the first half-season and set a couple major ones in motion for
the second half. I liked seeing the team
dynamics with the Secret Warriors as well as the dynamic between Fitz and
Will. I don’t know if the episode was
quite as game-changing as they were saying it would be, but I suppose that IT
being loose on Earth is enough of a game-changer for me! I want to know how IT managed to get back,
but that’s really the biggest confusing moment from the episode. I think my biggest disappointment for the
episode was the lack of on-screen super-powered action. We definitely have enough to talk about and
think about to keep us occupied for the 3 months before Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. returns.
On that note, we need
to talk about just what the announced premiere date means. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was announced
to be returning on March 8. Agent
Carter premiers 7 weeks earlier on January 19. That means that at least 3 Agent Carter
episodes will have to be doubled up if Agent Carter is going to conclude
before Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. resumes.
The obvious guess is that the first 2 episodes will run together and the
last 2 episodes will run together, but that still leaves another doubled
episode in there somewhere. When do you
think it will be?
What did you think of
this episode? How do you think IT/Ward
managed to get through the portal? Let
me know in the comments!
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