nerd radio

Get ready for the new daily show

TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews the Season 02 Finale of Agents of Shield: S.O.S.

May 13th, 2015 by Todd Black Comments

SOS1

Ok, I know your mind is still racing from that ending, but be at peace! Simmons is not dead!…at least according to the press report that says she’ll be a main character in Season 3. Yes, that does not help us now, but it’s still there, so take heart!

“S.O.S” was a true non-stop thrill ride that had my jaw on the floor for much of the two-hour finale. And what a way to go out. There were so many reveals, and shockers, and deaths, and twist that I honestly can’t believe how well it all worked out.

The war between SHIELD and the Inhumans was just ONE of the main storylines for “S.O.S.” and it was very action packed on many levels. Skye bouncing from one side to another, Cal FINALLY becoming Mr. Hyde, Mac vs. Gordon, it was GREAT!!!! I’m really glad we got to see the Inhumans in action, albeit only 4 (Skye, Gordon, Lincoln, and Multiple Woman), but hey, I’ll take it.

But beneath all that was the struggle in Skye’s family. As Jiaying, Skye, and Cal all had to show who they really were before the episode ended, and it was all incredibly compelling. Easily though the biggest spots went to Cal, who not only got to Hyde out on Coulson and Fitz-Simmons, but got to show the man he always claimed to be, a father wanting to help his family, and protect his daughter. Seeing him admit the madness of Jiaying was both beautiful and sad, as you thought all along he was the mad one until last episode. But that was not the case at all.

Seeing Jiaying going full-on villain was both unexpected, and enlighting, as it wasn’t just a “I hate Shield” kind of thing, she was truly trying to protect her people, but in a way that made her very villainous. She consistently showed her brutal to all who weren’t Inhuman, including revealing that she actually absorbed people’s life energy to life so long, when all along we thought it was her natural gift that did that…NOT SO MUCH!!!

SOS2

Theirs was a true Shakesperean tragedy, as Cal had to kill Jiayang in order to stop her from killing Daisy, all in the name of “keeping his promise”, sad stuff.

Which then brings me to Ward and Kara, who kidnapped Bobbi in order to make her confess to selling out Kara to Hydra. At first, I thought this was some weird Ward ruse to get some twisted satisfaction against Shield. But in fact, he was right, Bobbi gave up a safehouse of Shield’s to maintain her cover for Hydra, which lead to the capture of Kara. That was good, what was bad was the torture scene afterwards. And by bad I mean gruesome, it was brutal what they did to Bobbi, including after she tried to escape. True, even with the cancellation of the series planned for them, we knew neither Hunter nor Bobbi would die, but it served to solidify their relationship, and possibly have them change course entirely.

Oh, and May tricking Ward into killing Kara? Brilliant and brutal, and this showed that Ward actually did care about her. Apparently enough to try and reestablish Hydra on his own, with him as the head. Hail Hydra to that!

SOS3

With the end of the final came many threads for the future. Coulson got his hand chopped off (courtesy of Mack, but for the right reason!). Coulson wants to make a “secret” team of “warriors” with powers, with Skye at the head. Hmm…wonder what team that could be…

Many of our core team are altered from before, Simmons is…well you know what happened there. May is starting to revert to her old self, and many of the Inhumans are out there still…and many more are about to arrive no doubt.

Agents of Shield hasn’t always been consistent, but when it’s needed to pull of a big episode, it did. “S.O.S” hands down was the best Agents of Shield ever. Period. And because of that, I honor it with the following score.

nerds-5

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!