And so the first season of “Agents” have come to an amazing
conclusion. And so, Director Fury, who returned, rather like a god from a
machine (well, via a helicopter), to help the main heroes save the day, has
reinforced yet again the concept that a person can become something bigger when
they are a part of a team; the “Agents” talk about the conflict not so much of
good vs. evil, as of the rights of the individual vs. the rights of many, of
selfless vs. selfish, of team vs. teamless...and so on.
For the last few episodes it appeared that the last episode
of the season – this one – would be about Team S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. Team Hydra...only
it had not. Garrett personally had driven it apart: Warren may have had no
personal interests or goals, but Ian Quinn certainly wanted to make a quick
buck and become really rich on one hand, while Raina is all about
evolution...and apparently her travels with Garrett (who may or may not have
been the Clairvoyant) have come to an end: Garrett had reached his final stage
in evolution and doesn’t really interest her anymore; Ian Quinn, on the other
hand, just may.
Of course, it is hard to tell with Raina – she appeared to
be messing with Ward as well, but it is very likely that once he proved to be
immune to her charms, she switched onto the easier target of Quinn. Why not, it
could work...but that is beside the point. The point is that Raina and Quinn
left Team Hydra before the final
showdown; to be recurring villains of the 2nd season, of course, but
also because they felt no loyalty towards Garret or Ward or Deathlok and had no
issues abandoning them to their fate.
Ward is different, of course: Garrett had raised or molded
him into his very own, personal weapon – a sort of a Terminator, you may say,
but the problem with the weapons is that they tend to be discarded once a new and
better version is acquired – in this case it was Deathlok.
...Only Deathlok felt no loyalty towards Garrett either and
shot him and killed him as soon as Skye had freed his son – good for him. Deathlok
(or Mike Peterson) is the embodiment of a coerced agent of a terrorist
organization, who is liable to turn on them as soon as the coercion is gone.
Ward is different – he is a fully indoctrinated member, and
for him, loyalty to his boss, a very misplaced loyalty, was more important than
the loyalty to his team. Loyalty to many trumps loyalty to one in S.H.I.E.L.D.
universe, and so Ward lost to May, who took great payback for Ward victory in “Yes
Men”, one supposes.
(Speaking of the fight between Ward and May, what was up
with Cybertek, where the fight took place? Why there were half-finished rooms,
and construction tools, and whatnot lying around? Cybertek was around since
1990s, surely they would have completed the construction of the secret faculty
by the 2010s?!)
While Team Hydra fell apart without any pressure from
S.H.I.E.L.D., Team S.H.I.E.L.D., of course, prevailed through teamwork. Skye
freed the hostages and got Deathlok to join the good guys (at least this time),
May neutralized Ward, and Coulson with Fury took care of Garrett (admittedly,
it was mostly by setting him up for Deathlok to give the final blow – the ultimate
evolved form of Garrett was apparently bullet-proof, but not missile-proof.
Fancy that)! Triplett was probably too involved somehow, possibly by freeing
the rest of Quinn’s ‘clients’ turned hostages, but yes, he is part of the new
team S.H.I.E.L.D. now, as if agent Koenig. Only he is not Eric, he’s Billy now.
It is anyone’s guess what is the story with those two – twins, clones, or
something else, but the appearance of agent Koenig the second was a nice touch
and a nice conclusion to the story that began in the episode “End of the
Beginning”, you know?
Finally, there was the Fitz & Simmons drama. Simmons
finally realized that Fitz loved her...too bad that it was under 27 m of water,
just off the coast of New Mexico. Fitz was all about the heroic self-sacrifice,
their initial sinking to the bottom of the Gulf had hurt him far worse than it
did Simmons, but Simmons saved him all the same – well, at least she took him
up with her to the surface of the Gulf and kept him and herself there long
enough for Fury to come across and to save them. Still, Fitz had taken a lot of
punishment (apparently more than Simmons) and is out of commission until the
next season of “Agents” at least. This is going to be important because Fitz
was the last to abandon the belief that Ward can be evil (Simmons was second to
last). In “The Hub” Fitz and Ward appeared to have bonded on their semi-suicide
mission, and until Ward returned back to Hydra the two of them got along well
enough. Ward’s not letting Fitz and Simmons go at the end of the previous
episode (and did he shoot the dog all those years ago?) marked his point of no
return from Team Hydra...at least until the next season begins airing in the
future (probably 2015). Consequently, let us wave good-bye to the plucky and
courageous agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. who gave us this rather memorable first
season and wait for the next season to start.
End
PS: Raina has contacted a mysterious stranger who is
apparently Skye’s father. Since what we have seen from him is dripping with
gore, this can’t be good for Skye or for anyone else.
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