Wednesday, 10 December 2014

S.H.I.E.L.D., Become - Dec 9



And so, “Agents” have come the mid-season finale in their plotline – and in a big, exciting way, too.
Firstly, this episode established all of the main couples by now. There are the FitzSimmons, with Fitz doing his best in getting out of the ‘friends’ zone to which he’d been relegated by Jemma. There are Phil and Mel, with the two of them finally realizing that they are more than friends and colleagues, and there are this season’s newcomers, Lance and Bobbi, who appear to have made-up, even though Bobbi (ala the Mockingbird) has a secret hidden on some sort of a memory stick. Hopefully, she is not another double agent for Hydra, because that would be bad.

Finally, there are Ward and Skye, with Skye shooting Ward in the back because of karma. Ward had betrayed his teammates back in S1 (in case anyone has forgotten), metaphorically shooting them in the back, and Skye has repaid him by literally shooting him in the back. Ward is still more than ‘just’ competent, (in particular, Skye hadn’t killed him – he had Kevlar under his clothes or something similar), but he is also selfish, and thus he is limited as a person, unlike Skye, who is selfless and is part of a team (a very important traits in the world of ‘Agents’, not so much in the real world), and who thus gets to be zapped with the alien crystals at the end of the ep.

And what’s more, she seems to remain basically human in appearance afterwards too. Tripp, who became caught in all of the excitement died, sadly; Raina (just like another new character, who had appeared at the end of the episode), might have become inhuman in appearance; and Skye has not. The setting of the episode finale, including the music, suggest that Skye has become something more, perhaps superior, than an ordinary human as well, just as her father had told her. (He also told her that her name was actually Daisy, but that is another story.)

This episode also has Whitehall killed off, hopefully for good (with stolen alien organs you never know), and we learn that the true name of Skye’s father is Cal, while Skye/Daisy herself is half-Chinese, though she does not look like it. This ties-in with May and Coulson being her surrogate parents, and if one remembers that the previous episode has started with Skye dreaming – among other things – about a baby being abandoned by a couple, (talking about a poison fruit from a poison tree, BTW), played out by Phil and Mel, (and Coulson is Anglo-American, while May is of an Oriental descent), then one may wonder if Skye’s pre-orphan days weren’t as rosy as her father makes them out to be. Of course, he is also quite unbalanced, (and possesses superhuman strength and endurance), so whatever information he shares, is probably biased to begin with.
What is left? Tripplet dies when the crystals are destroyed (by him); Mack recovers once the same crystals are destroyed; and agent 33 is also alive, unlike Whitehall, and helps Ward get to safety. Hopefully now Ward will have to rethink some of his previous choices and do something else with his life – or not. He and Skye are Buffy and Angel/Angelus of the ‘Agents’ world, with the Inhumans playing the role of demons and the supernatural (a man who can see without eyes is a good example of that sort of thing), and the role/function of Acathla is still up for grabs...probably.

So: Ward had been outmaneuvered by Skye, who had been outmaneuvered by Raina; Whitehall is dead, Skye’s father and agent 33 are alive; Tripp is dead, though the other agents are alive; and aliens from other worlds are about to make an appearance. When ‘Agents’ S2 resumes in 2015, this is going to be really good!

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