Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Melinda (2x17)

Oh my GOD. We finally got the story of the Cavalry. That was... intense. This whole episode was... wow.

So. In the present day, we see May get put in charge of the base. Gonzales and the others seem willing to trust her, for now. Bobbi tells May that the reason they don't trust Coulson is that there's a secret project, Theta Protocal, that Coulson has been funneling all sorts of money into. May didn't know about this project. She turns to Simmons for help, and the two of them do their research. They discover that Coulson is indeed hiding something - he's been spending money on all sorts of weird stuff for a while now, and hasn't been honest about his whereabouts. Mack thinks that Coulson is planning some sort of facility for Inhumans.

At the very end of the episode, we see Fitz succeed in opening the toolbox. He uses it to contact Coulson and Hunter, who are still hiding out. Fitz informs them that he's being followed, but he wants their help in ditching the people tracking him so he can come hang out with Coulson and Hunter.

Skye is being trained in how to use her powers with Jiaying. She starts to discover the beautiful potential of her powers. She also learns the truth - Jiaying is her mother. Jiaying tells her that she has to be careful and not tell anybody the truth. Jiaying is in charge of Afterlife, and if people were to suspect her of playing favorites, her authority would be jeopardized. We hear a story about another Inhuman who stole Terrigen crystals to use on her daughter, so that her daughter could go through the transformation. Because of the horrible way this story ends, (I'll get there in a sec) Jiaying and Skye will have to keep their relationship a secret.

Raina is distraught that she has to remain hidden away due to her appearance. Lincoln and Gordon both try to console her, telling her that she'll discover her power eventually, and it will make it all worth it. Raina say she's been having nightmares. Skye, who still gets to be beautiful even after becoming Inhuman, sits with her father and has a nice dinner. She seems so happy. Raina hates that Skye has all that she cannot.

Jiaying tells Skye that she and Cal searched for her for years. The desperate search turned Cal into a monster, but Jiaying eventually gave up hope that she would ever find her child. Now, Jiaying wants Skye to give Cal a chance and have dinner with him. As Skye, Cal, and Jiaying all have dinner, Lincoln witnesses the scene, prompting him to realize that Raina's dream wasn't a dream at all, but rather a vision.

Finally, we get some flashbacks. May is happily married and thinking about starting a family. She and Coulson go on a case to track down somebody with abilities. This is the woman who stole the crystals for her daughter. A whole bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents go inside of a building, but they are all taken out. May goes in alone, and discovers the mother and the daughter, both very dangerous. It turns out that the daughter can leech people's emotions from them by touching them. May kills the mother, and as the little girl approaches her, threatening to take her emotions and destroy everybody around her, May does the unthinkable - she kills the little girl. Coulson and other reinforcements turn up in time to see May cradling the girl's body, but they never see what happened. May, traumatized by what she had to do, retreats into her shell and requests a transfer, removing herself from the field. (In the pilot of this show, we see how she gets brought back in).

So! Yikes! Do I have things to complain about?

Well, May wanting a baby is fine, but they were a bit over the top with the whole family planning thing. It was just a way for them to enforce the fact that she wanted a baby so that later, when forced to kill a little girl, we would be reminded of her own hopes and dreams for a family. That's fine in theory, but it was a tad heavy handed.

I also feel a bit flummoxed by this whole reveal about Coulson's secret activities. All I can say is - there had better be a good explanation for that, Coulson! I'll be annoyed if it's as bad as it seems.

But mostly - Holy Hell this was an amazing episode.

First of all, Skye and her mother are reunited! I was surprised by how touching this was. Every time I feel moved by Skye's character, I'm reminded of how painfully boring and annoying I found her in the early days of this show. It's so incredible to think of how much she's grown and changed. The story of the day she was born was really endearing. Cal, for all that he's done some horrible stuff, is clearly just a damaged guy who went to the ends of the earth for his child. He came unhinged, but you can see the hints of the person he was underneath all of that. They didn't overplay the melodrama of the family reunion, either. It was just the right mix of lighthearted and more dramatic. I loved the moment when Skye learns she was born in 1988, and thus realizes that she's a year older than she thought. That was such a cute little detail!

Also, in this episode we got the first hint of a conflict between different types of Inhumans. Gordon is a bit rude to Lincoln when he tries to comfort Raina about the changes she's going through. Gordon and Raina both underwent significant physical changes, while people like Lincoln and Skye get to stay the same on the outside and are just granted superpowers. This could be an interesting tension moving forward.

Despite my doubts on the whole "Theta Protocal" idea, I do like the way it adds even more complexity to the growing S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. debate. May and Coulson's strong partnership was really played up during the flashback, so it was an interesting contrast to the doubt May is now feeling about Coulson's actions.

The highlight of this episode is that we finally get the truth about the whole Cavalry incident. I have to admit - I was a bit worried that it wasn't going to be intense enough. It had to be something extreme enough to explain why May is the way she is. The dilemma they presented her with is actually perfect. I mean, May had to kill a child. That's pretty brutal. It actually made me think of an infamous scene from The Walking Dead, because as horrible as it is, you really can't think of another option. May had to kill her, or risk far worse consequences. In the present day, we hear May tell Bobbi how hard it is to do the right thing, when you know that nobody will understand. That's what's going on here. She can't share her burden with anybody, because she can't exactly explain it. Killing that girl was the only option she had, but it's still a horrific thing to do. I think this was as good an answer as any as to why May is so cold and aloof.

Fitz is adorable. I know we only got to see him for a few minutes there at the end, but it just reinforces the fact that he and Simmons are my favorites. He managed to steal the toolbox, figured out how to open it, and got a message to Coulson and Hunter. I'm so proud of him! Of course, it's all endlessly more complicated now that we've introduced the fact that Coulson has been hiding big secrets from everybody. Should Fitz be delivering the toolbox into his hands?!

I think that's where I'll stop. Another great episode! This season is going to end with a bang, I can just tell.

8.5/10