Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: S.O.S. Part 1/Part 2 (2x21/22)

Okay. So... that was a blood bath, and I am not even a little bit okay. Let's just... go over what happened, shall we?

It looks like a war is about to break out between the Inhumans and S.H.I.E.L.D. Jiaying has planned things well, sending some of her men to steal one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quinjets and have it fire on Afterlife, to make it look like S.H.I.E.L.D. is attacking. Skye is very confused by this. When May shows up to demand to talk to Gonzales, Skye yells at her and fights her, ultimately using her powers to knock May out. S.H.I.E.L.D. extracts itself from Afterlife and runs off to plan its next move, while many of Afterlife's members also flee. Skye talks to Jiaying, who heals very quickly from her self-inflicted bullet wound. It turns out that Jiaying's eternal youth and healing comes from sucking the life force out of others. Creepy, huh? Skye doesn't know this, though, and it looks like Jiaying is convincing her that S.H.I.E.L.D. is bad news.

Skye talks to Raina, who says that it's her destiny to help Skye be the true leader of the Inhumans. Later, Raina and Jiaying have a meeting. Raina tells Jiaying that it's her destiny to tell the future and save the day. Jiaying can't risk Raina revealing her whole plan, so she slits Raina's throat. Turns out, though, Raina knew that was going to happen. It was all a setup - Skye saw the whole thing, and finally realizes that her mother is behind this whole mess. Jiaying tries to reason with her, but ultimately Jiaying is forced to lock Skye up.

Meanwhile, Cal has been brought back with Coulson. He seems to be in some sort of drugged state, and Simmons does an analysis of some mostly empty vials that they found on their person. It looks like Cal was trying to drug himself into some super strength monster to take out as many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as possible. He runs rampant in the ship, crazed, looking sort of like Frankenstein's monster, or Mr. Hyde. Coulson manages to trap him against a wall with a car, and he talks to him, slowly forcing him to realize that Jiaying is a terrible influence, and that her plan against S.H.I.E.L.D. puts Skye in danger. Cal agrees to help Coulson put a stop to Jiaying's plans.

The Inhumans, with Skye as their prisoner, invade S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ship. The plan is to unleash more Terrigen crystals, killing all the humans and leaving only the Inhumans. Mack rescues Skye from her cell, and the two of them must defeat Inhumans on their quest to stop Jiaying. Skye is able to warn Coulson of Jiaying's plan. Coulson, Cal, and Fitz invade S.H.I.E.L.D.'s conquered ship. They have to stop Gordon from getting the crystals and using the ventilation system to spread it over the whole ship. Fitz creates a device that can contain Gordon in a single room, thus limiting his ability to transport wherever he wants. They fight him over the crystals. Ultimately, Fitz kills him. Gordon falls to the ground with a crystal in his hand. It tumbles through the air, but Coulson catches it before it can shatter. Unfortunately, this means his hand starts to blacken and crumble. Mack, who was with them helping them fight Gordon, uses his ax to cut Coulson's hand off, thus saving his life.

Skye confronts Jiaying, who plans on using a Quinjet to spread the crystals all over the world. Jiaying begins to suck Skye's life force away, but Skye manages to get away in time to use her powers to push the Quinjet into the water. Cal shows up and kills Jiaying, saving Skye from the burden of having to take her own mother's life. Using the T.A.H.I.T.I. protocol, S.H.I.E.L.D. wipes Cal's memories to give him a fresh start. Skye goes and visits him at his veterinary office.

While all of this is going on, May and Hunter take a team to go rescue Bobbi from Ward and Agent 33 (Kara). Kara and Ward have been torturing her, trying to get her to admit that she turned Kara in to Hydra all those years ago. They're looking for closure. Bobbi maintains that she did what she had to do while undercover with Hydra, and she didn't regret it. Kara realizes that killing Bobbi isn't enough - to make her suffer, somebody that she loves has to die. They set a trap, letting Hunter and May track their location and then setting a gun up to shoot whoever walks in the door. May and Hunter infiltrate the location. Hunter finds Bobbi, but as he walks in the door, she manages to push her way in front of the gun so she gets shot instead of Hunter. Agent 33 takes on May's face in order to try and fool other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but Ward inadvertently shoots her, believing her to be the real May. She dies, while May, Hunter, and an injured yet still alive Bobbi make their escape.

As things wind down, it looks like Bobbi will live, but it will be a tough recovery. May decides to take some time off from S.H.I.E.L.D. and spend time with Andrew. Skye and Coulson talk about creating a new team of Inhumans. The team would have to be kept seriously under wraps. We see the Terrigen crystals in the ocean from when Skye knocked the boat into the water. The crystals are distilled by the water, but it looks like trace amounts have made their way into the fish, and thus fish oil tablets. Maybe this will start triggering people's powers all over the world?!

Earlier, Fitz and Simmons had talked briefly about their relationship. Simmons revealed that maybe she had feelings for Fitz. At the end of the episode, the two of them examine the Kree weapon that Gonzales was keeping on his ship. Fitz awkwardly asks Simmons out on a date, and she awkwardly accepts. Fitz leaves the room, and the Kree weapon somehow gets out of its enclosure and absorbs Simmons! Oh no!

So... this was a blood bath. Raina, Kara, Jiaying, and Gordon are all dead. Simmons is... gone for the moment. Bobbi is so injured that she may never be able to be an agent in the field again. May runs off to take some time away. That basically means that Skye is the only female character left standing. Yeesh. Coulson's hand is another casualty. Cal doesn't remember who he really is. I mean... seriously! This was intense! Much, much more intense than I ever could have expected. If I were to slightly complain...

Well, the bloodbath took out three named female characters, and put another three out of the action at least temporarily. That's annoying for obvious reasons.

Cal's whole Mr. Hyde routine went about as well as could be expected given the silliness of it, but yeah. 'Twas a bit silly. Same can be said for some of Raina's lines about destiny and her being an angel and all that. Not the actress's fault, but a little hokey in my humble opinion.

And, finally... maybe this episode was a tiny bit crowded. Given the number of seriously huge events that took place, I could have used maybe a bit more time to linger on some stuff. I feel like the whole side operation with Bobbi getting kidnapped and all that could have been its own episode, even. This is a nitpick, because I loved almost every minute of what I was seeing. Still, I didn't get a lot of room for breathing and processing.

But on to the good stuff!

Secret Warriors! It looks like we're setting up some very interesting stuff for next season, what with Skye starting a team of Inhumans. Lincoln will ostensibly be on that team, and maybe some of the other people from Afterlife too. Lincoln didn't have a lot of screen time in this episode, but he did manage to pick a side - in the end, he stood up for what he knew was right. I think we'll be getting a lot more with his character next season, and I can't wait for that.

Okay. Raina's death was totally bad ass. She knew exactly what was going to happen to her, and she faced it like a boss. Raina has always been such a wild card, and I feel like if she had to die, that was the perfect way for her to go. Despite some hokey dialogue, it felt right for her to hold her head up high and go out with grace and dignity.

I loved all the parallel stuff going on between Skye's two moms (Jiaying and May) and two dads (Cal and Coulson). Cal and Coulson actually decided to work together, because despite all of their differences, they both do dearly love Skye. One great moment was when Cal and Coulson were talking about Skye, and Coulson tries to call her "Daisy." Cal doesn't like that. It's such an interesting dynamic. Also, despite the slightly over-the-top crazed Cal thing, I think the actor still totally killed it, and I was oddly touched when he had his memory wiped at the end. Skye found both of her parents, and then lost them in the span of a single day. Ouch.

Jiaying ended up being one of the most amazing villains I could have hoped for! While her behavior is so horrible and harmful, at the same time I totally understand her reasoning. She's coming from the place of a victim who refuses to be hurt again. Preemptive strikes are not such a good idea, ultimately, but I can see why somebody in Jiaying's position would go there. Also, the added twist that Jiaying's eternal youth comes from sucking away other people's lives is excellent. Suddenly the longer she lives, the more sinister she becomes.

Kara's death was probably the best death in the episode. The way Ward just shot her like that... it was pretty extreme. What if that had been May? He wasn't messing around! And then when he realizes what he's done, he's so panicked and scared. I don't feel an ounce of sympathy for Ward, but I do feel sympathy for Kara, and I think showing that Ward really cared for Kara is a good way of making his character even more interesting.

Fitzsimmons. Okay. This is a big one, you guys. I'm so very angry that we waited the entire first season to hear Fitz announce his feelings for Simmons, then had to wait until the end of the second season to hear Simmons start to reciprocate... and then BAM. I know Simmons isn't dead dead. The actress is signed on for next season, and I'm sure there will be a wonderful reunion moment. Maybe that's when we'll get the first Fitzsimmons kiss?! I'm excited just thinking about it. But seriously - these two will kill me with their cuteness. I really wanted to see them both awkwardly go on a date. And the way Simmons realized what she wanted from Fitz by watching Bobbi and Lance was really adorable too. All of their interactions, no matter how small, drive me crazy. I can't wait for more.

Bobbi and Lance have never been the most interesting characters for me. Lance has been growing on me over time, and in this episode Bobbi suddenly stepped it up and became as awesome as she was in the first episode we met her, back when she was still undercover with Hydra. Her sacrifice for Lance was enormously touching, and I'm so relieved she's still alive. These two are heart breakers.

So... Simmons getting sucked up by the Kree weapon was definitely the most shocking moment of the episode, but I gotta say... it's closely followed by Mack cutting Coulson's hand off. The setup for that moment was so perfect. Over and over again, we see Mack with his ax, as he fights off numerous threats. Then, we see Coulson's slow-motion dive to save the entire ship from death at the hands of the Terrigen crystal. And then... oh no! We don't see Mack swing the ax. It just comes down from out of frame and chops Coulson's hand clean off. That's crazy. And awesome.

Visually, I loved this episode for all of its awesome fight sequences. Great choreography. We had Bobbi vs. Ward, and Skye vs. May, and Skye vs. the Inhuman woman who can split herself in five, and Gordon with his teleportation vs. Mack... the list goes on. Each of these moments was specific to the characters and their various levels of skill. Cal's crazy lurching through the ship to find victims was very different from Skye and May's controlled hand-to-hand.

I could talk a lot about this episode. Ultimately, despite some potential problems with overcrowding, I loved it. I was kept on the edge of my seat the whole time. I cannot believe I have to wait to see what comes after this. It's going to be good!

9/10