Week 43: Scars, S.O.S. Part 1

Scars: Jaiying's heel turn was not a surprise; it was going to be her or Gonzales. I've written plenty about how I consider Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. to be moral equals, so I sided mostly with the various statements by the Inhumans that the agency can't be trusted, and I completely understand why Jaiying doesn't buy a word of what Gonzales says. She has the clarity to perceive S.H.I.E.L.D. for what it is that most of the characters lack. (I also sympathize with her taking offense at Gonzales comparing his physical suffering to hers. Dude! It's no contest!)

Gonzales's death lets him off the hook for all of the times that he lied or betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D. during his short run on the series, which is a huge shame; there was some moral accounting due. Skye apparently learned about how he tried to assassinate her, and still trusts the organization, at least partially, which I find odd. I guess I like Coulson's solution to have the council oversee him, and I like his commitment to making that arrangement work, but so far their collective judgment is askew, and Gonzales's leadership was morally bankrupt, so I hope that the show doesn't make this a huge element going forward.

I like the scene where Coulson tries to apologize but May is still bitter, because it was maybe the best-written and best-acted scene of the hour, but I think it missed an opportunity: When May revealed that she herself shot the girl in Bahrain, Coulson should have said that it didn't affect his opinion of her, that he trusts her completely and knows that she wouldn't shoot a kid unless it was absolutely the right thing to do. The show could even go a step further and then say that May only believed that he'd judge her for shooting a kid because she lost her trust in him and felt guilty about it and was projecting. Either way, these are two adults and longtime colleagues who should be able to talk through this stuff in five minutes. There's no need to extend their personal conflict, at least not like this.

How did Ward know to meet Kara on this particular mountaintop out of all of the places in the world where the plane might go, when S.H.I.E.L.D. only just found out the location of the Inhumans a short time earlier? And how did they get Patton Oswalt to agree to film this episode using own real bedsheets and neckties? (5/10)

S.O.S. Part 1: I guess that answers the question about Ward knowing where to meet the plane. I read that this two-parter is considered one of the best episodes of the series, but (without having seen the second half as of this writing) I'm just not feeling it. The Morse subplot, despite a pretty good hallway fight, is ugly and mean and feels invented to force feelings of sympathy; it would mean more if Morse had actually done something for which she deserved this and the show was playing more fair. The Skye subplot is refreshing in that it resolves Skye's allegiances quickly instead of dragging them out for another half-dozen episodes for a change. The Zabo subplot finally brings out "Mr. Hyde" of the comics to play, which looks a little silly in live-action but at least Kyle Maclachlan seems to be having a blast. (If I were Coulson, I'd have tried to reason with him by saying that Skye will see him killing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the security footage and hate him for it, but it probably wouldn't have worked.) Raina's death feels like a waste of a once-promising character, and also feels wildly out of character for her to accept her own fate so calmly; it was earlier this same season that she begged Phil Coulson at a restaurant to do anything to save her from murder by Daniel Whitehall. The takeover of the Iliad, which seems to be setting up Mack as some kind of "John Mack-clane" solo hero, is pretty dull, give or take a self-duplicating Inhuman; the alien object in the cargo hold should have been relocated as soon as Gordon discovered it. That leaves Coulson trying to hold everything together and calm everybody down, which was the best part of the hour; it's good that someone in this realm of spies and mistrust recognizes manipulation and false conflict for what they are and wants to resolve things peacefully. (5/10)