Is Agents of SHIELD finally turning into the show fans wanted all along?
Early on, the spinoff appeared to be working through a crisis of identity. Budget constraints and the demands of long-form storytelling meant it could never be as explosively throwaway or glibly epic as its cinematic big brothers. Denied that possibility, it seemed SHIELD was scrambling in the dark - as murky as its baseline colour scheme of endless black and greys.
But, with the season two finale, the sense is SHIELD has at last learned to fly solo, outside the shadow of the Avengers and the franchise's endless tie-ins. As this feature-length payoff made thrillingly clear, SHIELD is its own creature now - impulsive, sometimes dark, capable of stomach-flipping reversals.
For instance, can you imagine any other iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe tossing in a scene as casually bleak, violent - and funny - as the one in which Mack chops off Coulson's hand? It is a bravura flourish, ripe with black humour yet with a sobering undertone. When things get real sometimes you react first, ask questions later - a sentiment that could serve as a coda for the entire recent run of episodes.
The smartest move the show has made this year is playing cat-and-mouse as to the identity of its big bad. Could it be crazy Cal? What about Ward or Sunil Bakshi? At the very end, we learn it was none of the above.
Instead the threat to SHIELD and, by the by, the survival of mankind - is sweet, chilled Jiaying. The Inhuman leader was introduced as the flesh-and-blood equivalent of a soothing pan-pipe solo. Yet beneath the stoic gaze and zen blankness, she has been finally exposed as a villain like any other: megalomaniacal, manipulative and - okay, maybe this sets her apart - capable of sustaining herself by draining the essence of others.
What to Read Next
Skye, her previously doting daughter, discovers exactly how deadly mom can be when Jiaying claps hands around the SHIELD operative's temples and feeds on her life force (kudos to whoever designed the blue-green hue that washes across the faces of Jiaying's victims as she leeches them dry).
Of course, at this point Skye can be under few illusions as to how unhinged mommy dearest is - Jiaying has, after all, precipitated a bloody face-off with SHIELD by shooting herself and pinning the blame on Gonzales (lately reduced to a charred heap, he is not in a position to contradict).
With the monkey of a contractually obligatory Age of Ultron tie-in off its back, here there is a feeling that SHIELD has cast away the shackles. The sequences in which Bobbi is tortured by Ward and Agent 33 are, for instance, genuinely gruelling.
You obviously empathise with Bobbi, alone with a tag-team of sociopaths. And yet, a whiff of tragedy attends Agent 33's storyline - brutalised beyond the limits of her sanity all she wants is to put things right and extract a sincere mea culpa from Bobbi (none is forthcoming).
When Ward shoots her, hoodwinked into believing she is May by the real agent, the show reaches for a lump in the throat moment and almost gets there. It is an indication that SHIELD has learned how to take the temperature of the fan-base and serve up a potent blend of the human and the visceral.
There is also a satisfyingly redemptive conclusion for Cal, who saves Skye by putting Jiaying out of her misery (and, contorted with hate and paranoia, she is truly miserable at the last). All along Skye's barking dad was being manipulated by Jiaying, his wish to do well by his family twisted into murderous rage. It takes Coulson - and a van pinning Cal against the wall - to make the truth of this plain.
Thus, when Cal turns on the Inhumans and allies himself with SHIELD, the about-face is believable - fuelled, as it is, by a father's love for his daughter. With his memory wiped and an unlikely new life as a folksy veterinarian stretching ahead, Cal's final scene is heartbreaking. Skye pays a visit and he does not recognize her - a moment of cruel tenderness that tells us that sometimes to escape your past you have to break from it completely (or have someone do the breaking for you).
Amid all these exquisitely-judged emotional interludes, the two-hander finale also delivers some outstanding action. There's a fantastic segment in which Skye tangles with an Inhuman capable of projecting ass-kicking mirror images of herself.
Later, when it all goes down between teleport-happy Gordon and Coulson and the SHIELD director ends up clutching a deadly Terrigen crystal, your heart somersaults as Mack saves Coulson's life at the expense of his hand. With the future of humanity in the balance, Mack's logic is chilling : get busy with the hatchet right away, ponder the consequences down the line.
Where does SHIELD go from here? We know where it isn't headed: towards a Bobbi-Hunter spinoff. Fans may have mixed feelings - giving this endearing couple their own buddy show would be undeniably tantalising.
That said, it's good to know they'll be around for next year's SHIELD. They bring much needed grit and irreverence - their reluctance to follow the rules simply because they are rules a necessary counterpoint to Coulson and May and their frankly dictatorial compulsions (which may get worse now Coulson is overseeing a special unit for individuals with superman abilities).
One character whose return is in doubt is Simmons. What a tragedy her exit would be as she and Fitz have just started to contemplate life beyond the Friendzone. Then, casual dating is probably not uppermost on her mind (assuming she is even capable of conscious thought) as she has been swallowed whole by the Kree artefact stashed in the basement of Gonzales' aircraft character.
What does her apparently grisly fate portend? We have no idea - but you can bet SHIELD knows exactly what's going on. Roll on next season and another winning infusion of humanity, heartache and high-kicking derring-do.
