I’m really happy with this impromptu pairing of Coulson and Hunter.
They found themselves on the run, with nowhere to go and no one to help them — or so we thought. That’s when Deathlock (a.k.a. Agent Peterson) made his surprise return! I was actually wondering over the past week about what happened to Deathlock, and now we know he has been working for Coulson behind the scenes in the hunt for Hydra. I look forward to seeing where they take Deathlock’s story in this new world.
We also met a new Inhuman, Skye’s transitioner Lincoln. I like the way they described his powers, and I’m very interested in seeing them in action. (I do want to point out how many times Lincoln uttered the words: “I thought you knew?” It was at least three.) Lincoln gave Skye — and us viewers — plenty of new information about the population of Afterlife. I wonder who these “elders” are, and part of me really hopes they at least reference the Royal Family by the end of the season.
Who might the Elders be?
Skye’s story brought huge developments, starting with her first interaction with newly transitioned Raina. They mentioned that they don’t know what Raina’s true gift is, so maybe they are building towards a hidden important ability of hers. Then out of the blue, none other than Skye’s mother ended the animosity between Skye and Raina. No idea what her return means, how she’s alive, or what her intentions are. It was very out of left field, and her intentions don’t seem pure, based on her mentioning that Skye’s fate had been sealed in Afterlife.
May got some really interesting stuff this week when Gonzalez locked her up. We saw several teases of her “Calvary” past; the show even mentioned it has something to do with a powered individual. If the teaser for next week is any indication, we will finally learn why she is called The Calvary — and it’s about damn time. And Gonzalez’s offer to May was a very smart move. A spot on the executive board as an advocate for Coulson seems like the right place for May in her current situation, and Gonzalez knows that.
More Calvary teases!
Now we reach my favorite part of the episode: Fitz and Simmons! It was hard to watch them at odds with each other for most of the episode, but that was all thankfully flipped on its head when we learned that Simmons was helping Fitz the entire time — a very well done twist. Due to Simmons’ recent behavior, her being the first to help the Real SHIELD made sense, but I’m happy to see that she is still very much on Coulson’s side. I really enjoyed Fitz’s speech as he tossed the cube back and forth, presumably when he switched it with a fake one.
I really enjoyed this episode. Every character and scene were in place, with some good twists sprinkled throughout, and I’m excited at the prospect of tracking down Ward. Seeing as Fitz will probably team back up with Coulson, Hunter, and Deathlock, I look forward to seeing how he’ll take the news. More Ward interaction is always a good thing.
Article by contributor Russ Milheim.
Yep, a good episode all in all.
Although I have to be the pedant and say “Deathlok” and “Cavalry”. “Calvary” is where Jesus was crucified, which would be an odd nickname for sure.
Another small nitpick: The “Her fate is sealed” line was spoken by Gordon, not Skye’s mother. Which DOES make a significant amount of difference.
It was a pretty good episode overall, and I do agree with the review. Although I do have more negative feelings about Skye’s mom turning out to be alive after all. I don’t like death to be cheapened, and this show already pushed that with Coulson’s revival. (And even then, big part of season one was to stress how DIFFICULT and hard this was.) So there better be a really good explanation of how she could still be alive after we were shown how she was literally taken apart.
The best I can think of is that it must be linked to her power, since we also know that she doesn’t age. But even then, I also don’t like this, because if she turns out to have wolverine-like powers, it’s just gonna feel cheap as well.
Oh well, like Russ said though, it’s going to be exciting to have Coulson’s impromptu team interact with Ward again 😀
I figured I might have misheard that line, and yes, that does bring with it a significant difference. But then it seems that Skye’s mother is okay with her fate being sealed? It’s a bit confusing.
I do agree with you about the cheapening of her mother’s death. The reveal that she was alive was just so sudden, and you didn’t get much time to process it. In fact I caught my self questioning if that was the same actress (in which it was). The reasoning better be well thought out like you mentioned. Maybe it’s not really her? I honestly have no idea where they would go with it.
It will be exciting to have Ward back in play with the team. Also a side note: I just want to see Cal “hulk out” already. They keep teasing it, but it just never happens.
I’m calling it, he’ll Hulk out in the season’s finale 😉
And yeah, the whole thing felt off with the mom. But to the show’s credit, they’ve done such a good job with explaining things, that I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I am just hoping that we won’t get more “Back from the dead!” characters further into the show, that would suck.
And well, to be fair, we don’t really know what “You and your daughter’s fate has been sealed” I know it may not be a GOOD thing, but I don’t think it necessarily mean that they meant to kill them. If such was the case, they could have just done it already.
Not to mention, everyone seems to assume that Skye’s mom is good and kind, and that’s certainly the vibe she’s been given so far… But we actually don’t really know anything about her. And if fiction has taught me anything, is that immortal, or long living beings tend to be pretty screwed up in the head. That, and she DID marry Cal… Who even before her death I doubt he was all rainbows and sunshine 😛
What IS bugging me though, is that they apparently quietly removed the Patton Oswalt clones ever since this season started, and by now it feels like they want to pretend they never existed. Which is very troubling, because that feels out of line with the rest of the show’s fairly well explained and connected world.
Yea, no more back from the dead stories would be good for the show.
As for the clones, I didn’t even notice that! Maybe Patton Oswald just got super busy haha.
I almost feel like that isnt sky’s mother, but something wearing her or inhabiting her body.