Agents of SHIELD Recap: “Melinda”
The Cavalry!
Note: I’m off to Calgary Expo today – and it’s going to be Marvel-ous! I’m going to be moderating both the Agents of SHIELD panel with Ming-Na Wen and Brett Dalton on Saturday, and the Agent Carter panel with Hayley Atwell on Sunday. If you’re there, be sure to come check out the panels and say hi!
In this week’s episode of SHIELD, we finally learn about May’s past and the whole “Cavalry” thing! And some other stuff happened too, I guess, but realistically the May business is all that I really cared about.
As per usual, let’s get the bad out of the way before we move on to the good. Here’s the thing: we just had a flashback episode only two weeks ago, and “Melinda” was obviously flashback-heavy. While they’re interesting episodes, it’s having the unfortunate side-effect of slowing down the show – and I also feel like they’re making the classic error of mistaking flashbacks and info dumps for character development. It’s not.
And though it would have slowed the current season’s narrative action even more, part of me wishes they would have gone full-blown flashback in this episode, because intercutting May’s traumatic and life-changing experience with Skye’s too-quick and overwhelmingly-dull power mastery gave me a bit of tonal whiplash. And I can’t say I’m surprised; the episode was penned by a newbie writer and directed by a SHIELD executive producer, so it’s not like they put their best people on this one – disappointing for what I would consider a seminal episode for May.
But May, you guys – how heartbreaking was that? While I’m obviously disappointed that May didn’t actually take out a building of a million trillion guys just by being kick ass, the whole baby/little girl storyline shattered my feels in a million different directions. Ming-Na did such an excellent job of subtly playing May as more open and more human; though I wish they’d dedicated a bit more time to her post-trauma and her transition to the May we currently know (and love anyways), it was great to finally get some crushing answers. There’s nothing creepier than a fucked-up kid, let’s be real (she was giving me some serious Russian schoolgirl from Agent Carter vibes, too). And there’s no way you can tell me that Coulson hasn’t been in love with her from the start (Philinda forever! Fight me.)
It was a wise choice to keep May and Coulson rooted largely in the past this episode, though May is still trying to find answers about Coulson’s new secret base for Inhumans in the present. And though I don’t really care about The Real SHIELD (or, as TheSojourner and other wonderful people in our comments section have been calling it, “BullSHIELD”) and Skye’s whole Zen Power Hour With Mom, I’m stoked to see the SHIELD team splintered again, and I’m so glad they didn’t drag out the “Skye, I’m your mother” reveal.
Still waiting for that Coulson/Hunter/Mike/Fitz buddy comedy episode.
Oh, and Raina can see the future. Ruth Negga is consistently a revelation in this show. Team Raina!
Now, how long until SkyeDaddy goes back to his normal batshit self? I have a hunch it’s only one week!
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