Another season of Agents of SHIELD has come and gone, and this one certainly went out with a bang.  Last week’s episode set the stakes for a showdown between SHIELD and the Inhumans, with Skye caught in the crossfire, and the season finale certainly delivered that and more.  This episode had it all, from shocks and surprises, to great character moments, to fantastic action and one-liners, to multiple character deaths.  It was an intense episode, resolving some of the season’s larger threads while setting things in motion for season three.  Let’s jump right into the two-hour season finale, “S.O.S.”, part one written by Jeffrey Bell and directed by Vincent Misiano and part two written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancaroen and directed by Billy Gierhart.

• The season 1 finale was full of big emotional moments: Ward vs May, Mike Peterson’s story, Coulson’s “I know what it does!” moment, Fury’s appearance, FitzSimmons under the sea.  This finale was more about big shocks and surprises, and moments that took my breath away.  I literally gasped out loud multiple times during the episode, either from shock at what had happened, excitement, or fear at what was about to.  The entire episode kept me on the edge of my seat (and made taking notes particularly difficult), and ever since I’ve been replaying moments over and over in my head.  So I’m going start my reactions to the episode by going through those gasp-inducing moments in order, and then hitting all of the other stuff I missed.
• My first gasp wasn’t actually from surprise at all.  I knew Bobbi was going to be tortured by Ward, but I still wasn’t ready for the sight of him jamming needles under her fingernails.  (I at least fared better than my wife, who can’t stand anything fingernail related and had to cover her eyes.  She quit watching Lost in season one after Sayid tortured Sawyer with bamboo under the fingernails.)  On the other hand, I loved the way Bobbi handled the torture situation.  Ward trying to mold torturing Bobbi into some kind of “closure” for Kara was obviously just another step in brainwashing her again, using his own experiences as a framework.  Kara wouldn’t have ended up free at all after killing Bobbi, just further indebted to Ward and less of an individual.  The question is obviously whether Ward was intentionally manipulating Kara, or if he’s so delusional that he thinks he’s achieved closure in his life and was genuinely trying to help her.  Still, as tough as it was to watch Bobbi have to go through all of that as the painkillers wore of (and especially to see the state of her hand), it was extremely satisfying to watch her jab those needles in Ward’s neck, though of course not as satisfying as May nailing him to the floor last season.  For some reason, it just feels really good to watch Ward get the crap kicked out of him.  And for a minute there, I thought Bobbi was going to escape after all, despite taking on Ward and Kara with a damaged hand.
• Another gasp came from that same segment of the story.  I wasn’t surprised that Kara didn’t survive the episode, as Ward is nothing but trouble to those around him, but I never thought she’d go out like that.  Ward’s trap was pretty tense to watch, though given all of the recent talk about a (now cancelled) spinoff show for Bobbi and Hunter I wasn’t particularly worried about them surviving, even if I was concerned that someone might die and Bobbi would blame herself.  But I have to say that May was exceptionally clever to fake out Kara by giving her the idea to imitate May in order to trick the other SHIELD soldiers.  I assume May knew all along that Ward would attack her on sight and would potentially take out Kara, so kudos to May for that plan.  But it was pretty brutal to watch Ward cold-bloodedly pump multiple bullets into Kara, only realizing afterwards that he killed the woman he loved/needed/used/pick your verb.  I wonder if Ward will be out for revenge on May in particular because of her role in Kara’s death, or will just blame SHIELD generally.
• I loved seeing Mack as a badass in this episode.  As I said last week, I like Mack and was sad to see him go (if he was actually leaving SHIELD), but I did feel like the character had gotten a little tired and repetitive with his distrust of anything alien.  So it was nice to see him spring into action in the finale once the ship was under attack as the last man standing, Die Hard-style.  He really got most of the badass moments of the episode, suiting up with his axe, taking out Inhumans, but what I really liked was that he rescued Skye.  Sure, he needed her help, but I refuse to believe that he doesn’t care about her, and didn’t want to see her knocked out and locked up.  But what gave me a happy gasp was when he told Skye he wanted her for her hacking skills, not her superpowers.  Her face completely lit up, as it brought her back to her roots and made her feel like part of the team once again.  After spending the second half of the season doubting everything she knew, here at last was something with which she was completely at home.
• The battle against Gordon could not have gotten off to a more awesome start, with Mack identifying himself by saying, “I’m the guy who kills Gordon.”  It was great to see him hold his own against Gordon’s telepathy, despite obviously being outmatched.  It got even better when Coulson showed up late, blaming the ship for being a “big boat with poor signage,” with Fitz and his disruptors in tow.  I loved that Fitz actually tried to comfort Mack for not having thought of them first and not being a quantum physicist, as if Mack was being serious.  Coulson’s comment, “I hate this guy,” pretty much sums up my feelings about Gordon, and I cheered when Fitz answered Gordon’s question of how they stopped his teleportation with “Science, biatch!” while twirling a pipe like an actual fighter.  But when Gordon teleported behind Fitz and everyone stopped for a second, I was sure that Fitz had been stabbed by Gordon, not the other way around.  I have no logical reason for assuming that, but I think part of me (the part that gasped) was sure that one of Mack, Fitz, or Coulson would not make it out alive.  Still, I’m glad Gordon’s dead, because he was really starting to get on my nerves (in a good way).
• My biggest gasp of the night happened immediately afterwards, and I’m sure you all know what it is.  Gordon dropped a Terrigen crystal and Coulson made a diving leap for it, catching it at the last moment and saving everyone on the ship.  It actually didn’t occur to me that he couldn’t touch it, because for some reason I assumed that it would behave differently than the diviner and the only threat was if they smashed, but of course that’s silly.  There’s no reason to think that any non-Inhuman would be able to safely touch it.  For a moment I thought that Coulson might turn out to be Inhuman, especially considering the GH-325 injection of Kree DNA he’d received, and we were set to see Coulson with superpowers next season, but as his skin started to turn black I figured there wasn’t much hope.  However, I was absolutely not prepared at all for Mack chopping his hand off with an axe!  I was completely shocked!  It was sudden, extremely violent, and incredibly bold.  What really sold it, however, was Coulson’s scream.  It’s tough to get just the right scream for something like this, and many movies and TV shows have either under or oversold it, going too far one direction or the other.  So full props to Clark Gregg for giving a great scream, which is much harder than people think.
• Then, of course, there was the ending.  Everyone has been waiting all season for FitzSimmons to reconcile, talk through their feelings, for Simmons to confess her love for Fitz after he confessed his at the bottom of the ocean, and for them to go on a date.  We almost got all of that in the finale.  Earlier in the episode, before Fitz went off to the aircraft carrier, Simmons came to him to wanting to talk things through, especially just in case he didn’t make it back.  He told her there was nothing to discuss, but she said maybe there was, and just as they were about to lean in for a kiss Coulson interrupted and Fitz was off, leaving Simmons to cry alone.  The episode’s final scene brought them back together, and Simmons just wasn’t getting it.  Fitz tried to ask her to dinner, but she thought he was just being hungry and impatient, but when he suggested somewhere nice she finally got it.  He set off to see to their plans, telling Simmons to find him when she was finished.  Simmons smiled, walked around the Kree rock monolith, and saw the door was open.  Immediately, the monolith turned to liquid, rushed out around Simmons, dragged her back into the box, and resolidified leaving no trace of Simmons.  Holy crap, that’s a hell of a way to end the season!  There are a million questions just about this one scene for them to answer for next season, but what I want to know right now is how the box got opened?  Was it Fitz being clumsy there when he was leaning on it (which seemed like the likeliest answer, but then why didn’t he notice he’d opened it?), or was it something more sinister or mysterious?
• There’s so much more to talk about in this episode, starting with the May vs. Skye fight.  The writers have gone a long way towards making Skye into a badass, thanks to May’s training this season, but I was really happy that May “won” the fight until Skye used her powers.  I don’t want them pushing May aside as the best fighter of the group just because Skye has become a superhero.  There was a lot of emotion in this fight, and I liked that the two women started off fighting easy, as if they didn’t want to hurt each other, before really getting into it.  Both of them were doing what they thought was right, and they both understood that there was nothing personal in it, but Skye eventually did what she felt she had to, knocking May out with her power.  I also really enjoyed Skye tearing apart the SHIELD agent’s gun previously, as it showed the level of control she’s gained over her abilities and also how she can use them in a way that won’t hurt others.
• May seems to have worked out some of her issues with Coulson, Skye, and Andrew, though it may have taken a bottle of scotch to do it.  I was really touched by the fact that she called Andrew before the mission to the carrier, and the way he told her to do good and come home, just like he used to do when they were married.  I’ll freely admit that I’ve been a May/Coulson shipper for a while (even though I’m not generally big on shipping), but I don’t have a problem if she gets back together with Andrew.  It’ll probably do her some good to get away for a bit and relax on a beach somewhere, whether by herself or with Andrew.
• I’m sorry to see Dichen Lachman go, but Jiaying had definitely gone off the deep end.  I’m sure being chopped into pieces by Whitehall would turn anyone against humanity, but she turned out to be completely unfeeling about anyone she didn’t consider to be a part of her group.  I could see her killing Gonzales in a twisted preemptive version of self-defense, but she really was a monster after all.  It turned out that she was the one who turned Cal into what he is, driving him to be brutal killing people in order to find Skye, and as eager for revenge on SHIELD as she was to protect the Inhumans.  She may have apologized to the SHIELD agent she sucked dry to heal herself, but I doubt she felt any remorse about it.  He was probably just expendable.  It was sad to hear Cal talk about how she had once been gentle and kind, and had cried and screamed when the elders in her village forced her to drain one of them so that she might live and pass on their knowledge and culture, but how her experience with Whitehall had changed her.  (If anything, it made me hate Whitehall more than ever.)  More than anything, I feel sorry for all of the Inhumans who were so misled by her.  Certainly they have reason to be fearful of the general populace, who wouldn’t understand them and might pose a threat, but she turned gifted individuals into soldiers by feeding them fear.  Jiaying had an interesting an unexpected arc this season, and made for a compelling Big Bad in the end, and I’ll be curious to see how this experience will affect Skye going forward.
• Cal also had an interesting and unexpected resolution to his storyline in the finale.  There was a lot of speculation after the last episode that he had drank the serum that would finally change him into the Mister Hyde of the comics, and they weren’t wrong.  It only needed a little adrenaline from Simmons to complete the mixture.  But in the end Cal was a pitiable creature and a bit of a hero, not the monster he’d been made out to be.  Sure, he’s done horrible things, but he was as much a victim as he was a monster, shaped into what he’d become by Jiaying.  He really did love Skye and only wanted what was best for her, and full credit to Coulson for seeing that side of him through it all.  I saw a few other recaps that criticized his appearance as Mister Hyde, saying it was goofy or silly, but I actually liked it.  It did bring to mind Stevenson’s character, and Kyle MacLachlan was once again excellent in his performance.  I loved the goofy way he listened to whatever was playing on his headphones, and the way he completely changed his posture, voice, and demeanor once transformed into Hyde.  And I really liked the way he conveyed that killing Jiaying was an act of love for him, saving Skye from having to carry the pain of killing her own mother.  And in the end she saved him that pain as well, along with any other pain he might feel for his crimes, by having his mind TAHITIed and allowing him to resume life as a normal man.  It was a surprisingly sweet end to a character who has been a villain, a victim, a wildcard, a monster, and a father this season.  And while I’m sorry to see MacLachlan go, because he’s an electric presence on the screen, it was a good way to wrap up Cal’s story.
• And then there’s Raina, who has been one of the show’s most compelling supporting characters since the beginning.  I hated that Jiaying killed her, but I loved the resolution to Raina’s arc.  She started off the show just as a henchwoman to the Clairvoyant, but every time we saw more of her we learned that she was a person in search of some greater purpose.  She thought the Clairvoyant could show it to her, but when he couldn’t she hooked up with Cal, who knew about the Inhumans and that became her driving ambition.  She just knew that she was special and had a bigger role to play, and was devastated when Terrigenesis turned her into a spiny “monster.”  I liked that in the end she wasn’t actually manipulating anyone with her visions, as they all turned out to be true.  I’m sure she could have found a way to change what she saw and survive the events of the finale, but she realized that her greater purpose was to serve a key role in changing the way things were headed.  Without Skye seeing Jiaying’s true nature, Jiaying’s plan might have succeeded, wiping out SHIELD and probably causing a war between humanity and the Inhumans in the process, because I doubt things would have simply ended with SHEILD dead.  It was a beautiful way for Raina’s story to come to an end, with her realizing that she can both be special and unique and also be just a piece of a larger puzzle, and I like that she was able to come to peace with herself and her fate in the end.
• I was really impressed with most of the production of the finale, particularly the shot of Skye pushing the quinjet off of the deck of the carrier, which was impressive on a TV budget.  But I just have to laugh about the HVAC room set where Mack, Coulson, and Fitz fought Gordon.  An aircraft carrier is huge, and if this one room is responsible for distributing air throughout the entire ship, I promise it would have more than just one slowly moving fan in the background.  It seemed almost intentionally cheesy, which I definitely appreciate, but I’m still laughing about it days later.  I don’t want to cause the set construction people on the show any grief, because they’ve done a killer job both seasons, but this was just kind of silly.  I admittedly don’t know how you easily communicate to viewers that a particular location is going to distribute air all over the ship without showing a big fan, but every time I saw it spinning there in the background I couldn’t help but smile.
• There were a few interesting developments at the end of the episode that helped set things up for next season.  First we saw a clearly distraught Ward drinking alone in a bar, scaring the poor bartender by talking about Kara’s bloody body.  Someone shows up with a piece of paper for him, and Ward is disappointed that there aren’t more names on it.  Turns out it was a list of the remaining HYDRA forces, who are leaderless following the deaths of Bakshi, Strucker, and List (whom I thought was alive following Age of Ultron, but the consensus seems to be that he’s dead).  Ward kills the guy in anger, to ensure that the other HYDRA guys know who is in charge now.  “Hail HYDRA to that,” one thug says.  I guess Ward is the new head rising to take the place of those that were cut off.  I’m sure he doesn’t care at all about HYDRA’s views or goals, but they’re a convenient force in need of a leader, and he has history there, so it’s the perfect combination.  I’m happy to see Ward go full-on villain next season, no longer trying to straddle the line as a wild card.  He’s out for blood, and it should lead to some big trouble for our heroes next season and a very different HYDRA than we’ve seen before.
• Then there’s the fish oil!  I knew sending the crystals into the ocean wouldn’t be the end of them, and that this is only just the beginning for the Inhumans (obviously, given there’s a movie coming out eventually), but having the Terrigen particles absorbed into fish and distilled into fish oil was both extremely clever and hilarious.  The thought of a superhero (or villain) getting their powers from something as mundane as a fish oil pill is great, but even better is the fact that now an Inhuman could appear anywhere and everywhere.  It gives SHIELD a clear issue they’ll have to deal with next season, and Skye a mission.  There will be plenty of confused people needing help and guidance, and it puts Skye in a position to be a mentor to them.  Of course, there are still the surviving Inhumans, like Lincoln, out there, who have their own agenda and who also have a few Diviners remaining, and they might try to continue the old ways as much as possible.  My only assumption is that the fish oil process will have either diluted the Terrigen particles or refined them to the point where millions of people won’t suddenly turn to stone upon eating them.  Because that’d be a bit of a downer.
• Skye’s new team, of which Coulson has put her in charge, is clearly the Secret Warriors from the comics.  The folder he handed her at the end even had the world “Caterpillar” on it, a clear reference to the team.  I’m not particularly familiar with the Secret Warriors, but I do know that Daisy Johnson led them, working under Nick Fury.  I think Skye will be the perfect leader for a team of superpowered individuals, especially when Mike Peterson joins the team.  (He has to, right?  There’s no way that he doesn’t make the team.)  She’s got just the right balance of empathy, skepticism, and protectiveness to lead a team and to help people adjust to their powers.  I’m sure there will be problems down the road, and I fully expect Ward to “recruit” his own team of powered villains, but I definitely like this development, particularly if things are taken slowly, rather than Skye suddenly showing up with 10 badasses and rendering our heroes obsolete.
• There are a few other dangling threads left for next season.  I imagined Bobbi’s line about not being able to do this anymore was meant to set up the spinoff with her and Hunter, so they’ll need to evaluate how to fold those two back into the show next season.  I’ve seen some people interpret it as meaning that she can’t do their relationship anymore, but it seemed pretty clear to me that she was talking about not being able to be with SHIELD after what happened.  I wouldn’t mind the two of them striking out on their own path in the fall, only to find their way back to SHIELD eventually.  I wonder if they’ll leave right away (or even be gone by the time the season starts), or if it will take a while to get to that point.  There’s also Mack’s new position as the head of alien stuff.  I think it’ll give the character something more interesting to do than sit around saying that he doesn’t trust anyone.  Based on the description of next season, it doesn’t sound like Henry Simmons will be added to the main cast, but I hope we continue to see a lot of him.  I loved his line about how not opening the box for a thousand years, and “I thought my mom was bad when she started watching Fox News” might be my favorite quote of the night, and I think he definitely adds a lot to the show, especially when they give him more interesting stuff to do like they did in the finale.  I’m sure he’ll play a big role in helping to find/save/rescue Simmons in the fall.
• And then there’s Coulson.  I feel like he and his team are in a surprisingly good place.  Skye seems settled, Fitz and Simmons were working out their issues before Simmons was sucked up, May’s working out her issues, the “real SHIELD” situation has been resolved, and they no longer have Ward locked up in the basement.  He’s not doodling alien writing on the wall, they’ve got a solid mission ahead of them, and with the help of Fury in Age of Ultron, they’re starting to rebuild SHIELD’s reputation.  With the Inhumans to deal with, Ward causing trouble, and now Simmons disappearing, he’s got his work cut out for him in season 3, but at this point I have to say I’m more curious what kind of cybernetic hand he’ll end up with.  Obviously they already designed a mechanical one for Mike Peterson, so I’m sure it’s no big deal to build him another one, hopefully with a Skywalker joke thrown in somewhere.  But my biggest dream is that Robert Downey Jr. shows up in a cameo in the first scene of season 3, having built Coulson the perfect mechanical hand, indistinguishable from the one he lost.  It’d get huge ratings, it’d be awesome, and we’d get to see Tony Stark learn that Coulson’s still alive.  Plus it would save the show from having to do a million visual effects shots over the course of the season removing Clark Gregg’s left hand in every scene.
• As a last note, I just want to say thank you to everyone who stuck with me and my recaps/reactions throughout the season, especially Lindsay and Teanna, who are much smarter and more interesting than I am, and who always have insightful, well-informed, well-researched, well-written, and generally awesome things to say.  I know I haven’t been particularly reliable at recapping this season, and I definitely bit off more than I could chew trying to do two articles a week during the first half of the season, but I appreciate each and every one of you who take the time to read my ramblings.  I really love watching and writing about Agents of SHIELD, especially because it lets me interact with such great people, and I definitely plan to keep doing so next year, even if I’m looking forward to having the summer off and catching up on all of the other things I want/need to write.  I’m thrilled that SHIELD and Agent Carter will be back next year, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

What do you think?  Did you enjoy “S.O.S.”?  Did you enjoy season two of SHIELD?  What did you think of Jiaying’s character turn?  How about Raina’s resolution?  Where you surprised at Cal’s ending?  What about Kara?  Did any moments make you gasp during the episode?  (Know that if you say no, I’m just going to assume you’re lying.)  Did you have a favorite moment or line from the episode?  How about the season?  What do you want to see from season three?  What’s the deal with the monolith and Simmons?  How will they get her back out?  Will Bobbi and Hunter quit SHIELD?  Will May come back refreshed from her vacation?  Are you excited about Skye and the Secret Warriors?  What will Ward do as the head of HYDRA?  Will FitzSimmons ever go on an actual date?  How many episodes until we see Mike Peterson again?  Will Coulson get a new hand?  Are you going to think twice the next time you take a fish oil pill?  Let me know in the comments!