Cheers love, the Cavalry’s here
(This review contains
spoilers!)
Oh,
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Every time you think you know what’s coming next,
they throw a curveball of an ending at you and you need to rethink everything.
Whereas most of this episode felt like the writers were more or less retreading
old ground, it was all set up for an ending that assaulted you with twists,
some expected but others entirely out of left field.
Most of this episode focused on May as
she finally woke up and tried to escape Radcliffe’s lab, fighting and defeating
Aida several times along the way. But towards the end of the episode, it turned
out that everything she did this week was inside a simulation Radcliffe
programmed into her brain, one that she’s been repeating over and over. This
honestly surprised me, but in retrospect I probably should’ve seen it coming.
The episode opens by somewhat bizarrely showing clips involving May from the
last few episodes, this time showing how she woke up the first time. Knowing
that the writers explicitly wanted us to remember that May was in a simulation
(plus the laughable amount of stairs she climbed) made it kind of an obvious
surprise, but a fun one nonetheless.
The rest of the episode focused on
Coulson and crew, as they attended a senate meeting lead by Nadeer about
inhumans. Daisy went along to try and explain why inhumans deserve equal
rights, while Coulson and Yo-Yo tried to infiltrate Nadeer’s private quarters
to find out more about her. But surprise again! Nadeer has been two steps ahead
of them the whole time, catching Coulson in the act and risking S.H.I.E.L.D be
branded as criminals once again.
One thing that bugged me the entire
episode is how reckless Coulson seemed this week. This is one of the few times
I actually sided with Talbot in their argument. There really was no point in
him going and trying to do spy work on Nadeer, except for this storyline to be
introduced. Thankfully the show does bring it up towards the end, but I
honestly think there could’ve been a better way to show how much jeopardy
Nadeer has put them in.
Speaking of annoying stuff, Mack and
Yo-Yo’s annoying relationship is back! I really wish they’d just put this
stupid plotline out of its misery. The two of them don’t have much chemistry,
so the romantic scenes they spend together just feel awkward and stiff. We did
finally learn that Hope was Mack’s dead daughter, but I kind of liked the
ambiguity about that, even if it was kind of obvious. It just felt like a cheap
way to insert Mack into an episode that he didn’t really need to be in.
The best part of the episode was
easily the ending. Radcliffe opens the episode by saying that a second LMD was
already in the field, leaving you to guess who it was. The earliest contenders
were either Fitz or Mack, but knowing S.H.I.E.L.D’s
history with these sorts of things it’s more likely to be the least obvious
person. But as it turned out, it wasn’t any of the main team, but rather
Radcliffe himself! Radcliffe has been an LMD since Aida failed to steal the
Darkhold, and the real deal has been leaking S.H.I.E.L.D information for Nadeer.
The two of them are also working for someone called “the Superior”, but just
who that could be is anyone’s guess.
The post-credits scene also showed off
where May’s mind trip was going next: it’s going back to Bahrain, where she
initially got the nickname “the Cavalry”. There’s only one major difference: in
this simulation, she saves the little girl instead of killing her. I don’t
think I’m the only one who was kind of hoping the next simulation would be her
fighting Ward, but this is equally as interesting, if not better than that. May’s
origin story has always been one of the more tragic parts of S.H.I.E.L.D, and to have them bring it
back but warped into a success story is super interesting. I can’t wait to see
how they explore this one.
While it certainly had its moments,
this episode wasn’t exactly S.H.I.E.L.D at
its best. The twists were really interesting and well done, setting up some
very intriguing plotlines for later, but much of the episode was spent
retreating old ground or being stuck with Mack making goo-goo eyes at Yo-Yo. It
wasn’t bad by any means, but while I often commend S.H.I.E.L.D’s use of twists as a great way to keep viewers engaged,
you need to have a little more than that to create a truly good episode.
FINAL SCORE
6/10
Okay
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