Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 2, Episode 17 Review

One of the slightly annoying things about a long-running series without standalone episodes is that you always feel like your reviewing a mere segment of the story, analyzing Part Three of a five part story, where you've done the beginning and you're stuck in the middle with no end yet.
At long last the story of how Agent May became known as the Cavalry was revealed, and I felt rather underwhelmed by it. Not only did it not seem quite as big a deal in the flashback sequences, but I felt it didn't have much focus for such a big story to tell. The final twist in the tale for May was really good, and it certainly explained what changed her into the character we met back in the Pilot, as well as what happened between her and Andrew, but otherwise lacked the interesting arc I would have liked to have seen.
Otherwise, the plot of this episode was nil. SHIELD are searching for Coulson, with May and Simmons trying to figure out if the 'real' SHIELD have a point about Coulson while Fitz opens the toolbox in a toilet of all places.
A nice standout moment for me though was the quiet dinner between Skye and her parents, which really nicely rounded off Skye's character arc since the Pilot, even if it did get ruined by Lincoln randomly coming in and realising that Raina can see the future in her dreams (a pretty poorly-handled cliffhanger). It was just such a nice little moment that we'd been waiting to see that really paid off. I'm not sure exactly how Skye's mum was dead and then came back but I guess that'll be explained at some point.
I wasn't too happy with the fact that May's backstory is interlinked to the Inhumans either. It felt a bit forced to me and probably wasn't the idea Whedon and co had when making the Pilot, but as I said, the final twist with the little girl was excellent.
Overall, what could have been an amazing episode resulted in a rather average one. Nothing much to say really. 7/10

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