Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 2, Episode 21 & 22 Review

So, here we are - 22 long episodes of Agents of SHIELD going through as many plot points as one can possibly fit into a 22, 45 minute episode season. Alas though, despite being incredibly messy and unfocused, I cannot call the writing bad. Sure, the new characters took WAY too long to earn their new places in the series, but they did in the end and the dialogue and plots were never bad as such - like I said, just messy.
At the end of all this though, we had an epic 90 minute season finale to solve all of the lose ends...which then got spread across two weeks in the UK (thanks, Channel 4), which meant that I found the overall structure of SOS a bit jarring. So, yeah, next time Channel 4 - if its meant to be shown as one 90 minute episode, show it as one 90 minute episode!
I can't deny that Part 2 was the superior episode though. Part 1 had quite a few interesting scenes and revelations, but never amounted to much. Sadly though, we did have Kyle MacLachlan absolutely hamming up his scenes as drugged-up Cal towards the end, with his constant "rargh"-ing seeming incredibly silly for what has become such a self-serious show, and the scenes where he would move cars or tables just looked ridiculous, considering Cal's a fairly skinny guy. The make-up on his face seemed very pointless though, seeming to give him a massive forehead and nothing else. Maybe he was meant to be threatening, but I just laughed at him instead of screaming.
Thankfully though, Coulson gets through to him in Part 2 and the remaining SHIELD team go after the ship with Cal's assistance...until Cal gets locked in a cupboard until the plot demands him to defeat Jaiying somehow. I can't deny that Cal has a solid character arc across this season, and I really liked the ending for his character - it seemed very fitting.
As for Jaiying, well, I have no idea what her deal was. Seriously, was she insane or something? It was never really explained why she was evil - she just was because the plot demanded the Inhumans to be evil to create a war against SHIELD. She never seemed much like she had an ulterior motive before, and what explanation we did get was very vague.
The other evil Inhumans were cardboard cut-outs and never really got any resolution as to whether they returned to Afterlife or not. I have no idea where Lincoln went, so that's handy. And, after all that about that gooey-stone thing...SHIELD kept it. Right, because that wasn't the reason the Inhumans attacked the ship then?
I'm also not sure on the fate of the rest of SHIELD. There seems to be loads of SHIELD or very little of SHIELD depending on if the plot demands it, with loads of unnecessary red-shirts this season. As for our main heroes - well, Coulson got his hand cut off. I'm not entirely sure why they needed to throw that in the mix, but hey, nobody died so something dramatic had to happen.
Yeah, in a season finale where nobody dies, I couldn't help but think "you know what would benefit the show's character development? Killing off Bobbi, Hunter, Ward and maybe May", simply because their characters seemed to be set up for death but didn't actually get killed off, making the whole season seem a bit pointless in terms of the lack of character growth and development. I'm not saying that everyone should die, I'm just saying that season 2 ultimately did surprisingly little to upset the status-quo of the series. Nothing that important happened.
So, yeah...the finale was entertaining enough, although with far too many lose ends left hanging, and ultimately not feeling like a satisfying finale. Nothing particularly interesting happened, and we're back with the same gang next season. Yay. 7/10

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