First Impressions - AoS: "Melinda"

This is by no means a deeply intense dissection of the episode.

That will happen over the summer after my purchase of the Blu-ray.

I've put my quick comments and notes after seeing the episode only once after the jump.

You've been warned...

Season 2 Episode 17: "Melinda"

The Good:

We go back seven years...

...to Bahrain and learn how she became "The Calvary". 

It's not "The First Rodeo", but it'll do.

It was great to see her married life and her connection with her husband. It was also great to see that connection severed in the aftermath. 

Then there was the girl.

That twist isn't new, and can arguably be called "predictable", but I don't care. That scene was Creepy. As. Hell. As scary as it is to face an adult with unknown abilities, dealing with a child with unknown abilities is damn near petrifying. Normal kids are unpredictable as all get-out, which explains how only someone with Professor Xavier's abilities could handle confronting mutant children - either through Cerebro, which lets him locate and gain some insight in to what these kids are thinking and are able to do - or essentially "shutting them down" if they are too powerful to confront. I got chills thinking about what May was confronting...

...and what she needed to do about it.

And that transition to paper-pusher...then to Modern Day May paper-pusher...was NICE!

I also liked her getting the base.

It makes sense that if Coulson's away, it goes to May. She's got the seniority, and can handle the job,

but I was surprised S.U.B.-S.H.I.E.L.D. let her have it.

Simmons hugging May? I'm sorry - May letting Simmons hug her? = Priceless.

Daisy/Skye finally meeting her mother. I admit it. I teared up. 

The Bad: Here we go...

Testing May's loyalty to Coulson.

Throwing around "Theta Protocol" to prove that Coulson has secrets was ridiculous.

This is the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D....of course he'd have secrets.

Even from May.

She'd know that. Especially when she was keeping secrets from Coulson THE ENTIRE FIRST SEASON! Such as...

* Sleeping with Ward

* Keeping an eye on Coulson for Fury

and - oh yeah - 

* REPORTING TO FURY ABOUT COULSON!

So Coulson keeping "Theta Protocol" from May is supposed to what? Piss her off? That's par for the course.

As for the story in Bahrain, it was "seven years ago", making it 2008.

I'm no expert on the MCU timeline, but that should put it in the same year Stark was taken in Afghanistan and built the suit. But I'm guessing this happens first. May moves to her desk job, and then Coulson is sent to California to debrief Stark after his first press conference. My point? This should have been spelled out - or at least referenced in the episode - rather than have geeks like me try to fill in the blanks.

Is it wrong that I don't care about the current story?

I would have been much happier if they stuck with the 2008 story for the whole episode (except for the Daisy/Skye stuff) and addressed the current S.U.B.-S.H.I.E.L.D. mess the following week. This was interesting. That was not.

The WTF?:

This is Phil Coulson.

He is the ONLY reason I started watching this show. He is the single biggest reason I'm STILL watching this show...

...even though at this point "there is another".

So if the "grand plan" is to reveal that Coulson has in fact gone rogue and off-map, and everyone else from S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.U.B.-S.H.I.E.L.D. bands together to stop him (thus unifying everyone into one organization)...I'm done. 

Coulson is loyal to Fury, and I am loyal to Coulson. 

He's as human as he can be and has made several mistakes along the way. I get that. Coulson is messed up - I'm speaking genetically now - and he's gonna make more mistakes in the future. I get that too. But you can NOT convince me that Coulson is a "bad guy" in any sense of the phrase, and any attempt to make him such is pure

 

You screw with Coulson, you screw with me.

End. Of. Story.

Raina.

I honestly have no idea who she is, but that's not what bugs me. What bugs me is that they really haven't done much with her since the transformation. Now all of the sudden she gets glimpses into the future?

Daisy/Skye has been ditched throughout her life.

She goes into it in detail with her mother, who constantly tells her she's safe in Haven and has nothing to worry about...until she tells Daisy/Skye that they must keep their relationship a secret. Because if word got out that Daisy/Skye is her daughter, it would not be safe for her to stay there?

(sigh)

I thought that Fitz opening the Toolbox and contacting Coulson and Hunter was cool.

But he tells them that he needs to find them, then tells them that he would most likely be tailed as he gets to them, then tells them that he wants to hook up with them anyway, then asks if they can tell him how to shake a tail? Well, is he going to keep the Toolbox open throughout this whole journey? I would hope not, because they can most likely follow the signal. Could this be the beginning of "the merging of the S.H.I.E.L.D.s" storyline as everyone converges on Coulson like the hand of God? 

again...(sigh)

Adorkification Moment: 

The reference to last season's episode.