Last week’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. promised war and war is what we got in this two-hour season finale.  There were tons of casualties, thankfully (or regrettably depending on how you look at it) none from Team Coulson.  Jiaying turns the evil up to 11 following her betrayal of Robert and decides the only good S.H.I.E.L.D agent is a dead S.H.I.E.L.D agent.  I have some minor grievances with a few particular plot points but overall this was a blockbuster finale that delivered through and through.  As to be expected in a genre finale, plot points take huge precedence over character and not everything played here as true as it could have.

Jiaying expressed previously that framing Robert for drawing first blood was a ruse to convince her people that S.H.I.E.L.D was the enemy.  As things play out it is apparent that practically all of the known inhumans are in on it, and the rest are evacuated and not involved with the helicarrier battle whatsoever.  I wonder why she didn’t just explain that she was doing all this to get Skye on her side instead of making it about “her people”, but I guess that’s just what villains do.  My big gripe with Jiaying is that Dichen Lachman doesn’t go nearly big enough.  It is a drastic and sudden change in the character to be sure, but Jiaying’s plan is to cause global human extinction with the Terrigen crystals like Magneto or any other super villain.  She should have played it a lot bigger.

For all her schemes and delusions of grandeur Raina’s final act is to reveal the truth about Jiaying to Skye.  I thought this was a particularly solid moment for the second most “misunderstood” character after Ward (more on his shenanigans later) Raina may have had a sociopathic chip on her shoulder but in the end what motivated her was purpose, and she found that in her newly established commitment to the truth.  Yes, precognition is convenient and while I’m glad this won’t be a permanent part of the show, the ambiguity over how Raina chose to use her information was interesting while it lasted.

Though it was secondary to the battle with the Inhumans, the scenes between Ward and Bobbi were by far the best part of the episode.  We saw a resilient side of Bobbi when she is pushed to her limits that was scary convicted.  She is the last person on the team I would want to mess with after seeing how she handles Ward’s torture.  Ward accidently killing Kara doesn’t sit well with me.  I don’t see him killing May so unceremoniously like that, and I don’t think he should have been tricked that easily.  Thankfully Kara was dragging him down and hopefully we’ll get to see Ward really let loose in the next season.

Finally I have to say this because it is so logically confounding I wanted to scream at the TV.  After Skye blasted the plane full of Terrigen crystals into the ocean maybe S.H.I.E.L.D should have went down there AND RECOVERED THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION YOU JUST WENT THROUGH ALL THAT TROUBLE PROTECTING.  I mean really?  You guys watched that stuff that TURNS PEOPLE TO STONE sink and thought “Eh, ocean is as safe a place as any, right?” Wrong.  Pick that shit up.

The Good:

– Scary Bobbi

– “Science, Biatch”

– Great fights between Skye and May, Bobbi and Ward

– Jiaying goes super villain but…

The Bad:

– She doesn’t go big enough with her performance

– Ward isn’t dumb enough to kill Kara like that

– The fish oil ugh