Scars Plot Summary:
The world has been saved from Ultron thanks to the Avengers. In the aftermath, S.H.I.E.L.D. diverts their attention towards the Inhumans. Can they find peace?
It’s amazing how quickly a show can shift its gears. Over the past several weeks, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was heavily focused on S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. Gonzales (Edward James Olmos) had his own plans for the peacekeeping organization that didn’t align with the many secrets Coulson (Clark Gregg) has withheld. Considering how fractured the dynamic had become, you’d think that we were looking at a radical paradigm shift with Marvel’s flagship series. Then as if a switch was flipped, one named Avengers: Age of Ultron, all of this was put away. The two S.H.I.E.L.D.s are now working together and Coulson is more than willing to negotiate with Gonzales on their joint future. Sure there is some residual hesitation because Coulson still keeps a lot of secrets, but for the most part, people have moved on from the past.
Which isn’t a knock on the show mind you, more of an observation. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has done much better with this rapid pacing. While it would have been nice to get some more attention to Age Of Ultron, like Coulson sending in a taskforce to help Sokovia or really anything to make it feel like something actually changed within the world, I agree with moving onward. The Inhumans clearly are the main focus of this show’s second season. It’s time to finally get them to meet S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. These people are supposed to be major players within the MCU, but they can’t really feel connected if they remained separate from our doorway into this extra material. Fortunately for us, “Scars” finally brought the leaders face to face. Unfortunately for everyone else, it looks like shit will go down.
Jiaying’s (Dichen Lachman) actions at the end certainly were shocking, especially considering how she was all about peace previously. When Raina (Ruth Negga) exclaims that Jiaying meeting S.H.I.E.L.D. will lead to destruction for all, it’s easy to assume that it would be because of Gonzales. The man believes that Inhumans are a threat after all. Yet as we saw in their climatic meeting, in Olmos’s best scene during his tenure, all Gonzales wants is minimal conflict. He wants to keep an eye on the Inhumans in case one goes rogue and they can safely dispatch. Makes sense right? If May (Ming-Na Wen) had that information in Bahrain, she might not have murdered a child. All groups of living creatures have bad eggs so it’s smart to make sure the notorious few can be kept clear of the helpful many. It’s actually reasonable!
Turns out Jiaying thought differently. She killed Gonzales with a Terrigen crystal and exclaimed that he shot her twice. A declaration of war in every sense. This honestly flies in the face of everything we’ve learned about her in previous weeks. Trying to safely integrate the Inhumans into the global populace in this changing world? Fighting S.H.I.E.L.D. will definitely not do that. It will only bring further pain on her people. It’s entirely possible that her peacefulness was all a ruse, meaning she sent Cal (Kyle MacLachlan) in on purpose to kill everyone, but I can’t figure out what she gets from all this. Is putting a sizable population of her people in danger really worth it? It’s the same reason why Gonzales wanted observable peace too. Not all Inhumans are bad, so he wanted to make sure the good Inhumans and normal people stay protected. Not all humans are evil too, but Jiaying instead wants to create war with everyone. I hope they explain her motivations more next week because right now this looks like vengeance for vengeance sake.
At least Skye (Chloe Bennet) is being thrust into the forefront of all this. Ever since the beginning of this show, Skye has been the audience’s first doorway into this lifestyle. The first time she was picked up by Coulson and Ward (Brett Dalton) was the same time we got our initial taste of what this show gives us. This evolved into her becoming an Inhuman, and now we’ve experienced their history through her eyes. She’s officially the only person who straddles both worlds and I love that it puts her placement in question. Will she go back to S.H.I.E.L.D., her surrogate family that picked her up from nothing and gave her purpose? Or will she join the Inhumans full time, renouncing her agent status to become a part of this new world. I personally believe it will be the latter. I expect Inhumans will play a role in seasons to come and Skye is necessary to be our eyes and ears there.
The rest of the Inhuman story worked fairly well too. Raina’s precognition was an interesting twist, and so far it’s paying off by making her look like some all-seeing prophet. People go to her for help when they have issues, and her actions actually have influence on the lives around her. It’s the most confident Raina we’ve seen since the change. Gordon appears to like it as well as he puts a lot of faith in what she’s saying. It’s initially so strong he willingly goes with her to an unknown place to get a Kree rock. As it turns out, that rock was the “precious cargo” Coulson mentioned on the aircraft carrier. The rock isn’t even used but it looked cool. I will say that Raina shouldn’t always be right about everything. It would be lame if she was an infallible source of future information because there’s no danger or possibility of difference. I for one was prepared for the episode to end with Gonzales and Jiaying striking a deal. Oh well.
I’m intrigued as to what Ward and Kara (Maya Stojan) have up their sleeves. While the Inhumans are busy dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D. and characters like Mac (Henry Simmons) are quitting the force, these two crazy lovebirds are off to the side with Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) as a hostage. Now up to this put we were lead to believe that Ward’s main mission was to get Kara her identity back. Now it seems like they have something else entirely planned. I still love the idea of them as renegade agents so I looking forward to finding out next week what their true intentions are.
I don’t want to get into some outrageous spoiler territory here, but I do want to address the opening sequence. That will make sense to anyone who has seen Age of Ultron already. If you haven’t yet, Coulson building this helicarrier answers a dangling question from that film. That literally is why it exists. It ultimately serves no benefit to the show outside of confirming officially what Theta Protocol is. It also gave us more Patton Oswalt who was a delight as always.
Everything has come to a head with “Scars.” S.H.I.E.L.D. appears to be back together thanks to the events of Age of Ultron. There’s still some residual tension, but you get the sense that everything is water under the bridge now. Now they can focus on more pressing matters, like the Inhumans gaining power in the world. It all went south though and now we have war on the horizon. How it will end is questionable, but I’m sure we’ll get our answers in next week’s two hour finale.
Rating: 9/10
==================================================================================================================================
Luke Kalamar is Pop-Break.com’s television editor. Every Saturday afternoon you can read his retro video game column, Remembering the Classics. He covers Game of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and The Walking Dead (amongst others) every week. As for as his career and literary standing goes — take the best parts of Spider-man, Captain America and Luke Skywalker and you will fully understand his origin story.
====================================================================================
