"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Recap: "Melinda"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

It seems to be a new tradition for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to completely blow us away episode wise in the month of April. Last year they rocked the house in April when Hydra revealed themselves to Coulson and the crew and this year, season two brought forth one amazing episode with the incredible and moving "Melinda", which aired last night.  

Obviously last night's story revolved around the baddest agent out there in Melinda May, but Skye also played an important part as she learned how to use her powers through the tutelage of her mother, Jiaying. Of course, she didn't quite know this was mom just yet and everyone in Afterlife was pretty stunned by the fact that Jiaying, the leader of this community was even taking the time to personally teach anyone how to use their powers.  

Of course, eventually Skye found out Jiaying was her mother in some incredibly touching scenes, one that even included Cal acting like a dad and not a jackass, but while all of this was awesome, it pales in comparison to Melinda's story, which oddly enough tied into the Inhuman storyline. Since Jiaying told the tale of an Inhuman that disobeyed the rules and quickly found herself dead because of it...in the city of Bahrain. Yes, it turns out this incident is where Melinda earned the nickname "The Cavalry" and did so in badass fashion, but not before we learned how nice of a gal Melinda was before this incident. She was ready to start a family, was friendlier than we have ever seen on the show and it all changed because of one little girl. 

A kidnapped child, and a silent S.H.I.E.L.D. team led Melinda to go in and kick some ass as only she can to discover that the little girl was an Inhuman, one that could control people with the mere touch of her hands and after battling her super strong mother, Melinda was faced with a choice. Let the little girl touch her and succumb to the mind control, be dealt with in brutal fashion by her fellow teammates, or put the little girl down. Sadly, she chose the latter and was never the same. She rejected her husband, took a desk job and became the icy agent we know today. 

Hands down, I was absolutely blown away by this episode. I love how everything tied in, and while they tried to put together a major revelation in the fact that it looked like Coulson was assembling an army of gifted people from the index...it paled in comparison to the brutal beauty of this episode. On one end we had Skye finally finding out more of who is she and who she could be and the joy of all of that, compounded with the heartbreaking story of Melinda May and her loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D. and duty costing her so much.  Seriously, Ming-Na Wen needs to be considered for an award for this episode, she was absolutely fantastic in her performance and this truly was the finest episode of the season for this show, and if it's anything like how it went last year, we should be in for more incredible episodes as well. Until next time. 

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