Well, this is it: the entire Season 2 has come down to this (at least until January). Coulson is close to finally getting Ward, Fitz and Simmons are on their way to rescuing Daniels, and Hydra has what they need to bring back the Alien to Earth. Let’s take a look at “Maveth.”
SPOILERS AHEAD
Like a human heat-seeking missile, Coulson has been completely, almost myopically, focused on tracking down Ward, and there was no doubt in my mind that they would have their final confrontation in this episode. We find Coulson on the alien planet (Maveth) as the episode opens, and his dream of Price to start things off only serves to remind us why he is there: to avenge her death (and a lot of other ones at Ward’s hands). This is a different Coulson than we have been used to in the series thus far: he is emotional, he is full of hatred, and he is even a bit of a selfish jerk in placing his own ego above the S.H.I.E.L.D. collective. And he doesn’t give a rat’s ass if anyone has a problem with that. It has made for some compelling viewing this past few weeks, and it is also what has made me sure that this time, Ward would not get away.
As Coulson gets closer, we find Ward and Fitz looking for the Alien Entity that Malick wants so desperately to bring back. But Fitz has an agenda of his own, and sure enough, he finds Daniels’ hideout, with Daniels sleeping inside. But it isn’t really Daniels – we will find that out later when they get close to the portal. Daniels was apparently killed helping to send Simmons back to Earth, and now the Entity has his body. After they get separated from Ward, the alien attacks Fitz. I love how Fitz kills the alien here – he uses science! Yes, chalk one up for brains over brawn. The alien is dead (or is it….?) Back to that later.
This episode was really all about Coulson and Ward, so back to them. Coulson catches up to his arch-nemesis and resists the urge to kill him before leading him at gunpoint back to supposed punishment on Earth – you know, the usual “if I kill you, I’m no better than you” kind of thing. But come on, the writers know that this is not the kind of ending viewers will want to Coulson vs. Ward, and I never had a doubt that Ward would die by the top of the hour – it was just a matter of how.
Sure enough, right on cue, old Ward tries to attack Coulson while he is distracted, and now it’s on. Grab your popcorn, folks, here is the showdown we were waiting for. After Ward gets some shots in, Coulson gets the upper hand with his robot hand, and puts the Touch of Death on Ward, killing him. Grant Ward, the show’s greatest villain so far, is finally dead (or is he….?). Well, as you could probably predict if you watched pretty much any TV show ever, the alien entity slips out of Daniels’ body and jumps right into Ward’s. So, folks, it looks like we will still be seeing Ward’s face in the New Year – even if it isn’t really him underneath.
For my part, I am actually looking forward to seeing how the alien storyline pans out. His going to Earth, and supposedly teaming up with Malick and HYDRA, will make for a very interesting turn of events. And also, he is a very interesting character; on the one hand, he is obviously pure evil, since he has wiped out civilizations and destroyed whole planets. But on the other hand, he seems capable of some self-reflection, amazingly, as he showed to Fitz while he was pretending to be Daniels. I am actually intrigued to learn more about this new guy – and if nothing else, he will make for a pretty nasty enemy for S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with next year.
As for the rest of the team, I thought that Mack had a very strong ending to this storyline. He performed really well as Acting Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I particularly liked his assertiveness at the end. He led the team, and made it clear that he was giving orders – this was not a democracy. I think the team grew to respect him a lot more, and so did viewers. He has had a rocky relationship with Coulson in the past, but I think we will see him step up more and more as one of Coulson’s strongest team members in the future.
Diasy’s ending to the mid-season was somewhat disappointing to me. As a character, she seems to have faded a little bit in the last few episodes, after starting off as a pretty important leader of the Inhumans. True, this last episode did see the formation of a team (“The Secret Warriors”) of Inhumans, as Daisy, Campbell and Gutierrez came together for the first time. But I felt that the role they played was disappointingly minor in the grand scheme of things – Gutierrez melting the metal bars was maybe the biggest contribution they made. I really hope to see Daisy and the Inhumans play a much bigger role in the S.H.I.E.L.D. world in future episodes, so writers, make that your first New Year’s resolution.
Lastly, we can’t forget about Fitz and Simmons. Their relationship, which has suffered so much over this season, seems like it can finally begin to heal now. Daniels, who presented a BIG obstacle of awkwardness up till now, is dead, so there should be nothing left to stand in the way of these two getting together, finally. The only concern might be the lingering after-effects of Simmons’s affair with Daniels – but from what we have seen, “Saint Fitz” apparently has no bitterness about that, and is willing to move on. Good for him – I am not sure I would be so willing to put something like that aside. And something tells me that we are not finished with the complications in the Fitz/Simmons storyline – I swear, if Simmons finds out she is pregnant with Daniels’s child, I quit.
Well, that’s all until January, folks. We have a resolution to this season’s first half, and now some new threads to keep us coming back in January. And I haven’t even mentioned Lash yet – he will apparently be another loose cannon running around in the second half. What did you think of the mid-season finale? Let us know in the comments below!