Check out Violet’s recap of Season 2 Episode 20 Agents of SHIELD, titled Scars, where we learn what Theta Protocol is! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Agents of SHIELD, Season 2 Episode 20: Scars
This episode of Agents of SHIELD begins with a flashback to a year ago, just after the fall of SHIELD. Sam welcomes Coulson to the secret base, and gives him a special lanyard that accesses Theta Protocol. We then see what Theta Protocol is: a helicarrier — the same one that appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
In present day, Coulson discusses the events of Sokovia with the SHIELD board. They are unhappy about him and Fury keeping Theta Protocol secret. Coulson suggests they consolidate as one SHIELD, where he operates as director, under the board’s advisement as Council.
Meanwhile, Skye has been sitting by Lincoln’s bedside. Separately, Simmons and Fitz wonder what Skye means by wanting to take him “home.” Simmons then informs Agent 33/Kara that the HYDRA indoctrination is gone, and her mind is her own again. Lincoln wakes up and is upset to learn that he is at SHIELD, and that they are no longer a secret.
Back at Afterlife, Raina has embraced her gift. She tells Gordon about a vision that she saw: a giant stone, but not a stone, then suddenly like an ocean. Gordon seems to know what she is talking about, and they bring this information to Jiaying, who says it’s Kree and dangerous, intended to destroy the Inhumans. Jiaying sends Gordon and Raina to find it. Gordon and Raina teleport onto the SHIELD aircraft carrier and wander through the halls, looking for a red door.
Jiaying and Cal discuss Raina. Cal tells Jiaying about Raina’s selfishness, and how she’s always wanting something.
On the SHIELD aircraft carrier, Hunter comes across Gordon and Raina, who teleport away and find the stone they were looking for. The black stone is held in containment, but can liquefy and re-solidify instantly. However, SHIELD is alerted to their presence. When Bobbi and May enter the room, Gordon and Raina teleport away.
SHIELD then discusses the alien object, which was recovered from a dig site nearly 100 years ago. They don’t seem to know much about it though. When Coulson asks Skye about it, she says she doesn’t know anything. Coulson and May think the Inhumans are dangerous, but Skye defends them, and calls May on being dangerous for what she did to the little girl in Bahrain who was an Inhuman. Back in the SHIELD board room, they have managed to track where Gordon teleported. In other words, they now know where Afterlife is. Gonzales thinks SHIELD should pay them a visit.
Coulson doesn’t want to start a war with the Inhumans, and proposes he have a sit down with their leader, Jiaying.
Gordon and Raina report back to Jiaying that SHIELD has the stone. Cal is skeptical about Raina, and accuses her of using her powers to control the Inhumans.
Skye pleads with Coulson not to go there, and Coulson tells her they need to index the Inhumans’ powers, and she knows how this works, she’s a SHIELD agent. However, Skye says she doesn’t know what she is anymore. She says she and Lincoln will go first, and explain the situation to Jiaying. She also reveals to Coulson that Jiaying is her mother.
Coulson reports to May about Jiaying being Skye’s mother. He also apologizes for keeping secrets from her. May further explains to him what happened in Bahrain. She also regrets not having stopped him from carving into the wall. He says he never would have gotten out of control, but May says that Skye is living proof that he did.
After Simmons indexes Lincoln, Skye and Lincoln leave SHIELD HQ and have Gordon bring them back to Afterlife.
Raina reports to Gordon that she saw a vision of SHIELD arriving in Afterlife with jets, raining fire, and Afterlife in flames. When Gordon tries to tell Jiaying, Raina says that Jiaying is the reason this starts, and that Jiaying can’t be the one to speak to SHIELD. Raina suggests that it should be her.
Skye and Lincoln arrive back in Afterlife, and Skye explains to Jiaying what happened with SHIELD. After some pleading, Jiaying agrees to meet with Coulson.
Back at SHIELD HQ, the Council votes for Gonzales to speak to Jiaying, because Coulson is not objective with respect to this situation.
Simmons gets ready to head out on the mission to be in charge of indexing. She also reveals that she tried to kill Ward, and regrets having failed.
Mack goes to see Coulson and tells him that he’s leaving SHIELD.
Cal gets upset when Jiaying tells him that SHIELD is coming to Afterlife. She asks him if they can trust SHIELD. Cal says that Coulson cares about Skye. He warns her against the indexing, saying they will brand them. She says she doesn’t want a war, and that her people wouldn’t follow her into one. Cal says he would. She wonders what she can do to convince SHIELD that they don’t mean them any harm. Cal suggests turning himself over to them.
As May and Bobbi descend in their jet, it turns out that May is actually Kara wearing May’s face. She pulls her gun on Bobbi, and informs her that she remembers what she did to her. They fight as the autopilot lands the plane. Bobbi eventually knocks Kara out. When she exits the plane, Ward shoots her with an icer gun.
The other jets continue on and land in Afterlife.
Jiaying confronts Raina and accuses her of using her powers to manipulate them. She tries to warn them that something terrible is going to happen, but Jiaying orders Raina confined to her quarters.
Skye is surprised to see Gonzales come to speak to Jiaying instead of Coulson. Jiaying hands Cal over to SHIELD, and has Skye escort him over, leaving Gonzales and Skye alone to talk.
Gonzales gives Jiaying an item that SHIELD recovered from Whitehall’s office, a traditional Chinese gift to ward off evil spirits. Jiaying never got a chance to give it to Skye. Gonzales tells her that SHIELD would like to keep a record of the enhanced people, and if any of them do something bad, SHIELD will be there to stop them. Jiaying seems offended that people think they have the right to profile others for their differences.
Meanwhile, Cal is taken into custody by the SHIELD board members on one of the jets. They find some vials on him with a yellow liquid inside, but he claims not to to know what it is.
Jiaying brings out a terragen crystal that the Inhumans made by melting down a diviner. She shatters the crystal, which causes Gonzales to turn to stone. She takes his gun and shoots herself in the shoulder, then comes out claiming that he tried to kill her.
On Kara’s jet, Ward restrains an unconscious Bobbi with duct tape, and praises Kara for fooling everyone. Kara wants to kill Bobbi now, but Ward says they’ll have to dig in and do some work in order to get closure — and then they’ll kill her. Bobbi begins to wake up, but Ward ices her again.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 20 of Agents of SHIELD: Scars
You know how last week I said I thought that the connection between that episode and Avengers: Age of Ultron was kind of a weak one? Well, I felt like this episode made up for that! In this episode, we are witnessing the aftermath of the events in Sokovia, as we keep seeing news reports of what happened, and they talk about it a couple of times in the episode. But most of all, we find out what this Theta Protocol is that we’ve been hearing about for the past several episodes — it’s the helicarrier that helped bail out the Avengers when Sokovia was floating far above the Earth! Even in the movie, they talked about how this was SHIELD, or what SHIELD is supposed to be. It was nice to see the connection, and learn that Theta Protocol wasn’t some weird, dark secret along the lines of TAHITI. It was merely a device that would be used in a great time of need.
Unfortunately, learning that Theta Protocol was merely a helicarrier wasn’t enough to make Mack stick around. Sadly, he decided he couldn’t work under Coulson, so he quit SHIELD. It seems kind of like an abrupt, unjustified decision, but in any case, I’ll be sad to see Mack go. I liked him, and hope we’ll be seeing him again in the future.
That brings us to Afterlife. What the hell are you doing, Jiaying?! Why are you trying to start a war? It turns out Gonzales is the good guy, and Jiaying is the bad guy. Although I can kind of see from her perspective that their people would get tired of being profiled and branded. That’s no cause to start a war though. It turns out that Raina was actually telling the truth. I thought for sure she was being manipulative again. Skye looks like she’ll be on the side of the Inhumans. What about Bobbi, though? What are Ward and Kara going to do with her? To her?
This was an exciting, twist-filled episode, and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out in the 2 hour season finale!
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 2 Episode 20: Scars
Of course Ward is still a bad guy. Of course. Last episode the writers really tried to tug at our heart strings about Ward just being misunderstood, and he really misses work with the team. Turns out Ward is still a sociopath. On the one hand I am relieved–it would be really silly to put Ward on a redemption path considering he seems to just be a “broken” sociopath. He didn’t make mistakes in the past, he willingly killed people, and seemed to enjoy doing it. If that were to all be undone, the show could eventually start to feel like it lacks believability. On the other hand, Ward seems like a nice guy when he is on his “good side.” For him to betray SHIELD again it seems like Coulson should just get the hint–Ward needs to be put down. At the very least, every other SHIELD agent seems to still hate him, and Simmons kind of had a good reason to try to take him down. Too bad she failed…
As far as SHIELD meeting with Jiaying, there were several surprises here. One, Skye seems to be drifting away from SHIELD. I guess this one makes sense considering she hasn’t been with SHIELD a whole lot lately, and everyone at SHIELD seems terrified of her. On top of that, she found her parents, and they seem to be getting along well. But then, Coulson decides to back down, letting Gonzales be the liaison that speaks to Jiaying. I thought for sure that Gonzales would have screwed something up. Turns out that Jiaying didn’t really want to give him a chance, after ashing him with the manufactured stone. So, Jiaying might not be as emotionally stable as we once thought. Especially after she decides to shoot herself and claim SHIELD did it. Pretty devious.
This storyline leaves a lot of questions though. Skye will likely side with her mother, and try to convince Coulson that Gonzales was a bad guy. But what happens at SHIELD now? Do the rest of the group just decide to follow Coulson now? Do they distrust him now because Gonzales was killed? It sounds like SHIELD might have a power vacuum, and on top of that, a war with Inhumans about to start.
I guess we will see where this all leads, including what is going to happen to Bobbi now. I actually enjoyed this episode, so hopefully the last couple keep the tension up!
Scenes from the Agents of SHIELD Season 2 Finale: S.O.S.
Here are scenes from the Agents of SHIELD season finale, titled S.O.S.:
I do like how they try to tie in the series with the movies. However, I don’t think they did as good a job as they did with The Winter Soldier tie in. Also, I was surprised they introduced the Inhumans this early since the movie is about 3 years away.