When a mid-season finale starts with an airbus drag race, you know it’s going to be a good one. ‘What They Become’ jumps straight into the action, after Whitehall ordered Hydra’s pilots to shoot the S.H.I.E.L.D. bus out of the sky at the end of the previous episode. The resulting chase sees Melinda May absolutely slay as the show’s token badass, swerving the bus through the clouds and bullet fire, and out of danger.
“The only word for that kind of flying is ‘fancy’,” says Trip.
Following are non-stop revelations and drama. When Ward kidnapped Skye at gunpoint, at first it seemed like he was going to chain her up in his secret love nest, or something equally as weird. But he kept his promise from x many episodes ago: he is finally taking her to see her father. He now seems to be motivated by a dedication to Skye. Damnit, Ward. I wanted to hate you.
However, the reunion doesn’t go as planned. It’s not a father and daughter running into each other’s arms as Daddy’s Little Girl by Frankie J plays in the background-type moment. At first, Skye is visibly scared of being in the same room as Cal (Kyle MacLachlan), what with her just being kidnapped and everything. He’s nervous, she’s terrified and it all goes to hell. Then the revelations start.
After a moment of intensity and explaining himself, Cal, sweaty and shaking, starts humming Daisy Bell softly to his daughter, mimicking the music box from ‘…Ye Who Enter Here’. It’s what Skye’s mother used to sing to her, as her birth name was actually Daisy. Revelation One: Skye is Daisy Johnson, the superhuman daughter of supervillain Mister Hyde. Revelation Two: Cal is Calvin Zabo, a.k.a. Mister Hyde. Agents Of SHIELD, you sly old minx. You had this up your sleeve the whole time, didn’t you?
Things get even more intense after Cal (Skye’s real dad) and Coulson (Skye’s fake surrogate spy dad) get into a little more than fisticuffs with each other, and Skye threatens to kill Cal and then chickens out. There’s a whole world of opportunity for where all this Skye/family stuff is going. Judging by these storylines alone, we are guaranteed total and utter drama in Season Two: Part Two, there’s no doubt about it.
As far as shock tactics go, that’s not even the half of it. After Coulson finds out that Hydra has discovered a second entrance to the underground alien city thingy from before, he and the team have their work cut out for them trying to keep everyone but their own out. A sort-of-showdown, sort-of-team-building-mission kicks off in the deepest chamber of underground tunnels, involving Skye, Raina (Ruth Negga), Trip and the Obelisk, and a whole load of bright light and dramatic, emotional music. Suddenly, questions and WTFs create themselves – questions and WTFs we won’t have answers to for several months, because of the bloody mid-season break.
Most likely spurred on by the emotional and dramatic music, the last proper scene of the episode is leaves you in a state of considerable distress – there’s a(n extremely tragic and upsetting) death and some ugly crying, and Fitzsimmons almost look like they are snuggling while trying to protect each other from a blast. Everything is almost too much to handle.
‘What They Become’ is a pretty solid effort for a mid-season finale. It’s fun, exciting and kickass, and definitely leaves us needing more, but there’s still room for Part Two to level up and ruin us for life.
