TV RECAP: Agents of SHIELD’s Winter Finale Delivers

By Felicia Kudronowicz

All I can say is wow. This episode was completely crazy and a perfect winter finale for Agents of SHIELD. So much happened, so let’s just jump right on in.

The episode opens right where we last left off. HYDRA agents are tailing the SHIELD jet, but May manages some fancy maneuvering that gets everyone away safely. The team then assembles for a littlepre battle pep talk. Fitz and Simmons talk tactics and decide the only way to blow up the alien city is by going in with protective suits and placing bombs. Bobbi and Lance hug it out and mourn Mack, while May and Coulson strategize.

During this time, we also get to see a little bit of Skye and Ward. Ward says he isn’t on HYDRA’s side; he is just keeping a promise. He leads her to a door and inside is her father, waiting. We find out his name, finally, which is Cal. He is a hot mess talking to Skye -sweaty, nervous and just plain awkward. It’s clear Skye wants nothing to do with him, that is until he starts talking about her mother. She finds out that she was born in China and her mother (guest star Dichen Lachman) was the woman we saw a few episodes back that Whitehall experimented on and killed. He explains that Skye is special like her mother and he wants her to receive her destiny but doesn’t say what that entails. He reveals that that he was never on Whitehall’s side and actually intends to kill him.

Whitehall meets up with Skye, Ward and Cal. He tries to figure out why Skye is there. Raina explains that Ward brought Skye to prove his love for her. It’s really sweet, but would have been better if Ward had said it himself. Whitehall then forces Skye to touch the obelisk, and as predicted it has no affect on her. She uses it to kill a bunch of HYDRA agents but Whitehall still manages to get the upper hand. He ties all three of them up, but while they are held prisoner, SHIELD arrives on the scene.

Cal manages to escape first but doesn’t free the others because he just wants to kill Whitehall as soon as possible. Skye and Ward manage to get free eventually but the second Ward turns his back on her, Skye shoots him multiple times in the side. For those of us desperately wanting to believe in “Skyeward” this isn’t looking good.

Cal finds Whitehall but Coulson gets there first and shoots him dead. Cal is PISSED and takes his aggression out on Coulson. He only stops when he hears Skye call him “Dad.” Skye feels so horrible about letting her dad get away that she says she’ll make it right by stopping HYDRA’s drill in the alien ruins. She makes it down there in time to see Raina with the obelisk.

In the meantime, Fitz, Simmons and Triplett have just gotten back up from placing the bombs when they find out Skye and Coulson went back down. Triplett immediately leaps back down without any protection. He makes it down and gets trapped with Skye and Raina, who has activated the obelisk. Some strange blue crystals come out of it and turn Skye and Raina to stone. Triplett thinks it is hurting them so he kicks the obelisk and turns himself to stone. Then of course, the stone cracks revealing that Skye and Raina are perfectly fine. But Triplett is dead. A massive seismic shift ensures, but it looks like no one is in immediate danger.

I can’t believe we have to wait until March to get some more answers. Yes, we finally got Skye’s dad’s name (Cal) and her original name (Daisy) but there are so many questions left unanswered. For example, what will happen to Ward? What did the obelisk ritual do to Skye? Now that Whitehall is dead, is there still a HYDRA? It is a bummer that we have to wait so long, but if this season continues this way, it will be well worth the wait. See you in March!