Agents of Shield SEASON TWO (11 -19)

Season two of Marvel's Agents of Shield was not as connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as fans would have liked.  Joss Whedon had express fatigue from working so closely within the frame work of Marvels phase 2; completing Avengers and then its immediate sequel, while ensuring that the vast story arcs, structure, and care would be given in telling the continuing saga through into the next chapter. As for network television Whedon was really hands off, Episodes 1 - 18 of the season focused on carrying on with its own storyline as season one's finale had initially set up.  Episode 19 would provide a little exposition entering into the opening of Avengers: Age of Ultron.  While retrospectively the show's final mission provides an interesting call back to the entirety of season two.

Episode 11, is the start of a new chapter in direction of the series, not given a name to what those whose hereditary genetic markers has given rise to.  Leo Fitz had uttered a diagnosis of Skye’s condition of being inhuman, only once in the body of the season.  The Mystery of Skye’s lineage is revealed and the resolve of Phil Coulson’s resurrection has concluded. These were the two largest questions fueling the underbelly of the first season.  Raina the woman in the floral dress who was seeking life’s great mysteries beyond the veil of human eyes and Skye are from the same lineage, and are now forever transformed into what can be classified as biological metahumans not enhanced like Deathlok or Donnie Gill (the altered young man who can freeze anything).The first ever Shield interaction with a bio-metahuman was Agent Melinda May’s experience in Bahrain. Episode 17 titled Melinda reveals the story of Agent May and what forever changed the trajectory of her life and garnered her name the cavalry. The tie-in to the slaughter of all the Shield Agents that protected Skye as a baby are all brought to light.  The story really develops exposition in episode 12 titled 'Who You Really Are', with a Kree battling the Asgardian warrior Lady Sif on earth, the Kree race had done experiments to human subjects with Terrigen crystals, the experiments failed as no compatible hosts were found, and they were meant as expendable weaponized world destroyers.  Very much in creative design process of having an advance civilization who came to a planet not inhabited by their kind  and began creating biological world destroying weapons, such as in the movie Prometheus.   The evolution of Jiaying allowed for a state of a controlled existence with these military designed weapons (meta-human), which gave birth to a new civilization in a hidden city called afterlife.  In Episode 11 titled Aftershocks, By destroying the heads of hydra by turning them against each other leaving only Dr. List and Baron Strucker as final leaders to topple; The Agents of Shield fought amongst themselves as to whom is the true embodiment to follow in Nick Fury’s footsteps.  Raina develops a clairvoyant extra sensory perception, and is a hideous physical monster constantly hiding in the shadows. While the family reunion of Skye and he biological parents will lead to the inevitable clash of worlds with shield and her kind in the season’s final episodes.

 Episode 19, leads to the capture of Dr. List one of the powerful heads of Hydra, this in turn reveals the whereabouts of Baron Strucker and his base in the Sokovia.  The assault on Dr. List’s location allows Phil Coulson to extract files from Hydra's servers, this in turn recovers the location of Loki’s Sceptor, and unveils the preparation of Theta Protocol a hidden agenda that took up most of the teams funds and Coulson’s absence in the period of the finale of season one to the start of Season two; and is now ready to be revealed in Age of Ultron. These revelations are really brought up in a private video conference call between Maria Hill and Phil Coulson in the final moments of the episode, and Raina’s vision of the coming of the Age of Ultron.  

Episode 11, provides one historical flashback, Jiaying being a mentor and introduces us to the young teleporter known as Gordon.  What it sets up in the big picture is a definitive time line of events.  We see the red door of the entrance to Afterlife and young Gordon trying to grasp his powers for the first time, but the flash back reveals the year 1983,

The Final Mission involves time travels to 1982 and skips a series of months until landing into 1983 and a young Jiaying, 5 years before the birth of Skye and the meeting of Skye’s father.  Daniel Whitehall the Hydra Agent working under Red Skull who cheated death by harvesting Jiaying glands and tissues and captured her rejuvenating ability. Is now in this branch of the time-stream a youthful version of himself, who harvested glands and tissues of Skye and captured her quake powers instead. Mother and daughter confront the earlier version of Whitehall, and Jiaying falls victim to her fate early and undermines the birth of Skye, but according to the principles of Endgame rules of time travel, Skye’s present is now the future and thus she is not going to be erased from history.  Shield is systematically destroyed by an invading enemy, this time not Hydra, Mac who led the division with shield factions in season 2, is leading Shield in an alternate faction and goes rogue by way of undermining his normal routine to infiltrate Sybil a powerful A.I.  Who can predict outcomes based on the patterns of her enemies.

 Jemma Simmons is the one agent everyone depends on to unlock the mystery for the team to advance forward. As  Leo Fitz sits on the side lines due to neurological damage; coincidently in the final mission Leo Fitz is hidden somewhere in time. In the series final two episodes Jemma is having problems retrieving particular memories ; an act made deliberate by  her and Leo to protect the mission,  that was triggered  to get worse when Daniel Whitehall digs too deep into Jemma’s mind and involuntarily wiping out all memory of Fitz existence. Besides the reintroduction of Daniel Whitehall, Patton Oswald’s Koening character (s), Agent Garret, Jiaying & Gordon, we also revisit the concept of project insight, the city of Afterlife, and another family Reunion for Skye with the sister she never knew she had.  The conspiracy theory of Coulson being an LMD finally gets explored in this season, and mentioning May’s ordeal in Bahrain, and seeing that she has finally moved passed it in the final season. Has made the experience of watching season two with fresh pair of eyes as actions, people and historical points have some call back for the final mission; which in turn works as philosophical Endgame scenario 

We're looking back at the previous MCU phases after watching the Infinity War and EndGame movies; you would gather a better appreciation of the storytelling and subtle nuisances that begins to shape the season and beyond. When you discover the journey becomes more exciting when you been to the destination.