“Scars” is the penultimate episode before the two-part finale. It sort of serves an intermediary to set up events for the big showdown. On the S.H.I.E.L.D. front, you have Gonzales and the rest of the crew including Phil Coulson, all planning on making contact with the Inhumans Skye had been dealing with(and finally they get called that by S.H.I.E.L.D.). On the other side of things you have Jiaying and the rest of the community possibly dealing with their little home being raided by outside forces and the possible ramifications of that. The episode like last week’s deals with events surrounding The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Ideally the aforementioned movie should be watched at this point.
The episode opens with a flashback where we see both Billy and Sam Koenig(portrayed by Patton Oswalt) and Phil Coulson both talk about Theta Protocol. Here, it’s pretty obvious that they don’t waste any time as they reveal Agent Coulson’s connection to the events of Age of Ultron as we see the Hellicarrier and that the deployment of the same Hellicarrier used in that movie was none other than Theta Protocol. Fast Forward to the present, it’s pretty obvious that some doubts toward Coulson were diminished in that moment. Too bad that this won’t last that long. Overall, as Age of Ultron was still fresh on many minds, and the show likes to capitalize while it’s still hot, this scene was a little shoe-horned in. It’s good that it’s resolved now as we move forward with the conflict story involving the Inhumans. At the same time, it’s still going to take a while for some character relationships to heal. Bobbi and Hunter still haven’t spoken to one another and the May-Coulson relationship still has a lot of tension. This is especially true considering that Coulson went to May’s ex-husband for help back in the time of Coulson’s mental breakdowns. This could drive a bad wedge into team dynamics.
Meanwhile at Afterlife, we see Raina’s visions of their inevitable encounter with S.H.I.E.L.D.. Things do not bode very well at all for our Inhuman community as she sees Quinjets attacking them.
Jiaying then goes and decides to meet with Gonzales and keeps Raina prisoner deeming her as someone who intended to overthrow. The conversation between the two was an interesting highlight. We see both similarities and differences in their characters. Both have been affected by HYDRA and both have interests in protecting their people against external threats. Anyone at first would think Gonzales was the aggressor. However, in this case the conversation takes a huge twist when it was revealed that Jiaying was the one who both literally and figuratively pulled the trigger on the when she killed Gonzales. This is going to have huge ramifications on the show moving forward especially on Skye and all of the people around her. Now she has to pick a side in the coming conflict.
On another front, there was also a significant turn in Bobbi/Mockingbird’s story arc. On the way to Afterlife, she is cornered by Kara/Agent 33 and after a brief fight we believe that Bobbi is safe. However, in a surprising twist, Ward comes back and takes her out with an icer. It’s always great seeing Ward have new twists that happen to him. Earlier I thought that he would be some sort of anti-hero and let Kara go. It would be interesting to see where this goes into future episodes. I hope Brett Dalton sticks around as a recurring villain.
It’s also worth noting that Cal is finally captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.. An Agent asks him why there are several empty vials. In the comics, Cal is Mister Hyde, a scientist who ingests a chemical formula to give him enhanced strength. Again, like most other highlights of the episode, it would be interesting to see if this goes anywhere in the finale.
