Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.12: “Who You Really Are” Review

NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are present in this review

 

During the more uneven first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a standout episode occurred when Lady Sif from the Thor movies guest-starred in a team-up effort with S.H.I.E.L.D. to capture Asgardian menace and Thor baddie, Lorelei. Season Two has brought with it another Sif guest role, tying Asgard into the new development of the Inhumans being introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This episode also gave Earth’s heroes, or at least Coulson’s crew, their first real interaction with the Kree, as the villain-of-the-week turned out to be a rogue Kree-in-disguise that is responsible for giving Sif a nasty bout of amnesia. If you’ve seen Guardians of the Galaxy, you know that the Kree are not exactly a passive race, though it was good to see that this episode didn’t paint the entire race as just a bunch of unstable warmongers. Ronan the Accuser wouldn’t have been a very noteworthy threat in Guardians of the Galaxy otherwise.

Agents - Footage 1

The first half of the episode simply involves Coulson making contact with Sif, and the agents trying to figure out why a Kree and an Asgardian had a spat on Earth in the first place. Naturally, Sif can’t remember her mission, though Coulson proves her friendship with S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning a quest to piece together Sif’s lost memories.

The hook of an amnesiac Sif was pretty cool, though it’s unfortunate that the episode didn’t do more with it. Sif just has her memory restored halfway through the episode after Coulson’s crew manages to capture the lone Kree (almost too easily, might I add), and it doesn’t really matter much in the end. As much as it’s amusing to see some of Sif’s innocent reactions to things, namely her excited reaction at the fact that she’s a warrior, and knows Odin, the episode ultimately did very little with Asgard’s stake in the whole Inhuman affair.

In fact, Asgard learning of the Inhumans is pretty much an accident. Sif was simply sent by Odin to round up the wandering Kree because Kree are known to be dangerous, and Odin simply didn’t want the alien poking around on Earth. The reason that the Kree came to Earth is because the Diviner activating during the events of the midseason finale sent a signal back to the Kree planet, which only this guy intercepted for some reason, and came to Earth to investigate where it came from. Apparently, Sif was the aggressor, which is a semi-decent twist.

Agents - Footage 2

The episode picks up more in the second half, as the Kree explains the purpose behind the Inhumans, which actually gives a pretty good primer on who they are, and why the Kree wanted to make them. It was interesting to hear that the experiments of the Kree were performed on other planets, though only Earth’s was a success, with their Inhuman faction building a city and carving their own way of life, with the Kree overlords at the time then shutting down the experiments, as the most intelligent faction of Inhumans were not mindless killing machines. If word about Raina gets back to the Kree homeworld however, the experiments will be restarted, and Earth will no doubt be in trouble.

As this is going on, Skye’s stress level triggers her abilities, making the plane shake, and revealing her secret to Coulson and the rest of the crew. Well, so much for Fitz keeping that secret. That said however, an interesting conflict was created, with Coulson and May refusing to hand over Skye, while Sif demands to quarantine her in Asgard, and the Kree wishes to kill her, as she is an abomination. A kerfuffle ensues, with Mack and Bobbi managing to subdue the Kree and turn his own memory-erasing weapon against him, neutralizing him. We also see quick snippets of the group reacting to Fitz withholding Skye’s secret, namely Simmons, who continues to develop a hate-boner for super-powered people for some reason.

Agents - Footage 3

May manages to talk Sif down from whisking Skye to Asgard, and Sif instead decides to drop the Kree back on his home planet, now that he can’t remember why he came to Earth. Her ominous warning to Coulson about the agents not being able to alter certain fates was pretty intriguing, and no doubt foreshadows more big events to come for the remainder of the season.

Meanwhile, Bobbi and Mack continue to sneak around with a secret plan, with Bobbi deciding to push Hunter away before he gets hurt, and Mack closing out the episode by having to choke out Hunter after he learns of the mysterious plan. Whatever Bobbi and Mack are conspiring on, it’s obviously damning enough to both forcibly keep Hunter out of it, and worry about collateral damage amongst their team. Might this potentially be the early inception of S.W.O.R.D., which would in turn set the stage for 2018’s Captain Marvel movie? Maybe that’s a stretch, but it might explain why Bobbi and Mack are starting to talk like traitors.

Agents - Footage 4

In any case, “Who You Really Are” brought Skye’s big secret to light, and passed knowledge of the Inhumans on to Asgard, plus involved Earth’s forces making contact with the Kree for the first time. Given all of these big developments however, it’s a bit shocking that the episode didn’t leave more of an impact. It was a good episode, but all of these consequences will no doubt come into play later in the season, if even then. The hook of Sif’s memory loss felt a bit half-baked as well, but it was still good to see her again. It will be interesting to see if Asgard’s response to all of this Inhuman craziness will come sooner or later though.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had a busy week, with a Kree coming to Earth, Asgard learning of the Inhumans, Hunter deducing Bobbi and Mack's treachery, and the team learning of Skye's new powers, but the consequences all feel like they're being saved for later.
THE GOOD STUFF
Sif's guest role was once again very entertaining
The team learning of Skye's abilities
Mack having to neutralize a suspicious Hunter
THE NOT-SO-GOOD STUFF
Sif's amnesia wasn't taken far enough
No payoff to the many big developments yet
80