It’s no secret that the Marvel Universe is not very rich on female superheroes, but “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” has been balancing that quite nicely so far, as the show does focus on females a lot in its story. And the latest episode, “Melinda”, really drove that point home for some fans and critics, as many were commenting on the nice representation of some of the more prominent female characters in the show.
In particular, the episode was strongly focused on May and Skye, and while some other major characters could also be seen, such as Simmons, Bobbi and Raina, the focus was specifically on the first two – and the majority of male characters were out for this episode. We got to see Coulson in some flashbacks which explained what exactly happened in Bahrain which caused May to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. over half a decade ago, but the character is mostly absent from the main story of the episode, until its very end when he shows up together with Fitz and Hunter.
It’s not so surprising that the episode was focused on the show’s female characters though, as its primary theme was motherhood, and specifically talks about May and her will to be a parent, while at the same time Skye has been getting closer to the mother she didn’t even imagine meeting before.
We also finally got to find out why they call May “The Cavalry”, and it’s just as good as fans would expect from the various hints that they got in the last episodes. The episode actually starts out in the past, with May and Andrew (her husband at the time) talking about starting a family together, and we get to see May in a very different light, quite a lot happier than her usual self.
The agents have to travel to Bahrain to capture a Russian woman named Eva Belyakov who has superpowers of her own, but their mission goes awry quite fast due to unforeseen involvements. Eva’s Inhuman daughter, who is an Inhuman herself, turns out to be the girl that May is so insistent on saving, causing a lot of trouble as the girl goes insane. Obviously, such a mental state does not mix very well with her superpowers, and things quickly get out of control.
The episode was also very rich on action and stylish violence, according to most critics, which was completely justified due to its contents and the story that it told. Some were actually seemingly worried that the new episode would turn out to be underwhelming in this regard, but it was nothing of the sort and delivered on the action front spectacularly, even overcoming expectations in some regards.