Agents of SHIELD Season 1 Episode 9 – Repairs


It’s easy to say that buttoned up Melinda May has been the quietest character in Agents of SHIELD. Even likened to the resigned Ward, who seems to be her regular co-worker with benefits these days, May has remained a complete mystery. In situations where other team members, including Coulson, throw out pop-culture references or wisecracks, May just rolls her eyes or, more commonly, jabs a flattened palm into a throat.

 

This episode went deeper into May’s backstory, but surprisingly little of it came from her directly. The team were sent to Utah for an “Index Asset Evaluation and Intake”, scoping out a suspected unregistered gifted. After surviving an accident at the local Particle Accelerator Complex, the devout Hanna exhibited signs of telekinetic capability – rattling cutlery, blowing up petrol stations, levitating tinned fruit– that had put the wind right up the local community, who already held her responsible for the four deaths caused by the particle accelerator incident.

 

As a mob descended on Hannah with figurative pitchforks and real-life eggs to throw, things looked like they were going to go full psycho until May defused the situation with the night-night gun. Back on the Bus, what had started out as a story about someone coming to terms with uncanny powers, much like an X-men comic, sidestepped into something else: a full-force slasher movie. A bulky figure in overalls appeared and disappeared around the Bus, moving things around, stealing stuff and, in a failed attempt to access Hannah’s shielded Blockbuster cell, harming the plane’s power supply, which led to yet another hard landing for the battered Bus.

 

Slowly, the team figured out the slasher was Tobias Ford, a manual worker thought dead in the accident who was actually bouncing back and forth between Earth and another less-friendly dimension, clinging on to his wrench but still losing a little of himself each time. Ford was really just a big, unstable softie trying to defend and impress Hannah. After he had trapped Coulson and Skye, and clocked Ward in an unfair fight, Ford went looking for his crush, unaware that May had already used her ninja skills to spirit Hannah away to a nearby, poorly lit barn.

 

We had formerly heard three stories about how May acquired her Cavalry nickname: Fitz and Simmons’s ridiculous version involving two pistols, 100 baddies and a horse; Ward’s only slightly less silly version about taking down 20 opponents single-handedly and, finally, Coulson’s almost eye-witness report, about a fearless but loving agent who had gone into a Bahrain building to save civilians from a twisted gifted and his mind-controlled army, emerging victorious, but fundamentally changed. In her final confrontation with Ford, an irate May opted to talk him down, pointing out that by clinging on to Hannah, he would drag them both down to hell, or at least a hellish dimension. “Let the girl go,” she whispered, apparently the same words Coulson had used to try and comfort her post-Bahrain, and Ford obligingly dematerialized.

 

We’re excited to learn a little more about Agent May and hope the show continues to divulge more secrets. Do you relate to Agent May more or less with this new info?  

agents-of-shield–season-1-episode-9—repairs

It’s easy to say that buttoned up Melinda May has been the quietest character in Agents of SHIELD. Even likened to the resigned Ward, who seems to be her regular co-worker with benefits these days, May has remained a complete mystery. In situations where other team members, including Coulson, throw out pop-culture references or wisecracks, May just rolls her eyes or, more commonly, jabs a flattened palm into a throat.

 

This episode went deeper into May’s backstory, but surprisingly little of it came from her directly. The team were sent to Utah for an “Index Asset Evaluation and Intake”, scoping out a suspected unregistered gifted. After surviving an accident at the local Particle Accelerator Complex, the devout Hanna exhibited signs of telekinetic capability – rattling cutlery, blowing up petrol stations, levitating tinned fruit– that had put the wind right up the local community, who already held her responsible for the four deaths caused by the particle accelerator incident.

 

As a mob descended on Hannah with figurative pitchforks and real-life eggs to throw, things looked like they were going to go full psycho until May defused the situation with the night-night gun. Back on the Bus, what had started out as a story about someone coming to terms with uncanny powers, much like an X-men comic, sidestepped into something else: a full-force slasher movie. A bulky figure in overalls appeared and disappeared around the Bus, moving things around, stealing stuff and, in a failed attempt to access Hannah’s shielded Blockbuster cell, harming the plane’s power supply, which led to yet another hard landing for the battered Bus.

 

Slowly, the team figured out the slasher was Tobias Ford, a manual worker thought dead in the accident who was actually bouncing back and forth between Earth and another less-friendly dimension, clinging on to his wrench but still losing a little of himself each time. Ford was really just a big, unstable softie trying to defend and impress Hannah. After he had trapped Coulson and Skye, and clocked Ward in an unfair fight, Ford went looking for his crush, unaware that May had already used her ninja skills to spirit Hannah away to a nearby, poorly lit barn.

 

We had formerly heard three stories about how May acquired her Cavalry nickname: Fitz and Simmons’s ridiculous version involving two pistols, 100 baddies and a horse; Ward’s only slightly less silly version about taking down 20 opponents single-handedly and, finally, Coulson’s almost eye-witness report, about a fearless but loving agent who had gone into a Bahrain building to save civilians from a twisted gifted and his mind-controlled army, emerging victorious, but fundamentally changed. In her final confrontation with Ford, an irate May opted to talk him down, pointing out that by clinging on to Hannah, he would drag them both down to hell, or at least a hellish dimension. “Let the girl go,” she whispered, apparently the same words Coulson had used to try and comfort her post-Bahrain, and Ford obligingly dematerialized.

 

We’re excited to learn a little more about Agent May and hope the show continues to divulge more secrets. Do you relate to Agent May more or less with this new info?