Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD: The 10 greatest episodes of the show (so far)
By Shaun Stacy
5. Season 2, Episode 17: “Melinda”
Ming-Na Wen’s Melinda May is perhaps the most complex character of Agents of SHIELD. When we first meet her in season 1, Coulson recruits her from desk duty to be second in command of his new team of agents. Hardcore and badass to the bone, May earned the nickname “the Cavalry” but we don’t learn why until this tragic episode. This episode begins by giving us a little backstory on May, allowing us glimpses of who she was in a former life.
We see flashbacks to when Coulson and May were partners in SHIELD and are heading to Bahrain to put a stop to what they first perceive as a human terrorist threat. The May from the past is a happier, more optimistic version of herself and is still married to her adoring husband, Andrew Garner (Blair Underwood). Once the team touches down, they quickly discover that their threat is anything but human. In an incident perceived to be one of the earliest interactions between SHIELD and the Inhumans, a woman with super-strength takes out a couple of agents but then retreats to an abandoned building. SHIELD agents advance on the scene but are quickly dispatched, leading Coulson to send May in.
While May has a knockdown, drag-out fight with the Inhuman, it is eventually revealed that the woman is protecting her daughter. We see that her daughter has the ability to mind control others through touch in order to absorb pain she causes them to inflict upon themselves. May is in shock when she comes face-to-face with the little younger and tries to appeal to her in order to get her to stop. However, the child reaches out to her as May pulls together enough strength to grab a nearby gun. We hear a single gunshot and then pan to a shot of May cradling the dead child in her arms.
Even though May single-handedly rescued an entire team of SHIELD agents, the event obviously left her traumatized. In order to deal with the trauma, May becomes hardened and eventually separates from her husband before returning to SHIELD for desk duty. This is where we find her at the beginning of Agents of SHIELD. “Melinda” is one of the most heartbreaking episodes of the entire show.