S.O.S. (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
"S.O.S." | |
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The Art of Evolution " poster for "Part 1". | |
Episode nos. | Season 2 Episodes 21 and 22 |
Directed by | |
Written by | |
Produced by |
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Original air date | May 12, 2015 |
Running time | 86 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
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"S.O.S." is the twenty-first and twenty-second episodes and two-part
Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by series regulars Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Nick Blood, and Adrianne Palicki. The episodes conclude storylines from throughout the series, and set up new plotlines and mysteries for the next season, with several recurring guest stars making appearances, including Kyle MacLachlan, Henry Simmons, Dichen Lachman, Ruth Negga, and Blair Underwood. The visual effects were completed days before the airing of the episodes, while more traditional practical effects were used where possible.
"S.O.S." originally aired on
Plot
Part one
Following the events of "
Having experienced more visions of the future,
Realizing
Simmons learns
Part two
Pinning Cal to a wall with a truck, Coulson tells him that he is destroying himself for Jiaying, and that she is a monster, but Cal is not. Cal admits that he believed if he could find Skye, he could make Jiaying the benevolent person she was before
In a shootout with Hunter and May's team, Palamas impersonates May to trick them, but Ward mistakes her for the real May and kills her. Morse throws herself in front of the rigged gun when Hunter finds her, and is seriously wounded. Hunter and May bring Morse back to the Playground and Simmons operates on her to save her life, before telling Fitz that she is ready to address their feelings for each other once the crisis is over.
Aboard the Iliad, Mack rescues Skye from the other Inhumans. Discovering an SOS has been sent out, Jiaying kills
Mack rejoins S.H.I.E.L.D. and is put in charge of all alien artifacts by Coulson, while Morse withdraws from field duty to recover from her injuries, and May takes a leave of absence to try to resume her relationship with
In an end tag Fitz finally arranges a date with Simmons, but after he leaves the room, the Monolith breaks free of containment and absorbs Simmons into itself.
Production
Development
In March 2015, Marvel announced that the twenty-first and twenty-second episodes of the season would be titled "S.O.S.", Part 1 and Part 2, with Part 1 written by executive producer Jeffrey Bell, and Part 2 written by executive producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Vincent Misiano directs Part 1, while Billy Gierhart directs Part 2.[1]
Writing
On how the different storylines throughout the series lead up to this point, executive producer Jeffrey Bell stated that "The challenge that we keep seeing is keeping it fresh so it doesn't feel like the same piece of story all season. You want to find a way to mix it up. If this was an HBO show, this would be season four, and you could look back and go, well, the first season introduced these characters, the second season was more of, "oh, Hydra's in S.H.I.E.L.D.," and the third one is Skye becoming a superhero. And then getting to the middle of this season, and now we're sort of getting into this Inhuman world. We've tried to make the flavoring different, we've tried to tell different stories with different combinations of the same people so it doesn't feel like you're getting different versions of the same story every week."[2]
Bell also discussed the end tag of the episode, where Simmons is consumed by the
Casting
In March 2015, Marvel revealed that main cast members
Filming
To film the scene near the end of the episodes where Mack cuts off Coulson's arm, Gregg had to physically dive to show him catching a
Visual effects
Bell talked about the visual effects in general throughout the season, and in the episodes themselves, saying "Visual effects are a big part of our show and some of them are invisible and some of them are very dramatic and the fact that there's no real planes in our [show], and you just accept the fact that "oh, there's a plane" is pretty cool.... We could do it because it was our finale, but to their credit, they had very little turnaround time for any of those effects. The very last shot of the show with the Monolith and Simmons got approved Saturday".[3] Expanding on that last shot with Simmons, visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpack explained that Henstridge was dragged away from camera on a small sled, with Houdini FX used to simulate the liquid weapon around her.[3][9]
Release
Broadcast
"S.O.S." was first aired in the United States on ABC on April 28, 2015.[10]
Marketing
For the final twelve episodes of the season Marvel once again ran the "Art of..." initiative, in which an image was released the Thursday before the episode aired, depicting a first look at a key event from the upcoming episode, with the season's title being "
Home media
The episodes began streaming on Netflix on June 11, 2015,[13] and were released along with the rest of the second season on September 18, 2015, on Blu-ray and DVD.[14]
Reception
Ratings
In the United States the episode received a 1.3/4 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 1.3 percent of all households, and 4 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 3.88 million viewers.[10]
Accolades
In June 2016, IGN ranked the episodes together as the second best in the series.[15]
References
- ^ Marvel.com. Archived from the originalon November 25, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
- ^ a b Towers, Andrea (May 7, 2015). "Final 'Art of Evolution' celebrates Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season finale -- exclusive". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
- ^ a b c Prudom, Laura (May 12, 2015). "'Marvel's Agents of SHIELD' Boss Talks Shocking Finale Cliffhanger, Skye's Secret Mission". Variety. Archived from the original on May 14, 2015. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
- Marvel.com. Archived from the originalon March 24, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
- Marvel.com. February 13, 2015. Archived from the originalon February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 13, 2015.
- Marvel.com. Archived from the originalon March 8, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
- Marvel.com. Archivedfrom the original on April 20, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
- ^ Abrams, Natalie (May 13, 2015). "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Go behind the scenes of Coulson's big 'loss'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 15, 2015. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
- ^ Kolpack, Mark (May 16, 2015). "She landed on a small sled and was pulled back. Houdini FX was used for the fluid simulation". Twitter. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
- ^ a b Bibel, Sara (April 15, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Flash', 'NCIS', 'The Voice', 'Fresh Off The Boat', 'Hell's Kitchen' & 'Person of Interest' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on April 18, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
- ^ Towers, Andrea (February 26, 2015). "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. launches second year of art campaign, The Art of Evolution -- exclusive". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
- ^ Towers, Andrea (May 6, 2015). "Penultimate Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Art of Evolution sets the stage for an intense finale -- exclusive". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
- ^ Jones, Nate (May 21, 2015). "What's New on Netflix: June 2015". Vulture. New York. Archived from the original on May 23, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
- ^ Damore, Meagan (July 10, 2015). "SDCC: Jeph Loeb Unveils The Future Of "Agents Of SHIELD," "Agent Carter" & More". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
- ^ Fowler, Matt (June 7, 2016). "The Top 10 Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Episodes". IGN. Archived from the original on June 11, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
External links
- "S.O.S. Part 1" at ABC[dead link]
- "S.O.S. Part 2" at ABC[dead link]
- "S.O.S. Part 1" at IMDb
- "S.O.S. Part 2" at IMDb