'Agents of SHIELD' Season 7 Episode 4: May's strange new condition is heartbreaking for Philinda fans
Spoilers for 'Agents of SHIELD' Season 7 Episode 4 'Out of the Past'
Despite all the sci-fi madness and Bond-style thrills, 'Agents of SHIELD' has always had its fair share of relationship drama. But of all the relationships on the show, the one that's perhaps the most beloved is the one between Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen).
It's a love story that took years to develop and their relationship, popularly called "Philinda", is one of the most adorable in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). And yet now, that ship has been broken by a cruel twist of fate.
After Coulson's off-screen death between Season 5 and Season 6, May was an absolute mess. So you'd think she would have been overjoyed when she found out that the team had brought him back as a Life Model Decoy.
However, May was completely unemotional and dismissive of the new and improved Coulson, to the point of irony. Think about it, Coulson, who is now a robot, actually feels more emotion than May, a living breathing human being.
Episode 4 'Out of the Past' complicates this even further with the revelation that when May went to Izel's (Karolina Wydra) world, she was changed somehow. Now she doesn't feel emotions of her own but she can feel the emotions of others. This leaves her acting like an emotionless robot most of the time, which explains her lack of a reaction to Coulson's revival. However, when she does come into contact with other people, she can often be overwhelmed by the emotions she reflects off of them.
But even though that works on humans, it doesn't work with an artificial being like Coulson. And without any emotions of her own, May feels nothing but emptiness towards the LMD of her former beloved. So that means that until the team can figure out how to return May to normal, she can never love Coulson or know how much he loves her ever again. Is there anything more heartbreaking than that?
'Agents of SHIELD' Season 7 airs on Wednesdays at 10 pm on ABC.
