A Beautiful Heart: Leader, Carer, Protector
Because she has depth. Because she’s more than ‘the beautiful warrior with a heart of ice’, even if other characters can’t see that. Because her compartmentalisation of emotions doesn’t mean she has none, it means she knows how to control them, and channel them. It means that she has a beautiful heart, that some people may not see, may not notice, but that doesn’t make her any less important to those of us that do see that.
And in the first episode of the second season, we get another glimpse of her heart, another reason for why she’s the favourite of so many. We get to witness her caring and protective nature in all the chaos of Shadows.
At a time when Coulson isn’t readily available as a leader to the team because he also has to be Director, May is the one leading them on missions, May is the one making sure the team is holding together. Coulson may be in charge, but it’s May who handles the day to day operations, it’s May who cares the most about everyone’s wellbeing.
We see how protective and caring May is in her interactions with Skye and Fitz. May is the only real person we see interacting with Fitz in the episode, and we can see how much she wants to help him. Earlier, she also asks Skye how Fitz is doing, clearly worried about him. Even more significant is the friendship between May and Skye. May ensures that they stick together on the mission towards the end of the episode, because she knows how dangerous it will be, and so that she can continue to protect Skye if need be. May is also the one who is vocal about Skye being made to talk to Ward. She knows that Ward will attempt to manipulate her, and she’s clearly very concerned about it. All she wants to do is protect Skye from all that. We saw them bond at the end of season 1. We saw May offer to help Skye after Ward’s betrayal, and that help continues now.
Melinda May is important because she is the glue that holds the team together. Simmons has left, Fitz is hallucinating and may never be the same, Skye has been intimately betrayed and is still reeling from it and Coulson as Director has other responsibilities than just leading the team. He has isolated himself from all of them, excepting May. Coulson may be the official team leader, but it’s May who keeps things running smoothly. It’s May who continues to care for and protect the remaining team members.
Without May, none of what they do is possible.
Melinda May Matters because she is leader, carer and protector. Something that so many people never thought possible. But there were those of us who always believed in her and will continue to believe in her, because she inspires us.
Melinda May Matters she has taken on so many roles seamlessly, roles that she was never charged with. This woman who has always placed responsibility for ‘fixing the problem’ on herself, has now charged herself with fixing multiple problems every single day, ones that she may never have imagined herself dealing with. Because she has the most beautiful heart of all.
[Written by storytime-writings for melindamaymatters]
