'THE END' | 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' delivers the goods in a huge season finale
It’s decision time for our agents in ‘The End’, and the fallout is acutely heartbreaking. Never has a series delivered a finale that shut the book on its narrative in such a satisfying way, only to live on.
After S.H.I.E.L.D.’s eleventh hour renewal from ABC, ‘The End’ isn’t quite the end. Marvel’s flagship show will, in fact, be coming back for a sixth (and abbreviated) season and our favourite agents will return to save the world in a post ‘Avengers 4’ universe.
Regardless of its slightly facetious title, ‘The End’ brings all of the season’s puzzle pieces together satisfyingly, while also setting up an urgent and important mission for next season.
SPOILER ALERT!
We begin where we left off, with the team debating whether they should use the last vial of Centipede Serum to save Coulson or save the world. With Coulson’s life quite literally on the line, emotions are at their most painfully raw and combined with the team’s fractious state, things quickly get intense. Yo-Yo starts screaming about how no one will listen to what her future self and holds the Centipede Serum hostage; Mack is eventually able to calm her down by talking about the importance of hope, and suggests that the team vote on the issue, but May decides for the rest of the team by destroying the odium. Now, the only use for the Centipede Serum is to save Coulson.
Meanwhile, Talbot is on the hunt for more Gravitonium. After learning that a deposit of the rare element lies beneath the city of Chicago, he flies his ship into the Windy City, annihilating several buildings. He then continues the devastation by raising a large column of rock from the ground and absorbing the Gravitonium that lies in it.
While Talbot lurches into full-blown villain mode, Coulson is dying. He refuses to take the Centipede Serum because every bit of life-saving alien tech that the team has ever come across has always resulted in another problem (e.g. Garrett). Plus, there’s that whole “you need to let Phil Coulson die” prophecy that future Yo-Yo warned the team about. So, Coulson denies the cure, and Daisy goes to confront Talbot all on her lonesome.
And this is when the episode - and the season - goes from good to great. Talbot tries to absorb Daisy’s powers in order to quake the ground apart for more Gravitonium, and the pair get into an epic (and very cinematic) fight. All seems lost until Daisy discovers the Centipede Serum that Coulson hid in her gauntlet, and this is the very act that breaks the time loop. Daisy herself takes the Centipede Serum and this gives her the ultimate power boost to quake Talbot all the way into space, where he freezes and asphyxiates to death (RIP).
The grand battle between Graviton and Quake causes tremors throughout nearby buildings – including the one Fitz, Mack, and May are in. Just as the trio rescue Polly and Robin from Talbot’s ship, a tremor hits and Fitz gets caught under falling debris. Mack and May manage to pull him out from the rubble, and for a second it seems like everything will be fine — that is, until we see that a large metal sheet has pierced through his torso, and hear him choke out, “Mack, I think my leg is broken”. As Fitz shakes and gasps for his last breaths, Iain De Caestecker continues to shine and does some of his best work here as he delivers the most heartbreaking moment of the episode (and possibly the series).
We then cut to the S.H.I.E.L.D. team carving a memorial plaque and gathering for what seems to be a memorial service. It’s soon revealed, however, in a (very) cruel bait-and-switch, that the plaque and service are actually for Coulson. With no more Centipede Serum, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fearless leader has decided to retire and spend his final moments with May in Tahiti, while the rest of the team carries on his legacy and go find Fitz. Yes, you read correctly.
Remember when Fitz travelled to the Lighthouse via Enoch’s cryofreeze chamber? That ‘past’ version of Fitz is still out there floating in space, waiting for a future that has been averted. So now all the team has to do is find him and catch him up on some of the things that he’s missed while he’s been under (like getting married to Simmons).
‘The End’ was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish, and fans loved every second of it.
It’s no secret that ABC lowered the series’ costs this season, as showcased by the slew of budget saving scenes in (frustratingly) dark, confined hallways; but it’s clear that they’d been saving it all for this episode, because things got very cinematic as Graviton and Daisy battled it out. It’s the type of stuff you don’t usually see on network television and Mark Kolpack and his team brought the goods, kudos to them!
The season finale also reinforced the bond that has kept the team together through thick and thin. Whatever conflicts or tensions have come between them before, ‘The End’ highlights just how profound and unwavering the connection between this family of agents truly is.
It’s obvious that this week’s finale was filmed well before ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ was picked up for a sixth season, because ‘The End’ gave us just that – a full circle ending. It all began with one fearless agent dying at the hands of the God of Mischief, and that fearless agent is dying again. This entire season was written and engineered so perfectly with a wrap up in mind, so I am a little bummed that, when the show returns, some of the dramatic beats this finale did so well will probably get undone. But no matter what, it just wouldn’t be ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ without Coulson at its centre, and everyone from the cast and crew to the fans would agree.
We’ll just have to wait and see how (and if) Coulson will return to fight the good fight next season, not to mention where in the universe Fitz ended up. In the meantime, fans can look forward to Coulson’s return to the big-screen in ‘Captain Marvel’.
See you next year, True Believers!
‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ will return in 2019.
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