The Series Finale of ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Was the Perfect Sendoff – Recap
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is finally coming to its conclusion and I’m still in disbelief as I type this recap.
The finale was truly perfect in every sense of the word. However, before I dive into my recap/review, you should be warned that there are spoilers for the final season below. So, if you haven’t watched the final season, be sure to do that and then come back.
Again, spoilers ahead! This is your last chance to leave!
The two-part series finale of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a beautiful and warm send off to the beloved show. As a life long fan of the series and someone who has been there since day one, it was truly bittersweet to say goodbye to this cast. Although it was the finale, I walked away with a smile on my face and pride in the cast and crew. Not only did the cast we grew to love all make it out intact, each character had a satisfying and earned conclusion to their story.
The two-parter begins with team in a battle against the Chronicoms. One team comprised of Mack, Daisy, and Sousa head to the Chronicoms main ship to rescue Deke and Simmons. Coulson, May, and Yo-Yo are back at the lighthouse trying to keep everything from crashing down on them (literally). Due to events that happened in previous episodes, a young John Garrett has Gordon’s teleporting power. Garrett infiltrates the lighthouse set on planting bombs to level the place, but thankfully Coulson pulls up Fitz’s information about how they trapped Gordon all the way back in the second season. It was awesome to witness a younger version of John Garrett in action and it was even better that the writers cast Bill Paxton’s son, James Paxton, in the role.
When Garrett teleports to plant the bombs throughout the lighthouse, Yo-Yo uses her powers to put the power-neutralizing cuffs on. Seeing that he’s trapped, Garrett tries to convince Nathaniel Malick to call off the bombs but to no surprise Malick ditches him, forcing Garrett to switch teams (again). He ends up teleporting the team out of there before the bombs destroy the place.
While Coulson and his half of the team are dealing with the lighthouse, Mack and Sousa are holding down the Zephyr while Daisy tracks down Simmons and Deke. Sibyle lets Daisy find Simmons in hopes to track down where exactly Fitz is. When Daisy inevitably does find Simmons, her memory is scrambled and she has no recollection of Daisy. As they head back to the ship, Simmons starts to remember that she was married, but loses it again when Kora emerges to confront Daisy. At first, Kora is confrontational towards her sister but by the end of it, she is confused on who to trust but eventually lets Daisy go. Since Kora betrayed Nathaniel, he put her in the power transferring machine to take her power.
Garrett teleports the team to the New York hideout but is immediately shot and killed by a younger Victoria (which was an amazing callback to the premiere season). Other agents have gathered there by coded signal and each agent has a package they were instructed to bring. Once all the items in the packages have been laid and Simmons’ memory starts to kick in, she begins putting the pieces together for a machine – the last piece being her wedding ring. Once the machine activates, a portal opens up and Fitz falls through it, and reveals that this whole time he’s been hiding in the original timeline!
Fitz’s return kicks off the second part of the finale. One of the main things I hear about when it comes to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is: ‘If they are canon to the MCU, then why weren’t they there in Avengers: Endgame?’ Well, Fitz breaks down the time traveling rules and how they were currently in an alternate timeline, but can jump back to the original through the quantum realm. Fitz’s plan was to simply leave the timeline with the Chronicoms and go back to their original, but Coulson shuts that down immediately because he states these are actual people and not a framework simulation.
Fitz decided to take the Chronicoms with them through the quantum realm, but in order to do that someone must stay behind to activate it. Sousa volunteered first but since he has no idea about technology, Deke decides to stay back. However, Deke got a pretty good deal out of it. Not only was he back in the 80’s, he is now the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the new timeline. Fury mentored Coulson, Coulson mentored Mack, and Mack trained Deke.
Coulson, Daisy, May, and Mack are in the Zephyr and go dark so Sybil can’t spot them. A quinjet carrying FitzSimmons, Yo-Yo, and Sousa heads towards the temple. The team dresses in hazmat suits to help carry the past versions of themselves into the past Zephyr (Does that make sense? Think Back to the Future: Part II). The first Zephyr that shows up on the Chronicoms’ scanners is the one leaving into the past. Sybil fire at it, but destroys the temple as the ship teleports away, which allows the current Zephyr to board the Chronicoms’ ship.
Next, we see Daisy confronting Malick but this time Malick now has Kora’s powers. While that is going on, Mack and Coulson are taking down all the remaining Chronicoms on the ship. Daisy and Malick go toe-to-toe with their vibrational waves and Coulson gets taken by Sybil while Mack free’s Kora. Meanwhile, the kidnapped Coulson tricks Sybil into sending the rest of the remaining hunters to take down the lighthouse. When she does that, May pops out from the ceiling to reclaim her Calvary title, and she and Coulson take down everyone in the room.
While Daisy is fighting Malick, he mentions that the only way to stop him would also end up killing her as well, and she ultimately decided to fire off one gigantic vibrational wave that mirrored the first time she ever activated her powers (they even included her hero score as well). The blast kills Malick and launches her into space and she starts to freeze like Gamora did back in Guardians of The Galaxy. However, the Zephyr pulls up and it’s Kora who ends up bringing Daisy back to life. After this is over, we learn that the FitzSimmons’ had a kid and were raising her as they built the time machine to save their friends. I was so relieved to see that the whole team survived. No need to kill or surprise anyone for shock value. The whole family was together again.
When we cut to the scene that is one year later, it’s our last scene of all of them together. Ironically enough, they are having a virtual meeting and we then get to see how everyone ended up. The FitzSimmons’ have retired and are raising their kid, Mack is still the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and now has the Nick Fury jacket (which he’s most definitely earned), Mack is still director from a rebuilt helicarrier, May is lecturing young S.H.I.E.L.D. students, Yo-yo is leading her own strike team with Piper and an LMD Davis, and Daisy has a happy life with Sousa as S.H.I.E.L.D. commanders, but more importantly she’s bonding with her sister and has actual family – which is what she’s been searching for since the first episode of series.
Overall, I’m so happy with how Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wrapped up. Although I’m sad that I wont be seeing the cast on a weekly basis again, I’m grateful for the amazing ride we were able to take with them. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been a spectacular adventure and it’s no wonder why it was Marvel’s longest running live-action series. Not many shows these days get to go out on their own terms (especially in the comic book genre), but the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writers definitely finished this season and the series in its entirety on a high note.
