Danielle Solzman
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD came to an end on Wednesday night following the two-hour series finale after seven seasons.
For SEO purposes, I’ve referred to Agents of SHIELD without the periods. Be warned that spoilers will follow if you didn’t watch the series finale.
Please continue at your own risk.
I mean it. There are spoilers here!
The series finale could have gone in any direction. But I guess in some way, I knew that the team would go out on top. Though the two-hour finale didn’t come without sacrifice or scares.
Going into the season, the showrunners said that they would run up against something big during the final season. No matter how much I wanted a run-in with the Avengers or even the final battle with Thanos, it turns out the something big was something else entirely. That something else turned out to be Project Insight. In a way, the series went full circle. Agents of SHIELD started out slowly but the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier helped the first season end strongly. The series would have a few more tie-ins to other films and both Nick Fury and Maria Hill would make appearances. However, the series hasn’t really connected with the Marvel Cinematic Universe lately. No crossovers. No cameos. Nothing. Sure, some seasons would feature thematic tie-ins to the films but nothing else.
The final season also played around with genres whether it be a noir, 80s, or a good old time loop. Once the season jumped into the 80s and went to Afterlife, the events were sent in motion for the final arc. It didn’t come without questions as Leo Fitz was nowhere to be seen. Fitz finally showed up in the penultimate episode–by way of flashbacks, of course. Thankfully, Fitz made his first in-person appearance during the series finale with yet another tie-in. This time to Avengers: Endgame. The Quantum Realm not only allows people and objects to travel through time but to a completely different timeline altogether. Unfortunately, to get back to present day in the correct timeline, Deke Shaw had to stay behind. I was fine with this because the character came from the future.
Next to Project Insight, we learned about the early beginnings of Hydra this season. Following some time in the 30s, the team jumped into the 1950s. I love how Jemma Simmons disguised herself as Peggy Carter. The biggest disappointment came when Carter herself didn’t make an appearance. The episode helped to provide closure to the short-lived Agent Carter. We got the opportunity to reunite with Enver Gjokaj’s Daniel Sousa. Much like the Captain America of his time, Sousa would also become a man out of time. I’m glad this happened even though he was the first fallen agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. It brought about a change in the atmosphere. And love. Daisy Johnson gets a happy ending by getting another boyfriend on the series. It gets better when Daisy gets a sister in Kora (Diane Doan). There were some rough bumps but in the end, things turn out for the best.
Even in the end, Enoch was still helping out the team. Following the blast, everyone gathered at the hidden S.H.I.E.L.D outpost. Everyone had a briefcase containing something important with orders to guard it with their life. All the objects would combine to build a pathway to the Quantum Realm and Fitz. Fitz helped explain what happened to Fitz and Simmons prior to Simmons saving the team at the temple. And the rest is history.
There were some scares in the final minutes but Kora saved the day. Without Kora, Daisy would be dead. I thought for sure that Daisy was sacrificing herself much in the same way that Tony Stark did in Avengers: Endgame. Thankfully, this didn’t happen.
The series concluded with an epilogue taking place one year later. In what may be the perfect conclusion for a series in 2020, the team held a virtual reunion and caught up with each other. They might never be together again but everyone survives into the future.
ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” starred Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson, Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Jeff Ward as Deke Shaw, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Henry Simmons as Alphonso “Mack” MacKenzie, and Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Elena “Yo-Yo” Rodriguez.
