Agents of SHIELD S05E22 Review: The Needs of the Many

Agents of SHIELD, Season 5, Episode 22: The End

And that's it. That's the end. While Agents of SHIELD apparently has garnered enough goodwill for the Marvel overlords to sign on for a sixth season, this is perhaps one of the better ways a show can end with the huge weight of history, ending in a satisfying blend of tears and hope, closing up the storylines of a majority of the characters and giving a very bittersweet conclusion for a character that's been with us for around the better part of a decade. Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson is a character that's honestly pretty dear to my heart after several MCU movies and five seasons of Agents of SHIELD, a very charismatic lead that ends up resigning himself to eventual death and accepting it. Coulson's grounded performance has been what made the MCU and Agents of SHIELD's otherworldly and fantastical wackiness feel so anchored despite all the craziness. 

It's an episode that, sure, spends a good chunk of its time dealing with the supervillain they've built up for the past couple of episodes, but the strongest moments have to be the last five minutes or so as Phil Coulson delivers that speech. Whatever the future of the show may be, they're saying goodbye to Clark Gregg for sure, and the farewell -- which could've easily been cheesy -- ends up being pretty damn well-done. Sure, the triple fake-out with Fitz's death and the plague they put on Zephyr One ends up being slightly comical instead of dramatic, but having Coulson retire to the real Tahiti, spending whatever days he has left with May, the woman he loves, is pretty well done. We tie off a few ends -- Simmons quite literally has a spare Fitz in space that she's planning to bring home, Mack becomes the new leader instead of Daisy, who isn't ready. The new SHIELD blasts off with Daisy bidding Coulson a tearful "I love you", and Coulson and May just stand there looking into the distance, content and peaceful. And honestly it's so well done that any attempt to bring Coulson back for a gratuitous cameo in any future installment would honestly betray this beautiful character arc. 

But, of course, as masterful as the ending is, there's still he rest of the episode. The first part of the episode is the argument from the previous episode dragged on, with everyone arguing on whether they should save Coulson or save the world, with both sides acknowledging that none of this is a surefire shot. Poor, poor Elana's probably the one who's arguing against saving Coulson (or rather, arguing to prevent the cracked-earth timeline from ever coming into fruition) and her tearful performance is actually well done. It's a bit anticlimactic, though, that the argument ends with May smashing the Odium while Mack is speechifying. I thought that ended up going somewhat against the grain of what Mack's huge speech is all about.

There's a bit of a jump back and forth with Elena apologizing to Coulson (who of course doesn't blame him), Talbot threatening Robin (who draws the entire half of the globe as where Gravitonium is), May and Daisy both trying to get Coulson to see the merits in keeping him alive, and Daisy acknowledging that she's not ready to lead and them voting for Mack as the new director. 

It's a bit corny, sure, but SHIELD ends up mostly on rescue duty, hailed as heroes by the police as they arrive to pull people out of the line of fire. Coulson had refused to take the cure, and Daisy angrily tells him to return to the base to take it. Quake then battles Graviton in a metahuman battle and it's... it's all right. We've got a bunch of pretty fun epic battles, and while it's not quite MCU movie level, it's pretty epic nonetheless. Daisy ends up finding out that Coulson's slipped the cure (which is part Centipede, a power-boosting compound) into her gauntlets, and she ends up taking it and then super-Quaking Talbot into space where he freezes to death. It's apparently a third option that causes Robin to go "something's wrong" and that they've broken the loop, because apparently they picked a third option. Use the plot device on Daisy to defeat Talbot. And before the superheroing punch, we actually do get Daisy to take Coulson's advice and try to talk Talbot down by appealing to his patriotism, but, of course, the man's too far gone. Nice sentiment, though. 

Speaking of the timeline being changed, though, was the moment when Fitz realizes that Robin's mom doesn't survive in the future, and he ends up rescuing her before being buried in the rubble. And there's the tense back-and-forth with Fitz's fate. He's alive under that rubble! Oh, that scared me -- oh wait, he can't feel his legs, oh wait, he's dying. Oh wait, he's dead. Oh no, Simmons is sad... but not really because they have a spare Fitz. I really wished this wasn't done this way, because it feels like a last bit of attempting to milk out the Fitz-Simmons-are-separated drama before we close. Not that it's not touching or done well, but it really just feels eye-rolling when I end up realizing that, oh, they just straight-up have a spare. 

But ultimately? A damn good finale, a pretty good final battle to a very solid season, and a very grand exit to Phil Coulson, the heart of SHIELD.

For those who have been following my reviews of Agents of SHIELD since season two, I bid you all a huge thank you. I've not always been the most consistent at putting these TV episode reviews out at a consistent and timely manner, but I've definitely had a lot of fun in doing so. We'll finish up Legion's second season in the next week, and then continue with Cloak and Dagger and the second season of Luke Cage hopefully some time in the next month. Until then, adieu!