Recap: ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Series Finale Ends Marvel’s Best Show

by Conan Simmons – August 13, 2020 – 5:44 am

The exciting adventures of the superspies tracking all the threats in the Marvel Universe have finally come to a close. The series finale aired last night on ABC and it did not disappoint.

Premiering in 2013 the show was touted as being a tie-in with the popular films. Picking up where ‘Iron Man 3’ left off we were introduced to the fan favorite Agent Coulson after his incident in ‘The Avengers’ a year earlier. Tracking down a strain of the Extremis virus called Centipede his newly assembled team would encounter other characters from the movies including Lady Sif and SHIELD agents Maria Hill and Nick Fury.

The strongest tie-in with the movies came in the last half of the first season which followed a major story thread about Hydra infiltrating SHIELD that was introduced in the movie ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’.

I have to say my favorite part of the first season was the inclusion of a lesser known character from the comic books, Deathlok. Sadly, after the first season he only made one or two more appearances on the show. It would have been pretty cool had his character been utilized more.

Seasons 2 and 3 dove more into character development for our heroes while introducing them to threats from outer space and a variation on mutants called Inhumans. There was a short lived spinoff series ‘Inhumans’ that aired for only one season that didn’t include the Inhumans featured in ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ The connection to the movies was looser in these seasons providing more opportunities to examine who these characters are, from the mystery surrounding Coulson to Agent Daisy Johnson meeting both her parents and discovering their secrets.

Season 4 was interestingly presented in two halves. The first half of the season followed the team tracking down Agent Johnson after she goes rogue under the name Quake. She finds herself on the streets of L.A. where she teams up with new Ghost Rider, Robbie Reyes. Together they help the SHIELD team stop the Molecule Man from using the Darkhold, a mystical book of black magic.

The second half of the season introduced the famed LMD’s, or Life Model Decoys, from the comic books that are never too far behind whenever SHIELD turns up. This would lead them to a confrontation with Madame Hydra herself.

Season 4 did the most to break away from having any connection to the movies. Season 5 brought it back a little closer but still be disconnected enough to allow the show to be its own thing. That season saw the team stranded on a spaceship sometime in the future after Earth had been destroyed. The Kree Empire controlled what little was left of humanity and the team had to work together with the mysterious Enoch to find a way back to their own time.

Season 6 took some of the biggest chances by introducing alternate dimensions and a seemingly unstoppable galaxy hopping hate beast. One of the most memorable episodes of this season was ‘Fear and Loathing on Planet Kitson’ a takeoff on Hunter S. Thompson’s celebrated novel ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. More accurately it mimics the movie adaptation that starred Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro.

And finally, last night saw the end of season 7 where our heroic team of SHIELD agents were forced to time hop from 1931’s prohibition age to the anti-communist mania of the 1950’s, into the 1970’s and especially 1983 where at least one agent feels at home by becoming a rock star. The SHIELD team must stop alien robots called Chronicoms that want to control all of time by wiping S.H.I.E.L.D. from history.

The standout episode from this season for me was episode 9, ‘As I Have Always Been’, which did a fantastic job with the theory of space-time. Another memorable episode was ‘The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and the D’ that found Mack, always afraid of killer robots, face his worst fear in an homage to ’80s splatter films.

The series starred Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, reprising his role from previous Marvel movies. Also starring Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Henry Simmons and Natalia Cordova-Buckley. Brett Dalton and Patton Oswalt had recurring roles. Season 1 featured a standout performance by Bill Paxton shortly before he passed away.

The series did well by doing the most with its network television budget. Lots of memorable characters were encountered and villains faced. My favorite villain from the series was the Inhuman hunting Lash from season 3.

The best thing about this series was, opposed to the movies, it understood that you couldn’t just go back in time to fix whatever problem you have. You have to keep moving forward.

As sad as it is to see this, the best of Marvel shows to air, come to a close, all things must end.