After an intensely packed episode last week, the fall finale of Agents of SHIELD was one of the series’ biggest hours ever, as Coulson makes a major decision that leads to the death of one of the show’s original characters that has been there from the start.
The strongest part of the finale was everything that was happening on the mystery planet, although it had a few flaws which we will get into. Fitz and Ward’s scenes were just awkwardly fun to follow because of everything that has happened between them on the show. However, nothing beats what went down between Coulson and Ward, because that’s where the episode got to a new level, but also where I got incredibly mixed on the outcome. We had been hearing for a while that someone on the show would get killed off, and it was heavily speculated that it would be one of the six original cast members. As Coulson had the choice to either leave the almost-beaten-to-death Ward and go to the portal or take Ward with him, Phil picked neither option and used his robotic hand to kill Grant Ward. The scene was charged with all sorts of emotions, and it had an impact for sure, but it took several minutes for me to process the idea that Ward was now dead, and shockingly, it didn’t stop there.
As someone who disliked Mack a lot in the second half of Season 2 last year, seeing the growth and evolution that he has gone through this season has made him one of my favorite characters to follow, especially when he is leading SHIELD. He is a born leader and seeing him in that type of environment as opposed to where he was last year is just pure fun. The thing that I feel like have been missing in this first half of Agents of SHIELD Season 3 is the clear representation of the Secret Warriors, which is a key point this season. However, in this episode, we start to really see the team come together in small portions with Lincoln, Daisy, and Gutierrez. However, I’m hoping for some Marvel characters to pop into the group, especially more female characters.
Now let’s discuss that crazy ending, as it was revealed that this unnamed ancient Inhuman has taken possession of Ward’s body and followed our heroes back to Earth, with Gideon discovering him. The major disappointment about this aspect is the fact that not only did we not get a single clue as to who this Inhuman can be, as he is most likely someone from the comic books, but we now have to wait over three months to get answers. It would have been appreciated if the showrunners had been willing to give us at least something to chew on while we wait for the series to come back. I’m still not sure how I feel about Ward now being dead and possessed by this Inhuman, but I’m glad that we will still see Brett Dalton on the show for the rest of the season. While part of me wants to say that Agents of SHIELD made the finale pretty lackluster by not giving us any clues, I really can’t because the show still pulled a couple of unexpected moves.
Overall, it was a solid fall finale. The pacing was on and off throughout the episode, and it was difficult to keep track of everything that was going on in the first viewing of it. It’s going to be a long wait, but hopefully we will get some hints during the hiatus, because boy, do I need some answers!
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will return with new episodes on Tuesday, March 8, at 9/8c on ABC.
[Photo via ABC]
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