Agents of SHIELD is a show that simply can’t catch a break.  There is a vocal crowd of impatient viewers that didn’t like the character-building portion of the first season, and outright refuses to consider that the series has evolved tremendously since then.  Much of the negative reaction to this finale seems to come from a place of stubborn resistance: folks who continue to watch the show, even as they dig in their heels and maintain that the show does nothing right. 

The second season of Agents of SHIELD rendered the details of what was mentioned almost in passing in Age of Ultron: what kind of organization does SHIELD want to be?  One haunted by its mistakes as an unknowing front for Hydra, or a reborn force for good in the world?  It’s not entirely that simple, but those who chose to live up to the ideals of SHIELD proved as much in the finale, even when personal desires and survival were on the line.




In a nice touch, Jiaying’s crusade to wipe out humanity and leave the world to the Inhumans was less a militant branch of the larger Inhuman community and more a reflection of SHIELD’s sins.  Hydra did all those horrible things to Jiaying and her family with SHIELD blissfully unaware of the demons in their midst.  And ultimately, Jiaying convinced those around her to subscribe to her personal vendetta.  It quickly focuses the finale while avoiding the temptation to drag higher-visibility Inhumans into the story.

It’s essentially a riff on what was revealed in Winter Soldier; Hydra’s goal to rule through fear is best accomplished when its enemies become convinced that such methods are valid.  Hydra didn’t push through Project Insight despite Director Fury; they slowly but surely let his own worst instincts lead him to the desired outcome.  Jiaying wasn’t being played by others, but internally, everything she did was a result of what Hydra did to her.  She was still living in those moments and, in essence, let Hydra turn her into an agent of chaos.




All of which informs Skye’s decision point: does she follow in the misbegotten footsteps of her parents, or choose the ideals of SHIELD, despite its failures?  There was never any real doubt, of course, though it was rather nice to see how many of the seemingly random hints over the past two seasons finally came together.  And not unlike her physical transformation at mid-season, the end of the finale sees Skye as someone very different.  (Which is why those who pretend Skye hasn’t grown over the past two seasons are woefully out of touch.)









Anyone who was waiting to see if Cal would actually go “full Mr. Hyde” must have been rather pleased.  And it gave Kyle MacLachlan one final chance to show how brilliantly he could portray a lunatic.  What made the character work was the core of humanity within the monster; Cal was never what one would call sane, but there was a part of him that genuinely cared about his family.  In that respect, he was also a reflection of what Gonsalez and others thought of Coulson, which given Coulson’s role as Skye’s “father figure”, adds some layers to the entire season.




Contrast this to Ward, whose veneer of humanity is finally revealed to be easily discarded.  There may be traces of his “love” for Skye in there, but he is consumed by displaced anger.  All he wants is to strike out at SHIELD, even if that means taking command of the remnants of Hydra in the process.  I’ll be curious to see if he transforms Hydra into something new, or simply maintains the old name for the sake of twisting that particular psychological knife.  Either way, this continues Ward’s evolution since the very beginning, and in many ways, continues to paint him as a foil to Skye.









I almost wish that the potential spinoff for Bobbi and Hunter hadn’t been so publicized, because it was hard to take the notion of Bobbi being in mortal peril seriously when she might have been headlining a series of her own!  That said, seeing how a season’s worth of reconciliation between Bobbi and Hunter came to a head was worth the time.  I won’t pretend that I care as much for Hunter, but the rift between them was just one of the ways the rift in SHIELD was personalized, so this was a fitting point for them to reach.




It’s hard to tell what the intentions are for Fitz and Simmons, other than the general idea that Fitz had his transformation and now it might be Simmons’ turn.  Not everyone can get together in a finale, but steps were definitely taken in that direction.  I have no idea what might happen to Simmons now, but wouldn’t it be an interesting turn of events if she were modified to such an extent that she was a candidate for Skye’s new team?








The final moments revealed that the Terrigen crystals dissolved and found its way into the human food supply.  The assumption is that it might be enough to activate terrigenesis in those with Inhuman DNA, but not enough to kill those without it.  That’s one way to carry forward the potential threat of an increasing number of powered individuals in the MCU, if only to give Skye’s team and Ward’s new Hydra a common recruiting field.  And as a final thought, was Coulson’s loss of a hand a tip of the hat to the Phase 2 homages to Empire Strikes Back?