The Collective TV/Film

Agents of SHIELD Finale Sets Up a Potentially Bittersweet Final Season

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By The Nerdling

Spoilers for Agents of SHIELD Season 6!

The penultimate season of Agents of SHIELD has been a bit of a mixed bag. The shortened season’s narrative, while a little confusing, was fast-paced and exciting. There were also two amazing isolated episodes which focused on the growth of a couple of characters. For the most part, I found the 13-episodes to be overall entertaining. Especially with how they treated the elephant in the room.

How do you continue with a series when the beloved star (and the reason why you have a show in the first place) dies? Clone his atoms so a non-corporeal, interdimensional being can inhabit him, then go crazy from hazy memories of human life, of course.

Sarge was a great workaround to keep Clark Greg/Coulson around. The mysterious character was different enough you couldn’t confuse him with the diseased director of SHIELD. But connected enough that he doesn’t come off as a cheap ploy. And thankfully, Sarge was only a temporary solution.

E13 Sarge and Izel
Image Courtesy of Marvel Entertainment and ABC

I was a bit shocked the writers gave Izel and Sarge’s storyline an ending in the finale. It felt like there was a lot of setting up going on and there would be no way it could be solved by the end of the season. But the set up was for something very different and much more exciting than another world-ending event.

Yes, the Chronicons are taking over Earth. And that is another extinction-level event SHIELD will have to deal with. But first, the Chronicons must deal with SHIELD. To keep SHIELD alive, the crew much go back in time to the founding of the SSR. To navigate the history of SSR and SHIELD, they need a history buff. Enter a Coulson LMD.

Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen are very clever. The easiest way to get Coulson back to the series would have been to make him an LMD. But doing that would have cheapened Coulson’s choice to die in the way he should have. Sarge’s presence put enough of a distance between the death of Coulson and the building of the Coulson LMD so the season 5 finale still has emotional weight.

I’m not sure how long the time travel storyline will dominate the final season, but it is a genius way to start saying goodbye to the show and its characters. It may also provide an opportunity for fans of Agent Carter to get closure for characters not named Peggy Carter.

Season 7 just finished filming in the last week prompting several cast members to post photos to various social media. In her excitement, Ming Na Wen may have accidentally posted a minor spoiler. On her Instagram, she posted a photo of the bikes the cast and crew were given when production wrapped. One of the bikes had the name Enver Gjokaj attached to it. The photo has since been deleted.

Peggy Carter and Daniel Sousa
Image Courtesy of Marvel Entertainment and ABC

For those who don’t remember, Gjokaj played Daniel Sousa on Agent Carter. Up until Avengers: Endgame, Sousa was thought to be the man Peggy Carter referred to as her husband in Captain America: Winter Soldier (the screenwriters have debunked this).

Agent Carter was never technically canceled by ABC, but it is pretty obvious the series is not going to get a third season. Traveling back to the beginnings of the Strategic Scientific Reserve does allow for some characters from the series to come back and be given a real farewell.

As of right now, there is no news as to how the final season of Agents of SHIELD will play out. But for now, we can hope characters like Jack Thompson, Daniel Sousa, and Dottie Underwood can be given satisfying endings to their arcs along with the rest of our favorite agents.

The Nerdling was born in the majestic land known as Texas and currently resides there after several years of journeying through Middle Earth in a failed attempt to steal the one Ring from that annoying hobbit, serving the Galactic Empire for a time, and then a short stint as a crew member on the Serenity. Since moving back to her homeland, Nerdling flirted with a hero reputation. Saving children from the dangers of adoring domineering, sparkly vampires (champions with souls are the only vampires worth loving) and teaching normals the value of nerdom, all while rooting for her beloved Dallas Stars. Then came the Sokovia Accords and her short spell of saving others came to an end. With Darth Vader’s reputation rightfully returning to badass status, Nerdling is making her way back to the Empire. They do have cookies, you know. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram.