Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Finale Roundup

Source: flickeringmyth.com

Let’s take a look at the second half of the season, remember those we’ve lost, and more importantly, see how my theories held up!

I’ve already recapped the first half of the season in the Midseason Finale Roundup, so lets start where we left off.

Right off the bat, we get a chilling vision from three months from now – though we can’t see who it will be, someone will die in a Quinjet explosion. The only identifying factors we have is a S.H.I.E.L.D. jacket and a cross necklace – the cross necklace who belongs to a new Inhuman with a unique take on super speed, Elena Rodriguez. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team heads to Colombia to investigate the theft of a large amount of weapons from the police, and when Mack finds out Elena is behind it, she kidnaps him and he nicknames her “Yo-Yo”. When they bring Elena in, they realize that the police were corrupt and she was trying to destroy the weapons. After a mission with Joey and Daisy to see what she can do, they recruit her for the Secret Warriors and give her a S.H.I.E.L.D. watch, as a “Avengers Assemble” signal.

The zombified Ward (let’s call him Hive, even though we don’t know that’s his name yet) is weak and sickly, and Malick and Giyera are starting to doubt his powers. He turns to spores and infects Giyera, rapidly changing his mind. A new Inhuman with Medusa-like powers named Lucio is abducted by HYDRA to be added to Hive’s army as well. Despite Malick’s orders, they leave his side and get him some fresh humans, which he devours to restore his body to full Brett Dalton glory.

Coulson is trying to track down Gideon Malick, but e ven the president won’t help because he’s so rich and powerful. He does, however, agree to let S.H.I.E.L.D. operate in the shadows, using the A.T.C.U. as a front. He appoints General Talbot as the new head of the A.T.C.U. to work with Coulson. Talbot and Coulson head to a conference in Asia about the Inhuman threat, suspecting one of the international delegates is secretly working with HYDRA. Coulson has his team sweeping the area, and Talbot has Absorbing Man as backup. It turns out that the “inside man” was Talbot after all, setting Coulson up after the kidnapping of his son by claiming Coulson’s the head of HYDRA and calling for his arrest. As Talbot and Coulson escape prison with the help of the team, and make amends, Bobbi and Hunter have snuck onto the jet of Malick and his new business partner, the Russian delegate Petrov.

Hunter and Bobbi pursue them to an abandoned facility, and find out that they intend to repurpose it into an Inhuman “sanctuary”, which will serve as an army training ground for Hive. Upon infiltrating the facility with the rest of the team, they discover the prime minister’s attaché has been killed – the prime minister didn’t agree with the idea so Androvich, an Inhuman general with the ability to control his shadow, killed him. The Russian prime minister arrives, and the team work against the clock to take out the general, find Malick and stop the prime minister’s assassination. Hunter kills Petrov and Bobbi kills Androvich, but Malick escapes. Rather than admit his own government was trying to kill him, the Russian prime minister has Bobbi and Hunter arrested by Interpol. Refusing to divulge that they were working under Coulson’s (and therefore the President’s) orders, Bobbi and Hunter decide to take one for the team, and are disavowed as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They are now most wanted international criminals, and can never associate with the team again (even though their spin-off Most Wanted was cancelled). They share a tearful goodbye with the team.

Mack is hit the hardest by their departure, and takes some time off to spend with his brother Ruben. This is short-lived, as an Inhuman hate group The Watchdogs take out the A.T.C.U. headquarters. Coulson becomes Lincoln’s S.O., as Lincoln failed his entrance exam at the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy, and they go to find Felix Blake, the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who formed the hate group after being curbstomped by Deathlok. As Daisy and Fitz race against the clock to save Fitz from a nitramene time bomb, the Watchdogs are after Mack, mistakenly believing him to be the Inhuman. Ruben sides with the Watchdogs until they come after him and Mack, and Mack has to reveal his life as a spy when they take out the terrorists. He gets injured in the process and is carried to the hospital. Meanwhile, it is revealed that the Watchdogs are working with HYDRA (and aren’t smart enough to realize it).

The team starts tracking a new lead of Charles Hinton, a homeless Inhuman who is being tracked by HYDRA and has the ability to show people glimpses of the future – someone’s death. He accidentally touches Daisy and shows her his own death, and she resolves to change this course of events (even though Fitz points out it is literally impossible). In order for the events to play out differently, they decide to send May on the mission instead of Daisy. This is sidetracked when Andrew turns himself in, because he’s about to turn to Lash permanently.

Daisy heads on the mission to the Transia Corp. building, where HYDRA has taken Charles. Hive has killed all the bigwigs and gives Malick a Crossbones exoskeleton suit, so he can kill the CEO himself. S.H.I.E.L.D. finds out that Ward (or at least his body) is still alive. As Daisy fights Malick on the rooftop, she is unable to prevent Charles’ death, so she promises to take care of his daughter Robin. He touches her one last time, and she sees the vision of the future – someone dying in a Quinjet explosion. Meanwhile, Malick (who was also touched by Charles) is scared that Giyera is siding with Hive and not himself.

Hive calls a meeting with all the HYDRA cult members at Malick’s estate. Malick reveals to his daughter that he saw a vision of his own death, and suspects Hive to be the culprit. Hive reveals his true face to the HYDRA board, and also reveals privately that he knows Malick has been “cheating” so he wouldn’t be sent through the Monolith all along. He knows this, because one of his many forms is Nathaniel, Gideon’s younger brother. Gideon accepts his death, but Hive chooses to kill his daughter Stephanie anyway to show him true pain. A broken Malick loses all faith in Hive as an entity. Daisy and Lincoln go on a team to meet an old Afterlife Inhuman named James, an Aussie with a bad temper who is salty that he was never given powers. They trick him into giving them an ancient Kree artifact. Daisy tells Lincoln about her vision. Meanwhile the team captures Giyera, who ends up taking over the ship and leading it back to the HYDRA base. Daisy calls in the Secret Warriors.

Daisy, Lincoln, Joey and Yo-Yo capture Malick, kill Lucio, and rescue the team, but they find out one of them has been “swayed” by Hive and is secretly evil. All evidence points to Lincoln, and he is locked up – however, it ends up being Daisy, and she breaks out, killing Malick and taking the Kree artifact to Hive. Joey quits the team. Hive and Daisy turn James into a explosive new Inhuman and sway him to their side, finding the second half of the Kree artifact.

Realizing that Hive is parasitic, the newly dating Fitz and Simmons decide to speak with a Dr. Holden Radcliffe about a way to stop Hive, but Daisy breaks in and kidnaps Radcliffe. Hive purchases a whole town with Malick’s money, and decides to start experimenting on turning humans into Inhumans. The original experiments go terribly wrong, so Hive uses the artifact to summon Kree warriors to Earth so they can harvest their blood to make fresh Inhumans. S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives and helps kill the aliens, leaving their dead blood unusable. Meanwhile, Lincoln has injected himself with an Inhuman/pathogen cure made from Absorbing Man’s blood to test if it will work on Daisy, and his immune system shuts down. He is put in quarantine.

Following the Sokovia Accords of Captain America: Civil War, Talbot arrives to register the Inhumans. Yo-Yo is not willing, but Lincoln is; anything to get him out of his quarantine bay. He starts communicating with Daisy, who he knows has hacked into their system. They make plans to meet and Daisy helps break Lincoln out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base and get to the Quinjet hangar.

Meanwhile, in Hive’s town, Daisy is losing blood – they decided to drain the Kree blood him her, not having any other hosts. Hive kidnaps some Watchdogs as test subjects, and Radcliffe turns them into monstrous Alpha Primitives, obedient Inhuman monsters that are under Hive’s sway. Lincoln is set to arrive on the Quinjet, but Lash arrives instead – Lincoln had been faking out Daisy from the get go. Lash and Hive fight, and Lash ends up saving Daisy and removing Hive’s parasites from her mind. She escapes as Lash gets killed by James, and returns to the base. They realize that Hive has stolen a nuclear warhead from the A.T.C.U. and plans on using it on the world, turning everyone into Alpha Primitives.

Daisy is depressed and kept in containment, going into withdrawals from Hive’s sway. The rest of the team races against the clock to foil Hive’s plot to launch his missile, and do so just in time. The team captures Hive and rescues Radcliffe, but Giyera and James escape with the warhead. The baddies sneak a bomb to S.H.I.E.L.D. and detonate it in the hangar just after the base is locked down, turning several agents into Primitives as Fitz is locked in with them. Simmons rescues Fitz just in time, but the Primitives free Hive. Hive steals the Zephyr One, planning to use it as his new missile. Daisy breaks free and confronts Hive, begging him to take her back.

Hive claims he can’t sway Daisy, due to what Lash did to her. They fight and she is abducted onto the Zephyr, where Fitz and May are hiding. Fitz kills Giyera and they free Daisy, while the rest of the agents fight off Primitives at the base. Yo-Yo is shot and is gravely injured. Coulson decides to take a Quinjet to fight Hive alone, blaming himself for bringing him to Earth. Coulson plans on flying the Quinjet into space and detonating it, sacrificing himself to save the world. The rest of the team, sans Yo-Yo, sneaks onto the plane as well. James and Lincoln fight, and James attaches a bomb to Lincoln, seriously injuring him as well. Believing it’s her destiny, Daisy loads the warhead onto the Quinjet and is about to take it to space with Hive on it, when Lincoln reveals himself in the passenger seat and zaps Daisy off the Quinjet. He blasts off into space, and as Daisy and Lincoln share a final moment similar to the ending of Captain America: The First Avenger, the Quinjet explodes in space, killing Lincoln and Hive.

Six months later, Daisy is on the run as the vigilante Quake, robbing banks to keep her promise in protecting Robin, Charles’ daughter. Coulson has stepped down as director and has dedicated himself to finding Quake. Dr. Radcliffe is working with Fitz and Simmons on a new project: Life-Model Decoys.

Let’s see what I rated each episode.

Bouncing Back – 7.5/10
The Inside Man – 7/10
Parting Shot – 7.5/10
Watchdogs – 7.5/10
Spacetime – 9/10
Paradise Lost – 7.5/10
The Team – 10/10
The Singularity* – 8/10
Failed Experiments – 8/10
Emancipation – 8/10
Absolution – 8/10
Ascension – 9.5/10

Average: 8.125

Season Average: 8.1375

*Eagle-eyed readers may notice I never recapped or reviewed this episode due to meeting Clark Gregg at a local convention. However, it was 8/10.

If I can say anything about this half of the season, it was largely consistent.

Let’s look at my outstanding crackpot theories and see how they held up!

Simmons is on Ego the Living Planet!
Sometimes a Maveth is just a Maveth.

“It” is the Unspoken!
Nope, Hive.

Joey’s codename will be Meltdown!
No codename as of yet. Fingers crossed!

“It” is The Hive!
Nailed it.

Lash and “It” will clash in an epic battle!
Aw yeah, episode 20, son!

Mack and Yo-Yo will date, and Mack or May will die in the Quinjet!
While the Yo-Yo Mack chemistry is undeniable, both Mack and May survived the season.

Brett Dalton will exit the show by season end as Ward/Hive!
We will miss you, Brett!

Fitzsimmons are gonna date!
And is it ever glorious.

Lincoln is going to regret joining S.H.I.E.L.D.!
He did, shortly before his violent death.

Final Secret Warriors will consist of Daisy, Lincoln, Yo-Yo, Joey, Creel and Eden Fesi!
Well, not Lincoln.

Bobbi and Hunter will exit the show after killing either Petrov or Malick!
Hunter did kill Petrov, but Daisy killed Malick.

Swordsman will appear in Most Wanted!
We will sadly never know.

Gideon will fire the nuke, and Mack will die in the Quinjet!
Wrong on both counts, Jesse.

Blake will die!
Surprisingly going strong.

Lash’s purpose is to stop Hive!
Technically he didn’t, but I still believe Andrew went against Inhuman design and this was his purpose.

Hive is building a T-Bomb and will nuke the world full of Terrigen! Also Andrew will die in the Quinjet.
Essentially, yes. Except the Andrew part.

The Transia Corp. exoskeleton will be worn by Crossbones in Civil War!
Possibly. They look similar, but no word on whether they are actually the same.

Hive will torture Simmons as Will!
Yes, and it was heartbreaking.

Hive will brainwash Lincoln!
That’s what they wanted us to think. It was Daisy all along!

James is Hellfire!
Yes, yes he is.

May, Lincoln or Mack will die in the Quinjet – but probably May (x2)!
Well, I added Lincoln’s name to the roster. It’s a start?

Lastly, let’s remember the important cast members we’ve lost this season.

• Brett Dalton as Grant Ward and Hive, 53 episodes.
• Nick Blood as Lance Hunter, 34 episodes.
• Adrianne Palicki as Dr. Barbara Morse, 30 episodes.
• Luke Mitchell as Dr. Lincoln Campbell, 25 episodes.
• Blair Underwood and Matthew Willig as Dr. Andrew Garner and Lash, 11 episodes and 6 episodes respectively.
• Powers Boothe as Gideon Malick, 11 episodes (and a movie!).
• Mark Dacascos as R. Giyera, 11 episodes.
• Constance Zimmer as Director Rosalind Price, 7 episodes.
• Andrew Howard as Agent Luther Banks, 6 episodes.
• Alicia Vela-Bailey as Alisha Whitley, 6 episodes.
• Daz Crawford as Kebo, 5 episodes.
• Gabriel Salvador as Lucio, 3 episodes.
• Dillion Casey as Will Daniels, 2 episodes.
  

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