Things I loved about the Agents of SHIELD finale

A couple of very cool things I loved about Tuesday's Agents of SHIELD season finale. 

• Mack's mom watches Fox News.
• The thorn protects the rose... or the daisy.  
• You want to talk about this... now.
• Oh yeah. Skye was a hacker.
• Mack's choice of weapon.
• Science, beeeatch.
• Ward's still a very bad man.
• Melinda May is pretty clever.  
• Another Marvel Star Wars homage.
• Fish oil.
• Stupid alien technology.

Looking forward to Season 3... I just hope Simmons fate at the end of the episode isn't like Fred/Illyria on Angel. I don't know if I can handle that kind of heartbreak. 

Spoilers: Agents of SHIELD 'Afterlife'

What an awesome Agents of SHIELD episode this week. "Afterlife" was perhaps their best episode, yet. It's been a while since I've been that surprised by an hour of television. Spoilers below. And lots of exclamation points! I was particularly delighted by:

• Coulson and Hunter! Bad options! Awesome. 
• Shield Team Battlestar!
• Skye's Dad! Skye's MOM! Reassembled. What! Didn't see that coming. 
• Reinforcements! Deathlok! Love the return of Agent Peterson. 
• Loaded gun!
• Our bad option: Grant Ward!
• The return of FitzSimmons! And the sandwich. 

I'm too often spoiled by episode descriptions and Twitter, but I've been busy and not paying attention. So I went into the episode spoiler-free and I seriously enjoyed the episode more than usual.  

 

S.H.I.E.L.D. sets up Season Two

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. finale aired last night and I'm glad I stuck with the show after a slow start. TV executives are so quick to pull the plug on shows today. S.H.I.E.L.D. had a better chance than most shows because the ABC/Disney/Marvel conglomerate has a vested interest in its success. The show is well positioned going forward. Hopefully, it can build a solid audience through the next season.

Spoilers ahead. You've been warned.

A couple of thoughts on the show:

Ward. I was worried they would try to redeem Ward. He's done so many evil things, it wouldn't feel right to have him see the error of his ways and die trying to save a member of the team. Nope. Ward is just plain evil. End of story. And he's in prison so we'll see him again, I'm sure.

Fitzsimmons. Heart wrenching. 

The dialogue. Some really great Whedonesque lines. My favorite was Fury's line at the end... Something like: "I count the number of people I trust on one hand, and I'm not afraid to cut off fingers." Also "You were never on top." But too many solid lines to list here.

Gruesome. I actually cringed when Garrett pulled the general's rib out of his body and stabbed him with it. And the nail gun to Ward's foot. Ouch.

Nick Fury. Seemed out of place somehow. Maybe it was the sunglasses. Nick Fury without an eye patch just isn't Nick Fury to me.

The fake out. What was up with that ending? Where Garrett climbs into the chair, gets rebuilt, starts to "monologue," and then gets disintegrated by Coulson. It was funny. And unexpected. But really odd.

Director Coulson. So Coulson is going to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D.? Should make for a nice second season. Two advantages. Anyone that knows S.H.I.E.L.D. was destroyed in The Winter Soldier will be able to pick up the show without necessarily having to see season 1. And the Agent Carter series that will be launching next season will be about building S.H.I.E.L.D. after World War II. So the shows will have parallel themes. Might make for some interesting connections.

The new ensemble. Looks like the team going into next season will be Coulson, May, Skye, Simmons and Triplett. We'll see what happens with Fitz or if they add any additional team members to the bus. They also have a secret base, a second plane and another Koenig.

Anyway, looking forward to season 2 and seeing how the show evolves.