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Here we go, after lots of ups and downs, the finale to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is here! Ward and Garrett are flying along, with Garrett losing his mind. Coulson and his team have geared up to go after them. Fitz and Simmons are stuck at the bottom of the ocean. The episode kicks off with exactly what we should expect, and what we’ve hoped for, a solid mix of humor and action, exactly the mix the show has when it’s at its best.

From there, the episode gets a bit choppy unfortunately, as it moves along attempting to wrap some plot lines up. Unfortunately that leads to a hell of a lot of plot issues, with some holes you can drive a helicarrier through.

Overall, everything wraps up nicely, but a bit quickly. There’s some solid moments, and great comments back and forth, but overall, there’s a lot where you just need to suspend disbelief. There’s especially a moment at the end where I screamed out “wft,” but thankfully that ended with some humor.

The episode wraps things up relatively well, concluding a lot of the hanging plotlines, and setting up the next season with more than enough mystery to keep any diehard Marvel fan excited.

The episode if anything felt rushed wrapping up all those things way to neatly and way to quickly. Much like the entire season, this final episode was uneven and choppy. But, luckily the series seems to have found a much better footing, which will hopefully carry over into the next season.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 6.75

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Ward’s betrayal and HYDRA’s shocking secrets are revealed as Coulson’s team goes undercover on a mission that leaves no one unscathed.

Dipping back and forth from the present to the past, this episode’s focus is really Grant Ward’s origin story and especially his relationship with Garrett. While we see those flashbacks, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is on the move, trying to figure out everything’s connection to one another, Cybertek, Deathlok, Garrett, Hydra, etc. It all is connected and leading to some bigger plan. With one more episode to go, it’s all attempting to wrap up and come together.

To pull that all off, Coulson and his team have to go a bit retro, using Agent Triplett’s grandfather’s Howling Commandos equipment to make it all happen. That leads to some decent moments of humor, breaking up the show from moving into too serious territory.

With all of that, we learn some interesting things about both Garrett and Skye, one answering some questions, and the other opening up a whole bunch more.

Really, the episode is about Ward and how he got to where he is, as well as where his loyalties are. The “origin” of Ward is interesting, if not predictable, and his choices at the end of the episode, seem like the easy way out, continuing his spectrum on the badness scale in the gray area.

Overall, the episode was a pretty solid one, leading us into the final episode of the season. It answered some questions, and gave us some new interesting ones to ponder as well. Much better than last week, and one of the better episodes of the season.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 7.5

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Continuing the interconnected post Captain America: The Winter Soldier episodes, this latest episode picks up directly after the previous one. May succeeds in her mission to track down Maria Hill. We learn May’s mission is to find out more about what returned Coulson and Skye to life. The rest of Coulson’s team head to figure out what happened to Ward, Skye and May. After a bit of digging they find the truth about Grant, and where is allegiance is. Back on the plane, Sky and Ward head to… somewhere.

Coulson and his team connect the dots and figure out that Skye is delaying Ward. Meanwhile, while Coulson’s team is ready to head out he gets stopped by Colonel Talbot who has been lead to their location by Maria Hill. After lots of talking, and some interrogation Coulson tells Hill what’s up and they beat the crap out of Talbot’s team to go save Skye and stop Ward. How they get past all of the soldiers isn’t answered, but… plot holes.

Back to Ward and Skye, who are having a conversation while Skye delays and fakes hacking the drive. Instead she alerts the police, which forces Deathlok to come out of hiding and help Ward, who after threatening Skye with some weak sauce, by forcing her to choose if Ward dies, find out where to unlock the drive. But, that means there’s been enough time for Hill, Coulson and the crew to arrive!

The fight on the plane and follow-up after of Coulson and Skye’s escape is…. something. Very Whedon is the best way to describe it.

Post, the team relaxes, in a rather strange moment concerning the team is wanted, and what they just went through….

But, from there, May returns with the truth of who is behind Project Tahiti, I’ll leave that to you to find out.

Overall the episode was decent, with lots of action, but there was a lot of plot holes that irritated me more than usual. Then from there, the ending was just odd. The team is wanted, they just had this massive battle, and there they are, hanging out at a hotel pool. It just felt weird.

Overall, the series continues to be better than it was, but this episode dips a bit from the last few episodes.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 7

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Following up on last week, Coulson and his remaining team are still in the facility figuring out their next steps. When word from Grant comes that numerous villains have been turned loose, they decide to go after them and do their jobs.

But, before they can do that they must all pass a lie detector to see where their loyalty remains. That presents a problem for Grant. What’s nice though, is that the episode name drops Romanov, aka the Black Widow, the bunch. The last couple of episodes have done so. It’s a great touch.

But, the “baddie” this episode is Marvel villain Marcus Daniels, aka Blackout who is on a mission to track down a girl he’s obsessed with. It’ll be interesting to see if the series digs a bit more into his origin, especially since he has some connection to other Marvel characters like Darkhawk and Cloak.

The episode is really built around two things, will Grant be found out (including what happens when he is) and what’s Coulson’s obsession with Blackout (including why he wants to stop him first). It’s interesting to see Grant play the dual role, he’s shining a bit more than he has in the rest of the episodes.

When it comes to Grant as well as Blackout, things actually move along and move along well. Blackout unfortunately has a bad Ghostbusters vibe in the resolution, but Grant and Skye is rather interesting. I can’t say I totally see where that’s going or why Skye acts the way she does… but something is there… I hope.

Can someone also explain how May went from the snow to Ontario!?

Overall the episode is what I’d call a bridge. It doesn’t stand out on its own, but it moves the story forward. Not as solid as the last two episodes, but much better than most of the season.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 7.5

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With the end of last week’s episode still ringing this week’s episode opens with S.H.I.E.L.D. still weakened and battered. Coulson seems to be in charge and is assessing where the organization stands, and what assets they still have. The answer is very few. The organization has also now been branded a “terrorist” organization, on the run, and off fighting Hydra. This drives the team to go underground and on the run, erasing their identities.

With Colonel Glenn Talbot now on their trail, Coulson and his team seek refuge in the last place anyone would look, where they begin to uncover S.H.I.E.L.D.’S most dangerous secrets — secrets that could destroy them all.

What’s also nice is we get to follow up with Grant and Garrett where it’s confirmed that Garrett is indeed the Clairvoyant. Some of the earlier plot lines, and individuals captured, is revisited, now with a fully active and in charge Hydra backing them up. With S.H.I.E.L.D. broke, Garrett decides to not only free some folks, but also go shopping and grab loose weapons and various S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities.

With Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. team on the run, a cryptic message is sent, sending the team to an unknown location. Who sent the coordinates? We’re not quite sure, but Coulson is convinced they’re from Fury himself. This leads them to a snowy location in the middle of nowhere.

Coulson learns the truth about Fury when he meets an isolated S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the location they stumble upon.

While last week’s episode was an improvement, this week’s writing, acting, everything is leaps and bounds above what’s come before. It’s night and day from what we saw here and what came before. There was more than enough moments to make this episode satisfying, and the highlight of the season so far.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 8.25

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With Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the importance, and stakes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has never been higher. Starting with the previous episode the series directly is being affected by the events of the movie as the meltdown of S.H.I.E.L.D. and how it affects the team begins.

The episode kicks off right where the last one ended with S.H.I.E.L.D. firing upon the plane and guns pulled as questions as to who is on what side are thrown around. The team quickly figures out Hydra has infiltrated the organization and without knowing who to expect they still head to their intended location convinced Hand is really the Clairvoyant.

All that leads to a hell of a revelation from May about how the team came about, and her mission. It was pretty obvious as to who she was calling, but what she reveals about the team is interesting. And speaking of twists…. Hand makes her move, claiming someone else is actually Hydra.

Of course there’s a misunderstanding! It’s the oldest story in comics, two sides think they’re enemies and then battle before teaming up. What gets interesting is we know more about what’s going on than Coulson and his crew. Of course there’s a betrayal! We learn who’s the Clairvoyant, or at least the best idea as to who it is.

Fighting happens, Hand steps in, lots of slow motion to make it look all cool. The episode wraps up as  a nice coda to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, mentioning how much of disarray S.H.I.E.L.D. is in now and who is in charge…. sort of. But, that’s not the end really, there’s a bit more, and that’s somewhat predictable, but how far it goes is impressive. Did they really just kill off such a big character on the show and comics?

The episode promised some big movement as far as story, and it has done exactly that. Overall, the  episode was ok, with some fantastic moments. Hopefully the show gets on track after this. Ironically, a movie might just have been what this television show needed to kick it into high gear.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 7

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Agent Garett and Triplett have returned to assist Coulson’s team hunt down S.H.I.E.L.D.’s devious nemesis–the Clairvoyant. But will Deathlok kill them all to guard his master’s identity?

The episode kicks off with a brief scene featuring Deathlok, our first real look at the character and his abilities other than advertising teasers, but from there, Coulson makes a move to find the Clairvoyant, pulling in Garrett, Sitwell, Hand and more to devise a plan. There’s some talk of psychics and how in this world they don’t believe in them, which is an interesting dig into Marvel’s mutant world.

From there, the group breaks up in teams of two to look for the Clairvoyant while Skye does what she can to try to narrow down who that person actually is. The problem is, that means all those teams will be split up and going in undermanned. As things pan out, they’re all undermanned and overwhelmed. And that leads one pair up against Deathlok, but while a member goes down, they’ll at least be able to track him now due to some luck.

And that leads to everyone engaging Deathlok leading to lots of explosions. This is an attempt at action, but for a cyborg, Deathlok has some seriously bad aim. But, some good news… looks like we finally meet the Clairvoyant.

That all leads to a pretty shocking moment… yes a shocking moment we didn’t see, and the Clairvoyant didn’t see either. But, was that really the Clairvoyant?

This leads the team to dig further into their mysterious foe leading to all kinds of possible crosses and double crosses.

The first half hour of the show was rather dull with a lot of head scratching moments, but the last little bit opens up some interesting possibilities as to what’s to come. As usual, the show is a lot of promise, but not a whole lot of execution.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 6.5

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While Skye recoveries, the team sets to find and stop an Asgardian seductress by the name of Lorelei. For that, they will need the help of Sif, one of Thor’s most trusted allies. As last week’s episode ended, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team was clearly heading towards an Asgardian issue as the show attempted to keep up the action set up last week. It’s interesting to do that, the show felt the need to weave further into the Marvel cinematic universe and bring in Sif, instead of continuing to build it’s own corner of the universe.

The team is dealing with Skye’s death and resurrection, trying to figure out how exactly it happened while Skye herself decides she needs to get tougher and kick more ass. Coulson on the other hand is on a mission to figure it all out himself, and he’s trying to track down Fury to do it. There’s a line in this scene that shows us exactly where his head is at.

Sif joins up with the team, and there’s some nice nerdy moments in it, where she mentions a bunch of races she’s met… including Kree…. So that’s cool, and you’ll want to rewind the scene a few times to pick all of the mentions up. However, after the first interaction with the team, there’s a moment that’s such a slap on the forehead that it’s inexcusable. After being briefed that Lorelei can control people with her voice, Ward just stands there with his gun pointed at her… Worst. Agent. Ever. Of course he’s taken over by Lorelei.

From there, there’s lots of kung-fu fighting and punching, and breaking things. It’s all a bit meh, and very predictable.

Overall, the episode is a return to the ones from the first half of the season, more monster of the week. It’s actually a step back from the previous week’s season best episode. The episode falls back into the pattern of set up, search for the problem, some sort of fight, then a heart to heart moment at the end. In this case Coulson has a discussion with Skye about what he has found out, and from there a discussion of his plan…. and then there’s a twist! Overall, a meh episode that takes a step back from last week.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 7

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We’ve been promised that the series is kicking into overdrive with this episode, promising to keep up the new pace that started with the second half of the season.

The team is still trying to save Skye and while doing so are ordered to be taken over by Agent John Garrett, a character we’re told has previous history with Coulson and his team. Garrett convinces S.H.I.E.L.D. to allow Coulson and his team to continue with their mission while still interrogating their prisoner, Ian Quinn, who was the one that shot her. They learn Skye being shot was a plan of the Clairvoyant who couldn’t see how Coulson was revived, so this was a plan to force their hand to go through the procedure again.

The team then learns that we still don’t know exactly how Coulson was saved. The facility they thought he was sent to wasn’t it, and the doctors don’t seem to exist either. Instead through some sleuthing they find the possible facility he was sent to, which puts the team on a mission to get in there and find a drug that supposedly was used, which they do. But something freaks Coulson out and we get to see what it was…. I’m not ruining that.

The show wraps up with a tease of what we can expect, introducing yet another character from the Marvel comic universe!

The episode definitely amps up the action and the mystery presented is much more engrossing than the first half of the season’s monster of the week premise. There was also lots of for the fanboys such as the mention of Cybertech and their Deathlok program, and Garrett who has been around since the 80s.

Overall, we were promised an episode that’d get the series back on track and while I can’t say if it succeeds, it does give me hope the show will finally hit the mark and be what us fans were hoping for.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 8

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In a rather over the top situation, the team heads to a train to track down the Clairvoyant where the mission goes completely off the rail splitting them up. Marvel has promised a game changing episode with a third act that’ll change the series. That’s a pretty bold claim.

Overall, the episode is an improvement, continuing the second half of the season that is much improved from the lackluster first half. The action is constant and the episode mixes that action with humor quite well.

Overall, the episode also continues the series finally piecing together the various threads of the series. The second half of the season has moved away from the “monster of the week” for the most part instead creating an ongoing narrative of the team’s pursuit of the Clairvoyant and his/her organization.

There was some actual damage done in this episode. The series finally gives us some real consequences. That, the action, the acting, the plot, it’s all improved here. That episode ends too with the confirmation (though it’s been confirmed in interviews) of fan favorite character Deathlok.

Overall, the episode is an improvement. If we had an entire season like this one episode, things would be solid. Crossing my fingers we’ll see more episodes like this. I wouldn’t call it a bold change, but it was a serious improvement.

Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 7.75

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