3x22 Ascension (2)

Getting through this episode took me forever. There weren't any subtitles available for it when I started watching, but I just couldn't wait. You think you're so fluent in English, and then a Scottish scientist starts mumbling, and you have to pause and watch a scene again just to understand what the hell he's saying. It's kind of exhausting, but I did it!

Season finales of Agents of SHIELD are always incredible. This one was no exception.

I'd suspected Lincoln would die. I hadn't expected to cry when it happened. His last conversation with Daisy was absolutely heartbreaking. Sorry I was so mean to you in some of my reviews, Lincoln. You saved the world in the end. Not a bad way to go.

A round of applause for Brett Dalton and Luke Mitchell. Best wishes, boys. It's been a pleasure watching you.

Phil Coulson and his Star Wars references. I couldn't stop laughing.

Mack and Elena are a new OTP in the making. I'm so glad she survived!

Fitz and Simmons are alive, healthy and on the same planet. That's an improvement from the two previous season finales. But did they go to the Seychelles? I want to know!

I have so many questions. Is there a new director of SHIELD or did I misunderstand something? Is SHIELD legit now or do they still operate in the shadows? When did Daisy go full emo? Why is Fitz working with Radcliffe now? I hate flash-forwards so much!

Oh, and Daisy using her powers to jump on a rooftop of a building? Awesome.

Great season. 4 months until the next one.

See you all in September!

(Reviewing this in conjunction with the prior episode since they aired together.)

Feeling a connection. Wanting to belong. Moving past the need for vengeance.

Those were the ideas at the core of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. finale, and the ideas that have been flitting through the season, maybe even the series, from the beginning. They're not bad themes to work with. Shield is, after all, a place where many of the folks on the show have felt a sense of belonging. As Fitz, Simmons, and even Dr. Radcliffe have found, it can be a place where science gets applied to the real world. May found that even for someone closed off emotionally it can provide understanding and acceptance. Mack found that even when your relationship with your own family is strained, it can be a type of family. Coulson found that it can be a way to do good rather than just get revenge. And Skye found that it can make you better, give you a purpose and a reason to go on.

Or at least she thought it did. The most striking moment in the entire two-hour finale was Skye, down on her knees, pleading with Hive to take her back. It's easy to chalk it up to the brainwashing. The rest of the team certainly did. Coulson likened it to withdrawal, to addiction, to having to wait for your body's chemistry to readjust in a way that mean she can't trust her senses.

But I think there's something more there. Skye feels guilt for the lives she endangered when she was a part of Hive. Who wouldn't? She was a part of something evil, or at least that did evil, and struggles to live with the knowledge of what she contributed to. Maybe I'm giving her, or the show, too much credit, but I'd also like to think that she's wondering about the actions she's done in the name of Shield. She namechecks her dad here. She found her mom and lost her in nearly the same stroke. The two men we've seen her have any kind of romantic relationship with (give or take that one fellow hacker guy) blow up at the end of the episode. How could she not have survivor's guilt? How could she not feel like people are always dying around her, that where she goes, terrible things follow, and the best thing to do is to try to escape somehow.

Her first form of escape is to attempt to return to Hive, because he provides something more than happiness -- he provides certainty. When Skye was under Hive's spell, she was a true believer. There was no self-questioning, no self-doubt, no guilt -- just unblinking confidence in what she had to do. And when that became an impossibility, she lashed out, tried to hurt Hive, to take him out. And when that didn't work, when this whole exercise just cost more lives, she did the one thing she felt she could do -- isolate herself. Take herself out of the equation. Daisy Johnson has had more development than any other character in the show, and though AoS, and network television generally, has a propensity to bring things back to the status quo, the idea of the next season beginning with her struggling with the wreckage in her wake and trying to get by as a rogue once more is an intriguing.

But before we can get to that beginning, we have to look at the ending. After his long journey, Ward (in whatever shape or form he's in this time) is gone. So is Lincoln. Both characters earned the ire of the fanbase, but also managed to earn a bit of redemption on their way out the door. Ward had long since turned into one of the show's more interesting characters, and while Brett Dalton started out as one of the most milquetoast elements of the show's rocky early outings, he showed his talents in playing the intimidating but generally stoic Hive. From his cold certainty to his jumbled up mental faculties after the memory machine to his recognition that he would finally have a connection, albeit not the one he expected, Dalton's character and performance will be missed.

Lincoln's might not be missed as much, but for a character who most viewers acknowledged needed to go, AoS at least gave him a good sendoff, and made the "every Inhuman has a purpose" canard feel like it meant something for him. I'll admit, the Captain America-esque doomed radio communiques between Lincoln and Daisy didn't do much for me (neither the writing nor the acting really lived up to the moment) but it was at least well-intentioned, and ended the Hive arc in a dramatic fashion.

The rest of the two-hour finale, in keeping with AoS's usual style, was a mixed bag. The fake outs with the necklace and jacket felt like a corny and false way to generate tension and stakes. Similarly, the "near-death" experiences of Lincoln, Yo-yo, Daisy, and others didn't feel like pleasant bits of excitements so much as trope-y swerves. There were some of the usual action set pieces, the standard action movie one-liners, and the on-the-nose monologues about What This All Means. Some of that was good (Fitz's invisible gun, Dr. Radcliffe's whole deal, the memory machine plan, Coulson's Princess Leia routine); some of it was not so good (more attacks from the dull-looking primitives who apparently have zombie-like memories of their old skills, Mack's uncomfortable forced hug, Hive getting unfrozen from the ATCU box as quickly as he was frozen, the whole "Absolution" mystery). Most of it was fine, if not exactly spectacular.

That said, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has grown quite a bit. Though the plotting is still often convoluted or full of cliches, and the dialogue in particular keeps moments from being as effective as they might be, the stories the show is attempting to tell have improved, and so have its characters. That means that even when the show isn't exactly scraping profundity, it's still entertaining, and keeps the viewer invested in the fates of those at the center of its stories. The finale for S3 is a lot like the show as a whole at this point -- it's far from perfect, and still a far cry from its cinematic counterparts, but it's solidly enjoyable pulp, with enough character development, (occasionally forced) humor, and rapid-fire story progression to keep it a pleasant diversion, with enough great moments and hints of something deeper to keep you coming back.