5x22 The End

Me, circa a week ago: Okay, I have to prepare myself. This episode is titled "The End", the ratings are low, there's no way we're getting another season. This show's had a good run. I'll always love it, but it's 100% getting canceled.
Agents of SHIELD, crashing through the window and punching me in the face: YOU FOOL. YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON. YOU GODDAMN COWARD.

Whoever in Marvel fought so hard to get us season 6, I am forever in your debt (even though we won't see those guys again until summer 2019, but that's still better than nothing) because WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT?

I don't remember the last time I cried during an episode of any show. But what happened with Fitz was so completely unexpected that I froze in shock, and then, when I saw Jemma's smile slowly fade as the realization set in, I broke down in tears. Sure, one could argue that his struggle with the darkness inside of him this season was a bit of a foreshadowing, but I didn't see his death coming at all. I could barely watch the rest of the episode because everything was blurry. I couldn't believe it. FitzSimmons have spent 5 seasons getting ripped apart over and over again, and now that they've finally gotten married, Fitz dies. I had the most horrible, nauseating feeling in my stomach. The only thing I could think about was "They better bring him back or so help me God, I will burn Marvel Television to the ground". When they mentioned the other version of Fitz floating in space, I felt like the biggest weight was lifted off my shoulders. It's going to be fine. My babies are going to be fine.

Coulson going to Tahiti is a nice full circle kind of thing for him. I know they'll probably find a way to keep him alive anyway, but I enjoyed that moment.

Daisy and Talbot's fight was so damn good. When she launched herself at him, I felt like I was watching a proper Marvel movie. I'll never understand why this show doesn't get the respect and the recognition it deserves. It's a goddamn gem in every way and every Marvel fan should watch it.

Oh, and I saw some people getting upset about the fact that half of the team didn't vanish at the end there, but personally I think it makes sense not to do that. Season 6 is going to air in the summer of 2019, after the release of the next Avengers movie, in which, let's face it, they're going to use the Time Stone or whatever to bring everyone back. So on the show we'd have half our characters vanish and then next year they'd just be there again as if nothing happened, without explanation. I'm glad they didn't do it.

So, I guess see y'all in a year when season 6 starts! Even though I have no idea how I'm supposed to wait that long!

[7.3/10] Well, it’s an ending, you have to give it that. I don’t know what to do with this episode. I really don’t. It’s a big mishmash of ideas and tones that has the occasional gripping or touching moment, but also the same sort of corny bullshit that’s plagued the show since the beginning.

Fitz dies, and it’s heartbreaking, because Iain DeCastecker is an extraordinary actor, and he makes you feel the pain and urgency of the moment. But then, he’s not really dead! Because we have the time loopy-woopy nonsense to bring him back! So presumably (depending on contract status) we’ll get Agents of Shield Season 6: The Search for Fitz.

And hey, I don’t mind character coming back from the dead. That’s just superhero storytelling. What I mind is the manipulativeness of lowering the music, letting DeCastecker give that harrowing performance, and turning the whole thing into a cheesy headfake about Coulson retiring. It’s toying with the audience in a cheap, rather than fun or exciting way, to where you just want to throw your hands up and curse the whole thing.

That’s the overall problem with “The End.” There’s potent stuff here, but it’s all completely undermined by the show shooting itself in the foot.

There’s a very good debate amongst the Shield faithful over whether or not to use the centipede serum to save Coulson or to save the planet. And in the end they do neither, with the “take the third option” nonsense of taking the stuff straight to get super strong and blast Talbot into space. It’s such a cheap ending to that threat. “Hero gets super duper powers” is just never a satisfying finish, because it’s not really motivated by character or conflicting motivations or anything else. It’s just magic powers on top of magic powers.

It’s frustrating because “The End” gets at least some of the emotional content right. There’s some good exchanges between Coulson and Daisy in particular, about how much they mean to one another, about how Coulson’s ready to pass the torch, about their shared history.

But in the end there’s just a bunch of poorly built scenes. The retirement party goes on way too long and is filled with far too many clunky lines. There’s too many dry cool action movie declarations. And the fake out with Fitz means every line has to have a double-meaning, which means the whole thing is awkward as well.

There is, at a minimum, a good moral debate between consequentialists and Kantians (as seems to often be the case in superhero stories for whatever reason) or more specifically, people who want to use the magic juice to save Coulson vs. people who want to use it to kill Talbot. I like that it creates real meaningful conflict within the group, but between Mack’s cornball speech about hope and then the decision to make him director because “he has the biggest heart”, the show lands on a bucketfull of hackery.

Thankfully, the people who come out looking well in this are Yo-Yo and Coulson. Yo-Yo acts with conviction, and Coulson tells her it’s exactly what he would have done. And hell, even May has the gumption to let Coulson decide for himself finally (after, in a typically forceful fashion, letting him know how she feels). Something about the “no, we never kill people, even if the entire world is at stake, and we always save people, even if they don’t want to be saved” bit rubs me the wrong way, but I guess that’s popular entertainment, and I should just live with it.

The ending is nice enough. Coulson getting to go to Tahiti for real is a nice touch, and while the dialogue is again cheesy, him and May being there together is very sweet (shades of Battlestar Galactica). There’s also shades of Buffy Season 5 here, both in the moral choice and the plaque, but hey, I suppose that’s keeping it in the family. And the rest of the team flying off in search of adventure is solid.

In the end, I’m glad this isn’t the end. This show’s rarely been great with endings, so I don’t know why I expected this one to be different. But maybe with thirteen more episodes, and firm knowledge that it’s the final season, Agents of Shield can capitalize on the emotion and good moments it was able to construct here, shed the detritus, and put out something worthy of being the final chapter of this corner of the MCU. See you next summer.