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Here it is at long
last: the season 1 finale of Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D. This is what the
entire season was building toward, and it is pretty awesome. I think the season 2 finale may have been
even more epic and “huge,” but the first season finale had some fun action
scenes, and exciting fight between May and Ward, and some great “crazy Garrett”
moments.
Reminder: This retro-review contains potential spoilers for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seasons 1 and 2.
The episode begins in
Cybertek’s control center with Kyle Zeller, the original operator, showing a
new “recruit” around the facility. We
learn that Cybertek currently has 20 “units” (super-soldiers), and has plans to
add another 100 by the end of the month.
However, while Zeller is showing the recruit around, he gets the call
from one of Garrett’s men letting him know that S.H.I.E.L.D. is on the way to
the barbershop base. He orders the other
operators to “let them have it”—meaning “attack S.H.I.E.L.D.” Coulson, May, and Trip fight the super-soldiers
to buy time for Skye while she uploads her program to the Hydra computer
system, activating the Trojan horse and giving her access to their
systems. May takes on Kaminski, the
Hydra agent holding the Berserker Staff, wrests the Staff away from him, uses
it to fight off a few of the soldiers, and then throws it to take out one of
the support posts, causing the ceiling to collapse and bury the soldiers. Too bad she lost it; it probably would have
been useful later on!
I like how this
opening picks up right where the previous episode left off. It puts us in the middle of the action and
leaves us wanting more. However, even
more than that, the opening introduces us to a couple of concepts that play a
huge part in the rest of the episode.
First, the new “recruit” is only there for the “Incentives
Program.” What is that? We find that out near the end of the episode
when Skye rescues Zeller’s wife and Ace from locked rooms in the Cybertek
facility. Second, we see just how much
Zeller fears Garrett when he calls to inform him that Coulson escaped. Even though these operators don’t have
cybernetic exploding eyes, they are still terrified of what Garrett might do to
them.
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However, Garrett
really isn’t concerned about Coulson’s escape; he’s too busy losing his
mind. The most fascinating thing about
this episode actually is just how much Garrett descends into madness under the
influence of Raina’s GH-325 derivative.
He starts carving the blueprint design on one of the glass lab
doors. He starts talking about how he
can unlock the secrets of the universe. He
tells Raina that he can see “through” the gravitonium to its soul, and that the
answer to her question is “written on the back of my eyes.” He is going so absolutely insane that Ward is
actually worried about him. In fact,
Garrett is so far gone that when they get to the Cybertek facility and Quinn is
showing the military guests around the facility, he interrupts, spouts
nonsense, and finally reaches into a general’s chest cavity, rips out a rib,
and beats him to death with it. Quinn’s
reaction to Garrett’s interruption is actually pretty funny—the general demands
“this is your strategy consultant?”
“He’s part-time.” It’s a bit
reminiscent of Thor’s “He’s adopted” line from The Avengers.
Coulson and the team
meanwhile follow the tracker Fitz left on the Bus to New Mexico (not Miami?),
where the four of them succeed in infiltrating the Cybertek facility. Coulson and Trip steal an armored personnel
carrier and use it to bust their way through the outer defenses, draw the
attention of the super-soldiers, and blow a hole in the wall for May and Skye
to infiltrate through. Skye and May
enter the control center and threaten to blow it up, at which point Zeller
switches the soldiers to “Default Directive.”
I had to laugh at just how arrogant he sounded in telling May and Skye
that they couldn’t take control of the soldiers, and how confidently he
confirmed the switch. It was only after
the fact that he realizes they should not have even known what “Default
Directive” is.
It turns out that Skye
had reprogrammed “Default Directive” to mean “Defend John Garrett at all
costs.” This causes them to stop
fighting against Coulson and Trip and instead head into the facility straight
to Garrett’s location. Coulson instructs
Trip to leave the facility, call the Armed Forces, and make sure that the
compound gets turned to rubble regardless of whether or not the team gets out
safe. Coulson himself follows the
super-soldiers into the facility, using them to lead him directly to Garrett. One thing I’m not thrilled with is that they
never explain where the super-soldiers are during the final confrontation—especially
since they are supposed to be “defending John Garrett at all costs.” Did Skye do something to shut them all down?
Garrett sends Ward to
the control center to take care of Skye, but he gets waylaid when May shows up
and tries to kill him. Their fight is
impressive in its brutality, with neither side holding back at all. Everything can be a weapon, and everything
really is a weapon, from boards to pipes to saws. May finally ends the fight by nailing Ward’s
foot to the floor, crushing his larynx, and knocking him out. It may not necessarily have been as
impressively choreographed as the fights in season 2—something that was hurt
(in my opinion) by having it cut in with the other scenes—but it was still a
really good fight scene.
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At this point, we need
to go back to Fitz and Simmons, who are in the pod trapped at the bottom of the
ocean. They provide the only real slow
and reflective moments in the episode, as they slowly come to terms with the
reality of their predicament. I like
that we get to see them just sitting and talking about death and what might
come after death. But then, just as Fitz
is about to tell Simmons how he feels, she realizes that they can blow out the
seal around the window to escape. They
rig it up, but Fitz is only able to make one compressed air device to
re-inflate their lungs after the 90-feet-worth of water pressure pushes all the
air out of their lungs. Fitz tells
Simmons to use it herself to save herself, but she begs him not to make her do
it because he is her “best friend in the world.” It’s only then that Fitz tells her “you’re
more than that” and she realizes that he loves her. It’s clear that she does not want to risk him
dying after that, but it is equally clear that he does not want to risk her
dying—and that before he’s expressed himself.
He sets off the explosive as Simmons screams “NO!” Then the camera switches to outside the pod,
and we watch the air rush out, followed by Simmons dragging Fitz behind
her. She reaches the surface (suffering
from the Bends as they had predicted) and holds Fitz up while looking around
wildly. Suddenly she starts screaming
and waving her hands. What follows may
be one of the coolest shots in the episode:
the camera’s underwater, and then it comes up to see Samuel L. Jackson
in all his awesomeness leaning out of a helicopter and reaching down to
Simmons. He grabs her hand and pulls her
and Fitz onboard. Between the camerawork
and the soundtrack, that is an awesome shot.
The next scene is
Simmons waking up in a pressurization chamber on a JumpJet headed for the
States. Fury explains that he managed to
track their improvised distress signal because he was in the area looking for
Coulson. In response to her question, he
tells her that Fitz is still alive, though his brain was oxygen deprived for quite
a while. Finally, he asks if she knows
how to find Coulson.
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| Image Courtesy www.tvline.com |
Coulson, meanwhile,
confronts Garrett and punches him.
Garrett of course responds by punching him back and knocking him clear
across the room. Coulson slowly pulls
himself to cover, and finds himself kneeling in front of Fury (which isn’t
quite as awesome as the helicopter scene, but still up there. I think they’ve got the formula down: Whenever Fury shows up on AoS, it has
to be a surprise, and he has to look like a badass!). The two of them catch up quickly, and Fury
hands Coulson the Destroyer Gun (“I know what that does”), and Coulson uses it
to take out almost a dozen super-soldiers.
Finally Fury and Coulson are left to fight Garrett and Deathlok. And Garrett starts monologuing like a
nutcase, leading to one of the funnier dialogues in the series:
Fury: “You didn’t tell me he’d gone this crazy”Coulson: “He’s really stepped it up a notch”Garrett: “You remember that speech you used to give us, Nick? About how one man can accomplish anything once he realizes he can be something bigger? Well, now I am.”Fury: “‘A part.’ A part of something bigger.”Garrett: “Is that how it went?”Coulson: “Not a great listener.”Fury: “If you tell me this whole HYDRA path thing you took is because you misheard my damn ‘one man’ speech…”Garrett: “I am the key to the future of the universe. I’m the origin of all things…”Fury (to Coulson): “You got it, right?”Coulson: “Totally. Loud and clear.”
I think that sums up
the three characters at this point in the story better than anything else. Fury—who trained both Coulson and Garrett—is
upset with Garrett for going to Hydra.
Coulson is the loyal son to Fury, despite everything that’s
happened. And Garrett, meanwhile, is
just plain off his nut.
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Garrett orders
Deathlok to kill Fury and Coulson, but at that moment he receives a message
showing that Skye has rescued Ace, and he unleashes months of pent-up rage
against Garrett in about 15 seconds of pure, unadulterated pain and violence. I think the best part is when they cut away
just as Mike stomps Garrett to death, showing us Coulson and Fury’s reaction of
shock instead of Garrett’s mangled body.
It’s a bit unsatisfying not to see it, but at the same time it leaves it
to our imagination (which can fill in the details much more graphically than an
8:00 ET network TV show would ever allow).
The one downside to that is that they show us Garrett’s not-very-mangled
face in the very next scene. I think it
would have been better if they just showed us the rest of his body with the
head covered, and saved showing his head for his supposed resurrection.
Unfortunately, this
episode suffers from Return of the King-itis: There are a few too many endings. First we get Coulson telling Ward that
Garrett is dead and he will have plenty of time to figure out who he is apart
from Garrett while rotting (and being tortured) in a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison cell. Next comes Mike and Skye talking, and Mike
walking off to atone for his actions. Then
we get Garrett’s miraculous recovery by means of the Deathlok machine—which is
cut hilariously short when Coulson zaps him with the Peru 0-8-4. Then Coulson and Fury talk on the Bus and
Fury tells Coulson that he is an Avenger and is going to rebuild
S.H.I.E.L.D. Then the team lands at the
Playground, reunites with Simmons, and meets Agent Billy Koenig (Eric’s
twin). Then Raina goes to “The
Doctor” (Cal) and shows him Skye’s picture.
Finally, Coulson starts carving on a wall at the Playground. It’s not that any of this was unnecessary or
extraneous. However, most of these felt
like they could have been legitimate endings.
There was enough distinction with the actual ending—the team standing on
the Bus loading ramp together and looking out into the future—for it to feel
more “final” than the others, but the other scenes still had an air of finality
to them.
All in all, I really
enjoyed this episode and thought it did a great job of wrapping up all of the
season 1 plots and teasing major plots for season 2. The ending(s) could have been better, but I’m
not going to hold that against them.
What did you think of
this season finale? What was your
favorite moment from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1?
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