TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Agents Of Shield Season 05 Finale: “The End”

Except…it’s not “The End”, not anymore. Throughout season 05, fans have been wondering if Agents of Shield would be renewed, and there was a good reason why it wouldn’t, the ratings aren’t that strong. Now, they’re not Inhumans numbers, which DESERVED to be canceled, but many networks have canceled shows for rating around what AOS does. So, the team behind the show made “The End” to be both a season and series finale, and to the latter, it worked. To the form…not so much.

On the plus side, there was a lot of good drama here, including the in-fighting that had the team trying to decide the fate of the world vs. the fate of Coulson. Yo-Yo especially gave a powerful performance, likening what was happening to a nightmare that no one is hearing except for her. So when May destroyed the Opium to try and save Coulson, you knew something had to go down.

Sure enough, with Graviton going to Chicago (and thank goodness it wasn’t New York) to get more Gravitonium, SHIELD needed to be there. And I loved the scenes involving Mack becoming leader, and his call to the law enforcement on sight that SHIELD would help them. That was very heroic.

And the battle between Talbot and Daisy was cool. She both played aggressor and counselor, as she tried to win Talbot back to their side. Yes, it didn’t work, but attempt was good. Sadly, that’s also where things started to go wrong.

First, I know Daisy is tough, but there is no way she survived that impact on the ground that Graviton put her there. He created a freaking crater, and she’s moving around like it’s nothing. And while the “switch” with the healing vile was cool…what exactly did it do to Daisy? Does it just give her a supercharge? Because that wasn’t what it was designed for.

Moving on, the big shock was that Fitz died…or did he? Because the way they were talking at the “retirement party” made it seem like he was alive, just out there among the stars or something. Which makes no sense. I loved the shot of how Gemma went from smiling to see Mack to the slow realization that Fitz was gone, and yet, it’s like she’s in denial, which is weird.

Furthermore, we didn’t get confirmation one way or another about where Deke is. They teased him “leaving”, and when we went to his room he was gone, but does that mean he’s wiped from the timeline? It’s not clear, and that’s annoying.

Seeing Coulson and May go to Tahiti for Phil’s final days or weeks was cool, and it was a nice tie-in to where everything started. As was the open-endedness of where SHIELD will go next.

The problem though, is that this was clearly meant to be a season finale, and yet, we are getting another season. They said that they weren’t going to cancel a series that clearly had more stories to tell. Well then…WHERE’S AGENT CARTER?!?! You canceled that on a cliffhanger!

Furthermore, as much as I love Daisy, Mack, Yo-Yo, May and the others, this show is nothing without Coulson, he’s literally the rock. And Fitz is a key part too. So…what are they going to do in 13 episodes that are going to air in the summer of 2019? That’s a LONG wait for a show that won’t be exactly how we left it. What’s worse, most people are in agreement that in Season 06 they’ll find a way to bring both Coulson and Fitz back. Which would rewind the impact of this episode.

On its merits, “The End” was a great series finale…that wasn’t a series finale. And that might hurt it when AOS returns.