Agents of Shield S122 - Beginning of the End

[Brian G Turner]

Synopsis from Wiki:

At Cybertek, Quinn begins his presentation to U.S. military officials only for Garrett to interrupt and kill one of the generals. Evading the Centipede soldiers, Coulson and his team raid the Cybertek facility, with Skye saving Mike Peterson's son, May fighting Ward, and Coulson confronting Garrett. Elsewhere, Nick Fury rescues Fitz and Simmons, though Fitz is barely alive. Coulson and a newly-arrived Fury engage Garrett, who is ultimately dispatched by Peterson who learns Skye has saved his son. Ward and the Centipede soldiers are arrested. Peterson, unable to face his son, goes off on his own to redeem himself. Garrett attempts to utilize the newest Deathlok armor, only to be vaporized by Coulson. Fury expresses his respect for Coulson and appoints him as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., leading his team to a secret base run by Billy Koenig. Raina delivers a photo of Skye to a mysterious, blood-soaked man, telling him she found his daughter. Later, Coulson awakens in the middle of the night and begins exhibiting signs of the same enhanced mental capacities and fixation that Garrett experienced.


This series has been a great ride, but it seemed to lose something of its steam towards the end.

Fury just turns up - and does nothing but talk. Didn;t he have any kind of plan before entering the Cybertek base?

Confused about something, though - Deathlok seems to finish off Garrett, who is then put into a bodybag - he's dead, right? Yet later, for no apparent reason, we see that he's been left next to the Deathlokk armour machine, only for Coulson to casually walk in and murder him. An editing mistake, after filming two potential resolutions?

As in the previous episode comment, am surprised we never saw ward turn, despite the flashbacks - I'd begun to expect him to sacrifice himself by grabbing Garrett and throwing both of them into the Gravitonium.

Still, I guess they've at least left a few things open for the next season...

 

[J-Sun]

Confused about something, though - Deathlok seems to finish off Garrett, who is then put into a bodybag - he's dead, right? Yet later, for no apparent reason, we see that he's been left next to the Deathlokk armour machine, only for Coulson to casually walk in and murder him. An editing mistake, after filming two potential resolutions?

Oh, no! If I'm remembering the episode correctly, that was one of the funniest parts - this is Jed Whedon's show but that was pure Joss - either he put his hand in or someone's really learned from him. It was just a send-up of the "can't kill the villain/multiple ending" trope. It's almost exactly like the "Buffy vs. Dracula" episode except that you really can't kill Dracula so Buffy just runs him off - she keeps killing him, he keeps reforming, she says "I'm still here!" and he finally mists off. And this episode had Garrett inexplicably come back with the impression that he's going to become more powerful than ever and Coulson just casually takes him out in a sarcastic anticlimax. I thought it was great.

 

[Juliana]

Agreed, J-Sun. It was so funny that we kept rewinding it and playing the scene over and over.

 

[Brian G Turner]

If it wasn't, the problem would be inconsistency with what had gone before - Coulson locked up Ward, and everyone was horrified, at his "murder" of the Clairvoyant. If Coulson did the same to Garrett, then Coulson has decided that murder is acceptable. While we've seen huge changes in outlook between the two events, I just can't see Coulson losing his moral resolve.

But it also made no sense after seeing Garrett put in a body bag - only to later magically appear out of it. I still think it looks like an editing mistake. I hope.

 

[Juliana]

Brian, honestly, it wasn't meant to be serious. It was very tongue-in-cheek, in the style of some of the Marvel end credit scenes, like the wonderful schwarma (sp?) one in The Avengers.