Neil Brazier | On 31, May 2014

What a way for Marvel’s TV show to end. Episode 22 – Beginning of the End – has everything: heart, emotion, laughs, action, and moments that will have you jumping out of your chair and pumping your fist in the air.

At the start of this season, there were doubts and questions over everything, wondering whether everything would make sense or interlink. The finale ties up most things with a neat little bow and has you clamouring for more – no clairvoyant would have seen that six episodes in.

There are ridiculous plot choices, such as the switching of the Super Soldiers to their ‘Default Directive’, but otherwise this is a more than satisfactory conclusion to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. If 90s horror movie Scream taught us anything, it was that the villain always comes back for a second final scare and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. follows this rule in such a tremendous way that it makes up for every misstep it might previously have taken.

Recently, we’ve been cheering on the love connection between Fitz and Simmons. For the whole season, these two have been the heart of the show. Here, they share a scene that exudes such raw emotion that it would warm even the coldest Hydra heart – tissues need to be kept on standby. But the emotions also come from Coulson’s new-found redemption. His next mission could be an integral part to the whole Marvel world, both on the small screen and the big.

Triplett also looks like he’s become a permanent Agent which can be no bad thing. He brings with him an act as diverse as his Howling Commando’s box of tricks. While he’s been fairly underused in this season, he has proven himself a much more interesting version of Grant Ward – who, incidentally, looks like he could have stunk up his last scene. He gives resolution to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s team members, none of whom look like they’ll forgive and forget.

It has been an interesting journey, one that people legitimately believed we’d never see culminate. Since the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though, it’s just been getting better and better.

Cut off Hydra’s head, two more grow in its place. Cut off Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ugly head and a compelling and exciting action-drama has replaced it. Showing true moments of greatness and climaxing in one of the best episodes all season, Marvel’s series has shown it can adapt and evolve alongside the Cinematic Universe, that the two can not only co-exist but influence each other.

Marvel’s bold move may well have paid off.

Hail Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

 

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