One last ride
(This review contains
spoilers!)
(Seriously, like huge
season-finale level spoilers. If you haven’t watched the episode yet don’t read
this!)
Season 4 of S.H.I.E.L.D has arguably been the best one yet, and that’s saying
something when you consider how amazing Season 3 was. However, considering the
season was split into three separate pods, it seemed like it was going to prove
a difficult task for the showrunners to tie them all together cohesively for a
finale.
Wouldn’t you know it, the S.H.I.E.L.D writers team has worked
their magic yet again, creating an excellent episode that provides a satisfying
conclusion to the season as well as setting up what we’ll be seeing when they
return.
Aida is still furious about Fitz
breaking up with her, and has decided that it’s time to make the S.H.I.E.L.D
crew pay for what they’ve done to her. Meanwhile, Robbie Reyes has returned
from who-knows-where to get rid of Aida and take the Darkhold somewhere safe.
And while all that is going on, Yo-Yo has ventured into the Framework to
retrieve Mack before it collapses, but he still won’t leave his daughter. There’s
a lot going on this week, but the writers manage to make none of it feel superfluous.
It was pretty obvious that Ghost Rider
would be coming back at some point after he made his departure earlier this
season, but I didn’t expect it to be this soon. He kind of disappointingly doesn’t
contribute much to the overall plot (for the most part, but I’ll get to that),
so his only purpose this episode is to look really cool while beating up bad
guys. He and Daisy have an awesome scene together where they use their combined
powers together to finally finish off that Russian guy once and for all.
But the fact remains that Aida is
still out there and is nigh-unstoppable, and she knows better than to get
anywhere near Robbie. Knowing this, Coulson hatches a plan crazy enough that it
just might work.
Meanwhile in the Framework, Yo-Yo and
Radcliffe are working together to convince Mack to come home before the entire
program collapses in on itself while Daisy is building them an exit. While it’s
nowhere near as interesting as what’s going on outside, it’s nice to see some
relationship building between the two of them, since we haven’t really had them
together since the beginning of the LMD storyline. I also love Mack’s reaction
upon exiting the Framework. Instead of freaking out that he got his daughter
back and then lost her, he’s grateful that he finally got to spend some time
with her. It’s a fantastic little touch and I’m glad that that’s the direction
the writers decided to take with him.
I also loved Radcliffe’s last ever
scene. It fit his character so perfectly: very funny, but not without a bit of
tragedy to it. John Hannah’s been absolutely spectacular as Radcliffe ever
since we first met him last season, and I’m honestly sad to see him go.
With Mack and Yo-Yo back home, it was
time for Coulson’s plan to stop Aida once and for all to unfold. Aida
teleported into the base and attacked Fitz and Simmons, torturing the latter
until Fitz told her that Coulson had the Darkhold. Of course, it wasn’t
actually Simmons, but rather an LMD, and the real Simmons got a great moment
shooting Aida in the chest and remarking that even though she knew it wouldn’t
do anything it made her feel good anyways.
And then it was time for the big
surprise: since Aida wouldn’t go near Robbie, they had to get Ghost Rider to
her some other way. This led to Coulson unleashing the Spirit of Vengeance
himself, completely burning Aida to a crisp. It’s honestly one of the most
satisfying ways a villain’s been defeated that I’ve seen in a long, long time.
All season Mallory Jansen has done an
incredible job of creating a character that went from lifeless servant android
to one of the MCU’s best villains, leaving us as a character we loved to hate
for all the right reasons. I still rank Ward up there as S.H.I.E.L.D’s best villains if only for his relationship with the
main characters and what he did in the first half of Season 3, but Aida definitely
is a close second.
Of course, things immediately start
going wrong as soon as they start going right. As Robbie prepares to leave once
again, he discusses with Coulson the deal he made to temporarily take control
of Ghost Rider. He says “I don’t envy you”, to which Coulson replies “I was
gonna say the same to you”. It’s unclear what they meant by this, but I’m sure
it’s going to come into play next season.
Speaking of next season, the
showrunners wasted no time in giving us a tease of what we can expect to see
when S.H.I.E.L.D returns in…January.
Oh boy. Because Inhumans is
premiering next fall we’re going to have to wait extra to see where this goes,
and it’s a doozy.
The agents spend some time relaxing in
a cozy diner, but then a shadowy group storms in and uses a mysterious device
to freeze them in place and capture them. We then cut to Coulson waking up in a
mysterious room. He opens the window and it turns out that he’s either gotten
himself a brand new 4K TV or he’s somehow wound up lost in space. He remarks
that he’s got work to do, and the season ends on that note.
So what could this possibly mean? The
common consensus online right now seems to be that this’ll lead to the
introduction of S.W.O.R.D from the comics (who are basically S.H.I.E.L.D but in
space if you don’t know), but this morning one of the VFX supervisors for the
show confirmed that the rights to S.W.O.R.D are tied to the X-Men license over
at Fox, so they’re ruled out. I personally think this is going to tie into Infinity War somehow, considering that
Season 5 will still be airing when it comes out next May.
While it’s easy to get excited about
next year, it’s also important to remember just how good this season’s been.
There was definitely quite a few gambles played this time around, especially as
the show introduced more magical elements to tie into Doctor Strange. But as far as I’m concerned, all the risks paid
off, and this episode was the perfect representation of that. It tied together
the three separate pods of the season excellently, giving each character a
moment in the spotlight and completing the season with a satisfying conclusion
while still making us hungry for more.
FINAL SCORE
9/10
Amazing
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