Agents of SHIELD: Season 6

[Christopher]

Wow. They managed to make us think almost everyone was doomed to die, then saved them at the last moment -- or later. Twice in May's case. That was quite a nail-biter.

And what happened with Sarge was so twisty that I'm not sure I quite understand it. I thought I'd figured out that Sarge had only pretended to go bad and had known that May would revive on the other side and stop the invasion there. But then it turned out that he had gone fully bad after all, so I don't understand his motives with May.

Also, Flint was a loose end. Is he permanently real now? If the Chronicoms are going to destroy the monoliths, will their creations endure? And how exactly did Enoch get Fitz and Simmons out of there? Well, I guess they've been doing stuff with time travel that will get explained next season.

And hey, if they have time travel now, maybe that gives them a way to reconcile the chronological conflict with the Avengers movies, the contradiction of this season being a year after Thanos attacked Earth yet somehow pre-Snap.

For a moment, when they were back in time and talking about recruiting an expert on SHIELD history, I let myself hope the big reveal at the end was going to be Peggy Carter. But then I remembered that the Empire State Building was built in the 1930s, so it'd be too early. Although if they have a time machine now, they could still do that. It would explain

Spoiler

the report that Enver Gjokaj might appear next season.

 

[DEWLine]

Yeah...so...I'm in a bit of shock.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The dramatic revelation about the Empire State Building being the tallest building in the world and the only one showing above the clouds rang a little false. The Chrysler Building is nearly as tall and was officially the tallest building in the world for the last 11 months of the ESB's construction in 1930-31.

 

[Christopher]

The dramatic revelation about the Empire State Building being the tallest building in the world and the only one showing above the clouds rang a little false. The Chrysler Building is nearly as tall and was officially the tallest building in the world for the last 11 months of the ESB's construction in 1930-31.

I think Simmons only said it might be the tallest -- although of course if the top of the ESB was visible through the clouds, the top of the Chrysler Building should have been as well.

 

[Reverend]

Yeah, because the dramatic final moments of the season is exactly the time for pedantic historical accuracy, because heavens forfend the audience be given a simple visual shorthand to sell the concept.


Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about all this because on the one hand: yay! wacky adventures through time visiting the SSR and vintage SHIELD (fingers crossed for a Peggy episode), but on the other hand it all seemed to pivot just a little too quickly for my tastes and I'm not quire sure I like how they went about resolving the Clarke Gregg question for next season. Feels a little cheaty at this point...

 

[The Old Mixer]

Yeah, because the dramatic final moments of the season is exactly the time for pedantic historical accuracy, because heavens forfend the audience be given a simple visual shorthand to sell the concept.

I knew somebody would get riled up by a simple historical note. Next up, somebody posts that the MCU is in a different universe, so the Chrysler Building may not have been constructed yet. Same ol' song and dance.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

After the otherwise thrilling couple of episodes, I absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed Simmons casually rolling in, with a full complement S.H.I.E.L.D. team, lights on, and ‘we've got it all covered’ attitude, that confused the director that he didn't even know the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen again and they had been having two extinction scenarios in progress at the same time.

That entry was reminiscent of early Season 1 S.H.E.L.D. that seemed to carry the confidence, clout, and unwavering ability to walk into any crisis and take care of it, showing everyone they were the boss in the process; though it's taking it to another level for a single Simmons-lead team to pull that on the director, who was 20 seconds away from barely escaping humanity's extinction, and still hadn't been informed there's a second one on the way.

Obviously, you didn't need the Empire State Building (which stands there to sustain certain rumours, which I hope are true), as excluding Enoch literally referring to it, time travel was telegraphed from the very way Simmons entered the room. You could tell it had taken a lot of time to gather themselves, a lot of preparation to formulate a plan, gather a team to collect a sample of the time monolith, and pre-knowledge of the mission success and Chronicom's strike on the pyramid. Speaking of the sample, I was immediately excited about it, because I knew they had already used the sample they were taking.

Random side-note: I have no stakes on the hate/love towards Deke thing, but after everyone was sent to his tech firm guys to fool the Chronicoms, I was hoping they would certainly be featured again and be brought into an accidental involvement. There's nothing like the realization that you are working on a black ops site, and possibly getting involved in a secret alien operation. No time for that, though.

 

[Christopher]

Empire State Building (which stands there to sustain certain rumours, which I hope are true)

What do you mean? If it's

Spoiler: rumor

the Enver Gjokaj rumor, then the incomplete ESB in 1931 is 16-20 years too early for a Daniel Souza appearance.

Unless you mean that their ability to time travel in general means they'd also be able to go to the late '40s or early '50s.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

What do you mean? If it's

Spoiler: rumor

the Enver Gjokaj rumor, then the incomplete ESB in 1931 is 16-20 years too early for a Daniel Souza appearance.

Unless you mean that their ability to time travel in general means they'd also be able to go to the late '40s or early '50s.

Yes, that.

Spoiler: rumour

And yes, the ability to time travel in general. The Zephyr was nearly suggested to have a functional time drive now which has been used at least twice, so that implies they can go anywhere and spend each week in different time, although its abilities would probably be more limited than that.

I'm also hoping Peggy Carter also makes an appearance, not just Daniel Souza.

 

[David cgc]

I'd hope for a return to the "pod" mini-arc structure, with them spending a few episodes each in three or four settings per season, rather than a new location every week. They'd probably have to, considering the expense of sets and casting and such.

 

[Christopher]

I just hope they use the same time travel logic as Endgame to maintain consistency. They already pretty much did so with their previous time travel, what with Deke's continued existence confirming the multiverse theory. So hopefully they'll continue in that vein.

 

[FreezeC77]

I wonder where LMD Coulson's memories came from. I don't think they went back in time and transferred them before he died because Simmons said she thinks its what he would have wanted and that would have likely involved him knowing.

Maybe framework copied?

 

[Avalon]

Didn't May say she and Coulson had "more time than they thought"? Was that ever explained?

Also, May is gonna be some pissed when she wakes up...

 

[Nerys Myk]

Didn't May say she and Coulson had "more time than they thought"? Was that ever explained?

Also, May is gonna be some pissed when she wakes up...

Being pissed is sort of her jam.

 

[Avalon]

True.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Wow, that was a doozy of a two-part finale. The way the plot was playing out with seemingly everyone in seriously jeopardy of actually dying, I thought there was going to be some weird twist that everyone crossed through the portal in order to continue existing like May did and the final season would be them in that netherworld.

Instead, the weird twist was time travel! And this time into the past! Although does this mean we are going to get Piper next season or did Fitz, Simmons, and Enoch bring her along? I sure hope so. The presence of other SHIELD agents suggest that might be a possibility.

I hope the final season is more on the pure fun side of things. There has been so much gloom and doom in the last few years that it would be nice for the show to return to its lighter side. Time travel hijinks is a good way of doing that, along with bringing in lots of old characters. Not just the old standbys like Lance Hunter, Bobbi Morse, Robbie Reyes, Mike Peterson, etc., but even Peggy Carter and her crew. And maybe a crossover or two from the films? Anything is possible with time travel hijinks!

While the whiplash from Sarge's true colors and immediate death to getting LMD Coulson was a bit hard to take, I don't mind, if only because Sarge wasn't "reset" to some earlier form of Coulson as a I feared. At least this time around, we know how Clark Gregg will be involved without having to speculate for a year. Plus, a nice callback to the original fan speculation of how Coulson could return when this series first announced. Good to have that finally happen.

 

[Christopher]

Plus, a nice callback to the original fan speculation of how Coulson could return when this series first announced. Good to have that finally happen.

I dunno, it seems like a bit of a copout to go for the obvious move like that (people also suggested it as a possible identity for Sarge, IIRC).

And it's getting a little silly how many times this show has brought Coulson back from the dead now. I almost would've preferred it if they'd finally written him out for good, and if the final scene had been the Zephyr arriving in c. 1950 and Peggy Carter coming aboard to be the new lead character. I mean, she was cheated out of more seasons of her own show, so it would be a great twist to bring her back in the lead of ABC's other Marvel show.

And hey, by Endgame logic, they wouldn't even have to worry about changing the timeline by bringing Peggy into the present, because going back to her time would just create an alternate branch that wouldn't affect the original history.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I was also expecting/hoping for Peggy to show up at the end (even if I knew in the back of my head that the timing was wrong; I wasn't 100% certain about the history but I was pretty sure it was too early). However, I have no issues with this turn of events. So what if it's a little silly? At least have Coulson and Clark Gregg again (and it's something somewhat new for Gregg to perform).

 

[JD]

Wow, that was an insane finale. I was surprised when it turned out Sarge actually had gone full on bad guy, I had assumed it was going to turn out it was all a plan him and May had come up with. Even after he went bad, I had still expected them to take out the out the bad guy part, and leave some part of good Coulson, so I was really shocked when they actually killed him. That was a pretty cool effect when Daisy quaked away the Coulson skin to reveal the alien beneath.
I had expected the Chronicoms to be the big bads next season, but I did not expect the time travel aspect. It took me a minute to realize that they had traveled back in time, at first I thought maybe they had ended up in a future where the Chronichoms had taken over.
Bringing Coulson back as a LMD was definitely a surprise. I realized it was him the moment Simmons said they needed a expert in S.H.I.E.L.D history, but I had thought he was going to be a clone or maybe they had somehow been able to put the monolith duplicate back together.
The time travel stuff does make the Agent Carter crossover a lot more likely.

 

[CaptainWacky]

They just wrapped shooting season 7 a couple of days ago. Hayley Atwell was acting on stage in London for all of May, June and most of July. I think it's pretty unlikely we're going to see Peggy in season 7 (though I guess she could have flimed an episode or two before May as I don't know when they started shooting.)