'Agents of SHIELD' Season 6 Recap: Sarge, Shrikes and everything you need to know ahead of the final season
'Agents of SHIELD' is all set to enter its final season on the air. However before we get into Season 7, here's a recap of everything that happened in Season 6: A year after Agent Phil Coulson's (Clark Gregg) off-screen death at the end of Season 5, the sixth season dealt with an invasion of Earth by a parasitic race called the Shrikes. These creatures are led by an entity known as the Beast, who aims to open a portal to her home dimension and allow her race to conquer the entire galaxy. SHIELD finds an ally in their fight against Izel in Sarge, a mysterious alien mercenary who just so happens to look exactly like Coulson.
Meanwhile, Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) are out in space trying to find Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), who is with the Chronicom Enoch (Joel Stoffer). Their journey takes them to a number of exotic locales including an alien casino and they also run into a Chronicom bounty hunter who's after Fitz. Eventually, they meet Atarah (Sherri Saum), leader of the Chronicoms, who is trying to use Fitz to figure out the secret of time travel in the hopes that they can fix the destruction of their homeworld.
Simmons surrenders to the Chronicoms while Daisy and the others head back to Earth. Atarah traps Fitz and Simmons in their minds but they're eventually freed by Enoch, who previously betrayed Fitz-Simmons but has now decided to side against his people. Once Daisy manages to get back to Earth, she fills the rest of the team in on what's happening and realizes that the Shrikes are the same creatures that destroyed the Chronicom homeworld.
Fitz, Simmons, and Enoch are rescued from potential slavery by a mysterious woman called Izel (Karolina Wydra) who, unknown to them, is the Beast. She reveals that she's after the monoliths and sets course for Earth. Meanwhile, Enoch, who leaves Fitz and Simmons to rejoin his people, attempts to re-establish contact with the rest of the Chronicoms, not realizing that the Chronicom hunters are now after him.
Fitz and Simmons manage to make contact with the team again but Izel reveals her true colors and attacks them. On Earth, Sarge concocts a plan to kill the Beast but it's foiled by Daisy, Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), and Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward). Sarge attempts to take control of the Zephyr but he's thwarted and imprisoned. Later, May visits Sarge in his cell and stabs him.
He doesn't die, however, and the team discovers that he has strange healing abilities. They also figure out that Izel can possess people and that since she took control of May, she could still be in the Lighthouse.
Izel starts body-hopping, trying to find the monoliths, while Fitz deduces that when the monoliths exploded in Season 5, they created a new Coulson who became Sarge. We eventually find out that "Sarge" is actually Pachakutiq, a being from Izel's world who possessed the Coulson clone's body and got his memories confused with Coulson's.
Though Sarge still refuses to side with her, Izel manages to get the device containing the monoliths' power and heads for a specific temple where she can unleash it, capturing Mack (Henry Simmons) and Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) in the process. Meanwhile, Daisy fights Sarge and discovers that there really is something of Coulson left in him so she allies herself with him.
At the temple, Flint (Coy Stewart) is revealed to be alive and Izel uses him to recreate the monoliths, opening a portal. Out in space, the Chronicom Malachi (Christopher James Baker) kills Atarah and organizes a coup with his eyes set on Earth as a possible site for the construction of a new Chronicom homeworld.
Deke manages to create some Shrike-killing tech and Daisy, May, Piper (Briana Venskus), and Sarge take a Quinjet to the temple. Deke also manages to get into the temple using a stolen teleporter and frees Mack, Yo-Yo, and Flint. May and Sarge face Izel but Sarge betrays May, embracing his true origins and stabbing her before throwing her through the portal.
In the final episode of the season, SHIELD faces assaults on multiple fronts with the Chronicoms attacking and Izel's invasion underway. Fitz and Simmons almost end up sacrificing themselves to keep the Framework technology from the Chronicoms but they are rescued by a disguised Enoch. While Daisy, Mack, and a Shrike-infected Yo-Yo face Pachakutiq, May fights Izel and despite the odds, they manage to kill the two otherworldly monsters and close the portal.
In the aftermath, May is slowly dying but Simmons arrives in an upgraded Zephyr and places her in a stasis pod. The Chronicoms destroy the temple and the monoliths but Fitz manages to send the team to 1930s Manhattan, where Simmons explains that the Chronicoms are invading and they need an expert in SHIELD history to fight them, revealing a Chronicom-enhanced Life Model Decoy of Coulson.
The story continues in 'Agents of SHIELD' Season 7 premiering on ABC on May 27 at 10 pm ET.