'Agents of SHIELD' Season 7 Finale Review: Fitz's return, Deke's rightful place and a happy ending for all
Spoilers for 'Agents of SHIELD' Season 7 Episodes 12 and 13
It's the end of an era. Marvel's very first show set in the MCU, 'Agents of SHIELD', has finally ended its seven-season run with an epic two-part finale. Tying up all loose ends and providing a happy ending for all, we couldn't have asked for a better farewell episode for this wonderful, fantastic show.
The finale picks up where Episode 11 left off with Alphonso 'Mack' Mackenzie (Henry Simmons), Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) and Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) infiltrating the Chronicom flagship to rescue Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), while Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) and Elena 'Yo-Yo' Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) defend the Lighthouse.
Coulson uses some old data from when Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) figured out how to stop Gordon (Fin Argus) and uses it to trap John Garrett (James Paxton) when he attempts to plant bombs in the Lighthouse. Once Garrett realizes that Nathaniel Malick has no intention of rescuing him, he helps the agents escape the destruction of the Lighthouse and joins them in their fight against the Chronicoms.
However, that alliance doesn't last long. Garrett teleports the agents to the last SHIELD hideout where he is promptly killed by the assembled agents, one of whom looks a lot like Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows).
Meanwhile, Simmons still doesn't remember Fitz, so Sybil (Tamara Taylor) allows Daisy to find her and for a moment it looks like it's working and Simmons is remembering her lost memories. Unfortunately for the Chronicoms, Daisy's sister Kora (Dianne Doan) interrupts and starts a fight with Daisy. An angry Sybil sends in Malick who stuns Kora and hooks her up to his power transfer device as punishment.
Back at the SHIELD hideout, the assembled agents have all received a coded signal instructing them to gather there with a specific set of items that Simmons realizes she can use to build a device, completed by her wedding ring. The device opens a portal to the original timeline and out steps Fitz, finally making an appearance after spending the whole season in hiding.
In the second half of the finale, Fitz explains the quantum realm and the physics of time travel, tying in to 'Avengers: Endgame', and suggests the heroes just ditch this timeline to go back and save the original one. Of course, that doesn't sit well with Coulson who insists that this isn't some virtual reality they can just turn off, they have to defend it. Interestingly enough, we see some strong parallels between Fitz and Sybil, both of whom are concerned with probability ratios and ensuring the optimal results for their respective sides. In any case, Fitz reveals that he can take them all back to the original timeline but someone has to stay behind, and Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward) offers himself up since he's basically a rockstar in the '80s.
It's a little ironic that Deke, who came from the future, found his rightful place in the past. But that said, it's still nice to see him find a place where he is truly appreciated and he's now the new Director of SHIELD for this timeline.
One quick jump to the original timeline later, things get a little confusing when it is revealed that the hazmat suit-wearing agents who extracted the team from the temple at the end of the last season were actually our beloved heroes in disguise. With a bit of maneuvering, the agents trick the Chronicoms into firing at the past Zephyr while they sneak aboard the flagship with the present Zephyr (incoming time-travel headache).
In the final set of battles, we get an epic "Quake Off" between Daisy and Malick while Coulson faces off against Sybil. He tricks Sybil into thinking she's won and gets her to send all her hunters to the Lighthouse, with May dropping in and taking Sybil out once she gives the order. While that's happening, Mack saves Kora and with all the hunters in the Lighthouse, Kora uses her powers to boost the hunters until they achieve the same level of empathy as Enoch (Joel Stoffer). There's a touching callback to Enoch's death with someone asking the Chronicoms if they’re friends or enemies, and the hunters replying, “Friends, as we have always been.”
Daisy's battle with Malick is the last fight in the Chronicom War and it ends with the young Inhuman using her powers to rip apart the spaceship, killing Malick and exposing herself to the cold vacuum of space. No heroes are dying in this story though and Daisy gets saved by the agents so Kora can use her powers to heal her sister.
Finally, we find out the reason why Simmons had a memory implant blocking her recollections of Fitz: before she came to save the agents, her and Fitz spent years together and had an adorable baby daughter. Cut to a year later, and the agents all gather (virtually) for a final goodbye.
Daisy and Sousa are SHIELD commanders, operating in space with Kora. Mack is still Director and he's rebuilt the Helicarrier. Yo-Yo leads a strike team with Piper (Briana Laurel Venskus) and a Davis LMD (Maximilian Osinski) while May is a lecturer at the new SHIELD academy, renamed the Coulson Academy. FitzSimmons are now retired and raising their daughter, finally getting the happy ending we always wanted for them. And Coulson decides to live out his new life as an LMD, riding off into the sunset in a new and improved Lola.
And that's a wrap, folks! It was a great ride and we're glad to have been a part of it.
'Agents of SHIELD' aired its series finale August 12 on ABC.
