We’re fast approaching the end as it’s time to tackle the world’s freakiest demon bats in Agents of SHIELD‘s sixth season. Let’s begin!
Episode 1 – Missing Pieces
While Daisy and Simmons lead a squad to track down Fitz in space, Mack and the gang left on Earth deal with a new (and wholly unexpected) threat.
This episode (and this entire season) had a basically insurmountable task to overcome in order to justify its existence. Does it work? Uh…mostly, I guess. It’s hard to fully say that Agents of SHIELD is better off for continuing with two final seasons after what was previously written to be the grand finale, but it’d also be folly to say that these last two seasons don’t continue some of the most fun episodes and character moments in the entire show.
This premiere is one of the wackiest in the show. There’s about a million new characters introduced (a few of whom die off by the episode’s end), including own new villainous squad of wacky personalities that almost feel ripped from an anime. A swarm of bats in unleashed onto Earth through a portal in the ground, Daisy is now a feared individual out in space, and Fitz (who, as a reminder, is alive because of the time paradox being solved) is on the run with the (also alive now) Enoch. To top it all off, the leader of the evil group is none other than a battle-hardened Coulson, revived somehow and with none of his memories. Spooky!
Rating: 8
Episode 2 – Window of Opportunity
Fitz and Enoch struggle to stay alive out in space, and SHIELD battles against the evil Coulson (now called Sarge) and his gang.
Fitz and Enoch have some good character-bonding moments in this episode, and it’s nice to get to know the monotone Chronicom better after his short-lived screen time in the previous season. It won’t become apparent until later, but Enoch is growing into a major character for these final two seasons, and I’m all for it. Meanwhile, the stuff back on Earth is still entertaining, and I love every scene with Sarge and his groupies. They behave a lot like a lovably dysfunctional family, managing to be rather endearing while still posing a threat to SHIELD.
Rating: 8.5
Episode 3 – Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson
Daisy and Simmons arrive on the gambling planet of Kitson, having tracked Fitz down. Chaos ensues.
This might actually take the cake for the wackiest episode of the show. While Fitz and Enoch accidentally gamble themselves into servitude trying to win enough money to buy a ship, Daisy and Simmons unintentionally consume alien drugs, kicking them both off into a crazy, colorful trip. Hilarity follows, including a hallucination of Fitz wearing a monkey suit, Daisy and Simmons forgetting the mission and partying instead, and a drunken tag team brawl. On top of this, Davis and Piper get a lot of screen time together, which is awesome because their chemistry is so great (and I’ve always had a weird soft spot for side characters getting focus).
Rating: 8.5
Episode 4 – Code Yellow
Deke, now a tech start-up millionaire, comes under fire by Sarge and needs to be bailed out by his old SHIELD friends. At the same time, the horror of the bat creatures becomes clear.
Not to be outdone by the previous episode, this installment of the season might just be one of the most thoroughly enjoyable standalone episodes of the entire show. Sarge and his crew attack Deke at his tech company, leading to an all-out battle of entertaining proportions. May has a well-choregraphed and excellent duel with Snowflake, Mack delivers a great beatdown to Pax, Sarge captures May (setting up for the next episode), and Deke tricks Jaco into trapping himself inside of virtual reality (which also doubles as an incredible gag whereupon Mack discovers that Deke is using virtual reality to flirt with a simulated Daisy). This episode is just really funny from start to finish.
And yet it also has an extremely jarring sequence of Yo-Yo and SHIELD agent Keller trying to fight off one of those demon bats (known as the Shrike). Despite the complete 180 in tone, it doesn’t feel jarring or unnatural. And boy howdy is the unfortunate infection and death of Keller exceptionally graphic (it’s some of the craziest body horror I’ve ever seen). Definitely a great episode!
Rating: 9
Episode 5 – The Other Thing
The team in space is held hostage by the Chronicoms, while May is a captive of Sarge and his crew.
While I appreciate the space-faring half of this episode, it definitely isn’t where the strength of it all lies. Still, we finally get introduced to the bulk of the Chronicom race (the same sentient cyborg things that Enoch is), and we discover that they lost their home planet to those evil Shrike bats, and now want to claim Earth as a new home. We also get more screen time for Enoch and his relationship with Fitz, and these plot threads will go on to define the rest of this season and the next.
The highlight of the episode, though, is May being held as a captive by Sarge. We get one incredible scene after the next of May and Sarge having a battle of wits, and it continues to be both amazing and crazy to see Coulson’s face and general personality in a villainous context. We also learn that the Shrike bats will destroy the galaxy if their creator is not stopped. Then, to top it off, May successful outsmarts all the members of Sarge’s crew, then beats down the man himself in a brutal and uniquely choreographed fight. The episode is also punctuated with flashbacks to Coulson’s final moments alive on the Tahiti beach with May.
Rating: 8.5
Episode 6 – Inescapable
Locked inside of a mind prison, Fitz and Simmons’ long-awaited reunion is put on hold as they are forced to confront their imprisonment…and each other.
If you’re ever poked around any Agents of SHIELD discourse online, you’ll frequently hear this episode described as the BEST in the entire show. Obviously, that’s an extremely bold claim.
It’s also a correct one.
I have a very hard time appropriately describing how incredibly perfect this episode is. The acting. The writing. The score. The character development, emotional beats, triumphant conclusion, everything. It’s all just so amazing. I also can’t stress enough how bold of a decision it was to anchor an entire episode around a singular, bottle-like premise, right in the middle of an action-and-mystery heavy season, but by golly the showrunners did it and it worked!
For 95% of this episode’s runtime, the only characters on screen are Fitz and Simmons, and thus every single scene is carried on the unbreaking shoulders of Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge. Being trapped in a virtual mind prison, this episode isn’t afraid to do everything imaginable to push Fitz and Simmons into situations uniquely crafted to force them to recognize their traumas, work through their issues, and solidify their relationship as one of the best television romances of all time.
We get to see the two of them as awkward college students having a study session, and then again the day Coulson recruited them to be SHIELD field agents. Fitz proposes marriage to Simmons, only to then discover that not only has he already done so, but that he’s also “died” in the previous season and is now technically a “second” Fitz. Meanwhile, Simmons is stalked by none other than The Doctor persona of Fitz, in his final and still deliciously evil appearance. There’s an incredible amount of humor, a heartfelt declaration of true love, and a closing scene of Enoch proving his human friends are more valuable to him than his Chronicom brethren.
Geez! What other show has its best episode in season six?
Rating: 11
Episode 7 – Toldja
While Fitz and Simmons struggle to get home, Sarge proves himself a dangerous opponent even in chains.
Coming off of the previous episode, Fitz and Simmons are as entertaining as ever while trying to navigate outer space and try to head home, eventually falling into a partnership with a mysterious redhead who promises to take them to Earth with her. Still, the best bits of the episode are Sarge managing to still be as cocky as ever, slowly worming his way into gaining more and more authority amongst the SHIELD agents by leveraging his knowledge of the Shrike and the simple charm of having Coulson’s face and voice. Daisy’s absolute disgust at Sarge is easy to sympathize with.
Rating: 8
Episode 8 – Collision Course Part One
The Shrike creator is heading to Earth, and only a desperate plan proposed by Sarge can stop her.
Kicking things into high-gear for the first part of this mid-season finale, Sarge reveals that the Shrike creator is almost to Earth, and that the planet will be destroyed if she and her bats aren’t stopped quickly and decisively. Of course, it isn’t too much of a shock when Izel, the redhead who rescued Fitz and Simmons, is revealed to be the evil creator, prompting Fitz and Simmons to struggle to save themselves from her and the rest of the crew who are quickly possessed by Shrike.
On Earth, Sarge takes Daisy, Deke, and Snowflake with him in his truck to hunt down the growing mass of Shrike that Izel is planning to reunite with. We have a few comical moments with Deke, then a few other great conversations with Daisy and Sarge. He’s so close to being Coulson, but it’s obvious that this man is anything but when he tricks the trio (leaving his own teammate Snowflake to die), and instead launches an attack on the Zephyr with Pax. Chaos, predictably, ensues.
Rating: 9
Episode 9 – Collision Course Part Two
Sarge is attacking, Izel is attacking, and SHIELD does everything it can to hold it all together.
The exciting second part of the mid-season finale, and one that definitely delivers on the promises of the previous episode. Sarge and Mack have an excellent beatdown brawl aboard the Zephyr, Pax ends up being betrayed and shot by Sarge (which in turn results in Jaco joining with the SHIELD agents), Daisy unleashes her quake powers against the Shrike to save her team, Jaco goes out in a blaze of glory taking all of the Shrike with him, Fitz and Simmons are successfully saved and reunited with the team, there’s some crazy explosions and awesome music, and the day is won.
Then, perhaps most intriguingly, there’s a lengthy victory party scene of all of the SHIELD members catching their breath and celebrating with new and old friends. It should be fun, right? But yet…something just feels off. It’s too happy…
Rating: 9
Episode 10 – Leap
Peace does not last long, as not only did Izel survive, but she’s now body-surfing through SHIELD with spectral powers!
It’s an idea that has been done a million times in sci-fi shows (and even a few times in this very own show), but I can’t deny that I’m a sucker for “who can we trust” storylines. The reveal that Izel can body-surf between hosts by possessing them is terrifying, and the tension and suspense of this episode is riding at an irresistible high. The inevitable confrontation with Izel is great too, and her threat factor really moves up considering that, at this point, she’s effectively unbeatable.
Everything comes to a head, tragically, as Izel forces a possessed Davis to jump off a balcony to his death (bringing an end to one of the most memorable and long-lasting red shirts of all time). She then escapes the base with Mack and Yo-Yo as prisoners.
Rating: 9
Episode 11 – From the Ashes
Mack and Yo-Yo try to slow Izel as much as possible, while Daisy has a reckoning with Sarge.
This is the requisite breather episode before the grand finale, though it still has some great scenes. There’s a chilling, twisted scene of Izel using a horrific illusion to try and trick an innocent man into submitting to her, there’s the expositional lore reveal of the true nature of the monoliths and the Fear Dimension, and we even get to see Flint (the rock-controlling kid from the future space arc of season five) make an unexpected return through time and space.
The best scenes are those of Daisy emotionally and aggressively confronting Sarge, trying to determine whether he’s fully falling under the sway of evil, or if any trace amount of Coulson remains. These scenes are excellent, and greatly leverage Daisy’s established father-daughter relationship with Coulson.
Rating: 8.5
Episode 12 – The Sign
The SHIELD team mount an all-out offensive to stop Izel from summoning an endless swarm of demons upon the Earth.
Despite the theoretical stakes of this confrontation, there’s an element of breeziness to the proceedings that never quite sat well with me. Izel’s demon horde is obviously a big threat on paper, but the execution leaves me not entirely invested. It might be the season’s short length, or Izel’s minimal screen time, but I find it hard to care about her.
It’s a good thing, then, that there are plenty of awesome scenes without her. Sarge (traces of Coulson poking through) has a lot of good moments with the SHIELD team. There’s also a few fun fight scenes against some generic Shrike-possessed goons. My favorite scene is Deke angrily working through his built-up frustrations with his life, culminating in him bravely and recklessly teleporting right into the middle of the Shrike invasion to save Mack, Yo-Yo, and Flint.
Also, May gets stabbed in the final seconds of the episode, but that gets covered next episode!
Rating: 9
Episode 13 – New Life
The battle of Izel and a newly savage Sarge comes to an unforgettable end.
This episode is about 90% normal Agents of SHIELD finale affair, and 10% utter confusion.
May briefly holds off death by being thrown into the Fear Dimension, wherein she has a crazy sword duel with Izel (with action poses purposefully based off of Mulan as a cheeky little nod). In the outside world, Yo-Yo becomes briefly infected by a Shrike, and Mack and Daisy duel and inevitable kill Sarge (who is a creepy CGI monster man, but it looks pretty good like Hive did back in season three). On top of this, Fitz and Simmons are being hunted by the Chronicoms, and the Lighthouse is lost in the struggle.
And then, a random group of hazmat suited individuals show up and just barely save May before she dies, followed by inexplicable time travel back to 1930s New York, and then a somewhat sudden ending to close out the season. If it wasn’t clear before that seasons six and seven are basically one big season split in half, this is the confusing and vaguely disappointing moment that seals it. Even Coulson’s shocking return as an LMD in the last minute of the episode feels rushed.
I mean, the episode is still great up until this ending, but the rushed nature of the final minutes leaves a bad taste.
Of course, when next season shockingly ties back into everything and explains all the mystery of this rushed ending, it retroactively makes it a million times cooler! It’s rough on a first watch, though.
Rating: 8.5
SEASON CONCLUSION
It’s hard to properly rate this season, given that it’s just the first part of a larger whole that joins with season seven. Even still, the Sarge stuff and Izel plotthreads are all tied up here (with only the Chronicom arc going on to be the major threat in the next season), so it’s still worth evaluating.
There’s stuff that works in this season (Sarge and his gang, the extra moments of character development, the unique and funny comedy bits and fight scenes), and “Inescapable” single-handedly justifies this season’s existence. But, then Izel and the Shrike don’t really pan out, and the season isn’t long enough to craft a wholly enjoyable and sensical story. It’s all worth watching as a Agents of SHIELD fan, of course, but it’s a sad step down from everything that came before it.
Rating: 8.5
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 