Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Recap – “Maveth”

It’s another midseason finale for Agents of SHIELD and all of the comments leading up to it have implied that some pretty serious stuff happens that will leave us all reeling until March.

So did it live up to the hype?

Not-So-Short Summary: The episode opens with a bang, with Fitz nearly stealing Ward’s gun and Ward punching Fitz in the face. They find some sort of shrine to Hydra, the skull pretty darn prevalent.

And then Fitz finds Will, injured after Simmons left, with Ward right behind followed by a smash cut to a commercial for Star Wars, which only amps up my excitement. Nothing like product synergy!

Will and Fitz have a bit of a bonding moment before they decide to work together. Will says they need to make it across the upcoming canyon. As they wander along, a sandstorm kicks up because they’re in the No-Fly Zone. Will takes out his and Fitz’ bodyguards and they take off on their own.

We come to Coulson in the midst of a vision of Rosalind, telling him to get up, where he comes face-to-face with a skull on Simmons’ mystery planet. He’s on the others’ trail and finds them in the midst of said sandstorm, killing off Ward’s goons and making Ward bleed. They’re going to find Fitz and Will.

Ward sees this planet as new life, not death. He sees this all as a grand plan. “I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” Coulson says, as I sit on the edge of my seat and wait for him to really shoot him, not just a warning shot to the shoulder.

On their way to the portal, Fitz takes pictures of an ancient civilization still in the No-Fly Zone. Will says there were once nine cities on the planet that feared change. It easily divided them and they warred among themselves until they destroyed the planet. Fitz asks how he knows so much. “Because I was there,” Will says. And the real Will died saving Simmons! It’s the Thing! And not The Thing! Didn’t we all call this?

They fight. Coulson and Ward come over a ridge just as Will is about to drop a rock on Fitz’ head. Coulson shoots Will, Ward shoves Coulson. Those two start fighting as well. Will wakes and starts toward the portal. Fitz shoots him. But Will keeps getting up.

So Fitz shoots him with a flare gun and really kills him. And Coulson crushes Ward’s ribcage with his robot hand and leaves the hand behind. He and Fitz run to the open portal.

Earth-Side of Things: Mack is ticked that Coulson jumped through, but Bobbi and Hunter mention that Fitz or Simmons may be on the other side. They want to storm the castle, but Inhumans were just delivered. Daisy finds a back way into the castle, through ductwork for water.

Lincoln knocks out the power. Inside, Simmons breaks free of her binds and uses the darkness to escape, only to discover dozens of boxes containing Inhumans, including Andrew, desperate. She and Andrew get into a pretty decent verbal showdown, until Simmons decides to let him out after his “I’m the only one who can protect you” line.

Mack, Bobbi, and Hunter make it to the Hydra agents and kick some butt off-screen while May finds Simmons and Daisy, Lincoln, and Joey get to use their powers against telekinetic man. Everyone meets up in the transportation room and mull over what happens next, what that thing is, if Fury knew what the Monolith could do…except for May. She finds all of the Inhumans dead.

And so does Malick. He gives his men fifteen minutes to breach SHIELD’s barricade and retake the transportation room. Meanwhile, Mack gives a serious order: Get everyone onto the plane while he stays behind, and explode the place even if he doesn’t make it out, and May will be the new Director. Daisy stays with him.

May and company are in the air with guns hot and ready to fire. Mack instructs her to fire, and everyone comes back in one piece through Andrew’s cage. Everyone, that is, except Will. Simmons is heartbroken.

Fitz and Coulson lock eyes. Is there something a little…dead in Coulson’s eyes? (See the post-credits stinger for more.)

Post-Credits Stinger: Malick is headed to the airport after escaping the Hydra base when his car is stopped by someone in the road. It’s Ward. Very not-Ward. Looks like Death made it through the portal after all.

Badass Moment of the Week: Joey melting bullets. That was badass.

Best One-Liner: “Cut off one head…and…blah blah blah blah blah,” Fitz says to Will, attempting to give a crap in explaining Hydra.

Best Mack Nickname: Power Rangers. For the team-up of Joey and Lincoln.

Firstly, when Coulson decided to crush Ward’s ribcage, thus crushing his heart, I was getting some serious Once Upon A Time vibes from it. Why not just rip his heart out with magic and crush it into dust?!

Secondly, I am fully onboard the Daisy/Mack train and definitely not on the Daisy/Lincoln train (though I was never on that one to begin with).

I should have caught onto Will not being Will when he had heard of Hydra. Didn’t he think SHIELD was just smoke and mirrors before Simmons told him straight? Why would he know Hydra, aside from the Red Skull and WWII history? And to some, that wouldn’t be considered “a long time” for Hydra to be around.

It’s only been four minutes since this midseason finale ended, and I’m not sure how to feel about it. Underwhelmed? Ward’s death was very much warranted, but it would have felt more satisfactory (to me, at least) if it had been a bullet in the head. Likewise, the post-credits reveal of Ward’s body as a vessel for “It” would have hit more if he hadn’t given that Jeff Winger-esque speech about having a higher purpose. Plus, I don’t think anything could compare to the last midwinter finale, with the death of Triplett and the Terrigenesis for both Raina and Daisy.

All that being said, it still came off as a nerve-wracking, edge of your seat episode, even if the action was minimal. Director Mack is awesome. Lash is back on the loose. I have a feeling that Friday’s brainstorm will have me more excited about this finale and giving insane ideas about what the back-half of the season will bring. More insanity, because this has been Agents of SHIELD constantly on its A-game so far.

So now we have to wait until March for more Agents of SHIELD. Thankfully, Marvel’s Agent Carter starts up in mid-January to give us a reprieve, but more importantly, it gives us Hayley Atwell on our televisions once more.

In the upcoming weeks, you will be privy to some sort of ridiculous brainstorms and theories of what March will bring us with Agents of SHIELD as well as what amazing things Agent Carter may bring us, like a young Hank Pym! (Hey, she’s on the west coast! It could happen!)

Hail Hydra, everyone!