Agents of SHIELD season 7, episode 11 review: Brand New Day

It was a “Brand New Day” for the gang in the final episode of Agents of SHIELD season 7 before the series finale. Spoilers for last week ahead.

Okay, technically that lede isn’t quite true, as next week will be the final two episodes packaged together, as all Agents of SHIELD season finales have been. But practically speaking, “Brand New Day” was the penultimate episode.

Last week in “Stolen,” Nathaniel Malick (Thomas E Sullivan) was causing all sorts of trouble for the team, as he’d begun stealing Inhumans’ abilities and giving them to random mercenaries in his quest to throw the whole globe off kilter.

One of those recruits was a young John Garrett (Bill Paxton’s real-life son James Paxton), who inherited Gordon’s teleporting powers, which added bits of levity to a very somber episode.

During his raid on the Lighthouse, Nathaniel snapped Jiaying’s (Dichen Lachman) neck after she and Daisy (Chloe Bennet) had the reconciliation they were denied in the real timeline. This means that Daisy never exists in this alternate timeline, as she wouldn’t be born until 1986.

Furthermore, Nathaniel and Garrett stole the Zephyr after they kidnapped Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), who they reason will bring them to Fitz one way or another. Why are they planning on killing him? Because in every timeline Sibyl (Tamara Taylor) watched where their plan was defeated, Fitz had something to do with it.

Deja vu all over again

Once she arrives at the Lighthouse and wakes up from being knocked out with an ICER, Kora (Dianne Doan) claims she wants to become an Agent of SHIELD…which is exactly what her sister Skye would do in the same situation about 18 years later in the pilot.

So Coulson (Clark Gregg) and May (Ming-Na Wen) both try talking with her, after Kora and Daisy finally have the sisterly heart-to-heart they’d always kind of wished for. It doesn’t go as planned, of course (these things rarely do), and Daisy stormed away in a huff, up to her bad-girl shenanigans and bringing Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) along for the ride.

Hail Mary in outer space

This plan involves ‘borrowing” another Quinjet found at the Lighthouse and launching it into space; since that’s unpredictable, Sibyl wouldn’t be expecting it. Mack stows away and gives his blessing to the expedition.

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Once up there, though, this plan has some serious flaws…if they mis-time the Zephyr’s flight path, they’ll all freeze slowly to death and float around as space junk forever. This leads to lots of pondering about their lives within SHIELD to this point, and wondering what happens if they get through this – does everyone just drift away to become phone buddies, people they once worked with?

There also could definitely be sparks flying between Daisy and Sousa as well, which Mack is amused by.

Thanks for the memories…

But the reason they’re in space at all is to rescue Simmons and Deke from Nathaniel, of course, and Nathaniel’s plans to torture Deke don’t work out so well. So then he tries strapping Simmons and himself into the Chronicom memory device from “Inescapable” (6.06), which leads to, FINALLY, some clues as to what happened to Fitz (Iain De Caestecker).

But first we saw a flashback to “End of the Beginning” (1.22) when Ward had them at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and then another flashback of the pair from either season 3 or season 4 (blanking on the episode the clip came from).

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We still don’t know what happened to him, exactly, but it was still very cathartic to see them interact in a new scene. Also, whatever Nathaniel meddled with….really, really backfired, as Simmons has no idea who Fitz even is when Deke asks if it worked.

Summary

While all this was going on, May and Kora got into an epic fight after Kora’s CPR attempt on Jiaying’s corpse proved unsuccessful. Then Garrett teleported her onto the Zephyr, where a whole fleet of Chronicom warships arrive through a wormhole and start blasting away SHIELD bases, including the Triskelion.

Finally, just as it seems as though Kora will murder Nathaniel in revenge for killing her mother, she instead….kisses him passionately as the credits roll.

SHIELD shrapnel

• “Evildoers are predictable, too – they’re always plotting to ruin our day.” Proof of Henry Simmons’ acting talent that that line (which looks terrible in print) sounds appropriately determined out loud.
• Interesting use of dramatic irony that the characters themselves didn’t realize they were in an alternate timeline this whole time until Kora told them.
• After being tortured: “Hi Nana! How’s your day going?” This is one of the most Deke things ever.
•  “I already have a sister…her name is Jemma Simmons.” Literally cheered when Daisy said this.
• The phrase “Hail Mary” for a lost cause didn’t come into popular slang until Roger Staubach’s playoff touchdown throw for the Dallas Cowboys over the Minnesota Vikings in December 1975, so Sousa using the term seems a bit anachronistic, though it’s possible he could have learned it from Coulson or Mack while bonding with them in a bit of downtime.
• “Maybe it’s time,” Mack muses on their journey ending. “We’ve been on a crazy ride.” That is certainly one way to understate it. And though Daisy’s panic about not knowing who she is without SHIELD is heartbreakingly human and understandable, this scene put things into perspective in a very Parks and Rec manner.
• Also, after Mack’s very fatherly interrogation of Sousa, the “I think I understand. You’re threatening me, sir?”squeak of acknowledgement.
• FitzSimmons spent at least two years with Enoch building the time machine and the DIANA implant, possibly more.
• SHIELD base shoutouts to the Hub, the Sandbox and the Playground (which has seen a lot of action this season) this episode, in addition to the Lighthouse.
• Coulson and Enoch teaching a history class together would be incredible.

The Agents of SHIELD series finale, season 7 episode 12, “The End is at Hand” and season 7 episode 13, “What We’re Fighting For,” will air on ABC on Wednesday, August 12. Have you been enjoying Agents of SHIELD season 7? Let us know in the comments below!