Though the series ended only five years ago, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a show from a different television era. The Marvel live-action series ran on ABC for 136 episodes across seven seasons, had five seasons with 20-plus episodes, and ended on its own terms. Nowadays, achieving any of those feats on TV is rare. Not to mention, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is also the last show from the previous Marvel Television division that was independent of Marvel Studios.
The show’s final two seasons had 13 episodes each. These followed a fifth season that acted as a final season before ABC ultimately renewed it. The season 5 finale is even titled “The End” and plays out as the conclusion to Phil Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. team and its journey.
Had Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ended at season 5, the show would still be good. The series would still have been a stellar way to expand upon the Marvel universe, and the ending would still be solid. But season 7 acts as the conclusion the landmark series deserved.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 7 pays homage to the show and Marvel universe as a whole
No rule states that a show’s final season must pay homage to the rest of it, but that practice has come to be expected. It helps create a full-circle narrative and a satisfying ending. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. does exactly that in season 7. From character cameos to references, it honors the series’s roots as Marvel Television’s premier show.
When the team travels to the past, S.H.I.E.L.D. finds it cannot escape Hydra — before it even becomes the fascist organization it’s known as in Captain America: The First Avenger. This brings back the infamous Hydra family, the Malicks, but in different ways. Wilfred "Freddy" Malick, father to Gideon and Nathaniel, helps accelerate Project Insight (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, anyone?) so that it happens decades before it should. This time, Nathaniel is the Malick son who becomes a threat. He even recruits and teams up with a young John Garrett, who's eventually shot by Victoria Hand.
On the heartfelt side, Daisy gets some closure with her complicated family history when she speaks with her mother, Jiaying, and sees what she was like before Hydra tortured her.
As if they hadn’t already met enough of them, S.H.I.E.L.D. even encounters another Koenig. Does meeting Ernest Koenig clarify the Koenig situation? Not really. But the fact that Koenigs have been involved before the S.S.R. exists is a fun tidbit that adds to the long-running Koenig bit.
One of the best parts about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is how it gave more faces to the people who make up the organization. The show made S.H.I.E.L.D. about more than just Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Coulson. So seeing other key figures was a great way to say goodbye to the series.
An actual Peggy Carter cameo would’ve been nice, but the alternative Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 7 offered was fitting and silly in the best way: S.H.I.E.L.D.’s resident Peggy Carter fangirl, Jemma Simmons, posing as the S.H.I.E.L.D. founder at the Area 51 base — only to be caught by Daniel Sousa himself.
An overlooked and underappreciated nod, Daisy Johnson also returns to her roots as a hacker. As awesome as Quake is, the show veers away from her hacker skills once she embraces her Inhuman powers. Daisy becomes more of a superhero and less of a computer hacker. But that makes it especially great to see her use her skills to help Coulson and May infiltrate the Lighthouse in 1976.
Season 5’s ending feels tainted by the team’s turmoil
One of the biggest appeals of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is its found-family dynamic. It’d be impossible for the agents not to grow as close as they do, given the chaos and trauma they experience — the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and reveal of Hydra was just the start of a crazy journey. The second half of season 5, however, is a rocky time for the team. This makes season 5, when viewed as an ending, feel somewhat unsettling.
The team disagrees about how to address Coulson’s impending death. They don’t all respect Daisy’s position as appointed director of S.H.I.E.L.D. — a position she doesn’t want. Some of them use their knowledge of the future to be reckless. Ruby’s death and the ordeal with Daisy and Fitz/the Doctor increase the tension between the team.
In the end, Fitz’s death and Coulson’s farewell bring everyone together. They’re still a family — not necessarily a happy one, just one that’s different and moving forward. That’s OK and feels true to reality. It doesn’t make for as fulfilling a conclusion, though.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 7, however, does a lovely job of embracing the idea of family. It avoids repeating the cliché of tragic endings in science fiction and provides the characters with happy endings — even if they’re on separate journeys.
Season 7 is a more gratifying ending for Marvel TV’s found family
In the series finale, there’s a moment where Coulson has just thanked Kora for reviving Daisy. When he checks on Daisy, he tells her, “This is what we were fighting for.” Daisy understands what he’s getting at and responds with “Family.” That brief exchange perfectly encapsulates the importance and power that family has had in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. What they are and have been fighting for throughout seven seasons is the family they want, the family they have, and the family they’ll make. Beyond the found family the team discovers with one another, the idea is even truer when considering Skye/Daisy’s journey over the years.
The one-year time jump that follows offers an open-ended perspective of what the team’s lives are like moving forward. It even shows how the Framework isn’t something they need to fear; it’s something they can now appreciate.
After all the sacrifices he made, Coulson finally gets to just live and see the world however he wants for as long as he wants. Daisy has the family she always yearned for in not only just the team but Daniel Sousa and Kora, too. May, now teaching at Coulson Academy, gets to retire from field work on her own terms (unlike when she opted for office work after Bahrain).
FitzSimmons gets to live a normal, civilian life with their daughter, Alya, away from the pressures and dangers of S.H.I.E.L.D. Not to mention season 7’s ending features Fitz alive. Mack and Yo-Yo, as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and one of the organization’s best agents, respectively, prove to be a power couple whether together or apart. Deke, though no longer in the same timeline, gets to make a life for himself independent of his desire to impress his grandparents.
Seeing that the team has gone their own ways is bittersweet, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 7 leaves a better lasting impression. It honors the show’s beloved found family trope, allows the characters fuller growth, provides the happy endings and hopeful beginnings they deserved, and highlights the positives that change can bring. After all, embracing change is what made Coulson’s team a reality in the first place.