Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Absolution Ascension Television 

Five Thoughts on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s “Absolution/Ascension”

By | May 18th, 2016
Posted in Television | 7 Comments

At last, the season 3 finale. Much has happened this season, and it all comes to a close. Who lives and who dies? Where do we go from here? And will the shotgun axe ever make a glorious return? Those answers and more will follow.

1. Daisy’s breakdown

While last episode saw Daisy rescued from the mind-controlling clutches of Hive, she’s certainly not back to normal. Hive was a drug, and she’s experiencing withdrawal pretty badly. We get to see her go through all the emotions – anger, self-loathing, sorrow, regret, relapse, all performed quite well by Chloe Bennet.

It leads up to a fantastic fight scene, Daisy versus Hive, that has her using her powers in a new way, combining them with hand-to-hand combat for some impressive blows.

But Daisy is certainly an emotional wreck, and the rest of the episode doesn’t help her there.

2. S.H.I.E.L.D. assemble!

Hive’s plan, as we know by now, is not to destroy the world, but to rule it, by turning everyone on it Inhuman and taking over their minds. To do that, he needed to detonate a nuclear warhead filled with the Hive-Inhuman chemical cocktail he made Dr.Radfliff create in the atmosphere. Simple plan, right?

We see some nice tech and spy work from Fitz, Coulson, and (believe it or not) General Talbot to stop the launch. Then it’s a race to space to see who can detonate it where.

Between Hive’s plans, attacks, and super-powered minions, the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. team gets chances to shine. May fights off a room full of Hive’s psuedo-Inhumans (now referred to as “Primitives”), while Mac, Yo-Yo, and Lincoln combine their tech and powers to blast Hive with a mental attack created from the memory machine. Coulson pulls one over on Hive, Fitz shoots a bad guy with a great closing line, and everyone gets some snappy one-liners or shining moments.

3. Passing around the trinket of death

We spent the season knowing that someone was going to die, but no idea who. All we knew was that there was a crucifix necklace floating beside them as they exploded in space, so when Yo-Yo was introduced, her necklace became the figurative cross to bear – a trinket of death by foreshadowing.

As such, it kept getting passed around throughout the episode. Yo-Yo gave it to Mac, who almost gave it back, then Fitz got it, then Daisy got it, and since she saw the future, she knew what possessing it would mean. And apparently the future couldn’t be changed by her saying, “Hey, whoever holds this is going to blow up in space, let’s melt it down now,” because she was ready to “embrace her destiny” (that is to say, she was feeling guilty and suicidal).

However, the hot potato wound up in someone else’s hands.

4. Farewell to Lincoln

After Lincoln helps the team capture Hive, Coulson is ready to welcome him onto the team as a full-time member, but Lincoln says no. Once Hive is taken care of once and for all, he says, he’s leaving the team.

And that, dear readers, is the death flag known as “retirony.”

Once he said that, it was just a matter of time until he caught the ticking time bomb, both metaphorically and literally. His powers allowed him to prevent Hive from taking control of the Quinjet as he flew it into space – taking Hive and his nuclear warhead with it, where they could all explode in peace.

No, really, it was actually a very peaceful scene. No struggles in space as Hive desperately tries to reclaim victory, just a calm acceptance. The two even exchange a few words as they wait for the timer to hit zero, after Lincoln gets his last words in to Daisy. His sacrifice was a little similar to, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, Captain America in his first movie: flying a deadly weapon out of enemy hands, knowing he wouldn’t make it out alive, but talking to his best gal for as long as the communications could hold.

Between this and the departure of Bobbi and Hunter earlier this season (a sacrifice now made unnecessary by the pre-show cancellation of Marvel’s Most Wanted) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has done a really nice job at sending off their characters. I didn’t even like Lincoln much, but this was a great departure for him.

Continued below

5. Let’s do the time skip again!

So, the day is saved, and everyone gets to live happily ever after, right?

Of course not, we all know that would never be the case.

So it’s time for a time skip! It’s six months later, and things have changed. Daisy is a criminal on the run (now with black hair and the alias “Quake,” as we knew would eventually happen), and Coulson’s team is trying to bring her in. But Coulson isn’t the director any more, and we don’t know who is yet. Daisy herself has learned a few new tricks in the meantime, leaping tall buildings in a single… blast of seismic power that propels her into the air.

Meanwhile, Dr. Radcliff is now a part of S.H.I.E.L.D., and has completed his work on Life Model Decoys. That’s right, now we can start pretending to kill characters off only to reveal it was just a Doombot, just like in the comics! He’s also got a virtual assistant named AIDA, and he’s prepared a nice shiny LMD body for her.

So of course, questions arise. Who is the new director? Why has Daisy gone rogue? What happened in those six months? Will the Marvel movies have any more impact on the show, or are they just keeping it in the background? For answers to those, we must wait until season 4, because what better way to set up a hook for next time around than by dangling a bunch of questions in front of the audience?

Bonus thought
Mac gets to use a shotgun axe again. And it is awesome.


//TAGS | Marvel's Agents of SHIELD

Robbie Pleasant

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