'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Recap: 'The Last Day'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Because last week, I lamented the pacing, tone and design of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., because quite frankly it was more of the same, and the plot simply wasn’t moving forward in the slightest, and I spoke to my desire to see the show deliver us with something more and well…I got precisely what I asked for. Because ‘The Last Day’ propelled the plot forward leaps and bounds, but how it accomplished that, is what ended up being a somewhat regretful surprise on my end.
 
Not because it was bad by any means, this was in fact, a great episode through and through, but I call it that because the story went to some supremely dark places in order to advance the plot, case in point, everything that happened in the Lighthouse in this particular tale. Because Kasius felt it was high time to make the last vestiges of humanity pay and pay dearly for the team’s escape from the facility and he unleashed the Roaches on the habitation level, resulting in the wholesale slaughter of innocents and if wasn’t for Mack and Yo-Yo, there’s a fair chance mankind would have been wiped out right then and there.
 
However, while that plotline alone was tense and bleak, this episode wasn’t quite done with the darkness. Because on the surface, Coulson and the gang arrived at the skeleton of Zephyr One, which now served as a shelter for Robin and her merry band of survivors and as they took a moment to catch their breath, we gained more insight into the past, and saw the team struggle to survive the end of the world, and well what made this sequence so jarring was the fact that the team spent a lot of time fighting one another and pursuing their own agendas, something we simply don’t see from them on any occasion.
 
Thankfully though, that was merely an alternate timeline that Robin lived through, and with the team mostly reunited in this wasteland they could finally figure out how to return home since Robin wasn’t exactly helpful in unlocking the secrets to time travel, but the technology on Zephyr One seemed to give them everything they needed for a return trip to the past. However, trouble still surrounded them. For Robin’s ‘followers’ felt the need to start a mini revolt, one that would insure Daisy’s death so that the world can never come to its end and unfortunately, Robin was mortally wounded in the scuffle and spent her final moments with May, someone she considered her surrogate mother, before she passed into that great beyond, but not before giving May the secret on how to travel back in time.
 
If anything, I have to say, this particular episode was worth going through a silly one simply because holy cow, it was damn good. This was the best parts of this series on display. It was perfectly paced, the story drew you in and honestly, that ending, was downright beautiful and most importantly, the plot is chugging along once again but wow, it came at quite the cost since so many died in order to progress it. Either way, it looks like we are headed back to present day to unravel and stop the mystery of how the world ended, and I do hope that before the Agents return home, they deal with Kasius because let’s be honest, the guy’s a jerk and deserves everything that’s coming to him. Until next time.

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