‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Recap: ‘The Sign’ & ‘New Life’

8/3/2019

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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Over the course of its illustrious six-year run, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has always provided its audience with outright breathtaking season finales. For the stakes are always high in these particular tales, and every single plot point is wrapped up in beautiful and powerful fashion, and if by chance there is something that cannot be resolved within the framework of a particular season, the cliffhangers that set up their resolution are stunning and magnificent, and that’s simply due to the fact that the writer’s room of this series, puts great care into every single script and story they assemble. If anything, this is on my mind today, simply because I am in awe of the fact that the writers’ room and the cast and crew of this series have pulled this impressive feat off once again, since the season six finale of this series was breathtaking to say the least.

For ‘The Sign’ and ‘New Life’ delivered everything we could ask for and more, since it provided us with plenty of action, an epic final showdown and plenty of surprises along the way. Which quite frankly was a touch surprising since early on, this two-hour season finale made it seem as though for the first time ever, a season finale of this series was going to be a fairly by the numbers affair. After all, Sarge was now on the right side of the battle, and he was determined to end Izel, and Mack and Yo-Yo were able to escape with the reanimated Flint and with everyone closing in on the temple, there really seemed to be no hope of survival for our villain. But once Izel and Sarge were face to face once again, and ready for their final showdown, that’s when this particular tale took quite the left turn.

Because Izel was right, eventually her song would resonate with the darkness residing within Sarge’s soul, and it didn’t take long for the evil to bubble to surface and put the entire mission in crisis. For this hybrid monster plunged his sword into May and sent her into the realm where he came from, and the Shrike made their move as well, pinning down the remainder of the team and infecting Yo-Yo and that’s when hope seemingly left the story. For Izel’s kind were preparing to enter the gateway, May was bleeding out on another world and the living dead surrounded every possible escape route for our heroes and really, kudos to the show for pulling off this particular storytelling feat. Because I did not have a clue, how the heck the team was going to get out of this particular mess.

After all, there was no backup coming (we’ll get into that in a moment), and no plan in place, since their primary ideas dried up, which meant… it was time for the team to just straight up go for it and see what happens and this approach, made for one incredible final showdown. Because it allowed for May to improvise and discover that death has no meaning in Izel’s realm, meaning that she was able to slow the ol’ monster down and eventually battle her face to face and since May was able to put a little fear into Izel’s heart, she was able to catch her by surprise and put her down back on Earth and after she was dealt with, it was up to Mack and Daisy to handle the Sarge. Which with a little teamwork, they were indeed able to do so and while it seemed as though this would be a pyrrhic victory thanks to May’s injuries, the cavalry arrived at the right time.

But why they were late, is relevant. Because in the midst of this incredible rumble in the jungle, everyone back at the Lighthouse had to deal with a Chronicom invasion since these wayward beings believed that S.H.I.E.L.D. would be able to stop them from making Earth their new home, which meant they needed to eliminate this proud organization from every corner of our world, and our history for that matter. But thanks to an assist from Enoch, FitzSimmons and the remnant of the team were able to escape and assemble a grandiose plan to beat the Chromicoms at their game, and that meant, the team was going to need a powerful asset, one that knows the organization inside and out and can strategize like no one else in S.H.I.E.L.D., which means… that a LMD version of Phil Coulson has been created to help this team do what they do best, save all of mankind from a horrible fate…

If anything, while this may not have been the most epic season finale in the show’s history, it was definitely the most emotional. For lives were truly in jeopardy here and the past hung heavy over this particular tale and well, I loved this one through and through. Because it did a fine job of handling the Izel problem, and in a weird way, it really did offer up closure for Daisy and May and everyone that needed to deal with the death of Phil Coulson. Plus, this finale really did a phenomenal job of setting up the final season of this iconic series, and it’s wonderful to know a pure version of Coulson will be joining the team on their final mission and I know that I’ll definitely be counting down the days until the season seven premiere, to see how this incredible journey comes to an end, and to watch this team save the day, one more time. Until next year.

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