So, what do I think of the AOS season finale?

Glad you asked  :-)

I was concerned the way the show was going that we were going to get a whole bunch of dire circumstance (i.e. Fitz & Gemma at the bottom of the ocean) cliffhangers at season's end. Fortunately, the writers kept that sort of thing in check. The most welcome bit was that they are allowing Coulson to reboot S.H.I.E.L.D., which seems sort of important since the show is about "Agents" of S.H.I.E.L.D. and what's the point of that if there's no S.H.I.E.L.D.? You know?

They seem to have written Ward's character out of the show. I'm not quite understanding why they spent an entire season developing that character only to have him turn out to be a douche who's dispatched at season's end. From a practical standpoint, I get that this allows the much more commercially desirable interracial romance between Gemma and Agent Triplett. Though in the finale we finally had Fitz telling (without actually saying the words) Gemma that he loved her. This could set up a fun good natured rivalry between Fitz and Trip as they play for Gemma's affections with the geek vs. jock type of stuff, with both knowing that Gemma loves Fitz first.

I had commented earlier in the season that with all the talk about Agent May being such a lethal killer type, that her fight scenes were pretty bland. I guess either they upped the budget on the fight choreography or Ming Na Wen just took a while to get up to speed on fighting because the finale had a really good fight between her and Ward. Lots of crashing through walls, brutal hits, power tools, etc. The nail gun trick at the end was nice too.

So what was Ward? Simply a sociopath? I don't know. He's a cold blooded killer to be sure. And even though he didn't directly try to kill Fitz and Gemma he wasn't worried about leaving them to die. Which we saw in the flash back with the dog -- he wouldn't kill it, but didn't have a problem leaving it alone in the woods to die. His devotion to Agent Garrett was understandable given the backstory, but what did he think was Garrett's endgame? I was worried for a while that they were going to play Ward as some sort of triple agent, but that seems unlikely now. I guess his character was necessary to the overall story arc, but just dumping a major character after one season? He's not exactly a big in demand movie actor, after all. Oh well.

I've seen a lot of blog geeks groaning about the glacial pace of Skye's development. And I guess they have a point. As a focal point for the series, the writers have been aggravatingly slow in fleshing her out. We find out in the finale that she's the daughter of two "monsters" but it's unclear whether that was a literal or figurative description of them. A closing shot of Flowers telling a partially hidden person that she's found his daughter showed the "father's" hand dripping in blood. Those more knowledgeable about the Marvel Universe than I have pondered whether her parents might be Inhumans. I don't remember much about the Inhumans, but I don't recall them being blood thirsty butcher types. I could be wrong there. But that would be a nice tie-in to the blue alien that gave both Coulson and Skye their lives back via the mysterious GH325 transfusion. My first thought when seeing the blue guy was Kree, since we saw what I assumed was a Skrull in the Avengers movie, and the writers do seem to be trying to keep all the movies and the show tied together. In any event, we're still waiting to see what hidden powers Skye has that has made her so desired by both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the bad guys.

Nice cameo by Samuel L. in the finale. Technically longer than a cameo, but still nice. His patter with Coulson was delightful and makes me wish Coulson had someone like that on a weekly basis to interact with. I could have done without Patton Oswalt's character coming back. He's apparently a clone or L.M.D. (life model decoy as referenced in the second IronMan movie), but whatever . . . color me unimpressed.

Oh yeah, I loved how Cybertek's control center for the supersoldiers was simply a cube farm full of office drone types that were forced to work for them via a "benefits package" that was apparently a loved one held hostage. And nice job with the multiple false endings -- Garrett's dead . . . nope, he's alive . . . nope, dead . . . clever use of broadcast television's programmed breaks to string out a sequence.

Fitz may be brain damaged, I'm suspecting Flowers has more of the GH325 (she knew Garrett wanted it selfishly, so why not make more and then lie to him about it?), Deathlock is wandering around doing solo hero work, and Coulson's drawing some sort of intricate otherworldly electronics schematic on a wall . . .

All in all, I thought the season ended well. The finale was enjoyable to watch. And I'll be waiting for next season to begin. Mission accomplished on their part.

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And just to end the season on a high note, here's some sexy pics of Chloe Bennett from Esquire Magazine: