It appears the end is nigh-- or rather now, since the Kokomos have blasted all of the SHIELD installations out of existence. With the convenient exception of the Lighthouse, so Coulson and May are still around for the time being. But the end of the series is nigh and it's going to take a lot of work to undo all the damage to the timeline in a two-hour finale. Maybe they'll just go all the way back to Olduvai and
really start from scratch.
Aside from the awful Apocalypse and massive morbidity, this was another fun episode, with lots of great character work and the slow peeling back of mysteries. We finally get a look at Fitz for the first time this season, but it's in a flashback-- in which term "blood work" is used in an ominous fashion, supporting Gemma's theory that he is dead. But that's perhaps a bit too obvious. It's also possible that Fitz is dead, but his consciousness is hiding in DIANA. But that just raises the question of why he would hide in DIANA rather than get himself a cool LMD body like Coulson did. Of course, the really big question is why Gemma suddenly forgot that he even existed after Nate accessed Diana through the Framework device.
Back at the Lighthouse, both Coulson and May have to deal with the fact that neither is who they used to be. Coulson's cybernetic nature apparently now allows him some insight into Sibyl's machine mind, while it's now May's unhappy duty to employ her newfound empathy. Neither seems to have done much good in the short term.
Poor Deke. Beat to a pulp again.
I found it interesting that Grant Ward was the first name on Kora's assassination list-- and even more interesting that Coulson defended his potential to be a good person. Perhaps a little foreshadowing for a grand finale that gives us a best-of-all-possible-worlds ending?
But the best scenes in the episode had to be between Mack and Sousa aboard the quinjet. "What are your intentions?"
Certainly the perfect question to put to the square agent from the 50s, but it also cements Mack's place as Daisy's father figure-- which is especially poignant when you remember that Mack's own daughter would be dating by now if she had lived. And all the teasing about "Quake" just cracked me up. So to speak.
"YoYo owes me twenty bucks."
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Mack asking Sousa his intentions towards Daisy. That was a nice bit of character work.
