The Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3 finale arrived with a big tease of things to come. With major spoilers, here’s our take...
This article contains spoilers for the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3 finale, and Captain America: Civil War.
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has done it again – concluded a season with a big tease about something from the comics. Last year, they had us talking about the Secret Warriors, and this time around it’s Life Model Decoys. Daisy’s fate, the new director, and the double-death of Hive and Lincoln are also hefty talking points. They crammed a lot in didn’t they?
Here’s our attempt to break it all down, and work out what the conclusion of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3 means for the future of the show...
The actual ending
If the ‘six months later’ section was the televised equivalent of an extended post-credits tease of things to come, the scene before the time jump was the actual ending of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s season 3 story. Lincoln lured Hive into the Quinjet and sent Daisy flying before taking off into space. Hive’s warhead was on board, and the controls were fried. Game over.
Unless there’s a rug-pull on the cards, this scene seems to represent the final ends of Lincoln and Hive. Both have flirted with death throughout the season, and now they’ve each been blown to smithereens many miles away from Earth.
This is the second death scene Brett Dalton had this year, after Grant Ward was killed by Coulson on the planet Maveth. Comic Book Resources asked him which death scene was more difficult, and Mr Dalton said this: “Probably Hive's, and that was because it also coincides with -- as far as I can tell -- the end of Brett Dalton on the show, which is quite sad.”
“I hope that's not the case”, he hastened to add, but in all fairness a proper return for Ward or Hive seems unlikely at this point. After all, Hive is powerful, but I’m not sure he could survive a nuclear blast. Maybe I’m wrong, but my reading of Hive’s closing scene was that he’d finally admitted defeat and resigned himself to death. Clear the way for some new villains in season 4.
Lincoln, too, has probably bitten the bullet for good. “If you’re going to die, I couldn’t have written a better ending for the character”, Lincoln actor Luke Mitchell told Entertainment Weekly. Note that he’s talking about it being an ‘end’, as well, not just one of those ‘he’ll be back soon’ comic book deaths.
Lincoln was never the most popular character among fans, but in sacrificing his life to save everyone else he at least redeemed himself somewhat. The Secret Warriors team are one man down, then. That is, of course, if the Secret Warriors even exist anymore...
Daisy on the run
Cue a six months later time jump, followed by a few newspaper headlines to fill us in about what has happened in between: “Quake Not a Natural Disaster, it was a Person”, “Quake Takes Down Bank”, “Hero Or Rogue?”, “Who Is Quake?”, North Dakota Experiences First Earthquake in 40 Years”. There’s also a pin board with a map on it. A red string has been used to mark a few points. By the looks of it, Daisy has been working her way around the USA in a rather erratic fashion.
The camera pans around and Coulson, sat next to another completely covered pin board, is looking out of a window with some binoculars. Mack brings in some sandwiches. Coulson states “they’re here, early today”, and he’s not talking about the sandwiches.
We’re then shown Coulson’s binoculars in a point of view shot: it’s the wife and daughter of Charles Hinton, the Inhuman that gave deadly visions to everyone he touched and died himself a few episodes back. Daisy had promised to look after his family, and here she is checking in and giving them his wooden bird.
But what were all the earthquakes around the USA about? Co-showrunner Jed Whedon has teased to The Hollywood Reporter that “Some of that will be revealed, but it's safe to surmise from what you see at the end that she has returned to her roots of being a loner.”
He continued: “After everything that she's been through and all the chaos around and all the destruction at her hand, she feels that getting close to people was a mistake and she's better off on her own. We can see through, yes, dealing with Hinton's wife and the girl that she's keeping a promise, but she's also honoring what Lincoln said, which is he believed she was meant for more than this.”
Daisy appears, with a mildly goth-esque new look. Charles’ wife says “I wanted to thank you. The money was too generous.” This seems to explain why one of the newspapers was about a quake hitting a bank – has Daisy stolen some funds to support Charles’ family and keep her promise?
“I actually wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine”, Daisy says, “he has a practice near here. I think you’d get along. He likes animals too.” She’s seemingly talking about her father, Calvin (Kyle MacLachlan). Having put his season 2 villainy days behind him (thanks to a memory wipe), h