Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has come to its second-to-last week ever with Episode 11, “Brand New Day,” and MCUExchange is here to fill you in on all the action before the 2-hour series finale in seven days! When we last left the team, Deke was stowed away on the Zephyr as Malick and Garrett kidnapped Simmons, and the rest of the team had Kora in custody at the Lighthouse after taking her from Afterlife. Daisy is also still mourning the second death of her mother and feeling beyond guilty about not killing Malick when she had the chance.

While this particular episode didn’t have a whole lot of massive action, especially for the core team,  the ramifications it sets up for the series finale seem to be for something absolutely massive. The Chronicoms seem to finally be executing their plan to end S.H.I.E.L.D. and possibly the earth with it, and leading that assault is the villainous team of Nathaniel Malick, John Garrett, and Kora.

For the first time in a while, Malick’s crazy demeanor and need for chaos seemed to actually fit very well in this episode. As he invaded Simmons’ mind to try to find out Fitz’s location, her fighting back against him and the effectiveness of her “Diana” implant seemed to frustrate him at every turn, and Thomas E. Sullivan used that plot to give one of his better performances this season.

Speaking of Fitz, we finally get an Iain De Castecker sighting this week, although it leaves fans feeling more uneasy about his future than ever before. Going through FitzSimmons’ entire history on the show as Malick was digging through Simmons mind was both a great flashback into the show’s history and an incredibly ominous tease about what’s coming. I’m beyond curious to find out what exactly Fitz wanted to do before they saved everyone from the temple, along with what exactly his “blood work” comment turns out to be when we hopefully see him one more time next week.

Simmons, on the other hand, is in for a much more treacherous end than anyone could have expected early this season. Her encounter with Malick seemed to make her forget that Fitz ever even existed under high amounts of stress, which once again puts the future of their relationship in jeopardy. It seems that after being stuck at the bottom of the ocean together, Fitz rescuing Simmons from an alien planet, Simmons rescuing Fitz from the Framework and more, this series just has to put the longest running couple of the series in some kind of mortal danger for the last pair of episodes.

Sousa, Daisy and Mack took on the dangerous mission of trying to get ahead of Sybil, and while the results of that mission likely won’t play out until the series finale, we did get some fantastic moments between all three of them. From Mack threatening Sousa on behalf of the entire team if he hurts Daisy, to them laughing about the Quake name and Sousa teasing Daisy with it, they continue to show why they are three of my favorite characters in all of Season 7.

Another huge point that came up on the quinjet was Daisy and Mack discussing how Enoch said this will be their last mission as a team. Daisy’s emotional outburst at the thought of never seeing the team again was absolutely perfect, and she made the point so clearly that this has become her family that she’d been searching for through her entire life. The core team has grown together so beautifully over the last seven years, and even with new additions like Enver Gjokaj’s Daniel Sousa, they are as tight-knit as ever in their fight to save themselves and all of humanity.

In terms of the overarching plot of this week, things look as dire as ever for the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. Kora is officially a lost cause, even after having a long hard talk with May and seeing the corpse of her mother, and she is as devoted a follower as ever for Nathaniel Malick. Their kiss in the episode’s tag should tease the start of some horrible actions the two of them and Garrett will commit, and all three of them together make an incredibly powerful team that our agents will have to bring their best fight for.

They execute their latest version of Project Insight to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D bases all over the world with a fleet of Chronicom ships, taking down well-known locations like the Hub and the Triskelion from early in the show’s history. This was the most intense part of the entire episode, and with the ramifications it sets up for next week, the two-part series finale should be one that sends the show off with the epic bang it deserves.

VERDICT

3.75 SHIELD BASE EXPLOSIONS OUT OF 5

What a ride we’ve been taken on in Season 7. Traveling through the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s history only to have the team facing more dire situations than nearly ever before has me on the edge of my seat waiting for next week. After 134 episodes of this series since it began in the Fall of 2013, the final duo of episodes feel like they may be the most monumental in the history of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

ONE-SHOTS

  • While this episode didn’t have a ton of action sequences, it nailed the ones that it gave us, especially May pulling moves straight out of The Matrix against Kora.
  • Along with the action references came some incredible movie references, most notably the Nakatomi Plaza comment by Deke. “Yippee-kay-yay.”
  • Coulson turning into a literal super-computer may not have been what he wanted, but it doesn’t hurt at all, and it seems like something that makes perfect sense with his character’s long and storied arc.
  • Mack figuring out the new Dousy relationship on the Quinjet was pure magic. “It means Yo-yo owes me $20.”
  • The flashback looks at FitzSimmons were so emotionally touching this week, detailing just how much the two have had to go through in their relationship. They are, without doubt, in the argument for the most indestructible couple in TV history.
  • This is the most Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has connected to the larger MCU over the last few years, and the possibilities for the series finale are beyond exciting. Can’t wait to see how this show gives its final curtain call next week!