Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., “Closure,” was written by Brent Fletcher and was directed by Kate Woods, whose other extensive credits include
Castle,
Person of Interest, and
Bones. This was yet another fast paced episode that saw the team scattered in several different directions – both physically and mentally. Clark Gregg delivers one of his best and most intense performances yet this year. And I’ve long been a hold out for Ward (Brett Dalton) to have a redemption arc, but I think he’s now cemented himself firmly as the villain we love to hate.
As the episode opens, Coulson and Ros (Constance Zimmer) are having burgers. Zimmer was a wonderful addition to the show and had fantastic chemistry with Gregg, so I was really enjoying this scene and was completely blind-sided by how it turned out. It was a nice touch that their burgers were “All-American” – a nice nod to Cap? And the fact that they are the good guys?
Coulson lights the candles with matches from the Half Moon pub – where they had their first date, which Ros denies is a memento or anything. Yep. She’s got it bad for him! She also tells him that Banks (Andrew Howard) says she’s nuts for continuing to see him, and Coulson is a little stunned that she’s told him about them. She tells Coulson that she tells Banks everything, and certainly, Coulson has people like that on his team too. It made me think that Banks might be going to play a much bigger role going forward, but of course, that didn’t play out either.
My exact comment as I was taking notes on this scene was that the two were just so cute together. Ros asks if there’s anything new on Malick (Powers Booth), and Coulson says just that he’s a big “DC” power player. Clearly, he’s referencing Washington DC, but I couldn’t help but think of DC comics! Definitely a bad guy, right?
Coulson is concerned when Ros says she’d going back in to the ACTU, but she’s as much an Agent as he is and is determined to root out the bad guys. Sadly, their conversation is interrupted by Ward’s amazing shot that kills Ros. Ward calls Coulson to twist the knife. When Coulson asks him what he did, Ward says, “I just eliminated a leak at the ACTU.” And really, that is what he did. If we were on his side, we might see it that way, but of course, what he really did was get back at Coulson. He also says he’s tired of Coulson trying to kill him, so he’s putting a stop to that too. Coulson tells Ward to come get him even as he texts for extraction. Ward isn’t getting drawn into a trap, however, and says he now has people who take care of that sort of thing.
There’s a terrific fight scene with Coulson – being as resourceful with found objects as we’d expect him to be. Analog and all that, such as the aerosol can and the candles. Mack (Henry Simmons) picks Coulson up and there’s a terrific shot of just Mack’s eyes as he asks about Miss Price. Mack has very much become Coulson’s watchdog and this is a nice visual reflection of that.
There’s a terrific sequence of Coulson arriving back at base and the whole team watching him – clearly feeling his pain. When Daisy (Chloe Bennet) tries to go to him, May (Ming-Na Wen) holds her back. Coulson goes alone to his office and rips off his blood-stained shirt. The now bloody matchbook falls to the floor. There’s a terrific reaction shot of the team listening from below as Coulson tears apart his office in his grief and anger.
Coulson conducts interviews with the original team members in an attempt to learn something about Ward that he can use against him. Coulson doesn’t spare the team, pushing for details. He pushes May for anything Ward might have said, even during sex. May says there wasn’t a lot of talking. She does reflect that Ward appealed because he was damaged.
Coulson asks Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) about how she felt about him after he saved her life. She says she was grateful, and he presses whether it was something more, leaving her looking uncomfortable. Probably also uncomfortable because it too was a betrayal of Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) She cringes as she admits to being a terrible flirt, laughing at his jokes and ridiculous puns. When Coulson presses whether Ward flirted back, Simmons tells him it was obvious that Ward fancied someone else – that being, as we all know, Daisy.
Coulson also asks Fitz about his relationship with Ward. He tells Coulson about finding Ward in his bunk “like some kind of creeper.” Coulson asks if he was stealing, and Fitz clarifies that Ward was just staring at a picture of Fitz and his mother – clearly something that Ward didn’t have. Fitz goes on to say that he and Ward had been like brothers, but Fitz realized afterwards that Ward was just using him to replace something Ward had lost… and it seems clear by the end of the episode that Ward was trying to replace his brother Thomas (Tyler Ritter).
The interview between Coulson and Daisy is the most interesting. Daisy begins by saying she doesn’t know what to say to him – she clearly feels badly about Ros and reaches out to physically comfort Coulson. When she gets no reaction from him, she pulls back. Coulson’s entire attitude toward her is cold – something we’re not used to seeing between these two. He says to her, “Just answer the questions. I’ve heard how he fell for you, now explain how you fell for him.”
Daisy tries to explain, she physically increases the distance between them by leaning back in her chair. She tells Coulson that they both had messed up childhoods and grew up in a similar way that made it easy for them to relate to each other. She also tells him that Ward never lied to her, he just didn’t reveal parts of himself until he thought she was ready to see them. She tells Coulson that Ward got how she saw the world and that’s why he thought he could make her understand him. At this point, Coulson eagerly asks if he was right. It’s clear that he thinks she may be the key to discovering Ward’s weakness.
Daisy tells him that she totally gets how he could have been taken in by a powerful father figure, and Coulson looks really thoughtful. Why couldn’t he have been that for Ward the way he is for Daisy? She goes on to say that she totally understands how Garrett was able to manipulate him into HYDRA, comparing herself and her mother to them. Coulson says it sounds like she’s willing to forgive a lot, but she insists that she’ll never forgive him, and it’s because of Ros and the fact that Ward only killed her to hurt Coulson.
She also reminds him that Ward killed Koenig too. Coulson says so you wouldn’t find out. And Daisy says that’s exactly when she really understood Ward: “The reason Ward killed isn’t because he feels nothing. It’s because he feels too much.” And that’s what Coulson is able to use against him by kidnapping Thomas.
Coulson is completely focused on revenge – and the closure of the title. He is livid that Hunter (Nick Blood) didn’t kill Ward when he was tasked to do so. I loved him grabbing Hunter by the throat and punching part of the brick pillar out with his bionic hand! Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) once again has to step in and be the cooler head that prevails. Coulson enlists both their help to go after Ward. Coulson is clearly feeling a lot of guilt about everything that’s happened with Ward. He tells them that he’s the one who recruited Ward in the first place, so everything after is completely on him anyway. He chooses Hunter because he is planning to go “off book” and he knows Hunter will have no qualms doing so. My theory is that he brings Bobbi to fly the plane, but also to provide that voice of reason.
The three rob a bank to capture Thomas. Coulson tells them that everything Ward does is just a misguided way to justify his past, but there’s one thing in his past that he can never make right – and that’s throwing Thomas down the well. It’s the one thing he can never get closure on.
In order to get his own closure – a theme the episode nicely weaves throughout and demonstrates in several ways – Coulson has to walk away from being Director. I was a little surprised to see him have Mack take over. Simmons is terrific in this episode as we see him struggle with this new responsibility. May steps up to support Simmons just as she did Coulson. It was somewhat foreshadowed by Mack welcoming Banks – Ros’s number two – when Banks showed up at the base. I loved Coulson explaining to Mack that he’s the only one he trusts to take over because Mack “doesn’t have an AX to grind with Ward.” How hilarious that he references Mack’s favorite weapon?
Of course, having Mack take over as Director also kept him out of the bloodbath at the Distant Star Facility. But sadly, it did mean the death of Banks to add to Ros – just when I was really starting to like him! This was a terrific scene right from Fitz and Simmons disagreeing about bringing Will back. Simmons is adamant that it is irresponsible to open a portal in case that “thing” gets back. In typical Fitz fashion, he insists “It’s just an old wives tale HYDRA moms tell their goblin babies.” And then all hell breaks loose and Fitz and Simmons are taken to Malick.
I loved the scene in which both Fitz and Simmons defy Malick. Simmons actually lunges at him! And Ward is impressed – although he very annoyingly wants to take credit for starting Simmons on this path by throwing her to the bottom of the ocean. Ward knows their weaknesses, however, and tells Malick to split them up.
Mack tells Daisy that HYDRA has Fitz and Simmons, and she insists that they can’t do nothing. Mack calls Coulson, but Coulson insists they can’t change their plan. He truly leaves the matter in Mack’s hands. Coulson’s emotions are still off the chart, however, and he throws and breaks his phone. This is wonderfully paralleled by Ward doing the same with his phone later in the episode.
There’s also a nice parallel of Ward torturing Fitz by physically torturing Simmons, with Coulson threatening to torture Thomas by sending Ward a picture of Hunter looming over Thomas. Coulson really has no intention of torturing Thomas. This is also interestingly paralleled by Ward’s torture of Simmons. He tells her that if she’d ever really gotten to know him, she’d know that he would never hurt her. Even throwing them to the bottom of the ocean didn’t physically hurt them – they could have – and did – escaped. In this instance, he justifies what he does because he isn’t the one physically hurting Simmons. And that’s exactly what he did with Coulson – he sent someone else to kill him. Does Ward still care too much about the team to actually kill them?
I did love watching Dalton as Ward slowly loses it over Thomas. I loved Coulson hanging up on him to show who has the upper hand… and piss him off! Coulson does tell Thomas that he’s not going to hurt him but that Ward hurt someone he cared about. Coulson knows that Thomas is the only person Ward cares about so he’s going to use Thomas to draw Ward out. It was a terrific twist when Thomas says ok, but they’d better finish Ward off. Also loved Hunter’s “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that….”
Thomas reiterates what Coulson has already said about Ward – he hurts people and then lies to himself about it. Thomas admits that their parents were monsters, but he also tells them that Ward protected him right up until he threw him down the well. He understandably gave Ward a wide berth after that – though he didn’t try to hurt him again. When they question why Thomas didn’t turn bad, he tells them, “Just because you grow up in a family of abusive monsters doesn’t mean you have to become one.”
It’s Bobbi being the voice of reason once again who suggests that they could get Ward on the phone with Thomas and trace the call to find Ward rather than putting Thomas in danger by giving him up to Ward. The conversation between the two is a great scene.
Ward tells Thomas that Coulson killed someone he loved very much. Thomas, however, doesn’t spare Ward. He tells him that he changed his name and moved so Ward couldn’t find him and hurt him. He tells Ward to stop trying to justify what he did. Once they’ve got the trace, Coulson takes the phone back. Ward insists that Coulson put Thomas back on to which Coulson replies, “Yeah. That’s not gonna happen.” Ward knows he’s traced the call, and Coulson confirms, “And now I’m coming to put you down.” And that’s why Ward smashes his phone. And of course, Coulson lets Thomas go – with a security detail to keep him safe – like that’s ever going to be an obstacle to Ward?
Meanwhile, Mack has been busy. He calls May in to ask her opinion on Andrew’s assessment of Lincoln (Luke Mitchell). Mack has infrared images of the Castle where they are holding Fitz and Simmons. Mack is freaking out because Coulson has told them he’s coming. Mack tells her that Coulson refused back up, and she reminds him that he’s in charge and he’s the one who should be making the decisions. Mack is still dithering about what he should do, but May tells him she thinks he already knows – and he does.
I loved that it was Mack – the one with the biggest reservations – who activates Lincoln and Joey (Juan Pablo Raba). Simmons is fabulous as Mack gives his speech: “I’m not going to lie to you. This is a dangerous mission and the odds are not in our favor. Here’s the deal. What HYDRA’a planning is going to hurt a lot of innocent people. Maybe people you care about. I wouldn’t be asking for your help if I didn’t think we had a chance. So either you step up and do the damn job, or you let the bad guys win. The choice is yours.” It’s brilliantly and completely Mack.
May tells him “nice speech, Director.” High praise from her! And Daisy gives him a fist bump in solidarity. I loved how excited she is to finally have her team!
Malick meanwhile has assembled his own team. Malick was not happy with Ward at the beginning of the episode because while he wanted Ros dead, he wanted Coulson alive. He tells Ward that he doesn’t believe in closure – mainly because he doesn’t put great stock in looking back. He is focused on the future. We also see that he has the five holes that were carved in the monolith. Each of HYDRA’a heads had one, but now Malick has all five. Ward insists that he knows Coulson better than Coulson does himself. Is Ward sure that Coulson will fight his way out? Is he sure that Coulson will lose his objectivity and do something stupid? It’s never clear to me – in the episode – why Malick wants Coulson.
Ward manipulates Fitz perfectly by making him hear but not be able to see Simmons being tortured. The two are ushered into the chamber. Simmons arrives first and tries to warn the assembled soldiers that anyone who goes to the planet will end up insane or dead. Malick tells her that the creature on the other side wants to come home. Simmons insists she will never help them, and Malick reveals that’s why they agreed to stop hurting her – Fitz is going.
Ward does not want to go, but because Coulson is coming. He wants that closure. Malick wants him to lead the men on the planet. Malick tells him that he thought he was more than bloodthirsty and vindictive – he thought Ward had vision. Ward counters that he doesn’t want to risk himself for someone else’s pipedream. He tells Malick that he’s learned the dangers of following someone else – Garrett, and to a certain degree, I would argue Coulson. After all, the sentiments he hold toward the rest of the team have weakened him!
Malick insists that he’s not asking Ward to follow, he’s asking him to lead. He also promises that if Ward crosses over, he’s find that his faith in HYDRA wasn’t misplaced. He’ll finally get some answers. And of course, then they’ll both be able to get whatever they want.
The scene between Fitz and Simmons is fantastic. Simmons begs Fitz just to let them kill her as they can’t be allowed to bring it back. Fitz tells her that he lost her once, he’s not doing it again. He tells her that he’s not strong enough to live in the world which didn’t have her in it. She lays her head on his shoulder and tells him to come back to her – just don’t bring that thing back with you. Fitz promises the only thing he’s bringing back is Will.
Meanwhile, the plane has arrived and Coulson is preparing to jump. Hunter insists on coming too. Coulson creepily is able to identify Ward’s heat signature. When Ward and Fitz have jumped in, the plane comes under fire and only Coulson jumps. I LOVED that he jumped right through that tiny portal – and you just see him wiz by behind Malick.
We get another closure as the portal once more closes. On the surface, they are in a storm. Ward gets his team moving – they don’t have long before the portal will open again. Coulson is show tumbling down a hill, ending by hitting his head at the bottom on a rock. Coulson has clearly placed his vendetta against Ward above all else, and it’s hard to believe that that can end any way but badly.
While I hated to see Ros go, I really liked this episode. The themes of closure and justification played nicely throughout, but this show has always had writers who could do that adeptly. What did you think of the episode? Were you shocked to see Fitz going through the portal? Are you sad that both Ros and Banks are gone? Do you think Mack will give up being Director as easily as he took it on? Will you miss Ros? Favorite scene or quote? Let me know your thoughts below!
About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! I'm active on the Con scene when I have the time. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
