Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Last Day - Review

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. “The Last Day” was written by the team of James C Oliver and Sharla Oliver and was directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado. We finally get an episode that features May and Ming-Na Wen delivers a terrific performance as we see sides of May that we’ve never seen before – though I think we all knew that those layers were there. She’s been a mother to the team for a long time now, so it was great to see those qualities really come to the fore in this episode. Also of special note? The flash forward time scenes in which Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) are wearing wedding rings!

The episode features a number of time jumps that are brilliantly disorienting, giving us some insight into Robin’s (Willow Hale) psyche and thought process. We begin with 12 year old Robin (Ava Kolker) on the Zephyr. Something is spreading too fast and they are trying to make it to the lighthouse. Robin clearly has a close relationship with May who tries to protect her, and Robin simply reassures her that they survive the crash. Simmons is concerned about a gravity storm. So, this then becomes a kind of chicken and egg thing. Everyone would have us believe that Daisy (Chloe Bennet) is responsible for the earth being destroyed, but maybe something else caused these gravity storms and they are what is responsible for tearing the world apart. And doesn’t it seem more likely that Earth’s destruction will come at the hands of Thanos in the next Avengers movie?

In the present, Robin is trying desperately to remember and order her thoughts. Voss (Michael McGrady) seems like a nice guy… And he sends his people out to collect the others after Coulson (Clark Gregg) crash lands. I loved May running in to hug him!!! #Philinda for the win! And of course, hugging Daisy too!

Daisy is convinced that she didn’t survive the end of the world. She leaves to have her arm looked after, and Coulson catches up with May. He’s happy they seem to finally have some allies, but wants to know more about them. So far May just has more questions.

Deke (Jeff Ward) is torn between being happy that the people are still alive on the surface and being angry that no one told him. He is impressed the Fitz designed the Zephyr. He’s less impressed when Fitz clarifies that he’s the engineer and not the pilot. Which, d’uh – if Fitz was a pilot he would have flown the trawler…

Voss tells Deke that they didn’t tell him because they didn’t know who to trust. Voss tells Deke that his father is at another outpost. He is nice enough to tell Deke that his father didn’t hold anything against Deke who is worried about seeing his father again because they parted on bad terms.

Kasius (Dominic Rains) is not happy that the others have escaped to the surface. He lets Sinara (Florence Faivre) go after them, and he’s not concerned if she gets the trophy dead or alive. He will stay behind – because what would he do in an actual fight, anyway? He’s going to focus on punishing the people who helped – and that complicates matters for Mack (Henry Simmons), Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley), and Flint (Coy Stewart). He’s determined it will be retribution rather than just a renewal.

Mack, Yo-Yo, and Flint are on their way to get the weapons that Fitz hid, but they run into Gretchen (Michele Tobin) who blames Flint for Kasius turning off the power and water. They want Flint to turn himself in. Mack steps up, and they back down.

Coulson realizes that Robin is the reason they are here – she’s the connection between the two points in time. May points out that Robin can’t distinguish between the two times. Fitz and Simmons also try talking to her, but also get nowhere. Coulson tries as well. Robin has told her mother everything and is still drawing. I think that Robin is referring to May as her mother. Robin has also told May that the last time the whole team was seen together was at the diner – I’m with Coulson. That doesn’t bode well. Robin tells them that Philip J Coulson is the one who can bring all the pieces together. She also tells them that this is the day that it all ends. I’m assuming she means the pieces of the monolith? Maybe? And I thought right from the beginning that what was ending was her life.

Daisy, May, and Coulson assess the situation. Coulson knows that Kasius is going to strike at some point, so they need to be ready, and he’s happy to have Quake on board. Daisy points out that she’s still got the inhibitor embedded in her neck, and Coulson sends her to Fitz and Simmons to get it removed. He and May will continue to try to make sense of Robin.

There’s a nice scene between Deke and Daisy. She’s sympathetic to him being shocked by events. He’s bitter that everything is a lie. She confronts him about not telling them about Robin. He tells her that he thought Robin was crazy and that Virgil used to bring her tea every day and listen to her stories. Besides, Deke thought she was dead. He blames the looney theories for getting his mother killed.

Deke doesn’t care if his father says I told you so – he just wants to be forgiven. Daisy tells him that from her experience, that’s what his father will want. It was a nice moment when she told him about her own father and their reunion – and that ultimately, they got there.

Flint isn’t sure whether he’s more afraid of the roaches – at least it’d be quick – or his friends who want to kill him. Yo-Yo tells him that some of her friends never saw her the same way after she changed – it was nice to see this coming back up, and to see how Yo-Yo has grown. She tells Flint that he did nothing wrong.

The three see a Kree using a fogger to drive the roaches somewhere. It turns out that when they get to the 3rd level, the roaches are gone from there too. Mack is happily reunited with his axe-gun, although Flint can’t see the purpose of it – until he sees it in action when they find the roaches have been driven to the populated floors to kill everyone!

Fitz and Simmons are happy to be back on the Zephyr – even this version of it. The two find a strange machine in their lab and immediately jump into scientist mode. Voss tells them that Deke’s father built it – from some old schematics – and that’s what brought the heroes to the past – them – here. Fitz hopes that Deke’s father will have more information. The two remark that until then, they are on their own – and then they make use of that fact to make out! #FitzSimmons!!!!

Enoch (Joel Stoffer) is busy writing throughout the episode – but what? Coulson and May ask for help with Robin. Enoch tells them that he was able to communicate with Robin because he was patient – but of course, they don’t have time to wait. May points out that neither she nor Daisy can fight right now.

May is particularly distressed. She’s not willing to lose anyone else. Coulson tried to tell her that it’s not on her, but to May her one real job is to protect the team – she’s not a scientist and there’s no plane to fly. Coulson reassures her that she is his anchor. They are interrupted by Robin handing them a picture… and jump back to the past for its significance.

They are in the Lighthouse in 2022. The Lighthouse is failing. May speaks for her – Fitz and Simmons have to build a time machine. Fitz is adamant that you can’t change time – it’s fixed. Robin gives May the picture they are looking at in the present. Chillingly, Robin tells Fitz that he gave them everything he could. She tells May that the picture is to remind her – but how and of what? Past May will have no memory of this future event.

Voss talks a good line about May and Coulson and the others being the saviors against the Blues that they’ve been waiting for. May spots a fragment of the monolith and want to know how they got. Coulson tells him that it’s more than a symbol. If they can find more of them, it could be their shot at going home – and there’s that prophecy again – Coulson bringing all the pieces together. And it’s at that point that Voss gets really nervous and tries to redirect them to storming the Lighthouse.

Simmons discovers that she can’t remove the inhibitor without serious risk of paralyzing Daisy. May and Coulson show up with the shard, and Fitz realizes that it fits in the machine. May is hopeful that if they can just get home, maybe none of the events ever happens.

Flint, Yo-Yo, and Mack show up in the nick of time to save Gretchen. Yo-Yo suggests that they need to get everyone somewhere safe and then clear the rooms one by one. Mack points out it will take too long, so they use the anti-roach fog to drive all the roaches into one place. And that lets Yo-Yo do her thing. LOVED her in slow motion, planting devices on all the frozen in time roaches! And Mack giving Flint his nickname: Pebbles!

In another disorienting jump to the future, Robin is following May, chanting “Flint.” Yo-Yo is refusing to work with “them.” May insists that this is their only option – this must be the point at which they agreed to work “with” the Kree. She doesn’t care what they are offering – they can’t agree to be slaves. Yo-Yo wants to know what ever happened to S.H.I.E.L.D. Interestingly, Yo-Yo is incensed by Robin going on about Flint, and gets even angrier when Robin says that Mack will help Flint because in this timeline, Mack is dead! May tries to get Yo-Yo to have faith, but she stopped believing a long time ago – no doubt, when she lost Mack.

Deke confronts Voss about why he has the shard. His father carried the shard with him at all times because it reminded him of his mother. Deke won’t listen to Voss’ excuses, and Voss knocks him out, revealing that he is the bad guy here.

Daisy goes to see Robin and apologizes for not doing more to protect her. Robin tells her that her mother always kept her safe – and again, that suggests that she considered May her mother because we know she lost her biological mother early on. Daisy asks about the monolith pieces, and they are interrupted by Voss. Robin hides under her blanket – clearly indicating that she’s afraid of him, but Daisy fails to pick up on it. Daisy isn’t impressed by Voss, however.

Meanwhile, Fitz and Simmons are finishing each other’s sentences as they have a breakthrough on the machine. When they go to tell the others, they discover that they are locked in. May and Coulson hear them trying to get out and are confronted by some of Voss’s men who tell them they don’t have to die if they don’t put up a fight.

Voss promises to show Daisy something. She denies being powerful enough to break apart a planet. He has video footage of the last time Daisy was seen alive. It’s video from the Zephyr, but it looks like Daisy is just talking to someone in the Quinjet. After that, Daisy walked into the abandoned city and there was a 12.8 earthquake! Daisy doesn’t know how she could have done it. Voss muses that if everything could have been prevented – clearly he’s suggesting stopped by Daisy’s death.

In another flash forward, Fitz is livid and brings Robin to May. Robin has just described Simmons’ death! Robin thought she’d already told him. May explains that while Robin sees death like her father, she also sees a way out. How May knows this is a bit of a mystery, however. It certainly doesn’t seem like Robin’s visions have prevented anyone’s death so far.

At this point, Fitz has designed the machine – and has the schematics on the wall. These must be the schematics that Deke’s father uses to build the machine. De Caestecker really delivers in this scene. He screams at May that they’ve tried to change time, and it’s failed every time. Fitz says that they are repeating “this loop” – so clearly they have gone through this more than once? And every time, Simmons dies. Robin can’t change it, Voss couldn’t change it, and even Daisy couldn’t change it – she saw how it ended and still destroyed the world! But we still have no evidence that that is what Daisy did or even if that was what she was trying to do.

Past Robin sees a knife and that takes us back to the present and Voss trying to stop it by killing Daisy with a knife. Voss is joined by two others, but when it’s clear that they are losing, Voss stabs Robin to prevent her from telling Daisy anything else. May and Coulson finish with their attackers, and Coulson goes to help Daisy in subduing Voss.

May goes to Robin, who is dying. May cradles her – and Robin calls her Mom. May promises to stay with Robin, and she says that May always promised to be there at the end. And we jump back to past again, and Robin is definitely referring to May as Mom. When she can’t sleep, May crawls into bed with her.

Robin wishes she’d never gotten this power. She sees people hurt and dying every night – even May. May admits that she’s a little scared, but knows that Robin will be there at the end and she’ll be there with her. May tells her that they’re special because they never have to say goodbye to each other – because they’re caught in this loop.

In the present, Robin finally makes May understand that she was her mother. Robin tells May that she was the only one who wasn’t afraid of her. She always said that Robin had a gift – that one day I could help save the world.

In the past, Robin wants to tell May how to get back home. May tells her that it’s too early – she has to wait until they are back on the Zephyr – as they are now in the present. She also tells Robin to remind her that she has an important job to do – she’s needed for more than she realizes. In the present, time is running out for Robin to tell May her vision of the two of them saving the world. In the past, Robin points out that she’s never had that vision. But in the present, she has seen it – and just hasn’t lived it yet. Robin manages to tell May something before dying in her arms. Coulson watches – and is clearly concerned for how this will impact May.

With the roaches dead, the surviving humans emerge. Mack tells them that the fight isn’t over. They can’t let Kasius pit them against each other anymore if they want to win. Yo-Yo symbolizes their freedom by removing their tags.

Daisy releases Deke, and he tells her that Voss killed his father. Daisy tells him that Robin won’t be providing any answers. May covers Robin. Fitz remarks that Robin was just a little girl a few days ago for him – and Simmons points out that no one is meant to see a life like that – again underscoring this disorienting time shifts.

May tells them that they do go back – Robin told her they do. Better, however, is that they can save everyone because Robin told her that too. First, though, she needs to know who Flint is!

The final scene shows Sinara arriving on the Zephyr. Kasius gives her her orders – show no mercy.

This was another great episode. I really loved the time loops, but I’m looking forward to the team getting back to their real present – though not before Kasius gets what he deserves. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Favorite Lines!
Couslon: Love what they’ve done with the place.
Coulson: Can’t recommend the airline. Inexperienced pilots, lot of turbulence, ran out of pretzels in coach.
Simmons: Fitz! Your design really withstood the test of time!
Yo-Yo: Someone forgot to pay the electric bill.
Daisy: Sucks when your parents get to say ‘I told you so.’
Simmons: I’d rather be here than in that silent, alien slave bunker.
Coulson: You look pretty spry for someone who was born over a hundred years ago.
Coulson: You’re the one I trust to always have my back.
Mack: Hello, gorgeous.
Flint. I don’t get it. Doesn’t the axe make it harder to shoot? Mack: It makes it easier to chop heads off!

Mack: It means the Blue Man Group sent them somewhere else.
Flint: Shotgun-axe. I get it now.
Yo-Yo: You got it, Turtle-man.
Mack: Fitz knows how to pack for any occasion.
Mack: Dial it back a notch, Pebbles.
Couslon: Here I thought we were getting along.
May: Remind me that I still have an important job to do.