Great episode to end one story arch and move onto a new one. Agents of Shield always follows the Whedon rule of running two story lines a season.
He did it in Buffy and Angel, and he does it here to great effect because the storylines are related.
This episode was horrifying and viceral and violent, and it needed to be, it also emphasized the theme of the season which is sacrifice. There were also some strong reveals that could shake the foundation of this show.
Spoiler!
The Rebellion in the lighthouse is now in full force, as Mack and Yo Yo work to evacuate humans to get them to safety, meanwhile Coulson, Daisy, May, Flint and Deke work on re-assemling the Portal so that they can return home and save the Earth from destruction and change the timeline.
We also see that Kasius who has a seer of his own is using another Yo Yo who is caught in a time loop and that Kasius has killed her and bought her back over and over again to harvest her blood and DNA to make inhumans. This Yo Yo is beaten and destroyed and tortured physically (Kasius removed her arms) and mentally because she re-affirms to our Yo Yo that they can't change fate no matter what and that the decisions they make will happen no matter how much they fight them and that this is all basically pointless. She also indicates that Mack is probably going to die in front of her, and that Coulson in a fight with the Inhuman trainer is going to die, and the team will make a decision to save even if they know it will doom the world.
Once again Shield uses the plot device of the monster making self sacficing bleed from the eyeballs but makes you a bezerker elixer. Kasius realizes that he's doomed and has slipped a wheel because of the death of his girlfriend.
Meanwhile the team trying to rebuild the portal using Flints powers over rocks are being pursued by the Kree, and we see a bit of the ruthless nasty Fitz from the Frame Work as he creates a decapitation device. He basically feels that there are too many Kree to fight, so they have to make them afraid to follow. Simmons also has a ruthless streak as she uses Flint as a weapon to kill the Kree Imperial Guard.
We see Kasius confronting Mack and he executes the caught in the time loop Yo Yo which sends Mack over the edge because he doesn't know that there are two Yo Yo's. This leads to an over the top almost WWE feel fight between Mack and Kasisu in which Simmons jams one of Kasisus' ear worms into him and then Mack rams the shotgun axe through the villian in a incredibly violent theme.
Meanwhile Deke who has been an all for himself guy, and Enoch try to get the portal going, but they are forced to find power to run it and Enoch realizes that he has to sacrifice himself to use his batteries and the ensuing explosion will kill Deke. This end to both of those characters created a nobility to Deke and closed his character on a strong note.
Meanwhile going back to Coulson and Diasy heading back to the Portal, Daisy decides that she can't go back and doom the world and tries to make the Self Sacrifice move, but Coulson ices her because he knows he's dying and he needs her to lead. May also realizes that Daisy probably won't forgive Coulson for dragging her back to her time.
The Episode ends with the portal opening and the viewer being unsure who made it back.
Then we get a nice moment where Flint and Tess looking a the shattered world and deciding to try to rebuild it.
There's an interesting thing here, depending on what theory of timelines that you want to follow.
The first, if there's a single time line and fate can't be changed as tortured Yo Yo believes then their mission failed and the earth is still destroyed.
The second if there are multiple time lines and Shield succeeded, this still horrible time line exists.
Its an interesting discussion.
So now we know that at least some and probably all of the Shield members are back on earth, and we see a preview of this show when it comes back after the Olympics. We might have forgotten that Shield was a rogue organization that was the most wanted due to the death of General Talbot by the LMD of Daisy.
So basically they have jumped from the frying pan into a hotter frying pan.
Some random thoughts
The fight between Mack and Kasius was fun and over the top, and a lot like a WWE fight, but seeing his rammed through with the shotgun axe was a lot of fun.
Seeing the evolution of Fitz, especially after last year is interesting as he can still be the ruthless murderer that he was in the Frame Work and not blink at it is a big change to the overly nice guy Fitz from before
The tortured Yo Yo was really tragic and welll done with the argument that even if they want to change things they won't be able to. Seeing her murdered by Kasius though was almost a relief as it was her escape from hell.
Coulson knowing that he's going to die and icing Daisy because he needs her to lead follows the comic books where Quake becomes the head of Shield. In terms of the theme of sacrifice and with season 6 still undecided will Coulson let the team save him if it costs them the world?
There were some really nice moments between Yo Yo and Mack
Daisy feeding Kasius his own ear worm was a nice touch.
Deke started out as a I don't give a crap character but nicely evolved, I loved that he was wondering where guns were all his live and Enoch simply responds in the bulk heads on level 3.
Enoch's death became oddly touching and seeing the two sacrificing to save the world was a really appropriate end to their character arcs.
The head of Disney is cautiously optimistic that Shield will be renewed. To me its one of the more strongly written and acted main cable shows and I hope it sticks around, but my feeling is that this season ends with the earth saved and Coulson sacrifice and Daisy in charge of shield.
4 week break to the Olympics.