AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 3 Episode 10: Mid-Season Finale Should Keep You Talking During its Break



Things got a little crazy on what is actually the winter finale of AGENTS OF SHIELD. We continued right where we left off with SHIELD trying to rescue Fitz and Simmons, Hydra trying to bring the great Inhuman back from the planet and Coulson going after Ward.

Since this was a finale, of sorts, a lot of stuff had to happen. The biggest stuff was who was going to survive on that planet. Would Ward make it back and continue to be a thorn in the side of SHIELD? Would we actually get to witness the big Hydra monster in person?

The answer to those questions is complicated. So it’s best we start at the beginning. Fitz and Ward were on the alien planet, but both had very different goals. Fitz wanted to find Will and Ward wanted to bring back the Hydra alien. It wasn’t long until Fitz was able to find Will. I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t sure how exactly he found Will, if it was by accident or if he was information from Simmons on where Will’s camp might be located. But after a brush with death by execution, Will joined the merry group of Hydra soldiers. 

Meanwhile, SHIELD was trying to take control of the facility while not getting shot out of the air by Hydra missiles. This presented a great opportunity for the “power rangers” as Mac put it, to put their skills to the test. This is clearly the proto-Secret Warriors team and while they didn’t really do a whole lot, it was kind of cool to see Joe melt some bullets instead of getting. My hope is that future episodes will feature a larger variety of team members and bring them more into the forefront of the show. 

Though the biggest events happened on the alien planet, there were still some interesting things going on earth. Simmons letting Lash out of the cage seemed like a bigger deal than the show made of it. After all, he killed all those Inhumans and then disappeared. So clearly that’s going to be a thread they’ll wrap up later in the season. Mac making the big decisions as a leader was nice too, as perhaps he learned that it wasn’t as easy being Director as he may have thought. 

Moving back to the alien world though, Coulson got his hands on Ward. There was a point where Ward went on a tangent about being part of a larger plan. It seemed rather out of place considering who Ward was as a character and it was bit of a stretch to think that him seeing a Hydra monument had suddenly changed his worldview. 

None of that really mattered though, because as soon as Coulson found Fitz he no longer had any use for Ward. In what was a really cool moment for Coulson, he used his robotic hand to cave in Ward’s chest. It’s nice that SHIELD finally took that final step in getting rid of Ward. 

The other big thing was that Fitz discovered that Will had been replaced by the Hydra God. Apparently Will died — rather unceremoniously — protecting Simmons as she escaped. It was a bit odd, but quite a nice twist to learn that Fitz couldn’t bring back Will for Simmons. Not only that, he had to straight up murder him in order to make sure he didn’t get through the portal. The scene where Simmons realized that Will didn’t make it was heartbreaking. Though it definitely solves the love triangle problem! 

Last but not least, we got the little stinger at the end where we discovered that Ward was now being inhabited by the alien that was controlling Will initially. So while Ward’s body is still on the show, the character himself is dead and that’s okay with me.

Written by Peter Freeman, AGENTS OF SHIELD Beat Writer