’s magnificent fourth season and what an explosive, jam-packed finale it was.
Their first meeting is certainly fiery.
When her robotic henchmen get in the way, Ghost Rider literally curb-stomps their heads off.
Credit: Jennifer Clasen/ABC
Just check out that gross-looking burn on AIDA’s arm after contact with the rider’s chain.
Nobody’s holding back, although a timely teleportation from AIDA puts off the final conflict for now.
Afterward, Robbie explains that he escaped the dark dimension when AIDA’s body was created.
headquarters, he’s in the middle of organizing an evacuation.
This is gonna be tougher than she thought.
Back in the real world, S.H.I.E.L.D.
has problems of its own.
inquest tomorrow which General Talbot warned Coulson to be at, or else.
Don’t worry; this is a Marvel show, so he survives.
Even better, Talbot’s able to fire off some choice one-liners before going down.
successfully chases AIDA’s minions away, they leave the Darkhold behind.
As compensation, viewers are treated to some truly epic superpower combos.
An alley-oop so good Coulson is legitimately sad to miss it.
Rather than take on that superpowered maelstrom, AIDA decides to take on her real enemies: FitzSimmons.
As AIDA holds her romantic rival at knifepoint, Fitz begs her to tap into her newfound human empathy.
She declines, instead opting to both stab and electrocute Simmons.
Told you this episode was violent!
As this show’s romantic flagship couples go, Coulson and May are having slightly better luck than FitzSimmons.
Thus agreed, they take their separate stations for the final act.
Having apparently killed Simmons, AIDA teleports away to finish the job.
But that doesn’t mean getting machine-gunned from behind by the real Jemma Simmons doesn’t hurt!
Leave it to the science babies to turn AIDA’s beloved LMDs back on her.
AIDA moves to finish her off, apparently not realizing that the whole game has changed.
Coulson grabs her, andhe becomes Ghost Rider.
Of course, AIDA’s defeat wasn’t the only task at hand.
Mack still needs to be saved, and as long as Hope’s around, he’s not budging.
Even as all the virtual people around them are deleted, Mack refuses to budge.
Without a body to return to, Radcliffe stays behind, drinking on the beach until he too vanishes.
He may not have achieved immortality, but he had a good run in the end.
He did pay some unspoken price, though, and asks Robbie not to tell the others about it.
Even with that all wrapped up, intelligence agents are still hot on S.H.I.E.L.D.
There’s hardly a moment to breathe, however.
Just as they’re all sitting down to a nice meal at a diner, S.H.I.E.L.D.
is frozen from behind, kidnapped by mysterious spooks,and taken into outer space.
Thank god the show got renewed for season 5 this week, because this cliffhanger would be unbearable otherwise.
has just been recruited into S.W.O.R.D., the paranormal defense agency that Captain Marvel currently leads in the comics.
We’ll have to wait for 2018 toknow for sure.
For now, thanks for hanging with me on this long journey!
I thought the show had definitively peaked last season, but now I might be changing my mind.
