I am convinced Joss had a hand in that bit, or at the very least Jed went back and looked at a few Buffy episodes.
Do LMDs bleed when you slit their throats?
Decent ending but there is definitely a lot of questions for next season. It was good seeing Fury get in on the action and be involved more than just a cameo at the end. I think they were a little too quippy when fighting Garret’s crew at the end. They’re in a fight for their lives and are trading one liners back and forth. But they were really good quips, so I’ll give them that. That fight between May and Agent Chiseljaw McHeelTurn was really good and her using the nailgun on his feet, crushing his trachea, then roundhouse kicking him was f-ing badass.
Speaking of Agent Turncoat Von Limpalot, he was getting a little squeamish about Garret’s master plan which seemed a little wishy washy to me. He’s totally part of team HYDRA until right then and then “Uh, gee I dunno.” So the groundwork for his road to redemption has begun. I suppose he’s going to have to rehab his sore throat for several episodes next season before he can speak again and say he’s sorry and whatnot. I’ve mentioned it before but I still think the best thing to do with the character is make him a 3rd party – sometimes helping SHIELD and sometimes messing up their mission. He can’t go back to the team and he’s not really HYDRA, despite shooting everyone in the head. Unless the show drops the character completely then what else are you going to do with him and the actor?
I think it’s a reasonable conclusion that Skye’s bloody dad is an Inhuman. I think they’re working to introduce the Deviants into the MCU and there’s an event going on with them in the comics now, I believe. They’re tied into the Kree and Inhumans basically look human but have super powers, so they could be an already existing stand-in for mutants. Seeing Blackbolt and Medusa on screen would be pretty cool, methinks.
And the part with Garret Dethloking himself and then monologuing like a madman only to get blown to bits was downright funny. Again, a little overdone, but damn funny.
If you tickle them, do they not laugh?
Really good episode. I was happy to see Patton Oswalt again - I’m inexplicably fond of him. 
The writers seem to be getting the hang of this “ensemble” thing. It doesn’t feel QUITE so much like “Skye And A Bunch Of SHIELD Misfits, Featuring Coulson” anymore.
Raina annoys me. I can’t put my finger on why. Maybe it’s her huge, ostrich eyes. Or maybe it’s because everything about her screams, “oooh, look out, I’m mysterious!” I do love her hair though.
May rules. I laughed so hard when she used the nail gun. OUCH! But why did she throw away the Staff of Soul-Sucking Awesomeness? She was able to discard it, so there was no question of her being able to handle it (and its side effects). Boo.
Ward will be back, I’m sure. He knows too much to not be used as a resource. They could attempt to redeem him - He didn’t actually kill anyone on Coulson’s team, did he? So for narrative purposes, he hasn’t killed anyone the audience was emotionally invested in.
A bit sad at seeing a more “human” Nick Fury. I’ve always seen him as this legendary, unstoppable bad-ass. Sigh.
Poor Fitz. Poor Simmons. Those crazy kids.
Director Coulson? Color me dubious. Don’t get me wrong, Agent Coulson is pretty cool, but I don’t know about Director Coulson. I’ll have to see.
Some of the dialogue in the last 3-4 episodes has been very snappy. I would be surprised if Joss himself hadn’t stuck his pen in there somewhere. 
I almost stopped watching entirely about mid-way through the season. I’m so glad I didn’t give up!
… that’s odd, the last 2 episodes don’t list any writing credits on IMDB…
Official writing credit for the finale lists Jed and Maurissa as the writers. Either Maurissa has been taking notes over family dinners or Jed inherited some of the same talent his brother got.
Well sure. They’re designed to outwardly mimic humans in every way, and according to the wiki article, they can even “think” enough like humans to fool telepaths. But on the inside aren’t they robots with wires and things? Ward seemed to have killed a human, and Simmons examined Koenig’s corpse, didn’t she?
I guess I don’t like the idea of LMDs very much. Why not build an army of them like Cybertech was trying to do?
Koenig was originally a member of the Howling Commandos with Nick Fury. Obviously they’ve rewritten Marvel history a bit but when they introduced Koenig I thought they should have given him a larger part than just disposable redshirt. It will be interesting to find out what is different about him and why there’s more than one, but I’m hoping whatever it is, is unique to him, and we aren’t going to be seeing LMDs whenever the writers get lazy.
Garrett and Ward were never really committed to Hydra. They’ve even said so. Garrett just saw Hydra as a means he could use to advance himself and Ward was Garrett’s slave. Ward only got upset when Garrett lost it and stopped telling him what to do - Ward doesn’t like having to make his own decisions.
Ward is confusing. He’s absolutely devoted to Garrett when everything Garrett has done was to make Ward independant, uncaring, untrusting and willing to betray anyone the moment it’s convenient. Instead he was in a panic as soon as Garrett stopped telling him what to do, or really, stopped giving Ward’s life meaning. What’s up with that?
I honestly don’t think they are going to…for lack of a better term…waste the Inhumans on the show.
At one point Marvel really wanted to push them as their own franchise film series for phase 3 or 4.
I don’t think it would necessarily be a waste. It would be more of an introduction. We see Inhumans but we won’t see Blackbolt and Medusa until the movie.
I don’t think the Inhumans are going to get introduced on Agents of SHIELD. I think they could get introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy – maybe as (movieverse) background of one of the characters, maybe just as a mention of what the Kree have been up to. Then the Dead Blue Guy and Skye/Raina get linked to that introduction.
When a show has a team of writers (so, basically every show), the final writing credit goes to the writer(s) who were assigned the task of turning in a final script. The writing process still begins with the entire writing staff (which could include the showrunner). So, the Joss-sounding lines of dialog could still have come from him even though he doesn’t have a writing credit.
Yeah, not knowing the comics I would also like to know just how authentically LMDs resemble humans on the inside. Blood and guts and organs?
Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe can not use mutants but they ARE using Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, is it a plausible retcon for Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to be Inhumans?
Whedon is not involved in Agent Carter. The showrunners are Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas. Whedon isn’t even listed among the producers.
I’m going to assume that next season will open with Coulson obtaining some kind of official recognition for Shield. These few episodes of the team working solo have been interesting but it’s not going to work on a long-term basis.
The problem is that once you restore Shield to being a real organization again, you’re stuck with what you do with Coulson. If he’s the Director of Shield, he’s not going to be out on missions. And I don’t think we want to have a show about him sitting in an office back at Headquarters.
So I’m guessing (and we’ve all seen how bad my record is on that) that Coulson’s tenure as Director will be short. As part of whatever deal he makes to have the organization restored, he’ll have to accept somebody else (like Talbott) being named as Director and he’ll be demoted back to team leader.
It’s like how Kirk always ends up being Captain of the Enterprise. Even if he gets promoted to Admiral, something happens to put him back on the bridge.
Certainly. Nothing Baron Strucker said in the mid-credits scene would preclude that possibility.
Yes, probably. The current (maybe over now?) Inhumans storyline/crossover thing Marvel comics are doing has its basis in the idea that Inhumans have interbred with normal humans over the millennia, so they have lots of descendants in the general population that could gain powers from exposure to the Terrigen Mist. Although Joss’ teaser for Avengers II at the end of Winter Soldier kinda-sorta suggests they got their powers from meddling with Loki’s spear (from Avengers I).
Well, “mutants” have been referred to as “miracles.” I suppose Inhumans could be stand-ins for mutants, but Inhumans have a definite Kree/alien connection while mutants are very much Earth based humans. I’d like to see both the alien and mutant angles explored as storylines.
I was really hoping Skye’s father would be blue. What was up with all the blood? Very weird. But, Inhumans could definitely be described as “monsters.”
Well, everyone has pretty much pre-empted most comments I might have, particularly the, er, busy-ness of the episode, and the suggestion that this was to be a wrap-up if the show didn’t go to a second season.
Loved the “Now he’s back, now he isn’t” bit concerning Garrett. Classically Whedonesque, IMO.
The fight scene between Ward and May was fairly awesome as well. Maybe my general phobia of nail guns provided an extra frisson there.
Not sure I care for Coulson as Director. Isn’t that going to limit his field time somewhat (ETA: as Little Nemo said)? Also, how would a new SHIELD be financed? I’d actually get into a bit of exposition concerning how a clandestine budget would be put together.
Lastly, are we being set up for an evil Skye next season? I rather hope so; the depth of her role, and Chloe Bennet’s acting, has markedly improved in the latter part of this season.
That quote was from me, not levdrakon.
IMO, it’s in the same universe and appealing to some of the same fans. I’ll be upset if I have to watch some episodes to make sense of stuff on AoS.