The universe has ended, Holden Radcliffe said before he
vanished into thin air, not with a bang, but with a whimper – and he inadvertently
captured the essence of AoS S4 finale, intentionally or not.
What went wrong with ‘World’s End’? (Other than the
unnecessary pun of the name?) The crew of AoS tried to finish-off every plot
line here: Aida and her Madame Hydra persona, (and, also, Radcliffe, I
suppose), the LMDs and Ivanov, (and also the rest of the Russians), and Robbie
the Ghost Rider and the Darkhold. From a technical P.O.V., it all was
accomplished: everyone died – Mace, Ivanov, Aida, Radcliffe, friends of agent
Piper –, the framework has collapsed and is gone, and Robbie took the Darkhold
and left…for Doctor Strange and his
people, maybe? Regardless, he is away for now, and if he comes back, AoS laid
the groundwork for his and Daisy’s relationship, if that is what is wanted.
Considering that the ratings of ‘World’s End’ were very low, especially for a
season’s finale, it is anyone’s guess if Luna will want to return to feature in
it. (Considering that ABC television network’s YouTube channel uploaded many of Robbie’s special moments in AoS
so far, and it still didn’t work, the viewers, the ratings, didn’t rise up to
what they were in the initial ‘Agents of Hydra’ mini-arc’s episodes, Luna may
not return. Who knows? The final scene showed that, apparently, Coulson (and
the rest of his people?) ended up in space, which is not the usual haunt of any
of the Ghost Riders, so if Luna will not
be coming back, AoS already got it covered, especially short-term).
The reason for that is while technical side of the solution was executed perfectly, the other
aspects of it…were not. Coulson gushed how he and May missed the fight between
Ivanov’s LMDs and Robbie and Daisy? Frankly, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s battle against Hive’s
Primitives in S3 finale was much more epic and exciting and better; did anyone
realize immediately that Robbie and Daisy had killed Ivanov ‘for good’ in that
fight, and not yet another replaceable LMD? Yeah, it was that ‘good’; the S4’s
finale was about as bad as ‘Laws of Infernal Dynamics’ – both were low budget
and low key. Ely Morrow was supposed to be a god, but all he had was some sort
of a crazy-ass box…and a bunch of gangster minions. Aida was, for all purposes,
a female version of Hive, as I commented in my previous AoS review, but in the end,
all she had left was regeneration, teleportation and lightning bolts, and they
were useless against Reyes…
And that, really, is a reason of its’ own – somehow AoS made
Reyes de-facto invincible; not even LMDs were strong enough to stand-up to him
in the end. Part of AoS attractiveness is that its protagonists aren’t
invincible and all-powerful, they get hurt and suffer as regular people do,
which is why when they triumph – over Hydra, over LMDs, anyone else – this is
only makes them better!
Well, this time this did not care: the Ghost Rider was some
sort of a supernatural McGuffin than helped S.H.I.E.L.D. kill everyone and
everything instead with nary a scratch. This damages the ‘suspension of disbelief’
and makes the titular agents less likable. Grant Ward was a monster and a
villain? The way that the team treated and handled him, back in S2, was barely
better. Aida is supposed to be some sort of an all-powerful monster?
S.H.I.E.L.D. tricked her with an LMD version of Jemma…and if they could whip-up
a brand new LMD on the go, couldn’t they do one for Radcliffe? The man did
recant in the end, but no, he gets to go into oblivion with the rest of the
framework all the same…while sounding kind of like Rhys from ‘The Catch’,
(whose S2 concluded last week, BTW). And – why? Was there some sort of a
contract clause or what?
…And yes, the RL problems are still a ‘feature’ of AoS, it
seems – but I have written about them many times before, so, let us wrap it up
instead. In S4, AoS did its’ best, (one hopes), to wrap-up anything left behind
by the first 3 seasons. They did it in various ways, mostly by trying to erase
it all, as they did with the framework, (Mack/Yo-Yo/Hope scenes were some of
the best in the S4 finale), and by mashing everything together and trying to do
very fast-paced and energetic episode. As a result, within MCU, S.H.I.E.L.D.
has lost everything and everyone, including general Talbot, who is hanging to
his life by a thread, and whose aide hates S.H.I.E.L.D. because they were
framed.
Yes, this will give Talbot’s actor at least some episodes to
be absent from, and it will give the agents a new character to battle with, to
defeat, or to befriend – AoS is never clear on that. But still – my point is
that AoS tried to, and largely succeeded, in getting rid of their old
associations from the first 3 seasons. The problem is that AoS’ issues are RL
and take place largely behind the
camera, and they had not gone away,
it seems. Thus, for now, we settle down for another inter-season hiatus and we
wait for further news from Marvel in general.
PS: And did anyone think that the acting of actors in
Fitz/Simmons/Aida triangle was seriously unconvincing and insincere? Even more
so than the sheer predictability of the FitzSimmons triumphing over all odds?
Maybe the actors are getting fed-up with AoS and its’ plotlines as well? Who
knows.
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