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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
The end is close, and it will get ugly before it has the chance to turn pretty. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s penultimate episode of its final season is titled “Brand New Day;” it is written by Christopher Freyer and is directed by Keith Potter.
Some spoilers ahead for those who are not up-to-date with the series or not caught up with this episode. If you have done neither, get to that now, then return to this article!
This last episode of the hit Marvel series before its finale teases something tragic for our team of heroes. “Brand New Day” follows the SHIELD group as they have Kora (Dianne Doan) held captive, while Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and her grandson Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward) are captured by Nathaniel Malick (Thomas E. Sullivan), John Garrett (James Paxton), and their antagonistic group of so-called “anarchists.” Daisy Johnson/ Quake (Chloe Bennet) sets out into outer space to rescue her teammates but is joined by Daniel Sousa (guest star Enver Gjokaj) and Alphonso “Mack” MacKenzie (Henry Simmons).
This week’s episode focuses on the Kubler Ross’s first two stages of grief (denial and anger), that is, the feelings of such regarding fate, death, and the end of our time together. The team learns from Kora that this version of Earth that they are in is an alternate timeline to their original one, and they refuse to believe this is what they have come to and instead keep working to restore the timeline to fit what was once theirs. Kora finds her mother’s deceased body and rejects that she was killed; she also denies that Malick had killed her and pins the blame on her sister.
Johnson shares Enoch (Joel Stoffer)’s information with Mack that this mission together may be their last. Mack agrees and says that perhaps it is time to hang it up when all is said and done. He tells her, “Maybe it’s time. We had a crazy ride.” Johnson refuses to accept this, as the team has been her family — even going so far as calling Simmons her sister — to which Mack replies, “You know exactly who you are with anyone.” On this note, Simmons and her partner Leo Fitz (guest star Iain De Caestecker) have had a hard time parting ways. At first, Simmons says, “Every bit of energy inside us, every particle, will go on to be a part of something else,” but Fitz does not want to let her go and says, “We can just…be. We should take the time that we have.” She agrees and tells him that “saying ‘goodbye’ is hard enough.”
On Kora’s side of the story, she proposes she and the team band together to kill off thirty individuals to save the lives of the rest of the world, and she starts with a former SHIELD member, Grant Ward. She refuses to believe that the organization is doing the right thing, that their method is killing people who pose a threat to the globe. Chronicom Life Model Decoy Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) argues that “we’ve all made hard choices,” “we aren’t who we used to be,” and that “people can change.” Additionally, Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) argues that “there’s no name that goes free of consequence” if they choose to kill. Kora brings into discussion a young Inhuman girl that May killed in the past, to which the agent says the circumstances were not great.
Kora progresses in her anarchist path, killing those who intend to kill and commit wrongful and unforgivable acts on Earth. She tells the team that “[her group’s] goal is to reduce suffering [by using] knowledge of history yet to be written. Lives have already been spared.” She plans to save the lives of many by taking out the lives of a few.
This episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. scores high on the Bechdel Test and even includes a small Easter Egg to the comics’ prime universe, Earth-616. The show’s female characters have performed well the most and develop more than the male characters, with probably the exception of Mack and Sousa. “Brand New Day” properly blends its psychological themes, digging deep into its most emotional figures. It shows us that it is healthy to have closure because in the end, everything will be alright.
9.5/10
What do you think? Have you seen this series? If not, do you plan to binge it sometime in the near future? Are you sad that this series will end? Let us know! For more Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., action, science-fiction, and Marvel-related news and reviews, follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_).
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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