Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 5, Episode 12 Review

100 episodes later and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is still going strong...just as a more niche ABC comic book show. In fact, the comic book show landscape seems to have really changed since SHIELD's debut, with even long-running series such as Arrow and The Flash losing their audiences. Shows like Legion and Agents of SHIELD, however, which have garnered a lot of support from a relatively small but encouraging audience seem to be garnering much more positive feedback. In fact, I think its the fans that have kept Agents of SHIELD going for 100 episodes, and that's thanks to the quality of the series itself. It hasn't "lost its mojo" - it's actually kind of gained it over the course of four and a half seasons.

In this 100th episode special though - complete with a title-card compilation from each season - the show seems intent on rewarding fans as much as they can, resulting in an episode filled with lovely little bits of fan service, but nothing that really progresses or develops the season's over-arching narrative too much. There are two key developments in this episode: Coulson's diminishing health is revealed to the rest of the team, and Deke is revealed to be FitzSimmons' grandson. The latter is more subtly handled, but I have to give kudos to the handling of Coulson's reveal. His conversation with Daisy was beautifully handled, and felt strangely real for a show about comic superheroes, time travel and aliens. Clark Gregg's performance was nicely underplayed; Coulson has accepted his fate, but Daisy just...can't, and Chloe Bennet demonstrates this really well. Sure, some of the dialogue about Coulson being "the heart of SHIELD" might seem cheesy, but he really has been, being the face of the organisation's introduction back in 2008's Iron Man. The show has every right to build up his character in such a way, and it really feels earned. I hope we get more Coulson and Daisy scenes before the end of this season, because their relationship really can be the heart of the entire show.

"The Real Deal", does, however, have more to offer with Coulson going down to the depths of the Lighthouse to fix a crack in space-time (which seemed eerily familiar to a storyline in Doctor Who), having to face-off against various different foes from the show's past: the Kree, the Roaches, Lash, Hive and Mike Peterson - who tries to convince Coulson that the entire show has all been in his imagination, and he's been left dying on an operating table. This could have made for a really intense scene, but I felt that the episode never managed to make this scenario seem believable, no matter how hard they tried. It makes narrative sense within the episode, but it never quite rang true for me. Maybe if the late Ron Glass had had a cameo as his doctor character from Season 1, it might have been more believable, or at least felt like a possibility. Instead, I just don't think it really worked as well as it could have. Giving Mike / Deathlok a small guest appearance was nice, but I do wonder if the episode could have incorporated more guest characters. Then again, they did quite a bit of that in the latter third of last season, so perhaps it would have been a bit too much. As a 100th episode spectacular, it was a nice treat, but it did feel a little small. I also would have appreciated a Ghost Rider cameo, given his relevance to the plot.

Despite all this though, the episode does end on a nice little scene for long-time fans of the show: finally getting to see Fitz and Simmons get married. It was a really lovely scene to end the episode on, and worked really well in the episode's favour. In a way, I do wish that "The Real Deal" had placed greater emphasis on Fitz and Simmons beforehand, but it did make for a nice little twist in the lift scene. Perhaps the episode had too much on its plate in this regard, but it made for a really nice installment to mark this key point in Agents of SHIELD's long, if turbulent, run.