SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU STILL HAVEN’T SEEN SEASON 5’s FINALE OR AVENGERS: ENDGAME, THEN YOU MAY WANT TO WAIT BEFORE READING THIS. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

PREVIOUSLY ON AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

Season 5 of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. left us in a confusing place. In some ways, it felt like a natural series finale, with Agent Coulson’s death (this time seemingly for real) and General Talbot, aka Graviton (amazingly played by Adrian Pasdar, the stand-out character from Season 5), having been defeated, it felt like the best place to wrap things up. But then, against all odds, ABC Studios announced two more seasons. Viewing figures had been steady, but not exactly great. No one expected the series to be renewed, least of all the writers who had clearly intended the Season 5 finale to be it’s last.

Yet here we are. Whilst the show used to be restrained to the limitations of the MCU movies, in recent years it has been allowed to breathe on its own and has become all the better for it. That’s not to say it still doesn’t reference the movies. The opening battle in New York towards the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War was seen unfolding in the background of the last few episodes of Season 5, but the season seemingly ended just before Thanos snapped his fingers. Will the show address the fact that 50% of all life in the Universe has been wiped out? Will this be our only look into what happened in the five years between the snap and the events of Avengers: Endgame? Or will the show follow in Endgame’s footsteps and make a 5-year time jump?

One thing from Season 5 that was left unresolved, assumedly just in case they did actually get picked up for more seasons, was the death of Agent Fitz. In some ways, this foreshadowed Gamora and Thanos’ reappearances in Avengers: Endgame. The present-day Agent Fitz we know is dead, however, there is a past version of Fitz somewhere out there, frozen in a cryo chamber, waiting to help the team 74 years in the future to return back to the present day. It’s all very confusing, but presumably finding him is going to be one of the main focal points in Season 6.

SEASON 6 – EPISODE 1: MISSING PIECES

INFINITY WAR / ENDGAME REFERENCES

So how did Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. address the events of Infinity War and Endgame? Well, it didn’t. At all. It’s actually kind of difficult to figure out where exactly in the MCU timeline this episode takes place. It is said that Quake, Simmons, Davis and Piper have been in space looking for Agent Fitz for months on end, but there are no references to the events of either movie.

GRAVITON?

Nope. Despite some teases last year from General Talbot actor Adrian Pasdar, it looks like he’s gone for reals. Shame, but also understandable. The show must go on.

LOTS OF NEW CHARACTERS

Usually, it’s jarring when a show introduces a bunch of new characters this late in the game. We’re only just getting used to the likes of Davis and Piper featuring more prominently and now we have a whole new cast to get to know, complete with a new love interest for Yo-Yo. However, in this instance, it feels like a breath of fresh air. The TV iteration of S.H.I.E.L.D. always felt a bit barebones considering how vast the company has been shown to be in the likes of The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Ant-Man. The show is finally free from it’s constraints after what went down in The Winter Soldier and now hopefully we can see S.H.I.E.L.D. in it’s full glory.

DR. BENSON

Speaking of new characters, we are introduced to Doctor Benson, who Agent May hooks Mack up with at the bar. Is it just me or does he look like an (or at least bares a passing resemblance to an) older version of British children’s TV presenter Dave Benson Phillips? Coincidence? I think not.

AGENT SIMMONS

Poor Agent Simmons. After losing her husband in the Season 5 finale, she (along with Quake, Davis and Piper) finally find Fitz’s cryo chamber, only to find it empty. The next time we see her, she is breaking down whilst lying in the cryo chamber and seems to be losing her mind before she has an epiphany. Unfortunately for her, her new idea to find Fitz is shot down instantly by Davis, who is backed by Quake and Piper on the grounds that they need to return home to save themselves. I’m not totally sold on this storyline just yet, as Fitz (much like Glenn in The Walking Dead) always seems to get himself in and out of ridiculous situations. We’ll see where this goes.

THE RETURN OF COULSON?

Well whaddaya know. Coulson is back… or is he? We saw Coulson return early on in the episode via a hologram message watched by the new Director of Shield, Mack, much in the same way that Tony Stark addressed his family and friends at the end of Avengers: Endgame. But then at the end, in a pretty badass sequence, Clark Gregg returned properly and appears to be this season’s big bad. Is this a brainwashed Coulson? I certainly hope not. That would be too cliched and we’ve seen that already with Bucky in The Winter Soldier. Is he s Skrull, the orc-like shapeshifting creatures introduced in Captain Marvel? Maybe, but unlikely. The jury’s out on this one for now.

DEKE SHAW

It’s only just occurred to me (the day after watching the episode), but where the hell is Deke? Jeff Ward was promoted to the main cast for Season 6 (apparently at the request of his fellow cast mates) but we haven’t seen him since towards the beginning of the Season 5 finale, and there were no signs of him here. What on Earth is he up to? (providing he’s even on Earth…)

THE STINGER

So, as Marvel so often likes to do, we were treated to a post-credit stinger featuring Agents Fitz injecting himself in the neck with… something. Who is he with? Where is he? What is he injecting himself with? Presumably we’ll find out next week.

SUMMARY

All in all, it was a fairly bonkers return to the world of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Apart from the lingering thread involving Fitz’s death / cry chamber sleep, it felt like a soft reboot of the series, with new characters and all new threats ready to cause the team some serious problems. There have been 4 MCU movies in between Seasons 5 and 6 (Infinity War, Ant-Man & The Wasp, Captain Marvel and Endgame) and you’d think they might want to at least mention the fact that half of all life in the universe had been wiped in the meantime, but the show perhaps wisely ignores that and continues to do its own thing. There was a lot to get your head around in this first episode, but it was certainly enough to hype me up for next week.

I’ll be doing a recap of each episode throughout Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s sixth season, so be sure to check in next weekend for my thoughts on Episode 2, titled ‘Window Of Opportunity’ (watch the teaser below). Until then, look after yourselves and we’ll hopefully see you soon!