Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Closure

Ward (Brett Dalton) killing Rosalind Price (Constance Zimmer) and Gideon Malick's (Powers Boothe) plans to re-open a portal shift the focus of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. back to Hydra as the show heads into next week's fall finale. Angering Coulson (Clark Gregg) and tricking him into putting Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) into harms way allows the villain to capture his former teammates and force their cooperation in Malick's plans. Although Simmons is under the impression Hydra wants to bring back the unseen force from the planet on which she was stranded, and knowing how the show's writers think after two and a half seasons, I'm betting Will (Dillon Casey) turns out to actually be Hydra's secret weapon just waiting to be transported home.

Hydra has been one, if not several, steps ahead of S.H.I.E.L.D. for most of the season as Ward has been able to rebuild the organization with little interference and Malick was able to use the ATCU to create Hydra their own Inhuman soldiers. Ending with Coulson, Ward, and the Hydra team all jumping through the portal I don't see things getting much more hopeful in the final episode before the show's winter break. Coulson's choice of Mack (Henry Simmons) to lead S.H.I.E.L.D. while he hunts down Ward is a bit of a surprise, and I don't quite buy Coulson's reasoning for not promoting May (Ming-Na Wen) who he's relied on much more heavily over the course of the series despite whatever burdens she's been carrying around at the time.

The relationship between Price and Coulson is also a bit of a problem. While the show did a good job teasing the chemistry between the pair and revealing a physical relationship, the scene of Ward killing Price in front of his former mentor doesn't quite have enough juice as this is the first scene where we've seen anything truly romantic between the pair (and it comes off a bit stilted and awkward). The idea of Ward playing Coulson works far better, although the convenience of Ward's brother (Tyler Ritter) is also a bit circumspect and a little too neat as the piece of the puzzle to get Coulson in position just in time to take his own journey to the other side of the galaxy. The fake robbery also seems bizarre given the number of other ways Coulson and his team could have covertly gotten their hands on the man.