Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. promised a death as the story arc for “Fallen Agent” came to an end and the season 3 finale paid off in a big way….
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3 came to an end on Tuesday night with a two hour finale that was capped off by two cast members officially exiting the long running ABC series along with plenty of cliffhangers for season 4.
It was announced on Tuesday that when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns later this year, the show will shift to a new 10pm ET start time on Tuesday nights on ABC.
So before we get to season 4, let’s recap some of the biggest parts of the ending for season 3 including the death of two prominent characters. Needless to say MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW:
Grant Ward/HIVE are Dead
The final part of season 3 brought to an end a three season run for Brett Dalton, who played Agent Grant Ward as well as the collective evil being known as HIVE. His end came after attempting to set off a nuclear device that was loaded with a chemical agent that would transform normal human beings into some sort of hybrid Inhuman monsters that the agents began calling ‘primitives’.
Unfortunately for HIVE, his plans were foiled after his bomb was placed inside one of the Quinjets and flown on auto pilot to outerspace. When the bomb finally exploded, HIVE was caught in the blast with the chemical explosion harmlessly floating into the vacuum of space.
Of course, Ward/HIVE has already come back to haunt the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on more than one occasion so is he really dead this time? According to the producers behind the series, Brett Dalton has officially left the show.
“In the Marvel universe, you can never say that you lose anyone for good; our entire series is centered around a man who was brought back from the dead. But we sustained Brett Dalton’s character as an antagonist for the past three seasons and that’s just a testament to how much we love and respect the actor as well as what he’s given to the character. But as with everything, we don’t want any story to ever lose steam; we don’t want any character’s arc to ever lose steam.
“We felt like we could give Grant Ward/Hive his glorious ending that he deserved, because Grant Ward essentially died halfway through Season 3, but we didn’t want to let go.,” show runner Maurissa Tancharoen said about Dalton’s exit from the show when speaking to Variety.
Lincoln Is Also Gone
In addition to HIVE being executed at the end of the season, Lincoln was also sacrificed after he flew off into space with the killer entity, to ensure that he couldn’t reverse course and guide the jet back to Earth. He said a final sad goodbye to Daisy, who he just professed his love to earlier in the episode before the bomb exploded.
The tease for the last few episodes is that a major character would die and Lincoln was the person who ended up going in the end.
Daisy’s Lost
After her encounter with HIVE this season that included being added to his collective, Daisy has been struggling to find her purpose in the world. She even tried to rejoin HIVE in the finale before he realized that she could no longer be swayed by him after his original control over her was broken.
Now with Lincoln dead and Grant Ward dead before him, the two men Daisy fell for over the course of this series are gone.
At the end of the finale with a six month time jump, Daisy is no longer a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and she’s out straddling the line between hero and villain while caring for some of the Inhumans, who are still struggling to make it in this new world.
Daisy is actually being hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D. now but she’s a very elusive person to capture.
Coulson No Longer the Director
In an interesting twist at the tail end of the episode while Coulson is on the hunt for Daisy, he mentions to Mack that they might need to contact the director to give him an update. So it appears Coulson is no longer the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. as season 4 picks up. What happened? Did he step down or did someone force him to step down?
Coulson blamed himself for a great many things at the end of season 3 so there’s a good chance he gave up his leadership role in order to focus on being a better agent. Either way it appears he won’t be in charge when season 4 returns later this year.
Life Model Decoys
The introduction of Dr. Radcliffe (played by John Hannah) wasn’t just for a few episodes this season. In fact, Hannah will return in season 4 and with a new creation — a life model decoy!
The infamous robots from the Marvel Universe are finally being introduced next season and you have to wonder what Radcliffe intends to do with them?
Will Bobbi and Hunter return?
One of the biggest mysteries that still dangles over Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. going into season 4 are the characters of Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood). The characters were written off the show midway through the third season because they were supposed to be getting their own spinoff series titled Marvel’s Most Wanted.
Just recently, ABC opted not to pick up the series and that left the actors and the characters very much twisting in the wind.
It seems only logical that Bobbi and Hunter would return to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. now that they aren’t getting their own show right?
“We adore those characters and we’re always open to that possibility, but we can’t say much on that subject right now,” Tancharoen said.
It will be interesting to see the dynamic of the team when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns for season 4 at its new time 10pm ET on Tuesday nights this fall on ABC!
