The fall season of Marvel's
Agents of SHIELD was headed towards anything but a marvelous ending as
cheesy lines (Ward's standing-behind-me doozy), illogical decisions (SHIELD
failing to send in more backup than just Mike Peterson), and odd character
behavior (Can anyone figure May out? bipolar? schizophrenic? menopause?)
threatened to turn this episode into a chore to slog through.
I won't say the last 10 minutes made up for the first 50, but at least the twist was compelling. With how predictable and poor the writing has been with this show, I was certain that the traditional one family member for another trade would take place. Switching out Coulson for Mike Peterson... I did not see that one coming.
Amazingly, the hook (finding out what happened to Coulson after he died and how his team will rescue him) have me looking forward the show's return on January 7th. I'm not saying I expect the writers to do a good job with it (Lord knows they haven't proven themselves overly capable yet), but the potential for a quality spring season is in the making.