Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV Series) Beginning of the End (2014) User Reviews

Best Agents of SHIELD episode to date

[jathanclark · 10/10 · 17 May 2014]

By turns suspenseful, thrilling and cathartic, "Beginning of the End" is a very satisfying conclusion to the season. It's gratifying to watch the writers finish their first major story arc on a strong note. I was beginning to doubt my initial hopefulness about the show's possibilities and then suddenly Ward turned out to be a psychopath. Everything just got better from there. Here's hoping Season 2 continues this trend. If Agents of SHIELD keeps this trajectory, it has the potential to become worthy of a movie itself.

What to look for in this episode: The surprisingly enjoyable return of Patton Oswald, the best and most moving emotional scene so far on Agents of Shield, one awesome cameo, a couple of kick-ass action sequences and the reason why you should never try and hurt Phil Coulson's team.

A tag-team wrestling match with four dead guys.

[jhudson-11704 · 9/10 · 15 October 2017]

The finale is here for Agents of SHIELD's first season. It was a great one for a shaky season. Although it is the first season, so the later ones can improve.

We finally reached the end of this season's main villain: Garrett and Centipede. The ending for Garrett was actually pretty fun. Seeing him go crazy after being injected with the miracle drug was interesting as it could possibly happen to Skye and Coulson too. His demise was good too, his demise coming twice actually. Having Mike stomp him down was good as I really wanted Mike to get through this season as a good guy. I also love how Coulson took him down with the plasma cannon thing. It was funny and a great job of pulling the rug from underneath the audience.

The scenes with Fitz and Simmons was so good and shows that these two were definitely the best characters in this show. Seeing Fitz proclaim his love for Simmons with his words and actions was so touching and I really want Simmons to reciprocate it. Hopefully we get it next season.

It was great to have another appearance with SPOILERS Fury as he saved FitzSimmons and helped Coulson stop Garrett. It's awesome that these crossovers can happen to show how much Marvel wants to appease fans and critics.

In the end we get the team reaching a new base, with a new Koenig, but more important, Coulson etching symbols into the wall, like Garrett. This could lead to some great plot lines in the next season.

It does seem like some plot lines fell through though, like Quinn and the gravitonium and Mike (who still looks goofy in his plastic body armor)

+ FitzSimmons submerged + Fury! + Garrett's end + Some interesting plot points to follow for next season - Though some this season seemed dropped.

Final Score: 9.6/10

BOMB SQUAD!!!

[amazingcow1 · 9/10 · 12 February 2021]

Nice episode! At times it was too corny especially with Garret. The episode was a bit rushed. Fitz and Simmons steal the show as always! Awesome action too! Sets up some good stuff for season 2 can't wait to start the next season!!!

Rewatch thoughts

[noorea-85147 · 7 February 2019]

I love this episode a lot...I think I would rank it fourth or fifth best season finale of the show (out of five) but only because the show keeps outdoing itself each season! The episode starts with one of my favorite openings of the show, just everyday cybertech agents in an office, fun concept! it also has one of my all time favorite TV scenes featuring Jemma talking about the law of thermodynamics, you know the one! it has a great cameo, so much action, that great fakeout near the end and the last shot still gives me chills. amazing all around!

A good end to a season

[burningblazeboy · 8/10 · 26 June 2020]

The episode is kinda campy but it wraps up the plot threads that needed finishing. The first part of the Tahiti story arc is wrapped up, the centipede arc is wrapped up, though I feel they could have used them more.

You're all rooting for the team, if you didn't like them at the start of the season, you'll like them now, or at least have warmed up to them.

The incentives program is kinda cringe (oh wow we never mentioned it before literally this episode) and the guys for some reason don't go "hey our families are being kept hostage" and instead act evil which is odd, but a nickpick, so it doesn't really matter.

What the the Whole Series Should have been

[Tioanbeast · 10/10 · 24 May 2014]

This episode takes what was best about the Avengers and places it into a lower budget hour. I was hoping for an episode like this, unfortunately to get to it, it required quite a few average episodes that have very little action, excitement, laughs or any real importance to the marvel universe. With a surprise cameo. Some awesome twists at the end, it is possible one of my favorite season finales ever. My only real complaint is that the show took so long to get to this point. I mean, the shows fairly average and for a show with the name marvel that many would expect a show with this much hype to be awesome. But it was just average. So I hope as they go on into the next season they continue the cross overs from the movies and maybe, fingers-crossed, an avenger to cameo in an episode. If they do I think they can get back the fans they lost and create the show it was suppose to be.

Season One Review

[southdavid · 7/10 · 18 November 2023]

I watched "Agents of Shield" at the time it aired, all apart from the seventh and final season, which was on my list, but I hadn't gotten around too. In fact, it had been so long I decided to restart the series from scratch and watch it all again, starting with this first run, which originally aired on Channel Four in the UK, back in 2013.

Resurrected following his death at the hands of Loki ahead of the Battle for New York, Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) is tasked with putting together a small team to react to unusual behaviour, starting with Mike Peterson (J August Richards) who has superhuman strength from the extremis in his system. Coulson recruits specialists Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) and Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) and scientists Leo Fitz (Iain de Caestecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) but it's a hacker and activists Skye (Chloe Bennet) who is able to get them close to Peterson.

Generally, I enjoyed this season of "Agents of Shield" more than I thought I would. I forgot how integral it felt to the MCU at this time, with the plots of "Iron Man 3" and "Thor: The Dark World" having a factor on the plot of the series. The whole season shifts though on the events of "Captain America: The Winters Soldier" when the activation of Hydra agents, embedded at all levels of SHIELD comes to the fore. Shorn of both power and legitimacy, the seasons ends with the agents increasingly having to act on their own initiatives to achieve their aims. The are guest appearances from Samuel L Jackson, Cobie Smulders and Maximiliano Hernandez, as well as Jamie Alexander as Lady Sif.

There's definitely the "Buffy/Whedon" vibe running through the series, as he was one of the main creative forces at Marvel during this time, before "the unpleasantness". It has the same funny lines and smart ass, almost fourth wall breaking, style that his series have. The seasons have the monster of the week and mythology style that other shows have utilised so well and, again like Buffy, leads up to the reveal of a "big bad" at the end of it. The visual effects are good as is Bear McCreary's score.

My recollection is that I've got some lean years to come, as the show drifts further away from what was happening in the movies, but I was pleasantly surprised with just how much I enjoyed this season.