It is the season finale of SHIELD and thankfully there is going to be a season 2 to answer some lingering questions but I will get to that near the end of this recap,

Last week I made some predictions as to what will happen. I believed that Ward will be killed and that Fitz will pluck up the courage to tell Simmons how he feels about her. Let’s see if I was right.

We open the episode at Cybertek as one guy gives a tour of the workplace to a newbie. One of the key things to come from this is the guy asks what attracted him to work at Cybertek and he replies it is the incentives program. The head guy, I want to think his name is Kyle but they may not have mentioned his name but let’s go with Kyle. Kyle says it is always the incentives program that attracts people to work at Cybertek. One of the Cybertek analysts alerts Kyle to a situation and shows the newbie on his monitor our team if SHIELD agents in Havana being surrounded by Centipede soldiers.

In Havana, we see our SHIELD agents take on the Centipede soldiers with Coulson quipping to the soldiers where he can get a good haircut (remember this HYDRA base is underneath a barbers). The fight is a distraction to allow Skye to plug into the HYDRA computer and grab what she needs. May, meanwhile, has used that Asgardian staff to take down the soldiers and bring the roof down on them just as Skye gets what she needs.

Back at the air hanger, Skye’s Trojan horse worked and is now able to track Garrett’s movements. One piece of intel she does learn is that Fitz has managed to place a tracker on the Bus and the last known location was somewhere over New Mexico. Also, Skye is unable to locate where FitzSimmons has gone.

Where is FitzSimmons? They are still in the medical pod but it is now sitting at the bottom of the ocean. When Simmons comes through, Fitz explains how they sunk to the bottom and how he saved them from being killed. Unfortunately, Fitz has ended up with a broken arm. One thing that Fitz does do is fashion a home beacon from one of the medical equipment there but doesn’t think anyone will come as it is using a SHIELD frequency that no one is monitoring, Later, FitzSimmons discuss the afterlife when Simmons realizes that they can escape by using the pods defibrillator and other medical supplies to blow the pod’s window out. As they rig the pod for their escape, Fitz gives Simmons a breathing apparatus that will allow her to take one deep breath that will let her swim to safety. Simmons notices that there is only one and realizes that Fitz is going to sacrifice himself for her. Simmons refuses to take it and calls Fitz her best friend. Fitz finally admits to Simmons that she is more than friend to her but was afraid to tell her. Fitz wants her to take the mask that lets him show how he feels for her. Simmons, crying, hugs Fitz and kisses him all over the face as Fitz presses the button to make the pod windows explode. We see Simmons swim out bringing Fitz with her. As the emerge to the surface, Simmons is holding on tight to Fitz and sees help above and tries to flag it down. From Simmons point of view, we see that it is Nick Fury, who grabs Simmons’ hand and pulls them to safety. When Simmons wakes up, she is a decompression chamber. Fury credits Fitz beacon as letting him find them. When Simmons asks about Fitz, Fury tells her that his heart is still beating but he was without oxygen for a long time and we fear for his recovery. Right now, Fury needs to know where is Coulson.

And Coulson and team has tracked Garrett to Cybertek’s manufacturing facility. Coulson has come up with a solid plan that May points out can go wrong in different ways.

Also at this manufacturing plant is Quinn who is showing his military complex the facility where the supersoldier program can become a reality. In this room is a dentist like chair that can do things like rebuild someone’s leg to match the biometrics of the subject. The lead general wants some kind of proof and in walks in Garrett, Ward and Deathlock.

Before I go any further let’s update you on Garrett after being injected with GH325. Garrett is better than ever (so says he) but Ward notices that he is becoming increasingly mentally unstable. Garrett grabs one of the doors from the Bus and starts scratching out a lot of circles, lines and triangles that are all interconnected. Ward wants Raina to talk to Garrett. When Raina does over the box of Gravitonium (which Raina says Quinn wants as payment for his services), Garrett goes on about now being able to see the soul of what is inside the Gravitonium and starts talking about evolution etc… Raina shares her disappointment that he wasn’t really clairvoyant but sees something different now in his eyes. Raina asks Garrett what does she become. We never hear this answer.

Back to the Cybertek manufacturing facility. The lead general is none to happy with Quinn who has brought in Garrett in on the project as he sees that Garrett is crazy. Garrett takes offence and shoves his hand in the general;s gut and starts spouting more of his manifesto before removing the guy’s rib and stabbing him in it. Ward is none to pleased at this turn of events.

Outside of this facility, we see Coulson and Tripp capture a Humvee using one of Tripp’s grandfather’s noise makers. They use the Humvee to break into the facility’s compound and blow a hole in one of the walls that let’s May and Skye in.

As May and Skye make their way to the computer lab that we saw earlier in the episode, Tripp and Coulson are surrounded by Centipede soldiers attacking the Humvee. May and Skye confront Kyle who tells them they can’t stop the soldiers. May mentions a default directive and Kyle wonders how they knew about this. We then see the soldiers get the default directive, which is to protect John Garrett and they leave Coulson and Tripp alone. This allows Coulson and Tripp to follow them to Garrett.

Meanwhile, on the Bus, we see Raina leaving with the Gravitonium and talk turns to Skye and how she is key to all of Garrett’s evolution talk. Ward says that Skye hates him and thinks he is a monster. Raina says that he and Skye have a lot in common with that talk of monsters. Later, Ward demands an order from Garrett and he orders Ward to go after Skye. It is important to note that Deathlock has not left Garrett’s side.

At Cybertek’s command center, Skye has strapped Kyle to a bomb and threatens to kill him in order to get him to cooperate. Ward arrives at points a gun at Skye. Skye wonders what Garrett did to Ward to make him the way he is. Skye feels sorry for Ward in blindly following orders and talks about how Fitz seems him as a hero. Ward does mention his weakness of getting attached to things. When Skye looks like she is going to blow Kyle up, Ward knows that she won’t. Skye mentions that she did bring along a weapon with her that can take down Ward; which he is skeptical. But Skye mentions this weapon Ward slept with and is not happy. And in my favourite moment of the episode, we see May leap out of the air and tackle Ward.

The two then engage in an intense fight in the under construction area of Cybertek that involves saws and other power tools. Ward taunts May on getting hurt from their no-strings attached relationship but May gets the upper hand by using a nail gun on Ward’s foot and fractures Ward’s larynx before kicking him unconscious.

While all this is happening, Garrett and Coulson engage in a fight. When Coulson gets tossed across the room, he encounters Nick Fury who has come to help. Fury shoots several bullets into Garrett but this doesn’t take him down. Instead, Garrett starts twisting the words that Fury once said in a speech that more about team work but Garrett twisted into something for selfish gains, which further shows how far gone Garrett really is. Garrett then orders Deathlock to shoot Fury.

As Deathlock prepares to shoot Coulson and Fury dead, Skye gets Kyle to discuss Cybertek’s incentive program. We see Skye lead Kyle to a door labelled “incentive”. In one door is Kyle’s wife and another is Ace, Mike Peterson’s son. So the incentive is basically kidnapping people’s loved ones to get them to comply. Skye pulls out a Hulk figure out of Kyle’s bomb vest and asks Ace to tell Skye something that only he and his dad would know. From Deathlock’s point of view we see this message that convinces Deathlock to turn on Garrett and shoots him. With a burned face, Garrett tries to order Deathlock to stop but instead, Deathlock stomps on Garrett.

We see Garrett’s body being carted away (at least I thought it was), and we see the US Marines cart away everyone being held prisoner at Cybertek. We see Ace being reunited with his Aunt while Mike looks on. Skye asks why Mike doesn’t go to his son and he explains he doesn’t want him to see what he has become and walking away will ensure his safety.

We also see Ward being carted away. Not quite sure what will happen to him if Ward does come back next season.

Back at the facility, we see Garrett make his way on the chair and painfully gets cybernetic parts attached to him and when he stands up says he is unstoppable. But not so much as Coulson comes in and blasts Garrett with some alien device incinerating him.

On the Bus, Coulson finally confronts Fury on TAHITI. Coulson says that project was meant to help an Avenger and when Fury said it did, this leaves Coulson speechless. The crux of this conversation is Fury asks Coulson to re-start SHIELD based on its initial foundation of protection and gives him a cube that Fury calls a toolbox. Fury then calls Coulson director meaning that Coulson is now the head of SHIELD and May will be at his side to help rebuid.

Meawhile, we see Raina meet someone in shadows and gives him or her a picture of Skye and tells this person that they’ve found their daughter. We note that this person’s arm has blood dripping from it or something else dripping from it.

Using coordinates from the cube, the SHIELD agents arrive at a secret location. When hanger doors open, the team is reunited with Simmons who tells them that Fitz is alive but not okay. Also at this location is Koenig. Skey thinks it is Eric but it is Billy who tells team of Eric’s fate. Billy also gives the exact same speech that Eric gave when they arrived that the Providence secret base. This base is called the Playground and Billy Koenig asks Coulson where does he want to go to first. We never see what this Playground really looks like except for the post credit scene.

We see Coulson wake up from where he is sleeping. He takes some sort of device that looks like and x acto knife and starts carving out the same symbols that Garrett was. And so ends season 1.

It is obvious that those symbols are some sort of alien language and that the GH325 is the root cause of it. So season 2 will probably explore that and we will also see how Fitz is doing. We will find out Ward’s fate and I am pretty sure that Tripp is going to be a series regular next season. As for Skye, let’s hope we truly find out who or what she is.

What do you think is going to happen in season 2? Let me know in the comments.