Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 8: The Last Day Review

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: Coulson and the team discover that the most unexpected person from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s past may hold the key to stopping Earth’s destruction. (IMDB)

Writers: Sharla Oliver and James C. Oliver

Director: Nina Lopez-Corrado

Rating: TV-PG

Running Time: 45mins

Now this was a confusing one for sure. The last episode ended with the return of Robin who presided within the crashed zephyr on the Earth’s surface but the question was how did she get there?

To try and answer this, the episode offered a new timeline in the past (compared to where they were now) which was still the future (compared to where they were then) of the team escaping what appeared to be the end of the world, possibly the one that caused the destruction of the Earth hinted at in the future. The episode jumped between this timeline and their current timeline as the elder Robin tried to remember. She was a seer but had lost the ability to distinguish between the past, present, and future because of her old age. Despite her old age, she was still that same little girl.

Deke’s father even built a machine that was used to transport them to the future. May also faced an identity crisis after he injury made her feel worthless. The new timeline implied that they may have already come back from the future once before, even multiple times, to try and change time but they were always unsuccessful. Also, certain characters may not have survived their return to the past because a few characters were absent from the new timeline. Coulson and May found a piece of the monolith that sent them to the future that just happened to fit inside the machine that transported them from the past. Also, Fitz and Simmons were unable to remove the device that suppressed Daisy’s powers.

Deke was suspicious of his father’s whereabouts ever since they returned and the fact that the others had the monolith piece, he believed something bad may have happened to him. Deke believed he was dead but who really knows? He got knocked out as a result. This was because the other strangers on the zephyr had different plans for them. Daisy was shown a video which implied that she may have been responsible for the Earth’s destruction.

Robin from the new timeline had tried to warn the others about what would happen in the future but no one wanted to listen to her then. The episode would then jump between her predictions and when they became true. The other strangers’ plan was to retaliate against Daisy and the others for what they believed Daisy had done. Robin then got stabbed because they didn’t want her giving them answers about what was going to happen.

As May tended to Robin, we learned that she had become a mother figure for Robin ever since her mother died. May had promised to be with Robin until the end. Robin tried to tell her how to get back home and May simply shrugged it off because it wasn’t time yet but it obviously was the time now. As she lay dying, she whispered the answer to May and that answer was Flint.

Meanwhile, Kasius unleashed the roaches from level 3 to punish the humans that helped the others escape. This allowed the others in the lighthouse to get to the weapons that Fitz had stashed. Later, Mack fashioned a way to lure all the roaches into a room and gas them out. He then tried to rally the remaining humans together against Kasius.

The final scene was Sinara landing on Earth to take back Daisy.

Overall, this was a decent episode that answered some questions though raised more thanks to its slightly muddled and convoluted nature, perhaps by trying to do too much. Not much really happened but the best part would be seeing May’s motherly instinct come out. It’s probably not the last that we’ll see of this past/future timeline so it will be interesting to see where it leads if not as another arc once this one is over. This arc is approaching the finish line so hopefully it will end on a good note.

Score: 7/10

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.