The two-part series finale of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. consists of the twelfth and thirteenth episodes of the seventh season, "The End Is at Hand" and "What We're Fighting For". Based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., it follows a Life Model Decoy (LMD) of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents returning to their timeline as they race to stop the Chronicoms from succeeding in their plan. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. "The End Is at Hand" was written by Jeffrey Bell and directed by Chris Cheramie, while "What We're Fighting For" was written by Jed Whedon and directed by Kevin Tancharoen.
Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, starring alongside Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward. Iain De Caestecker also guest stars in the episode.
The episodes originally aired on ABC on August 12, 2020, and were watched by 1.46 million viewers. The episodes received critical acclaim and were praised for the writing, performances, and visual effects. Critics felt the episodes served as a satisfying conclusion to the series and commended the finale for its ambition and lower scale. "What We're Fighting For" was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Episodic Short Form – Dialogue/ADR and Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Episodic Short Form – Effects / Foley at the Golden Reel Awards 2020.
Plot "The End Is at Hand" Following the events of "Brand New Day", Agents Daisy Johnson, Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, and Daniel Sousa find S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mobile headquarters, Zephyr One, empty as a series of tractor beams pull them into the Chronicom ship. Chronicom leader Sibyl, Nathaniel Malick, and Inhuman Kora imprison Deke Shaw and Jemma Simmons after injecting Simmons with a serum to dissolve her memory implant to locate her husband Leo Fitz. As Simmons' memory is affected, Shaw attempts to help her remember. Johnson infiltrates the ship to save them while Mack and Sousa defend Zephyr One from Chronicoms and work on their escape plan. Aware of their presence, Sibyl orders Malick not to interfere with Johnson and Simmons' reunion as it will increase their chances of finding Fitz. As Sibyl predicted, Johnson reunites with Shaw and Simmons and jogs the latter's memory, but Kora interrupts the process when she confronts Johnson, who refuses to fight her. Conflicted, Kora lets Johnson escape and confides in Malick, who stuns her. Shaw, Simmons, and Johnson return to Zephyr One and successfully escape the Chronicom ship.
At S.H.I.E.L.D.'s remaining base, the Lighthouse, Phil Coulson works to decipher a sudden surge of signals while Melinda May and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez initiate lockdown protocols as John Garrett teleports in and begins setting up explosives around the base. Together, they trap Garrett with a power inhibiting device and contact Malick, hoping to stop the explosives from going off, but Malick detonates them anyway. Garrett is injured in the blast, but Coulson believes he may be an asset to them and saves him. Recovering from Malick's betrayal, Garrett decides to join S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson identifies the signal as the location of an 0-8-4, and with Garrett's help, he, May, and Yo-Yo teleport to the speakeasy in New York, where Garrett is killed on arrival. There, they meet several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, who have also heard the signal and all brought a package containing an 0-8-4, per the late Enoch's instructions. Johnson, Mack, Simmons, Shaw, and Sousa arrive and the team reunite. Despite losing her memory, Simmons subconsciously constructs a portal device with the 0-8-4s and uses her wedding ring to activate it, bringing Fitz to their location, who soon realizes that Simmons's memory has been affected.
"What We're Fighting For" Reunited, Fitz explains that Kora is the key to stopping the Chronicoms and that the team has been operating in an alternate timeline. Using the time drive and the portal device, Fitz says they can return home and bring the Chronicoms with them. After making preparations, May navigates Zephyr One and the Chronicom ships through the Quantum Realm back to their timeline while Fitz works with Simmons to restore her memory. Shaw chooses to stay behind and becomes the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the alternate timeline.
Amidst the events of "New Life", Fitz and Simmons escaped with Enoch onto Agent Piper and Inhuman Flint's quinjet and have the latter recreate a piece of the time monolith before fleeing to the Theta Serpentis system with a Time Stream Enoch stole from the Chronicoms for Fitz to study. During that time, they worked on building the time machine, Coulson's LMD, and Simmons' implant, while also living their lives together and raising a daughter, Alya. Once the time machine is complete, Enoch, Fitz, and Simmons return to the moment they left Piper and Flint, asking them to guard a pod with Fitz and Alya inside while Simmons leaves with Enoch to rescue the others, leading into the events of "The New Deal". Upon their return, a disguised Fitz, Simmons, Yo-Yo, and Sousa help past Simmons recover the team before retaking the Lighthouse from the Chronicoms.
Meanwhile, Coulson, May, Johnson, and Mack infiltrate the Chronicom ship to save Kora. While Johnson confronts Malick, Coulson tricks Sibyl into sending her Chronicom army to the Lighthouse. After May overpowers Sibyl, she combines her abilities with Kora's to magnify a beacon of empathy into the Chronicom army, stopping the assault. Coulson, May, Mack, and Kora escape as Johnson stays behind to destroy the Chronicom ship, killing Sibyl and Malick. The team rescue Johnson from space and Kora revives her as Fitz and Simmons return to the temple and retrieve Alya.
One year later, the team virtually gather at the speakeasy to reminisce about their time together. Mack continues to lead S.H.I.E.L.D., with Yo-Yo as one of his top agents, May is a professor at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Coulson Academy with Flint as one of her students, Fitz and Simmons have retired to raise Alya, Johnson explores the cosmos with Sousa and Kora on Zephyr Three, and Coulson travels the world in an upgraded version of his 1962 Chevrolet Corvette, Lola.
Production Development After the sixth season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired in August 2019, showrunners Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell revealed that the seventh season would feature the team trying to save the world from invasion by the Chronicoms. They used time travel to do this, allowing the season to explore the history of S.H.I.E.L.D. Later that month, one of the season's episodes was revealed to be titled "The End Is at Hand" and written by Bell, while another was revealed to be titled "What We're Fighting For" and written by Whedon. The two were confirmed to be the twelfth and thirteenth episodes of the season, as well as the series finale, in August 2020. Chris Cheramie was revealed to have directed "The End Is at Hand", while Kevin Tancharoen was revealed to have directed "What We're Fighting For". "The End Is at Hand" was the first time Cheramie directed an episode of the series, after serving as its post-production producer throughout the series.
Writing "What We're Fighting For" returns to the events of the season six finale, "New Life". Whedon stated the writers knew that the seventh season would deal with time travel, "so we planted little stuff that would be easily avoidable if we didn't end up tying up those loose ends." For example, the people in hazmat suits during that episode turn out to be members of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team who have returned from the alternate timeline. Whedon added figuring out how the events of the finale intersect with "New Life" became "a brain pretzel-twister". Ming-Na Wen had the idea for Melinda May to say "the Cavalry is here", because she wanted the character "to finally accept that nickname and all of her emotional baggage that she'd been carrying" surrounding it, and "revel in it as opposed to being afraid".
A bittersweet feeling for each character was used in the final scene, which was done to differentiate the ending from that of the season five finale "The End". At the time, "The End" had been crafted as a series finale, and Whedon noted it "had its own feeling and its own flavor, and we felt like we had done a pretty good job with that." Coming up with the episode's ending sequence "was just blue sky" for Whedon after the first part of the episode had "so many moving parts" to it. Whedon acknowledged it was "just fun to think about" as there were "tons of great options" for the ending, saying, "We sort of tried to put everybody in a different-feeling thing and in a different place and separate them as much as possible." Maurissa Tancharoen added, "The emotional context of saying goodbye to this experience...is definitely something that's reflected in where we leave our characters at the end of the show. So it is very personal to us, and I do think there's a sense of hope for what's to come for each of them." Having the characters appear virtually, which was thought of by series writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, did not break the established rule that the team would not be in the same room together after the final mission.
The ending sees a one-year time jump with the S.H.I.E.L.D. team separated with new lives: Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie is still a leader within S.H.I.E.L.D., supervising the construction of a new helicarrier, and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent chasing 0-8-4s. Tancharoen commented the two "are still together in a relationship and working with one another — and of one another. Yo-Yo actress Natalia Cordova-Buckley liked that the relationship had stabilized, with both being comfortable professionally, individually, and within their relationship. Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons are retired, spending time with their daughter Alya. Whedon felt "for a long time, we had a sense that Fitz and Simmons would be sort of out of S.H.I.E.L.D. and living the simpler life — while secretly working with Daisy on the side". Simmons actress Elizabeth Henstridge called the couple's ending "definitely earned", while Fitz actor Iain De Caestecker felt this was "a fitting end but a beginning, of another life, as well." Melinda May has become an instructor at the Coulson S.H.I.E.L.D. academy, teaching Flint. This career "made perfect sense" to the writers, with Tancharoen adding, "all of that just sums up her relationship with Coulson [and her as] the reluctant teacher. She has always been the wise teacher amongst the group, the sort of mother figure". Wen called this ending for her character "very fitting" since she had been a superior officer to many of the members on the team and now can "continue the S.H.I.E.L.D. legacy for future S.H.I.E.L.D. agents." Daisy Johnson, her sister Kora, and Daniel Sousa work with S.H.I.E.L.D. aboard Zephyr Three as "astral ambassadors". Whedon said "it felt right" to have Daisy in space since "it feels vast, and we wanted someone to be out exploring that". Additionally, having Daisy work with Kora mimics how Coulson first helped Daisy. The Life Model Decoy of Phil Coulson has taken a sabbatical, seeing various parts of the world. He also receives a restored version of his 1962 Chevrolet Corvette, Lola, from Mack. Having Coulson getting in Lola was "the promise for him of a new adventure", and as the final shot of the series, was a "book end" that brought back "an iconic image from the pilot".