The latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., “The Force of Gravity,” left the S.H.I.E.L.D. team faced with an impossible dilemma; should they save Phil Coulson, or should they save the world? Season 5 has revisited a number of key plot points from the last five seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., most recently the Centipede Serum. Introduced back in season 1, it seems the Centipede Serum can be used to save Phil Coulson. Or, alternatively, it can be used to kill Graviton. But S.H.I.E.L.D. did too good a job taking down Hydra, and there’s only one sample of the serum left. Will S.H.I.E.L.D. choose to save Coulson, or to save the world?
There’s a certain irony to this plot twist. Future Yo-Yo warned her present-day self that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s efforts to save Coulson would lead to the destruction of the planet. As a result, Yo-Yo believes Coulson simply has to die, and she and Quake literally came to blows over it. But if Daisy hadn’t been trying to save her father-figure, S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn’t have a single sample of the Serum. If S.H.I.E.L.D. do indeed save the world and break the time loop, it’s precisely because they chose to try to save Coulson.
Part of the problem is that temporal mechanics are hardly simple, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. team are new to traveling through time. Future Yo-Yo admitted that every word she said to her past self was part of the time loop; however hard she tried, she just couldn’t focus enough to say anything different. That means her words should hardly be taken as Gospel -she might as well be the voice of the time loop. Meanwhile, “The Force of Gravity” saw Fitz come up with an audacious proposal - one that would potentially break the loop once and for all.
Can Time Be Changed?
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has toyed with two different theories as regards the nature of time. In the season 3 episode “Spacetime,” Fitz argued that the future is, to an extent, predetermined. Once you have experienced the future, you know exactly what will come to pass, and your destiny becomes fixed and unalterable. He’s propounded this same theory through the bulk of season 5, albeit inconsistently. So far, the entire time loop is happening exactly as Robin prophesied, and the world’s fate seems to be sealed.
Deke, however, has introduced a second theory: the Multiverse Theory. In this theory, there are crucial moments that create parallel dimensions, timelines where events played out differently. He believes, therefore, that somewhere in the loop there’s a crucial decision that acts as a branch in the road. One choice can save the world, averting the timeline in which Earth has been destroyed. Though Deke doesn’t know it, the MCU is clearly taking the Multiverse model. In Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange uses the Time Stone to peer into millions of different futures, in order to determine which one Thanos would be defeated in. That simply wouldn’t be possible if time were fixed, thus proving the Multiverse theory for the MCU.
The task facing S.H.I.E.L.D. is, in theory, a simple one: identify the point where the timelines branch out, and choose the branch that saves the world. In reality, of course, it’s far more complicated than that, since S.H.I.E.L.D. has no way of knowing which decision is the crucial one. “The Force of Gravity” sees Fitz suggest one simple way - rather than try to save Coulson, what would happen if S.H.I.E.L.D. succeeded? Coulson wasn’t part of that horrific dystopian future, so adding him into the mix would break the loop. Assuming Fitz is right, is it possible to save Coulson and save the world?
Page 2: The Centipede Serum is a Red Herring
The Centipede Serum Choice Is A Red Herring
Season 5 has seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. toy with the audiences’ expectations like never before. The second half of the season, for example, carefully set up a number of potential “Destroyer of Worlds,” before settling on General Talbot, a character nobody had considered. With attention focused on the options of Quake or Ruby, nobody noticed that Talbot had grown a beard similar to the comic book version of Graviton, and begun dressing in blue. The signs were all there, but the series was distracting its viewers with a false choice. The trailer for “The Force of Gravity” focused on the idea that the prophecy is true, and featured dialogue where Daisy calls herself “the Destroyer of Worlds.” It made viewers believe Daisy had acknowledged herself as that dangerous being, when in context she simply said it to muster up the strength of will to resist a Kree device. This half-season has all been about misdirection.
The Centipede Serum choice is another misdirection, albeit a very sophisticated one. It seems the Serum works in a similar way to the particle infusion process explored earlier in the season, allowing another substance to be bonded to a being’s cells and granting them the properties of that substance. Thus, the Centipede Serum can be used to bind Jiaying’s healing properties to Phil Coulson, but alternatively, it could be used to bind the Confederacy’s Odium toxin to Graviton, killing him. S.H.I.E.L.D. only have the one sample, and must choose how to use it.
But here’s the catch: using the Centipede Serum to bind the Odium to Graviton in order to kill him would be a terrible mistake. While the Odium is fatal, that isn’t why the Confederacy use it. They use it to give themselves what Kasius called “a fearsome last stand. A brilliant flash of light and splendor.” A being who has taken the Odium sees their every ability enhanced for the last few minutes of their lives, and their inhibitions are drowned in a furious bloodlust. Now imagine Graviton under the influence of the Odium. Yes, Talbot would ultimately die, but for a few brief minutes his powers would be greater than ever before, and he’d have absolutely no self-control. If anything could crack the planet like an egg, it’s Graviton dying after the Odium was introduced to his body.
Save Coulson, Save The World
The central theme of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not “science trumps all.” Rather, it’s “family.” The showrunners are well aware of this fact; in an interview with Comic Book discussing Season 4, Jeph Loeb explained that was why they used Robbie Reyes’s Ghost Rider rather than Johnny Blaze’s. “Our show, at the end of day, is always about family,” he explained. For the conclusion of Season 5 to be satisfying, it doesn’t just have to be dramatic and epic; rather, it has to fulfill the show’s themes. It has to be about “family.”
Over the last five years, Coulson hasn’t just forged a team - he’s built a family, one that stands at the center of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., motivated by their love for one another. Like any family, it’s sometimes a bit dysfunctional (the scrap between Daisy and Yo-Yo in “The One Who Will Save Us All” is basically two sisters having a fight). But S.H.I.E.L.D. is still a family, and the bonds of love are strong between the team’s various members. “The Force of Gravity” went to great lengths to remind viewers that Talbot is a part of that family. Coulson loves Talbot like a brother, and - underneath all the insanity and psychosis - Talbot loves Coulson too. Even after six months in a Hydra prison, Talbot held on to the hope that Coulson would come to him.
The solution to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Graviton problem is not pseudo-science, it’s the faith and love that Phil Coulson offers unreservedly to those who are part of his family. S.H.I.E.L.D. don’t need to kill Talbot, they need to talk him down. And there’s only one man who can do that: Phil Coulson.
More: Avengers: Infinity War Spoils Agents of SHIELD’s Season 5 Finale
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 concludes Friday, May 18 with ‘The End’ at 9pm on ABC.
