Agents of Shield Season 5

At the conclusion of Season 4, the team is celebrating together at a restaurant until they are snatched by mysterious unnamed and unseen characters and find themselves 73 years in the future in the year 2091. The season’s plot revolves around stopping a post-apocalyptic/dystopian future from happening.

On a crumbled and destroyed Earth where only about 1/4 of it is left and held together by gravitonium, a very small percentage of humans are living in a station known as The Lighthouse and subjugated by a faction of the Kree and their leader Kasius. A man named Deke who becomes involved with Coulson’s team reveals to Daisy that it was Quake (Daisy’s public alias) who was responsible for breaking the world apart. Back in the past, Fitz finds the one responsible for sending his team away who reveals himself as Enoch, a Chronicom from the planet Chronyca-2. Enoch divulges to Fitz that Coulson and the team were sent to the future through a monolith that manipulates time instead of space as the Maveth monolith did. He also tells him that where Chronicoms would simply observe certain races in the universe (in his case Earthlings) and has been for tens of thousands of years, should there be an apocalyptic event, a Chronicom can do what is necessary to preserve that planet’s life. Fitz enters a cryo chamber and sleeps for 73 years to reach the others. In the course of being in the future, the team devises a way to return home by having the Inhuman Flint using his geokinetic abilities to construct a new monolith and using a shard of the Time Monolith that Fitz brought with him. Kasius and his Kree subordinates are killed, the people in the Lighthouse are liberated, Flint plans to put the Earth back together as well as he can, and Deke manages to go back in time with the agents.

In the present, events and characters unfold in the exact way they need to to bring forth the dastardly future. The first thorn in the agents’ side is Brigadier Air Force General Hale who replaces Brigadier Air Force General Glenn Talbot in seeking justice for Jeffrey Mace’s death after Talbot is shot in the head by a Daisy L.M.D.. However she cares for none of this as she has an agenda of her own, being the very last leader of Hydra and nurturing her daughter Ruby. Now America’s most wanted, S.H.I.E.L.D is illegitimized again and must stay out of the public eye for as long as possible. At first attempting to eliminate the S.H.I.E.L.D. variable by way of bomb unsuccessfully, Hale then suggests to Coulson to work together to overthrow The Confederacy- a group of alien rulers who make a deal to protect Earth in case of invasion in exchange for resources although it is a ruse to subjugate Earth. Using a particle-infusion machine, Hale intends to infuse a human with gravitonium to become The Destroyer of Worlds to overthrow the Confederacy and fulfill Daniel Whitehall’s vision. This would-be Destroyer is Ruby initially but Hale decides she is not ready and instead envisions Daisy, which Coulson tries to make Hale change her mind about at all costs to stop the coming cataclysm. An unstable Talbot ultimately absorbs all the gravitonium safeguarded in the Lighthouse after Ruby’s failed attempt and murder at the hands of Yo-Yo and confronts the Confederacy and takes control. He kills General Hale in retaliation of her manipulation of him and brands S.H.I.E.L.D an enemy after Coulson attempts to reason with him that he’s becoming too powerful too quickly because Talbot is absolutely convinced that he is now humanity’s savior and will save everyone from the coming of Thanos. He forces Robin Hinton to use her Inhuman ability of clairvoyance to locate deposits of gravitonium in Chicago where he is confronted by Daisy to stop which angers him and a battle ensues. Using the very last of Centipede serum, Daisy’s abilities are multiplied and uses them to quake Talbot all the way into space who would eventually be pulled into the Sun’s gravity destroying him and the gravitonium (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTfw7_YES9Y).

According to Marvel Fandom Wiki, Deke’s timeline is averted and becomes an alternate timeline. As far as the audience is aware, this season is still congruent to the movies of the MCU. The Battle of Chicago seemingly takes place before the Battle of Wakanda and it is obvious that the season has made references to the events of Infinity War (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5E9E6jd-M4). It is not clear whether the Battle of Chicago occurred during the Battle on Titan or whilst Thanos’ forces were preparing for the siege on Wakanda, the last reference to the films being ‘strange things happening in New York’. The timeline of Infinity War would have to take days however, taking into account the travel times to Knowhere, Titan, and Nidavellir as well as the Avengers taking Vision to Wakanda. The Battle of Chicago could have happened anytime after the invasion of New York to just before The Snap and the battle between Daisy and Talbot was not very long so it could have happened while Thanos steamrolled through the Avengers but then the Snap happened which was missing from the end of Season 5 so the Battle of Chicago must’ve ended much before the Snap. I also have my own explanation for how everything can fit. Thanos is not mentioned in 2091 yet we still know he was due to arrive in the present. The destruction of the Earth was the original way it and most of human life was supposed to go out and the only explanation for no mention of Thanos in 2091 would be if he arrived after Talbot’s destruction of Earth (by absorbing Quake and quaking it apart), still taking the Mind Stone from Vision and performing the Snap but sparing humanity knowing most of them will become casualties of the crumbling planet. If Thanos had arrived before Talbot’s action, then the Snap would have happened, Talbot would most likely have been confused or even snapped and Deke’s future would not have happened. In the first scenario, since nobody was snapped, the events of Endgame wouldn’t happen but some of the Avengers could have died from the planet breaking apart. Any films after Infinity War would be affected or not happen at all, however, where are they all in 2091? Thor was not snapped and would surely survive the destruction of Earth and Carol would surely have realized it between 1995 and 2091 and since she does not age as quickly as humans and can survive space she should be around as well. Vision is dead and the other Avengers most likely aged and died or had no successors. In the 2nd scenario, either the future is avoided with Talbot’s disappearance or if he doesn’t disappear, Thanos could care less what Talbot does to Earth, however, Talbot did vow to deal with Thanos but depending on if he confronts him after taking the planet’s gravitonium or not, depends if the Earth stays intact or not- either way Talbot is a dead man. The only surefire way of avoiding the grisly future with the Earth intact was by Coulson not taking the Centipede serum mixed with Jiaying’s DNA and giving it to Daisy to stop Talbot, else he would have absorbed her and quaked the Earth to pieces.

Which brings us to Phil Coulson. The Avenger is on the verge of death with the GH-325 keeping him alive now burned out of his body. This is in fact the deal he made with Ghost Rider in the last season. Fighting against all odds to keep him alive, May and Daisy finally come to accept his fate as he lives the rest of his days living in Tahiti with May who confessed her love for him.

With it becoming harder to keep up with the films of the MCU, we can clearly see the plots are beginning to diverge. Though my goal is to connect each installment of the MCU to each other, I think this may potentially be the last installment I can connect to the films.