- "This world is ending, and I don't want you to end with it."
- ―Yo-Yo Rodriguez to Alphonso Mackenzie
World's End is the twenty-second and final episode of the fourth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as the conclusion of the Agents of HYDRA pod.
Synopsis[]
With the surprising emergence of Ghost Rider, Coulson and the team attempt to stop Aida from ending the world.
Plot[]
Ghost Rider fights Aida
After returning from Hell, Ghost Rider retrieves his Hell Charger from a S.H.I.E.L.D. storage facility and drives it towards a building where Aida has taken the Darkhold along with Life-Model Decoys of Anton Ivanov and Sergei Mishkin. Ghost Rider quickly disposes of the LMDs and realizes that Aida has acquired a living body thanks to the Darkhold. Before he can seize either of them, however, Aida teleports away, but not before being hurt by Ghost Rider's Chain, a wound that Aida cannot recover from.
Aboard the Zephyr One, Phil Coulson and his team are still trying to figure out a way to fight and stop Aida, who has become incredibly dangerous since she acquired a human body. Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons discuss Aida's powers that she obtained by assessing various Inhumans, like Lincoln Campbell, Vijay Nadeer or Gordon in the Framework, but end up arguing about what they have to do next in order to deal with Aida.
Meanwhile, Daisy Johnson keeps monitoring the vitals of Elena Rodriguez and Alphonso Mackenzie who are still trapped in the Framework. Daisy tries to help Rodriguez finding Mackenzie but soon discovers that Aida is shutting down the Framework, deleting every element in it and thus threatening Rodriguez and Mackenzie's lives. Fitz and Johnson try to figure out a way to keep them alive as long as possible. In the Framework, Rodriguez is still tied up to a torturing chair in the Triskelion. An HYDRA agent finds her and is ready to kill her, but she is saved by Holden Radcliffe, who takes her to the Playground to see Mackenzie. Mackenzie organizes the evacuation of the refugees, though he is distraught by the disappearance of many objects due to the Framework shutting down.
General Glenn Talbot calls Coulson and informs him that an International Intelligence Inquiry Committee session is planned and asks Coulson to go and explain what happened since the destruction of the Playground. Coulson refuses, claiming that it would endanger the lives of all the people present there.
Phil Coulson, Robbie Reyes, Daisy Johnson and Melinda May talk about Aida
Johnson finds Ghost Rider and brings him on the Zephyr One, where he explains that Aida is made of dark matter, just as the Darkhold, and that the Spirit of Vengeance inside him wants to take them both back to Hell, where they belong. Ghost Rider claims that he might be able to stop Aida once and for all. They have a chance to prove it when Aida attacks the Committee session with her LMDs, with an LMD of Johnson shooting Talbot in the head. Coulson, Melinda May, Johnson and Ghost Rider arrive shortly after. They manage to eliminate the LMDs and retrieve the Darkhold, but Aida escapes one more time.
Phil Coulson kills Aida with the powers of the Spirit of Vengeance
The S.H.I.E.L.D. team and Ghost Rider return on the Zephyr One. Ghost Rider wants to take the Darkhold to Hell but Coulson asks him to postpone this idea since they could use the Books of Sins to lure Aida into a trap. They all return to the Playground, where Aida confronts Fitz by threatening to kill Simmons if he does not comply with her demands. Fitz says he is ready to obey but Aida chooses to kill Simmons nonetheless. However, unbeknownst to her, Simmons was replaced by a LMD. The real Simmons shoots Aida multiple times while she tries to get the Darkhold from Coulson. Aida mocks them, saying that they cannot stop them. However, Coulson reveals that he has borrowed the powers of the Spirit of Vengeance and after a short fight, Aida is finally killed.
Alphonso Mackenzie tries to comfort his daughter
In the Framework, Rodriguez tries to convince Mackenzie to leave an alternate reality and go back to the real world with her. Unfortunately, Mackenzie is still not ready to give up on a life where he can live with his daughter Hope. Moreover, he has to deal with the fact that his daughter gets more and more afraid since more of the Framework is disappearing: people, vehicles, and elements of landscape simply vanish before their eyes. Rodriguez decides to stay in the Framework with Mackenzie, waiting for their death. But when Hope finally disappears as well, Mackenzie agrees to leave the Framework with Rodriguez by using a backdoor created by Johnson. Both of them wake up in the Zephyr One. Radcliffe, still imprisoned in the Framework as he no longer has an actual body in the real world, goes to a beach and toasts to the end of the only remaining world he has left before vanishing.
Ghost Rider returns to Hell
Mackenzie and Rodriguez discuss their stay in the Framework, with Mackenzie saying that even if it did not last long, he had some moments to share with Hope and he is ready to have similar moments in the real world with Rodriguez beside him. In the Playground, S.H.I.E.L.D. gives the Darkhold to Ghost Rider, who takes it to Hell. After learning that the authorities are coming after them, Fitz offers to turn himself over while the rest of the team leaves in order to make amends for his mistakes. The others refuse, saying that they have forgiven him and that they must stay together.
Phil Coulson in space
Finally reunited for a moment of happiness, the team goes to a diner where they enjoy a simple meal when they are offered some pie. Just then, the power goes out as Coulson's group are confronted by a mysterious man leading an armed squad. They freeze the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents using an unidentified device and take them away by the time their "window closes in two minutes."
An indeterminate amount of time later, Coulson wakes up in a spaceship and declares that he has to get back to work.
Cast[]
Main Cast:
- Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
- Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May
- Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson/Quake / Daisy Johnson LMD
- Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
- Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons / Jemma Simmons LMD
- Henry Simmons as Alphonso Mackenzie
- John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe
Guest Stars:
- Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider
- Mallory Jansen as Aida
- Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Yo-Yo Rodriguez
- Zach McGowan as Anton Ivanov/Superior
- Patrick Cavanaugh as Agent Burrows
- Jordan Rivera as Hope Mackenzie
- Joel Stoffer as Enoch
- Adrian Pasdar as Brigadier General Glenn Talbot
- Zibby Allen as Lieutenant Evans
- Joris Jarsky as Sergei Mishkin / Sergei Mishkin LMD
- Karole Foreman as Waitress
- Omar Kenawi as Argentinian President (uncredited)
- Unknown Actress as Kusuma (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Zhou (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Bianchi (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Chukwu (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Bober (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Pearson (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Thomas (uncredited)
Appearances[]
Locations[]
- Earth
- Dover, Delaware
- Playground
- Washington, D.C. (Framework)
- Playground (Framework)
- Los Angeles, California
- Chicago, Illinois
- Lighthouse
- Afterlife, Nepal (mentioned)
- China (mentioned)
- Indonesia (mentioned)
- Russia (mentioned)
- Multiverse
- Maveth (mentioned)
Events[]
- Attack on Aida
- Attack on the S.H.I.E.L.D. International Inquiry
- Ambush on Aida
- Destruction of the Framework
- Abduction at Rae's Restaurant
- Cambridge Incident (mentioned)
- Battle at the Chinatown Crew Headquarters (mentioned)
- Pursuit of Quake (mentioned)
Items[]
- Phil Coulson's Prosthetic Hand
- Backscatter X-Ray Eye Implant
- Ghost Rider's Chain
- Quake Gauntlets
- Darkhold
- Framework
- Inter-Dimensional Gate
- Quantum Batteries
- Superior's Knives
Concepts[]
Vehicles[]
Sentient Species[]
- Humans
- Inhumans
- Life-Model Decoys
- Chronicoms
- Demons (mentioned)
Creatures[]
- Spirit of Vengeance (mentioned)
Organizations[]
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- United States Air Force
- Watchdogs
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- HYDRA (mentioned)
Mentioned[]
- Piper
- Vijay Nadeer
- Vijay Nadeer
- Lincoln Campbell
- Lincoln Campbell
- Gordon
- Gordon
- Melinda May LMD
- Jeffrey Mace
- Hope Mackenzie
- Agnes Kitsworth
- Gabe Reyes
- Pac-Man
- L. Ron Hubbard
Music[]
| Song title | Artist | Location(s) |
|---|---|---|
| The Best That I Can Do | Johnny Doe |
Trivia[]
- While this episode is considered part of the final pod for the fourth season, Agents of HYDRA, the title sequence for this episode was changed back to the Ghost Rider pod title sequence, since the characters escaped the Framework and this episode features the return of Robbie Reyes.
- World's End is the first final episode of a season since the first season to not be aired alongside the twenty-first episode in a two-hour season finale.
- The title of the episode, as well as Holden Radcliffe's last line, is a reference to T. S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men.
- World's End is also the first finale to be written by Jeffrey Bell as opposed to Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon.
- This episode includes an epitaph for the late Powers Boothe, who died two days prior to the episode's airing, before the ending credits.
- The episode presents a continuity error with Ghost Rider's Chain. During his fight against Aida as the Ghost Rider, Phil Coulson uses a chain, while Robbie Reyes, in the Zephyr One, is shown with a chain wrapped around his body. Once the fight is ended, during a conversation between Reyes and Coulson, the former no longer has his chain, with Coulson giving him the chain he carried.
Videos[]
