6) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. –Â The Monolith
The eponymous Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had just won a victory over twist-Big Bad Jiaying, the spread of the Inhuman terrigen crystals appeared to be foiled, and the gang was finally resting at S.H.I.E.L.D. home base. Then, the packet of crystals that Daisy knocked into the ocean take a long journey into fish oil pills. Also then, Simmons investigates a slight crack in the case guarding the imposing Kree Monolith that’s been acting as a mysterious question mark most of the season.
The case cracks open, the Monolith liquefies, knocks Simmons onto her stomach, and absorbs her into nothingness. The show had been riding on a fizzy high ever since The Winter Solider kicked the cinderblocks out from underneath S.H.I.E.L.D.’s foundation, but this season two finale was another level of blindside: out-of-nowhere creepiness (is that hunk of cement alive?!), the worrying death of a leading cast member, and the mythos-expanding Big Question surrounding it all: where did the thing come from in the first place?
That’s all well and good, but Simmons’ wide-eyed horror as she’s pulled back into an alien structure is in-the-moment, jaw-dropping TV, and maybe the best see-ya-next-year cliffhanger of 2015.
