| "Beginning of the End" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode | |||
 "The Art of Level Seven" poster for the episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 1 Episode 22 | ||
| Directed by | David Straiton | ||
| Written by | |||
| Cinematography by | Feliks Parnell | ||
| Editing by | David Crabtree | ||
| Original air date | May 13, 2014 (2014-05-13) | ||
| Running time | 41 minutes | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.season 1 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Beginning of the End" is the twenty-second episode andseason finale of thefirst season of the American television seriesAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on theMarvel Comics organizationS.H.I.E.L.D., it followsPhil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they attack a majorHydra base. It is set in theMarvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledgesthe franchise's films. The episode was written byMaurissa Tancharoen andJed Whedon, and directed byDavid Straiton.
Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by series regularsMing-Na Wen,Brett Dalton,Chloe Bennet,Iain De Caestecker, andElizabeth Henstridge.
"Beginning of the End" originally aired onABC on May 13, 2014, and according toNielsen Media Research, was watched by 5.45 million viewers.
Following the events of "Ragtag",Coulson,Melinda May,Skye andAntoine Triplett are attacked by several Centipede soldiers (controlled from Cybertek) and aHydra operative wielding the Berserker staff in aCuban Hydra base. After Skye activates her Trojan virus within Hydra's computer systems so the team can uncover their plans, May uses the staff to collapse the base and bury the Hydra agents.
Trapped on the ocean floor,Leo Fitz andJemma Simmons send out a distress signal, and devise a controlled explosive to blow the windows open and escape. Fitz forces a distraught Simmons to take the sole oxygen tank, professing his feelings for her. He is nearly drowned after using the explosive, while Simmons swims to the surface with his unconscious body, where they are rescued byNick Fury, who picked up their distress signal. Fitz survives, but sustains damage to his temporal lobe as a result of oxygen deprivation and is left comatose.
After being saved from death byRaina's synthesized GH325,John Garrett begins exhibiting the super-strength given by the Centipede serum, as well as the manic behavior andhypergraphia caused by GH325, and the symbols he carves resemble those found in an earlier mission byGrant Ward in the Todorov Building inMinsk.[a] Coulson, May, Skye and Triplett use the Trojan to locate the new Cybertek facility, and launch an assault whileIan Quinn is giving some military generals a tour. Hearing the gunfire, the generals demand to know the situation, and an annoyed Garrett murders one of them. A panicked Quinn flees with thegravitonium, along with Raina.
Ward tries to capture Skye, but is attacked and incapacitated by May, while Skye releases prisoners Hydra took to coerce the Cybertek staff and Centipede soldiers into doing their bidding, includingAce Peterson. Fury arrives and provides Coulson with the Destroyer gun, which he uses to take out the remaining Centipede soldiers, before they confront Garrett andMike Peterson. Skye sends Peterson a message from Ace through his eye implant ("Dad, what are we? We're a team"), and Peterson, realizing Ace is safe, fires a missile at Garrett and then kills him with his cybernetic leg.
In the aftermath, the Centipede soldiers are arrested by the military, Coulson takes Ward captive, and Peterson, unable to face his son, leaves to seek redemption for his crimes. The GH325 in Garrett's blood revives him, and he uses Cybertek machinery to upgrade into an advanced Deathlok, but Coulson vaporizes him with the Peruvian Tesseract weapon. Coulson criticizes Fury for using GH325 to revive him, but Fury asserts that he values Coulson as much as anyAvenger, because he represents the heart and moral center ofS.H.I.E.L.D. He then declares Coulson the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., tasking him with rebuilding the organization from scratch, and equips him with a "toolbox" containing useful data. Under cover of his apparent death, Fury heads to eastern Europe to continue hunting Hydra, while Coulson, May, Skye and Triplett use co-ordinates in the toolbox to locate another secret base, thePlayground, where they reunite with Simmons and meetBilly Koenig, identical brother of the deceasedEric. Elsewhere, Raina meets with Skye's father, "the Doctor".
In an end tag, Coulson begins experiencinghypergraphic episodes as a belated side effect of the GH325.
In April 2014, Marvel revealed that the twenty-second episode would be titled "Beginning of the End", and would be written by executive producersMaurissa Tancharoen andJed Whedon, withDavid Straiton directing.[1] Whedon said they wanted to give the season "a happy ending in a way" with Tancharoen adding the series was "a little bit back to square one" and "boiled down to the basics". Whedon continued saying, though teases were given forRaina,Skye, andPhil Coulson, "we wanted to feel their victory" in the episode.[2]: 192
In April 2014, Marvel revealed that main cast membersClark Gregg,Ming-Na Wen,Brett Dalton,Chloe Bennet,Iain De Caestecker, andElizabeth Henstridge would star asPhil Coulson,Melinda May,Grant Ward,Skye,Leo Fitz, andJemma Simmons, respectively.[1] It was also revealed that the guest cast for the episode would includeBill Paxton as AgentJohn Garrett,J. August Richards asMike Peterson / Deathlok,B. J. Britt as AgentAntoine Triplett,Ruth Negga asRaina,David Conrad asIan Quinn,Glenn Morshower as General Jacobs, Josh Daugherty as Kyle Zeller,Patton Oswalt asBilly Koenig, Mark Berry as Admiral Jolnes, Jeffrey Muller as Kaminsky, Ajani Wrighster asAce Peterson, Asif Ali as Jesse Fletcher,Kyla Garcia as Mrs. Zeller, Nicole J. Butler as Aunt Mindy and Cynthia Rose Hall as employee.[1] Oswalt, Berry, Muller, Wrighster, Ali, Garcia, Butler, and Hall did not receive guest star credit in the episode. Paxton, Richards, Britt, Negga, Conrad, and Morshower reprise their roles from earlier in the series.[3]Samuel L. Jackson makes a special guest appearance asNick Fury, reprising his role from the films.[4]
Filming occurred from March 23 to April 9, 2014.[2]: 191
In his appearance, Jackson's Fury wields a version of the gun that Coulson used inMarvel's The Avengers.[5]
"Beginning of the End" was first aired in the United States onABC on May 13, 2014.[6]
For the final six episodes, Marvel began the "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Art of Level Seven" initiative, in which a different image was released each Thursday before a new episode, depicting a first look at a key event from the upcoming episode. Bell stated that the initiative was a way to tie the series back to its comics roots, and was thought of at the beginning of the season. The production team tried to pair specific artists to the teaser posters based on their previous work and how it connected to the themes and emotion of the intended episode.[7] The poster for "Beginning of the End", created byPhantom City Creative, is reminiscent of the first official poster released, with differences including the characters' order and clothing, the poster's coloring, a broken S.H.I.E.L.D. logo over Hydra's, and Ward being tinted by Hydra.[8] Phantom City Creative director Justine Erickson said, "It made sense to bookend the series with a poster that on one hand called back to where they began, but more importantly showed how far they've come as a team." May and Skye are positioned closest to Coulson in the poster because they are now both the closest emotionally to him, while Ward's positioning needed to show how he went "from the most trusted of colleagues to betrayer and villain".[2]: 159
The episode, along with the rest ofAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s first season, was released onBlu-ray andDVD on September 9, 2014. Bonus features include behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a blooper reel.[9] On November 20, 2014, the episode became available for streaming onNetflix.[10] The episode, along with the rest of the series, was removed from Netflix on February 28, 2022,[11] and later became available onDisney+ on March 16, 2022.[12]
In the United States the episode received a 2.0/7 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 2.0 percent of all households, and 7 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 5.45 million viewers.[6]
