The Top 10 Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Episodes

From Hydra twists to Terrigen mists...

Updated:May 2, 2017 5:16pm UTC

With Marvel's Agents of SHIELD recently wrapping up its third season -- which is quicklycoming to Netflix -- the time is right for a look back at the show's best episodes so far.

Agents of SHIELD took awhile to find its footing, but when it did, it began bringing in many notable Marvel characters and concepts to the screen - most notably the Inhumans and the entire idea of people born with hidden superpowers being introduced into the MCU. At the same time, the core characters began to be fleshed out and given more depth, leading to much more impactful scenarios than when the series began.

Let's take a look back at the very best from Coulson's ragtag team of secret enforcers, including Hydra twists, daddy issues, and alien planets. Here are the Top 10 episodes of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

10."The Things We Bury" (Season 2)

This eventful episode from the first half of Season 2 not only featured an unhinged Grant Ward murdering most of his remaining family members, but also the beginnings of the Inhumans, as a Peggy Carter cameo helped reveal the entire backstory behind Daniel Whitehall's youthful appearance. Hint: it involved the merciless torturing of Jiaying - who was also revealed to by Skye's mother.

"Beginning

The first season finale delivered the goods as the Hydra twist introduced in The Winter Soldier came to a head and Agent John Garrett was defeated (thanks to a Nick Fury guest appearance). But what fans probably remember most was Grant leaving Fitz and Simmons to drown and Fitz sacrificing himself, risking his life, to save Jemma. A heroic move that would adversely affect him, and their relationship, in Season 2.

8."Spacetime" (Season 3)

This emotional Season 3 entry gave us a flash-forward style puzzle to crack as Daisy was shown a vision of the future after touching an Inhuman who could make people see their own gruesome demise. Naturally, many first assumed that Daisy was seeing her own death, but the show had a bit more macabre fun with it than that, as it seemed the vision could pertain to anyone on the team. Also, the fight "rehearsal" with May, and then the actual Daisy fight, was awesome.

7."Turn, Turn, Turn" (Season 1)

This was the big episode following The Winter Solider where the events on the big screen affected the small screen in huge ways. SHIELD, as we knew it, was no more. Hydra had been hiding, ready to strike, right under Coulson's nose and his own man Grant Ward was an evil agent - a reveal that landed right at the end when Ward freed his mentor, John Garrett, and killed Level 8 operative Victoria Hand.

6."One Door Closes" (Season 2)

As SHIELD gets taken over by "real SHIELD" leader Robert Gonzales (Edward James Olmos), this exceptional episode showed us what Gonzales' team - including Bobbi, Isabelle and Mack - had to endure during the Winter Soldier Hydra takeover. Together, they formed a pact to reclaim SHIELD and expunge those who believed in the old Nick Fury way of keeping dangerous secrets.

Continue on for the five best Agents of SHIELD episodes...

5."Closure" (Season 3)

If Coulson didn't have a huge grudge against Ward already, Ward killing Rosalind Price in front of him sealed the Hydra agent's fate as Coulson emerged from the tragedy hellbent on revenge. Resorting to savage measures, Coulson then kidnapped Ward's younger brother in order to locate Ward. At the same time, Ward himself conducted his own torture sessions - on a kidnapped Jemma - in order to break Fitz. A thrilling, dark episode.

4."The Writing on the Wall" (Season 2)

After a former agent is found dead, with mysterious alien symbols carved on her body, Coulson ordershimself to be tortured with a Hydra memory extractor - revealing a lot about the T.A.H.I.T.I. project and his own obsessive symbol writing. Also on this game-changing episode? Grant Ward on a warpath, violently evading SHIELD agents while also trying to climb up the Hydra corporate ladder (also very violently).

3."What They Become" (Season 2)

Season 2's giant midseason finale gave us our big Inhumans payoff as our heroes raced to destroy the subterranean Kree city. Whitehall fell, Trip fell, and Terrigen Mist transformed both Daisy (yes, we learned her real name here) and Raina into altered beings. And who can forget how great Kyle MacLachlan was in this one, finally confirming he was Marvel's Mr. Hyde character from the comics?

"SOS" (Season

Season 2 closed things out with an action-packed two-parter -- yes, we're considering it one big episode -- featuring Ward brutally torturing Bobbi (and then becoming the new head of Hydra), Mr. Hyde going on a rampage, Coulson losing his hand, and Jiaying revealed as a villain after she killed Gonzales and staged everything to look like a SHIELD attack on Afterlife. Plus, there was her nefarious plan to unleash the Terrigen crystals on the entire world, extracting dormant powers from Inhumans-in-wait all over the globe.

1."4,722 Hours" (Season 3)

Not being a season finale or some other type of big, action-y event, "4,722 Hours" took a step back and gave us an enthralling Jemma episode, revealing how the character had spent her six months since getting sucked through the Monolith portal. The decision to devote an entire chapter to her other-worldy struggles gave us the best, most-emotional SHIELD episode to date as Fitz, unexpectedly thrown into a love triangle with a stranded astronaut named Will, vowed to rescue him for Jemma.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at@TheMattFowler and Facebook atFacebook.com/Showrenity.