Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 episode 18 review: All Roads Lead…

Things are getting dire in the MCU and Thanos hasn't even arrived yet! Spoilers ahead in our review of SHIELD's latest solid episode...

This review contains spoilers.

5.18 All Roads Lead…

Well, the only Von Strucker family on television now is the family on Fox’s X-traordinary Gifted because good ‘ol Werner Von Strucker is the first victim of the newly risen Destroyer of Worlds. Doesn’t that sound ominous? Oh, it so is. This week on Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD, Ruby Hale’s greatest wish comes true. She is able to force the captive Fitz and Simmons to build her the chamber that will allow her to bond with Gravitonium and become the Destroyer of Worlds. 

What Ruby doesn’t know is that Carl Creel has already bonded with a smidge of Gravitonium and has basically been driven mad. So the already unstable Ruby becoming Gravitonium Girl is just a bad idea. But that’s exactly what happens. This season on Agents Of SHIELD, the show has done a really good job of introducing easy-to-hate, totally badass female villains that you just really want to see take a beat down from our heroes. I mean, weren’t we all just dying to see the ball wielding Kree Sinara take an epic Smackdown from either May or Daisy? 

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And now Ruby has been built up to the same levels of love-to-hate. She was responsible for the loss of Yo Yo’s arms and this week, Ruby is gleefully torturing both Fitz and Simmons in order to get the tech ready to bond her with Gravitonium. You just don’t torture Fitz and Simmons, dammit!

Thankfully, Daisy, May, and their team are on their way to save their fellow agents. Yo Yo has already escaped and is trying to get her arms to work in conjunction with her speed powers, but with Daisy on the scene, the main event of Quake versus Ruby is imminent. 

Sadly, it takes place after Von Strucker bonds Ruby with the deadly substance. Mama General Hale joins with Daisy and tries to save her daughter, but they are all too late. Ruby crushes Von Strucker’s head (dope) and goes after our agents. Hale tries to talk her daughter down, which seems to be working, until tragedy strikes. 

In Ruby, Daisy sees a reflection of her former self: an angry, rebellious youth who is trying to find her place in the world. That view is even stronger now that Ruby is immensely powerful. Sadly, Ruby turns into Stephen King’s Carrie and not a super hero as evident by the popping of Von Strucker’s head like a fascist zit. 

Daisy tries to calm Ruby down, and it seems to be working when Yo Yo comes on the scene and slices Ruby’s throat. You can’t really blame Yo Yo, I mean, Ruby did callously slice off Yo Yo’s arms, but the consequences of Yo Yo’s actions could be dire. The Gravitonium exits Ruby’s dying body, but did it enter Daisy’s?  

Do those dangerous phantoms of the former Graviton still exist in some form, ready to bring about the end of the world? We certainly know that General Hale, in her anguish, has called on her alien allies to come and seize the Gravitonium as events continue to build that will lead to the Earth cracking like an egg. So I guess with an invasion coming Agents Of SHIELD and the Thanos invasion soon to hit in Avengers: Infinity War, Earth is about to become a very deadly place.

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That’s a lot to take in; a tonne of tragedy and loss, but thankfully another loss is avoided this week. Last episode, we saw the sleeper agent General Talbot activated by HYDRA. This week, Talbot’s mission is revealed. He is to kill the youthful precog Robin at SHIELD HQ. 

Thankfully, Coulson, Mack, and Deke figure out something is very wrong and save the young girl. Mack takes out Talbot with one shot and one has to wonder what will be the next leg of the journey of Glenn Talbot. With Robin still in the picture, there is still some hope for the world, but with the aliens on the way and Hale with nothing to live for, things could get very bad very soon.

And how will Daisy react to seeing Yo Yo kill Ruby? As we stated, Ruby was the dark reflection of Daisy, and Daisy still believes that she will bring about the end of the world. Could Yo Yo turn on Daisy as well? At least Daisy has the utter devotion of Deke, the future grandson of Fitz and Simmons. So if Daisy and Deke get married, Daisy would become Fitz and Simmons granddaughter-in-law. Whoa. I’m totally shipping that as I now find lemons very romantic. 

But when life hands you lemons make a Gravitonium-fuelled killer. One has to wonder if this is the end for Ruby, if she was just a plot device to lead to the alien invasion or will the Gravitonium bring her back to cause future problems for SHIELD. Yeah, things are getting dire in the MCU and Thanos hasn’t even arrived yet!

Read Marc’s review of the previous episode, The Honeymoon, here.