When a series extends for over 100 episodes, there's a lot of storylines to tie up. With Agents Of SHIELD ending after seven seasons (and 136 episodes), and it having a connection to other Marvel Cinematic Universe properties, there were even more stories for the audience and the writers to keep up with. The nature of the series means that some of those storylines ended up dropped, leaving fans to wonder what might have been.
Plenty of characters vanished, never to be heard from again. Others had teases for stories that never came to fruition. With the ending of the show, we've taken a look at 10 questions the audience still has as a result. With that in mind, there are spoilers for the final season of Agents Of SHIELD.
What Happened To The Agents Of The "Real SHIELD?"
In the second season, Coulson and his team found themselves met with resistance from within as a result of a group of agents who believed they were the real SHIELD. While some of those agents, like Mack and Bobbi, became members of Coulson's team, others weren't seen again after the season ended.
One of those is Anne Weaver, former teacher and head of SHIELD's Science And Technology Academy. Though she initially sided with Coulson's enemies, she eventually came to his side. She was even seen analyzing the monolith with Jemma Simmons at the end of the season, but then she vanished. Did members of the other half of SHIELD simply walk away from the organization? Were they given the option to move somewhere else? It's never made clear.
What Would Vijay Nadeer Become?
An Inhuman introduced when the series began to explore human hostilities toward Inhumans, Vijay Nadeer didn't get to spend a lot of time on the show. Jemma Simmons talked to him while he was experiencing a prolonged terrigenesis, and tried to help him when he emerged.
Vijay's experience as an Inhuman was shortlived as he actually experienced a second terrigenesis. When he was cocooned, he ended up in the middle of the ocean. Fans kept waiting for the second terrigenesis to end, but it never did. The show never addressed how a second terrigenesis could have affected an Inhuman.
Are The Watchdogs Still Operating?
In season three, tensions between humans and Inhumans really ramped up. Daisy felt like it was her responsibility to help Inhumans in need, and she came into conflict with a group called the Watchdogs.
The Watchdogs were a hate group that wanted to bring about the end of the Inhumans. The created conflict numerous times, but when the show took the SHIELD agents to the future in season five, the audience didn't hear much about them again. As the story focus shifted, the Watchdogs were left out.
Is There An Inhuman Royal Family?
Once upon a time, there was supposed to be an Inhumans movie, but it became a television series instead. The series wasn't well received, but it did focus on the Inhuman royal family who lived in a secret community on the moon and ended up on Earth.
While it's clear that the people behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe would prefer the audience forget all about the show, it does beg the question of whether it exists in the same continuity as Agents Of SHIELD or not. If it doesn't, is there a version of the Inhuman royal family in the SHIELD world?
Did Donnie Gill Survive The Depths?
Introduced in the first season of the series, Donnie Gill was a student at the SHIELD Academy who went against regulations. He ended up with the ability to manipulate ice when his weather machine exploded. He also ended up manipulated by Hydra into doing their bidding.
In Donnie's last appearance, he didn't just manipulate the ice around him. Instead, his body completely iced over before he, like Vijay Nadeer, sunk into the ocean. Did he survive since his body could handle the cold, or was the ocean his grave?
Where Did Robbie Reyes Take The Darkhold?
Robbie Reyes left the series after his initial arc in season four, but he reappeared at the end of the season to help the team defeat Ophelia. His powers were able to defeat her, and he removed the Darkhold from the world completely, opening a portal to a new place, and taking the book with him.
It's likely the question of where he took the book would have been answered in his television series. Hulu initially ordered a Ghost Rider series, but ultimately, decided not to go through with it.
Did Bobbi And Hunter Remain Disavowed?
The last time Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter were on a SHIELD team was in Russia in the third season of the show. When the two were caught while on a mission, the refused to give up SHIELD, maintaining that they were simply on a vacation.
Hunter returned to the series for a single episode to break Fitz out of a military prison in the fifth season, but Bobbi never made a return. With Mack taking over as SHIELD director, and SHIELD expanding its missions to include space travel, fan wonder if there's a chance the two returned to the fold instead of remaining independent contractors. The two were supposed to be the stars of the spinoff series Marvel's Most Wanted, which likely would have given fans an answer at some point, but the show never moved beyond the pilot.
How Did May End Up With Empathic Abilities?
When the final season of the show began, May was in a healing pod as a result of her injuries in the sixth season's finale. When she emerged, she was completely emotionless, but it was slowly revealed that she could feel other people's emotions instead.
That empathy played a major role as the season progressed, allowing her to help Elena figure out why her abilities were blocked, and give the Chronicoms the ability to empathize with humans. It was never fully explained just how she got the abilities. Was it a result of going through the portal to Izel's world, her near death experience, or did something happen when she was healed?
Do Fitz And Simmons' Families Know They're Alive?
Over the course of the series, Fitz and Simmons were kidnapped or presumed dead multiple times. During season three, Coulson was prepared to notify Simmons' parents when she vanished into the monolith. After Fitz's death in season five, Mack would have been ready to do the same for Fitz.
Of course, then, both of them ended up in space and time traveling. With so much going on for their SHIELD team, it's entirely possible that no one would have told their families the good news - until they settled down in Scotland with a surprise child, of course.
Did The Team Feel The Effects Of The Snap?
The fifth season of the show saw the events leading to Avengers: Infinity War teased. Members of the team, however, traveled to the future, then back to their present day, only to have to travel to space in the sixth season and deal with Izel. The seventh season focused on the team's battle with the Chronicoms through time. Thanos attacking the planet and snapping away half the population is never addressed.
One theory, of course, is that it never happened because, despite Agents of SHIELD going back to their own timeline, the show still exists in a separate timeline from the movies. Whether or not that's true is never explained because the series was already filming when the events of the movie played out on the big screen, so we may never know.