Beginning of the End

Beginning of the End is the twenty-second episode and the finale of the first season of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Synopsis
Dark secrets are revealed as Coulson and his team put everything on the line to stop Garrett and the forces of HYDRA, on the explosive season finale of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.".

Plot
A new employee was touring the Cybertek facility in New Mexico when his boss noticed Phil Coulson's team's incursion into the Barbershop Headquarters. Both the boss and the new employee were recruited through HYDRA's incentive program which involved the kidnapping of family members and using them to force labor.

He issued orders to the Centipede Project soldiers through their eye implants, but the team was able to activate Skye's Trojan, while Agent Melinda May used the Berserker Staff to demolish the building and caused its collapsing on the soldiers.

Later, at the facility, Ian Quinn began his presentation of the factory to the US military representatives, but was interrupted by John Garrett, who began to show signs of insanity, and killed General Jacobs. Coulson, Antoine Triplett, May, and Skye conducted an attack on the Cybertek facility, with Skye going to save Ace Peterson, May fighting Grant Ward, and Coulson going after Garrett. During the attack, Quinn and Raina stole the Gravitonium and departed, having no real loyalty to HYDRA.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ocean, Leo Fitz discovered a way to save Jemma Simmons from the chamber, believing it would cost him his own life. Simmons was able to drag him to the surface, where they were rescued by Nick Fury. Simmons survived, though Fitz was left in a dire state.

Coulson engaged Garrett, but was quickly overwhelmed until Fury arrived for support. Fury provided Coulson with the Destroyer Armor Prototype Gun, with Coulson remarking "I know what it does", after having used it without knowing its purpose against Loki. Coulson and Fury pushed Garrett back, with Deathlok delivering a supposedly fatal blow once he learned Skye had saved his son. The US Army invaded the factory and all the Centipede-enhanced soldiers were defeated and taken into custody.

However, the badly wounded Garrett attempted to transform himself into a new Deathlok, only for Coulson to vaporize him a mere moment later with the 0-8-4 from Peru. In the aftermath, Ward, severely injured from May, and the Centipede soldiers were arrested and Ace was reunited with his aunt Mindy Peterson.

Mike Peterson, unable to face his son, went off on his own to redeem himself. Fury appointed Coulson as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., asking him to rebuild it the right way and gave him the Toolbox. This lead Coulson and his team to a secret base run by Agent Billy Koenig, Eric Koenig's twin brother.

Raina delivered a photo of Skye to a mysterious, blood-soaked entity, telling it "I found your daughter."

Later, Coulson awoke in the middle of the night and began exhibiting signs of the same strange mental behavior that Garrett had exhibited, rewriting the same symbols Garrett wrote.

Cast
Main Cast:
 * Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson
 * Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May
 * Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward
 * Chloe Bennet as Agent Skye
 * Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz
 * Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Jemma Simmons

Guest Stars:
 * Bill Paxton as John Garrett
 * J. August Richards as Michael Peterson/Deathlok
 * B.J. Britt as Agent Antoine Triplett
 * Ruth Negga as Raina
 * David Conrad as Ian Quinn
 * Glenn Morshower as General Jacobs
 * Josh Daugherty as Kyle Zeller
 * Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
 * Patton Oswalt as Agent Billy Koenig
 * Mark Berry as Admiral Jolnes
 * Jeffrey Muller as Agent Kaminsky
 * Ajani Wrighster as Ace Peterson
 * Asif Ali as Jesse Fletcher
 * Kyla Garcia as Mrs. Zeller
 * Nicole J. Butler as Mindy Peterson
 * Cynthia Rose Hall as Employee
 * Unknown as Skye's Father

Locations

 * New Mexico
 * Cybertek Manufacturing Facility
 * Havana, Cuba
 * Barbershop Headquarters
 * Playground

Events

 * Battle at Cybertek

Items

 * Berserker Staff
 * Centipede Device
 * Backscatter X-Ray Eye Implant
 * Cybertek Prosthetic Leg
 * Forearm Rocket Launcher
 * Noisemaker
 * I.C.E.R.s
 * Medical Pod
 * Gravitonium
 * Bulletproof Vest
 * Hyperbaric Chamber
 * Destroyer Armor Prototype Gun
 * Peruvian 0-8-4
 * Toolbox
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Lanyard
 * Words of Creation
 * GH.325  (mentioned)

Vehicles

 * The Bus
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet
 * Humvee

Organizations

 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * HYDRA
 * Centipede Project
 * Centipede Soldiers
 * Cybertek
 * United States Armed Forces
 * United States Navy SEALs (mentioned)
 * United States Secret Service (mentioned)
 * Avengers (mentioned)

Mentioned

 * Hulk (action figure)
 * Agent Eric Koenig
 * Project T.A.H.I.T.I.

Trivia

 * The impulse that Garrett and Coulson feel to write in walls are a sign of hypergraphia, one of the side effects of Project T.A.H.I.T.I. listed by Coulson as Supervisor of the Project.
 * The Words of Creation they wrote are very similar to the one seen in Belarus in episode 1.04: Eye-Spy.
 * According to Ming-Na Wen, it took 17 hours to shoot her fight scene with Brett Dalton.
 * The disembodied form of Dr. Franklin Hall aka "Graviton" can be seen in the scene when Garrett and Ward confront Ian Quinn and Colonel Jacobs over the Supersoldier Deathlok program.