With the expansion of alternate timelines and universes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the debate as to whether or the MCU flagship series Agents Of SHIELD is canon can finally be put to rest. Everything is canon when there are multiple timelines. Some of those multiple timelines are even explored in the best episodes of the series.
Over the course of its seven seasons, Agents Of SHIELD aired 123 episodes, so narrowing those down to a top ten can be difficult. Luckily, sites like the Internet Movie Database allow fans and critics alike to rate television episodes, making the job a little easier as thousands of ratings can be averaged.
10 Season 4, Episode 16 - "What If..." (9.2)
The fourth season of Agents Of SHIELD was divided into three distinct pods, and this particular episode led off the final pod of the season. In it, Daisy and Jemma entered the virtual world of the Framework to pull out their friends.
The episode allowed fans to see what would have happened in a reality where Hydra was the winning organization in the long conflict, not SHIELD. Fitz led the organization's experiments on Inhumans, Coulson was a teacher, and both May and Daisy are Hydra agents. The episode brought back Brett Dalton as Grant Ward and allowed all of the actors to play completely new versions of their characters. It was a treat for fans and a sort of preview of what Disney Plus will offer in the animated series of the same name.
9 Season 5, Episode 5 - "Rewind" (9.2)
While the rest of the SHIELD team went to the future in the fifth season, Leo Fitz was left behind. "Rewind" allowed fans to see what he was up to after he'd been missing for four episodes, and fans weren't disappointed.
Not only did the fan-favorite character get the spotlight, but the episode also saw Lance Hunter return after leaving in season three to break Fitz out of prison. The episode provided just the right amount of catching up for the fans and emotional content as Fitz and Hunter discussed their relationships with Jemma and Bobbi, respectively.
8 Season 2, Episode 10 - "What They Become" (9.2)
The storyline of Coulson's mind not being able to let go of the compulsion to carve alien writing came to a head in this episode. That writing, as it turned out, was Kree, and it led to a map of an underground city on Earth.
This episode kickstarted the Inhumans' introduction to Agents Of SHIELD. While it wasn't clear just what changes were in store for Skye (who would eventually take her birth name of Daisy Johnson) and villain Raina, this episode led up to their transformation. It also packed an emotional punch as the group lost Trip when Daisy transformed as well.
7 Season 5, Episode 22 - "The End" (9.3)
This episode would have been a heartbreaking series finale if ABC hadn't opted to renew the show for the final two seasons. It was planned as a finale, and it certainly tugged at the heartstrings of viewers.
The episode saw Coulson decide to leave SHIELD for good as the lingering effects of his previous death in The Avengers were catching up with him. It also saw Daisy get her own version of the super-soldier serum because Coulson wouldn't take it for himself, making her strong enough to quake apart the planet if she wasn't busy saving it from Graviton. It even broke up Fitz and Simmons (again) as the Fitz in this timeline died while helping to break the time loop the group was hinted at being stuck in earlier in the season. It was a lot of loss, and a lot of moving forward, all at the same time for fans.
6 Season 3, Episode 5 - "4,722 Hours" (9.3)
With this episode, Jemma Simmons became the only person to appear in every episode of the show up to this point. It revealed just what happened to her when the season two finale saw her transported through a liquified monolith.
As it turned out, she spent months on the same planet where the first Inhuman, Hive, was sent. The episode proved that Elizabeth Henstridge was more than capable of carrying the show on her own as Jemma as much of her time was spent alone in a desert. It was an emotional episode for fans as she struggled to survive, fell for the only other human on the planet, and then had to leave him behind when Fitz found a way to bring her back to Earth. It was a great example of the many ways the show had improved since the first season.
5 Season 1, Episode 17 - "Turn, Turn, Turn" (9.3)
This is the season one episode that marked a turning point for the show, just as the title implied. Hydra was revealed to have never fully been defeated, living inside of SHIELD like a virus, corrupting existing agents and planting Hydra operatives on the inside.
Not only did the episode tie into the events of the wider MCU, but it also revealed Agents Garrett and Ward as Hydra agents all along. The final moments of the episode shocked fans as Ward helped Garrett escape SHIELD custody and killed Victoria Hand.
4 Season 2, Episode 22 - "SOS Part 2" (9.4)
The bulk of the second season concerned Daisy (then Skye) discovering her Inhuman heritage. She wanted to embrace it wholeheartedly, but as she eventually discovered, her mother was on a path of destruction.
Daisy's father, who had been a villain, ended up saving her from her own mother, as the battle between SHIELD and Jiaying's Inhuman followers came to a head on a ship in the middle of the ocean. While that aspect of the storyline pushes Daisy more firmly into SHIELD and furthers the Inhuman mythology, Ward kidnapping Bobbi (AKA Mockingbird) adds to the emotional aspects of the hour. She takes a bullet to prevent Hunter from being killed, and that propels their relationship forward in the third season.
3 Season 4, Episode 15 - "Self Control" (9.5)
The second pod of the fourth season centered on the idea of Life Model Decoys, and this episode brought the debate about their existence to a head. After returning to the base from a mission, Jemma discovered that some of the agents who returned to the base weren't agents at all, but LMDs.
The episode played out as an intense thriller while she and Daisy separately (and then together) tried to parse out which of their friends had been swapped out. It was emotionally jarring to see Jemma and Fitz debate which one of them was an LMD only for LMD-Fitz to stab her with a screwdriver. It was a relief for fans when Jemma and Daisy finally met up in the episode and Daisy used her quaking abilities to make sure neither of them was made of metal. The mystery and the emotion combined for a near-perfect episode.
2 Season 7, Episode 13 - "What We're Fighting For" (9.5)
The love for a satisfying conclusion can often propel series finales to the top of IMDb ratings, and that's partly the case for this episode. As the final episode of Agents Of SHIELD, it had a lot of characters to send on their ways, and it succeeded in satisfying fans for nearly all of them - even if nothing about it linked up to the rest of the MCU.
A big part of the fan love for this episode is that all of the characters have arcs that reach a natural conclusion: Mack as SHIELD director, Elena and Piper as agents, Daisy working with her sister in space, May teaching new agents, and Fitz and Simmons stepping away to have a family. Even LMD-Coulson got the chance to keep going.
1 Season 7, Episode 9 - "As I Have Always Been" (9.6)
Interestingly, the finale narrowly misses out on the top spot. Instead, it's Elizabeth Henstridge's directorial debut for the show that nabs it. Henstridge pulled double duty as Jemma was still heavily featured in the episode as well when super-spy Daisy struggled to get information out of Jemma's memory blocked head while the team was stuck in a time loop.
The loop meant that every time Daisy's efforts saw her friends end up dead, she got to start over again. Daisy grew desperate as the loop shortened, but the show still had plenty of time to bring in the humor and finally give Daisy a love interest who could stay with her in Agent Sousa. The episode satisfied even the pickiest of fans.