WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for "The End Is at Hand" and "What We're Fighting For," the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series finale.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may have just launched S.W.O.R.D. -- in spirit, if not in name.
As "What We're Fighting For" drew to a close, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents regrouped a year following their victory over the Chronicoms. Of course, they weren't able to do so in person; everyone was out on separate missions and had to meet up virtually. Despite a few awkward pauses, they caught up with one another, which revealed Daisy was on a mission in deep space with Daniel Sousa and her sister Kora.
When Simmons asked her if things were going well, Daisy said, "They're going! Yeah. We're just loving the journey together. I showed him E.T., to prep for it. He cried like a baby! But he's made for this work. He's solid, but he does keep calling us the Astro Ambassadors, so that's -- yeah, he's a dork." Even as she spoke, she couldn't stop smiling all the while.
The conversation went around the circle, and it ended with Coulson, who said he was still figuring out what to do next. Naturally, Daisy invited him to join her. "There's a bunk open on Zephyr-Three. It's a nice one," she offered. This also reveals S.H.I.E.L.D. has since built multiple Zephyrs, including a few that are capable of space flight, like the original.
Soon after it began, the meetup started to wind down. At one point, Daisy's visage flickered. "I'm losing signal anyway. We're entering a nebula," she explained. One by one, her friends dropped out of the call, until only she and Coulson remained. "How's it going with your new recruit?" he asked.
Again, Daisy couldn't help but smile. "She's doing great," she replied. "She's been through a lot, but it's funny what can happen when somebody believes in you." Following this, she encouraged him to keep finding lost people and bring them together, just as he had with them. With that, she signed off, returning to reality on Zephyr-Three.
When she turned off her transmitter, she found herself gazing at Sousa as he read Cosmos by Carl Sagan. "They good?" he asked when he realized she was back. She nodded and confirmed, "They're good."
"Hey! You have to see this!" Kora called from the cockpit.
Daisy and Sousa rushed to the window, where they beheld a nebula in motion. As they looked on in awe, Kora said, "Amazing, right?"
"It's beautiful," Daisy whispered, sidling up next to Sousa -- and that's where the series left them.
In the comics, of course, S.H.I.E.L.D. has a space-faring arm called S.W.O.R.D., which stands for Sentient World Observation and Response Department. The organization made its debut fairly recently in 2004's Astonishing X-Men #6 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday. Led by a mutant-turned-special agent Abigail Brand, S.W.O.R.D. existed to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats.
When Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. rolled out promotional material for Season 5, many fans believed the show would launch S.W.O.R.D., as the season sent the team into space. While this wasn't the case at the time, the series finale did the next best thing by introducing Daisy's space mission. She dropped several clues about her work, which seems to include outreach to alien species (hence the "Astro Ambassadors" joke). Simmons also referred to research on alien anatomy, so it would appear they are studying alien lifeforms as well. However, the name S.W.O.R.D. was never officially mentioned, which could be a result of Fox holding rights to the X-Men franchise until Disney's recent takeover.
Although Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has come to a close, the series showrunners are certainly open to exploring this angle with these characters. Asked if they would return for a hypothetical Agents of S.W.O.R.D. series, Jed Whedon said, "Yes on S.W.O.R.D."
"Yeah, we tried S.W.O.R.D. early and we were shut down," Jeff Bell pitched in, with Maurissa Tancharoen adding, "Denied." As such, it looks like Daisy's final scene was a deliberate nod to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s special space task force, which was ultimately never explored on the long-running Marvel TV series.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. stars Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Henry Simmons, Iain De Caestecker, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, Elizabeth Henstridge and Clark Gregg.