The end of the world is coming on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but no one knows when. The team thought the rift tear in our dimension might be the sign they were waiting for. Things took a turn for the worse in the last episode. For starters, Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) went all Hydra Dr. Leopold on Daisy (Chloe Bennet) and removed her inhibitor against her will.
This is really bad timing because Fitz and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) just got married. Fitz has been showing some aggressive tendencies since the trip the future. She knows that the man who just violated Daisy isn’t her Fitz. She got a big surprise in the end though, when Deke (Jeff Ward) revealed that he is FitzSimmon’s grandson.
Another bump in the road was Ruby (Dove Cameron) cutting off Yo Yo’s (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) arms. Mack (Henry Simmons) was able to get the materials to build new arms for her. Can they attach the arms without Fitz’s help?
Coulson (Clark Gregg) and May (Ming-Na Wen) met General Hale (Catherine Dent) and her team. They admit to looking for SHIELD to take them into custody. Hale has something she wants to show Coulson. Coulson agrees to leave with her as long as she lets the rest of his team go free. Coulson has nothing to lose. He’s ready to die.
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“Rise and Shine”! The world is about to change.
Coulson is taken to a room on Hale’s base. Coulson says he has it all figured out. He knows she doesn’t work for the Air Force. She agrees and admits she is working for Hydra. Coulson doesn’t react, but says he thought they wiped them out. Hale says she needs to tell Coulson her story. It’s time for Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. to unite.
FLASHBACK
A young Hale (Alyssa Jirrels) grew up in a Hydra base. It’s Hydra High School and there are a lot of boys. Daniel Whitehall (Reed Diamond) visits one of their classes. He tells the class they are very close to creating a super soldier like Captain America, only this will be the most powerful man in the world. They created a particle infusion chamber, but haven’t figured out how to power it. Whitehall asks the class for suggestions.
A young Baron von Strucker (Joey Defore) suggests they use the Tesseract, but Hale points out that it is in hands of S.H.I.E.L.D.. They’d have to blow their cover to get it. She suggests they use materials from outer space. The class laughs at her, but Whitehall praises her forward thinking.
Later in the gym, Strucker’s cronies try to injure Hale by loading weights on her bench press. She is able to throw the bar off of her before it crushes her. Hale walks up to Strucker and they fight.
The next day, after Hale passed her final test…killing her dog, she meets up with Jasper Stiwell (Adam Faison). Stiwell is assigned to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D.. He doesn’t seem to happy about it, but the assignment is what he asked for. (His older self is seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.) Hale hasn’t gotten an assignment letter yet. Stiwell says it’s because she hit Strucker. Hale is called to meet with Whitehall.
Whitehall is impressed with Hale. He selected her for his program. Hale thinks she will be working on the particle infusion chamber, but Strucker got that position. She is to be artificially inseminated so they can create the perfect specimen for the chamber. Hale isn’t happy about it. She voices her disappointment until Whitehall says she has other options if she chooses not to comply.
2 YEARS AGO
Ruby wakes up at the base and is going to school with a handful of boys. General Hale and Professor Steger (Graham Sibley) talk about how strong Ruby is and that the council hasn’t decided on her future. Hale reminds him that Whitehall specifically designed Ruby. Steger reminds her that Whitehall is dead.
Hale gets a message and has to leave. She checks in with General Fischer (Rocky McMurray) who tells her that S.H.I.E.L.D. arrested Gideon Malick and he talked. He gives her a card to a secret room. He tells her they found a device that the Chitari left behind that was sending a beacon into space. Hydra made contact an alien organization called The Confederacy. They are interrupted by General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar). When Talbot attempts to arrest Fischer, he takes a poison pill. Talbot’s people take Fischer away. Hale acts like she is shocked that Hydra still exists.
When Hale returns to the base, she finds Ruby arguing with Professor Steger about killing her dog. When Steger gets aggressive, Hale kills him. She tells Ruby they are the only two remaining members of Hydra.
6 MONTHS AGO
Talbot wakes up in the hospital. He has some damage to his frontal cortex. While he plays a memory game with his son, Hale asks Mrs. Talbot to let her move him to a more comprehensive facility. Talbot gets angry with his son when he gets the game wrong. The doctor has to sedate Talbot, giving Hale enough reason to take him to her base.
On Talbot’s first day there, he tries to talk to Ruby. She has her earbuds in and can’t hear him. Talbot thinks she’s being disrespectful. He follows her to the gym where Hale meets them. Talbot demands answers, but Hale tells him that he’s no longer a ranking officer. She took him in because his family is scared of him. She wants to show him what she’s working on so it will give him a purpose.
Hale shows him an alien device. She says aliens use it to move ships through galaxies. She used it to meet The Confederacy. Hydra struck deal for protection in the war that’s coming to earth. Talbot is angry. Hale admits that she was born into Hydra. She tells him these symbols, Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D., USA…they are all irrelevant because they are facing a global threat. She says S.H.I.E.L.D. is the reason Daisy shot him in the head. Talbot says an LMD shot him, not Daisy Johnson. Hale says S.H.I.E.L.D. is responsible for the LMD program.
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Hale wants to know the location of a Hydra weapon that Talbot took. He won’t talk so Ruby cuffs him to a wheelchair. Hale says they will talk when he’s more cooperative. Ruby wheels him away. Talbot screams that he will never break because Phil Coulson is coming for him.
24 HOURS AGO
Coulson wakes up at Hale’s base. He goes to the cafeteria and sees Ruby. Coulson tries to talk to her, but she can’t hear him. He grabs a box of cereal and tells Ruby that he’ll be in his room.
Hale goes to Coulson’s room. The first question he asks is if Ruby is responsible for cutting Yo Yo’s arms off. Hale says that’s her daughter and ask to show him something.
Hale shows Coulson the alien device. Coulson knows it’s bad news because of the alien writing on the device. Hale turns the device on. At first Coulson is reluctant to touch the machine saying he’s already been to space. Hale convinces him to touch the device so he can meet her alien contact. They are transported to a dark room where a shadowed man meets them. Hale introduces Coulson as the ally they need. The alien contact shows Coulson a large spaceship that is headed to Earth. Hale and Coulson return to the base.
Okay. Here is what’s really going on. The Confederacy has agreed to protect Earth from the large alien ship in exchange for gravitonium and Inhumans. Coulson says that’s unreasonable. He thinks The Confederacy is holding the pending war over humanity so they can enslave them. Hale is trying to alter the deal and needs Coulson’s help. She wants to prove that they don’t need The Confederacy to save humanity.
Hale tells Coulson about the particle infusion chamber that Hydra built to create the most powerful man in the world. She says they can create the most powerful woman on Earth. It was supposed to be Ruby, but she’s not ready. Hale thinks Daisy would be a better fit. The chamber would increase Daisy’s quake power. They would send Daisy to The Confederacy with a shipment of gravitonium. It’s Hale’s plan to have Daisy destroy the alien worlds that threaten to destroy the Earth. Daisy’s code name would be Destroyer of Worlds.
Ding, ding, ding, ding! This is how the world ends. Coulson tells Hale about his trip to the future and how the Earth was destroyed. Hale doesn’t believe him. She thinks he’s trying to get out of helping her. She tells Coulson he will be locked up until he’s ready to comply.
Ruby visits Coulson, asking about the future. She ask what she did wrong. Coulson says she’s not the Destroyer of Worlds. Ruby asks where Daisy is. Coulson tells Ruby that she can’t beat Daisy. Ruby decides to show him what she did with the last guy who refused her. They drag in a severely beaten Talbot. He says he tried not to crack, but they did it. He told Hale everything.
NOW
Daisy and May assess their situation. They figured out that Hale is Hydra, but they can’t figure out why she wants Coulson. Daisy wants to go after Coulson, but they need to understand what they’re walking into.
May visits Fitz. She reminds him that she was Hydra in the Framework too. Fitz reminds her that they are not in the Framework and he doesn’t regret anything he did. May asks him to embrace the Hydra side of him to help them figure out what Hale is up to.
Simmons finishes attaching Yo Yo’s new arms. Mack asks if they need to consult Fitz, but Simmons has got this! Mack tells Simmons that even though Fitz was bad in the Framework, part of him was still good. He’s still a good guy in the real world.
Simmons activates Yo Yo’s arms and she flexes her hand. So far so good. Mack asks if Yo Yo will be stronger. He’s worried about Yo Yo. He’s afraid she’s going to be reckless, because she saw her future self.
Fitz says Hale is building a weapon but he can’t figure out how Coulson fits into the equation. If he had access to a computer and the labs, he might be able to figure it out. Daisy rushes in and denies access. They argue about what Fitz did to her, making Daisy angry enough to quake him. He ends the argument by telling Daisy that he doesn’t need her forgiveness, he just needs her to trust him. She says no because they don’t turn on their teammates, but Fitz says he can count the times that Daisy turned her back on them. Daisy storms off, saying she’s going after Coulson. First, she wants to talk to Robin.
Simmons visits Fitz. She hands him a pocket knife. Fitz says it’s his because of the engraving. Simmons gives him a second knife, identical to the first one. She tells him the second knife belongs to Deke. And he got it from his grandfather. Fitz quickly puts it all together. Deke is his grandson…but…Fitz hates Deke. Simmons thinks it’s perfect. Deke’s existence proves that they will be okay. It means they live long enough to raise a daughter. Fitz says it means that they raised a daughter who had a Deke. It means they are invincible.
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Thoughts
Okay…so this whole season we knew Daisy might destroy the earth, but now it looks like she does. If Hale gets her hands on Daisy, she can make her super Inhuman. And if Daisy’s powers increase, with the gravitonium, she can destroy Earth. Everything is falling into place. How do they stop this if Coulson can’t tell them what’s going on?
I loved Fitz’s reaction to Deke being his grandson. He’s so annoyed with Deke. In Deke’s defense, he knew Fitz was his grandfather. That made him act weird because he’s getting a second chance to know his grandparents. Maybe Fitz will warm up to Deke…
Or maybe not. If Yo Yo, Fitz, and Simmons think they are invincible, how reckless will they become? Someone is going to die and I don’t think it’s Coulson.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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