By The Nerdling

Factions inside SHIELD and Hydra begin to form as a long dangling plot thread starts to come back into play.

Spoilers for the Future

Softer Inside Voices

With her backstory revealed, Hale has dropped the good-guy pretense and is dressed in her all-black-baddie outfit.  Coulson is no longer cooperating and Hale has taken his bed, desk, and his Oops! All Berries away.  She figures a week of no sleep and food will break Coulson into giving her Daisy Johnson.

Needing another option for Destroyer of Worlds, Hale has Creel bond with the gravitonium under the guise of generating data.  Upon touching it, Creel feels something pulling him down.  He sees Dr. Franklin Hall arguing with Coulson from the season one’s “The Asset”.  Creel pulls his arm back and the experience has left him shaken and unexplainably angry at Coulson.

Creel continues to feel “them” inside his head long after his encounter with gravitonium.  He busts into Coulson’s room looking to get answers and maybe kill him as “they” want to do.  Coulson talks Creel down and refocuses the strong man into finding the captive Talbot.  Creel believed Hale was helping the General heal.  Coulson shows him other wise then they break into Talbot’s room and find him almost worse than he was before.

The three men team up to escape the former Hydra High, but their absence is quickly noticed.  Colson’s heart stops after he takes a punch to the chest by an LMD and is revived by Creel.  Hale has Ruby track them to kill Coulson and Talbot, but return Creel alive.  Ruby sees right through her mother’s plan and refuses to be replaced as the Destroyer of Worlds.  She faces off against Creel in a showdown we have been wanting for so long (and it didn’t disappoint).

The face-off between the two provide enough cover for Coulson and Talbot to use the transport machine to teleport to a snowy mountain area (I’m thinking Providence, also from season one).  Hale breaks up the fight between Creel and Ruby, but the CrossFit-Tinkerbell hurls a Chakra at Creel’s chest.  The absorbing man changes to wood in time to stop the weapon from killing him.

Scared Prophets and Bad Science

Out of ideas in finding Coulson, Daisy and May bring Robin and Poly out of hiding in hopes Robin has seen where Coulson currently is.  Except Robin has stopped talking or drawing after seeing her older self dying in May’s arms.  Being reunited with momma-May once again has sparked the young precog into drawing again.  Sifting through the newest set of visions, May comes across a picture of Coulson and Talbot in the snowy mountains.  A scan of the photo reveals where they can find their leader.

With Daisy and May gone, Mack is left in charge with strict instructions to not let Fitz of his confinement.  This stands in the way of Jemma’s plan use Fitz’s prior Hydra knowledge and to track down the weapon Hale is after.  A plan Yo-Yo (and her new badass robot arms) is completely on board with.  Since Jemma and Yo-Yo are determined they are invincible (Fitz might agree the future cannot be changed, but not totally sold on the indestructible part), the two set up a test to prove to Mack they cannot be killed.

Jemma fills three glasses with water and a fourth with a phosphoric-acid compound which is toxic.  She has Yo-Yo rearrange the glasses so Jemma doesn’t know which is which.  In front of Mack and a still locked up Fitz, Jemma will randomly pick three glasses and drink the contents.  Since she is fated to have a child so Deke can be born, she knows she will only pick the three water glasses.

After drinking the third glass, Jemma collapse as if she has been poisoned.  A panicked Yo-Yo convinces Mack to let Fitz out so he can save Jemma.  As soon a Fitz is free, Yo-Yo does her thing, pushes Mack into the cell, takes his gun, and locks the door.  Jemma gets up and reveals she didn’t drink the compound, but the final glass did contain the bad solution.  Her test proves fate will allow her to skip death for now.

Jemma, Fitz, and Yo-Yo escape on a quint jet to start searching in the locations Fitz remembers from his time in the Framework.  “What’s the worst that can happen?” Jemma asks as they fly away.  The outcome is never good when someone asks that.

Thoughts

The epilogue features a flashback to Raina and Ian Quinn just after the Refrigerator has been ransacked by Hydra several years before.  Quinn is quite happy to have his precious gravitonium and grateful to Raina for getting it to him.  But Quinn has is all mixed up.  Raina didn’t give Quinn the gravitonium, she is giving the gravitonium Quinn.  She unlocks the case and the element sucks in Quinn explaining why Creel referred to “them” when he talked about gravitonium and their hatred of Coulson.

I may have squeed pretty loudly when Ruth Negga and David Conrad appeared on the screen.  What a nice surprise and a great way to continue to wrap up loose ends in the series.

Did it strike anyone as strange how Deke was acting this episode?  He seemed a little sweaty and confused.  The way he kept asking about Daisy’s attitude change was played off for laughs, but upon re-watch it came off more like he was disoriented.  Do you think Jemma’s newfound attitude might be changing Deke and maybe the loop?  Also, does anyone else think the Deke bashing is getting a little mean now?

The opening title card seem to suggest we are getting closer and closer to the time when the Earth is split up.

Next week Ruby goes rogue and we get to see her square off against Daisy!  I’m very excited for it!

Till Next Week!

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The Nerdling was born in the majestic land known as Texas and currently resides there after several years of journeying through Middle Earth in a failed attempt to steal the one Ring from that annoying hobbit, serving the Galactic Empire for a time, and then a short stint as a crew member on the Serenity. Since moving back to her homeland, Nerdling flirted with a hero reputation. Saving children from the dangers of adoring domineering, sparkly vampires (champions with souls are the only vampires worth loving) and teaching normals the value of nerdom, all while rooting for her beloved Dallas Stars. Then came the Sokovia Accords and her short spell of saving others came to an end. With Darth Vader’s reputation rightfully returning to badass status, Nerdling is making her way back to the Empire. They do have cookies, you know. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.