Note: there will be spoilers below!
Recap
Flashback to six months ago. May and Andrew are on the beach in Hawaii. May talks about not going back to S.H.I.E.L.D. right away. Once home, Andrew has Jiaying’s papers and books. He opens one and the Terrigen Mist hits him.
Coulson and Daisy are arguing about the ACTU’s method of putting people in stasis comas as Andrew walks with them. He argues for Coulson’s case that not all Inhumans can control themselves. Coulson is going to meet with the President and advisors to discuss the matter, arranged through the ACTU.
May and Bobbi are heading back. May hasn’t told Bobbi what the Von Strucker kid told her about Andrew. May looks into recent data with Lash and Andrew. She wants to talk to Andrew but Daisy tells him he’s off site at a S.H.I.E.L.D. training facility. As Joey works on his abilities, Andrew imagines killing him.
Rosalind arrives on the Zephyr One. Daisy gives her a tour. Rosalind explains her fear of powered people. She’s only seeing the terrible things. “For every Daisy Johnson, there’s a Lash. It’s ignorant for you to think otherwise.”
Fitz works on recovering the data off Simmons’ phone. He’s fascinated by the moons on the planet and gets frustrated when he sees a pic of Jemma and Will. He goes back when he hears her voice on messages. He starts getting teary-eyed hearing her desperation over not finding food or water and convinced she’d never see him again.
Joey seems to be accepting his powers. Andrew seems to be fighting the urge not to kill him right there. He still sees how Joey could be a threat. May busts in and interrupts, insisting they talk. She’s tracked his flights to Inhuman deaths. His blood work was deleted. Andrew makes excuses until she tells him the Strucker kid was alive. She keeps pushing him and he shoots her with an ICE gun. Andrew took May to the University. He wants to explain to her but not around S.H.I.E.L.D. He has her handcuffed. He says instinct takes over. He figures Jiaying rigged the book for anyone that wasn’t an Inhuman. After he emerged from the cocoon, he felt the need to be close to Inhumans and kill them. That’s why he left May.
Lincoln meets with Mack in secret. He doesn’t want put Daisy at risk. He tells Mack that Lash is in S.H.I.E.L.D. Mack and Lincoln arrive on the Zephyr One. They talk to them, including Rosalind. He knows Lash is using Jiaying’s ledger with the names. Andrew is the only one that had access to those books. They figure that it has to be him since he and May have disappeared. Lincoln says being able to transform is temporary. He’s seen it before. Soon, he’ll just be Lash all the time.
Andrew tries explaining why he went after Lincoln, because he had a dark side. He says he would never hurt Daisy. He tries equating it to what May went through in Bahrain. He’s convincing May not to give up on him—that he’s the same person. Coulson arrives. He tells him he’s not alone. Rosalind tells her agents that this is Coulson’s op. They are to take his orders. Andrew says he has a moral responsibility to separate the good from the bad. He says he’s only killed those who deserves it. Lincoln can’t hold back. Andrew changes to Lash. “I am the cure.” Lash is about to kill Mack and Coulson tries stopping him. ACTU agents start shooting and Lash tears through them. Rosalind shoots and he grabs her by the neck and throws her over a ledge. Daisy is below and uses her quake powers to save her from hitting the ground. Daisy didn’t know she could do that.
Lincoln is still hunting Lash. Says he’ll get him to the containment unit. May sees the dead bodies of the ACTU agents. She gets in between Lash and Lincoln. Tells him to go ahead and kill her. She’s thought about her death before but never thought it’d be him. As she talks, he starts changing back. She then shoots him in the chest and he lands in the unit. Coulson asks how she knew that wouldn’t kill him. “I didn’t.” Lincoln says he can’t run forever. Rosalind offers to put Andrew in stasis, it could slow down the transformation. May asks Daisy what she would do. As a temporary solution, she says she’d do whatever it takes to save him since he helped her.
Fitz looks at the NASA Pathfinder logo and when inverted, it looks like a symbol they found in the castle. Fitz finds Simmons. She’s at a window waiting for the sunrise. Fitz says he may have found a lead. Tells her he fixed the SIM card on her phone. He asks her about everything she said about being with him, if it was just because she was dehydrated. She says she was never more clear-headed. “For now, let’s just watch the sunrise.”
End: Ward meets with Gideon. They talk about the possible price for putting the Strucker kid in this. Gideon says he should think about more than just revenge. Ward says his plan is bigger. He’s going to cut off the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Without Coulson, S.H.I.E.L.D. won’t come back. Gideon gets a call, it’s Rosalind. She apologizes for not bringing Coulson. When Coulson comes in from the other room, she suggests breakfast. They kiss.
Thoughts
Pretty much each episode this season has been jam-packed with action and story. We have a large cast and there's a few different storylines going on. The nice thing is pretty much all the characters have a role to play and aren't being subjected to the background so others can get the bigger stories. There are times it feels like too much is going on. That's almost an odd complaint. Isn't it better to have too much going on rather than not enough?
The big surprise has been the developments with Lash and Andrew. As with other moments this season, it feels like some plot points are happening way too fast. It's great we're not getting strung along for the entire season waiting for answers. Clearly Andrew's story isn't over yet but it feels like more could have been done with him. Perhaps he'll find a way to escape and become a thorn in their sides once again. His capture just felt like it happened too quickly. Everyone barely had time to deal with it and the implications before he was caught. Also, why did he feel the need to kill Inhumans if he now is one?
This season we've been seeing some of the hardships of living the life of an Agent. May questioned whether or not she deserved happiness. Just when it looked like she was getting it once again, everything fell apart. The same happened for Fitz and Simmons. There is still some hope for them. The idea of exploring the connection with the Pathfinder symbol and the ancient order that possessed the Monolith is an intriguing sub-plot to be explored.
Adding to all this, we have Lincoln agreeing to join S.H.I.E.L.D. Joey may be ready for some light field work. Ward is also getting closer to getting his revenge against Coulson.
Speaking of Coulson, what the heck is going on? He's officially hooked up with Rosalind? Didn't he just tell Daisy not to let themselves get close to others a couple episodes ago? While it's seemed like he was falling for her lines and explanations of procedure, I couldn't help but think he was too smart not to see through any possible betrayal. Maybe he was just going along, pretending to be falling for her charm. Is that still the case? Did they have an evening of entertainment after dealing with Lash and were going to further celebrate with breakfast? We don't know how much time passed between the showdown and Rosalind's call at the end.
There's so much to enjoy with the show. It's definitely full of story, action, and surprises. You have to wonder what else they have planned to throw at us with so many big story points getting resolved so quickly. We're starting to see a pattern at how miserable and unfortunate a life as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. can be. Ming-Na Wen's performance in the discovery of Andrew's secret was great. Coulson is about to possibly face a betrayal as well, if he isn't actually aware that he's being played. It's starting to feel like the hour long format isn't enough to contain all the different plots. Part of me feels like the show needs to slow down a tiny bit so we can see some of them actually explored a little more. Regardless, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been on fire this season and we can't wait to see what's going to happen next.