Note: there will be spoilers below!
As with past seasons, time has passed since the end of the second season. A new Inhuman has been unleashed due to the fish oil pills infected with the Terrigen Mist at the end of last season. This guy’s powers are out of control. He causes things to melt and is creating havoc across the city as he tries to make his way to a hospital. Soon a group of soldiers arrive with orders to use lethal force if necessary to stop him. Trying to hide, he is saved by the arrival of S.H.I.E.L.D. Skye/Daisy Johnson uses her quake powers to momentarily send the soldiers out of the way.
Daisy tries calming the guy who tells her his name is Joey. Mack and Hunter are also with her. They call a transport (rocket elevator) to take him away to the new Bus (their giant plane/mobile headquarters). As the soldiers recover, we see the lead guy talk to a woman in a car. She chastises him about the situation and tells him to contain the scene. “It’s getting harder for this to go unnoticed." This clearly isn’t the first time they’ve gone after an Inhuman or super powered individual. Coulson is in the crowd and gets a shot of her with his camera phone.
After Daisy convinces Joey to get some rest, she talks to Coulson about how more incidents are popping up and the new Inhumans are getting taken. They don’t know who is abducting them. The woman isn’t registering on any of his records.
We next see the lady is with her soldiers at a facility. She tells him he needs to make sure it doesn’t happen again. There's a room with a bunch of dead bodies on examining tables. She says the incidents are getting less rare and she doesn’t like that one got away.
Bobbi is in a lab coat and helps Joey get situated in his new room. When Joey asks if he hurt anyone, she says, “Probably,” but there’s no reported fatalities. Hunter tells Coulson that his sources say the lady is not being linked back to HYDRA. Coulson has discovered she does have different aliases but they still can’t track her. She seems to have been associated with several different government agencies under the different aliases.
Daisy and Mack talk to Joey and he asks them to be straight with him. Daisy tells him about being a small part of the population affected by the Terrigen Crystals and that he can't go back to his old life. When he starts freaking out, Mack turns on the news with reports of a manhunt for him. He continues to get agitated and starts unconsciously melting Mack's clipboard so Daisy zaps him with her quake powers.
Coulson checks in with Bobbi. The (alien) monolith hasn’t shown any new readings and no one’s been in the room since Simmons was swallowed by it. (They’re aware how she disappeared last season). They’ve tried pulling all the fish oil off the shelves. The problem is the mist could have affected other sea life. Coulson asks where Fitz is. He’s chasing down another lead. He was at the archives trying to find clues. She calls him and tells him to get in there. He says he has one more thing to check and he’ll be right there. He’s in Morocco.
Fitz meets a powerful man and explains he'll want what's in his briefcase in exchange for information about an ancient monolith. Inside are splinter bombs, what was used to kill Bakshi.They laugh at Fitz and decide to use one on him. It causes a bright light and explosion to go off. Fitz uses this diversion to grab the artifact and scroll and runs out.
Daisy is bummed she messed things up with Joey. She says there is on person better at this than she is, Lincoln. Coulson isn’t too sure but they don’t have much of a choice. She tried convincing Lincoln to help before but he refused.
Bobbi tells Coulson they find a hit in the records on the mystery woman. She works for DARPA. They’ve figured out her schedule and know when she’s alone on the subway. Coulson and Hunter get the drop on her but it turns out she knew he was coming. She figured out who he was. She says they can call her Rosalind. She’s bounced around from agency to agency. She also knows that Coulson is supposed to be dead.
Daisy and Mack visit Lincoln at a hospital (he’s a doctor). He’s not happy to see them. Says he doesn’t know anything about the monolith. He says he was wrong what he said before. Before an Inhuman is a curse. He wants to let it go. He just wants a normal life. Mack insists Lincoln isn’t leaving until Daisy is finished talking.
Rosalind says the new individuals area threat and need to be neutralized. It’s her job to make that happen. She explains to Coulson how they’ll be detained. She says they can’t get away with all the bodies they left behind. She thinks Coulson's been killing them and leaving the bodies. It turns out there must be another group hunting them down and killing them.
At the hospital, things are getting more tense between Lincoln and Mack. He’s not happy they just let him go after the men he hurt on the helicarrier. The lights start flickering and Daisy tries calming Lincoln down. He says it’s not him. Out in the hall, a deep voice asks where the Inhuman is. When the security guard doesn’t know what he’s talking about, a hand touches his chest and zaps him, leaving a burn mark. The dark figure with long spiky hair turns and snarls, “Nevermind.” Lincoln charges and zaps him. It doesn’t really stop him. Daisy blasts him and it pushes him back. Mack shoots at him several times. He stumbles back and burns a big hole in the wall to run away.
Coulson and Rosalind both get calls about the hospital. She leaves to go into another car which gives Coulson and Hunter a chance to escape.
At the hospital, Lincoln and Daisy find the big brute. They both start blasting him but it’s not stopping him. He’s slowing moving closer to them until Daisy shifts her power to the floor so he falls through. This allows him to escape as the soldiers now have the place surrounded. Daisy tries convincing Lincoln to leave with them but he refuses and takes off.
Hunter and Bobbi finally talk. He's been avoiding her. He has her ring that she asked for. She says it's just to hold onto and not that she thinks they should get married again. He says he’s going to get him (referring to Ward). Bobbi says they agreed until she was 100%.
After the incident at the hospital, the President speaks about the alien threat. The incidents are growing. New dangers are appearing everyday. He’s created a special task force to neutralize the threat Advanced Threat Containment Unit (ATCU) since SHIELD is no longer around.
Fitz returns as Coulson is waiting in the lab. He mentions how they thought Simmons was inside until the full scans revealed there was nothing except solid mass. They even thought she might’ve been reduced to a microscopic level after learning more about Pym Particles. He says it’s a black hole. Inside the artifact is a scroll. There’s a symbol and he says it’s Hebrew. It means “Death.” Coulson says they have to lay her to rest. Her family deserves that. They need Fitz back. He’s on his third hand. He’s lost May since she never came back. They have to say goodbye. Jemma would want that. Fitz agrees but heads to where the monolith is with a shotgun. He shoots off the lock on the container and gets inside with it. He starts yelling for it to do something. He hits and shoves it and yells more and more.
End scene: Desert-like area. Someone is running up a mountain. It’s Simmons! She’s running from something through some strange rock formations. She has a cut on her head and digs in the ground to smear some mud on her face. As she catches her breath, she hears something. She pears around the rock and we see she is clearly on another planet.
Thoughts
The show is back with a strong start to the season. I always think it's interesting to have time pass in between the seasons. It adds some mystery since we don't know everything that happened during the break. The same goes for the Marvel movies as well.
Seeing Skye Daisy in action is something many have been craving. We are now getting a regular dose of superpowers on the show. If Lincoln agrees to join them, we'll have him to add to the mix as well. Obviously the team doesn't have to rely on powers since there are so many other capable characters as well but it's just cool to see. Daisy has come a long way since the first season. She's now a strong and commanding character. She's still willing to seek out help (from Lincoln) when she knows she's in over her head.
Coulson's new hand is interesting. I still have to wonder if it has any other abilities. He did mention being on his third one. We saw how he used it to free himself from his constraints on the train by removing it. If he did have any sort of repulsor beams like Tony Stark, it'd be a great 'secret' weapon he could have, literally, up his sleeve.
It was great hearing the mention of Bobbi having a Biology degree.
I'll admit, hearing Skye refer to herself as Daisy all the time did seem a little strange to me. It was great when Coulson brought it up and it turned out he was the only one with the problem. It is understandable why she changed her name. She spent her whole life wondering who she was and where she came from. When she did find out last season, even though it wasn't a perfect story, she did accept the goodness in her father. So it's like she's doing in honor of that good man.
I had a lot of anticipation for the show over the break. The show delivered on a few different levels. We now have powers, Inhumans, a new threat, and there was a good amount of action mixed with more character building. The scene with Fitz at the end was heart-breaking. And what a doozy of ending.
The interesting thing will be how the show continues after this premiere episode. There's a few different angles the show is juggling with the Inhumans, establishing a new direction and team, outside threats from Rosalind and eventually Ward, and of course Simmons and any other surprises that pop up. It seems like we could have a good mix in direction from show to show. That could be good and bad. Having variety is great but it could also make the show feel directionless. All in all, this is a promising start to the new season.