Daisy and Lincoln pick up Joey in Miami and Elena in Bogota, then give a cheesy “Let’s put our gifts to good use” before parachuting out of the plane into the Hydra base. She sends the newbies off together, and they do a good job, taking out six guards easily. Lincoln makes short work out of his own baddies, then finds Malick. Daisy found the zephyr and they all converge. Joey is briefly knocked out by Giyera; Daisy returns the favor. They find Lucio hiding on the plane, and he freezes Lincoln. Joey, acting on reflex, stabs him dead. May is badly injured, but insists she can still fly. The plane takes off, with all of SHIELD on board with a prize: Gideon Malick. Giyera is worried that they are getting away, but Ward isn’t: “We have one on the inside.”
Team Inhuman is excited and proud about their victory, and Daisy is especially proud. Only Joey is troubled and quiet. He took a life. Lincoln is still ogling the orb they took from James, and Daisy warns him to sign it into the archives, along with the terrigen crystal he took. She is mad about that, like he took advantage of their relationship, but she concedes that it was a good play. Mack gives Elena a tour of HQ, and promises that SHIELD does their best not to kill. To prove it, he shows her their non-lethal weapons. Unfortunately, there are also lethal bombs in the armory.
Coulson begins interrogating Malick, who is grief-stricken by the death of his daughter and feels duped by the god he was taught to worship. He believes that a reckoning is coming, and Inhumans will worship Hive. Coulson doesn’t believe that; Hive was originally a slave to the Kree. “Those loyal to me are now loyal to him,” Malick admits sadly. “You sent four Inhumans in. How many do you think he turned?” Coulson blows off Malick’s admission, until he is out of the room. Then concern flashes across his face, as he eyes the Inhumans among them suspiciously. Malick has no reason to lie.
He gathers Mack and FitzSimmons in his office and tells them what Malick told him. Coulson’s tone is calm, but there is a panic on the edge of his voice. He wants Mack to – quietly – lock down HQ and monitor the Inhumans. None of this works if they know. He tasks FitzSimmons with developing a test of some sort to figure out who was turned. Daisy pops in and asks about the lockdown; Coulson assures her it is just a precaution because Malick is on board.
Elena is getting anxious that she can’t leave. Daisy is anxious because she can’t find Joey anywhere. May is anxious because Lincoln tries to give her some pain meds, which she flatly refuses. Daisy takes a minute with her and admits she thinks Coulson is lying to her. May defends Coulson, but soon drags herself out of bed to find out what is going on.
Coulson takes another run at Malick. He believes he could resurrect a god; instead, he freed a devil. “I sacrificed my brother to help find him, and he still took my daughter.” Coulson uses Malick’s pain to sell him on the idea of revenge. He admits he killed Ward out of pure, purposeless revenge. Malick takes this to heart. He will talk.
Fitz is intrigued by Lucio’s corpse. He’s not actually sure if he is dead or not, as his body temperature has not dropped at all. Simmons is fascinated as well, and the two get him into quarantine. Simmons performs the autopsy, as Fitz is squeamish. She cuts off the top of his skull and sees a large blackish spot on Lucio’s brain. They take this info to Coulson, May, and Mack. Malick was right. The black spot is a parasitic infection. Coulson suggests they ice the four Inhumans until they can figure out what is going on. Suddenly the power goes out. Mack goes for a gun and sees one of the lethal bombs he showed Elena is missing.
FitzSimmons notice that Malick’s door is ajar, a blue light blinking inside. They peek in and see Malick dead. The bomb goes off, knocking the pair back. Coulson helps them up and suggest they hunker down somewhere. Lincoln rushes to help them, but Fitz pushes him away. Coulson finally admits to the Inhumans that Hive can infect them, and may have done it to one or more of them. Paranoia breeds amongst the four of them as they lock themselves into the common room to figure out what is going on. Coulson hopes that if they are arguing, that means that they are not all turned. The team checks their lockers and bunks.
The Inhumans go from zero to freaked out mighty fast. Joey and Elena are ready to fight their way out; Lincoln and Daisy turn on each other. Daisy is the one who pulls them all in, wanting to get safe and figure this out amongst themselves. She thinks they can escape to safety via a hidden elevator.
The team is tossing the Inhumans’ lockers, and Mack finds something.
Daisy leads her team through hallways…and right into a containment room, where Coulson is waiting for them. She was in on it. “We know who it is now,” Coulson tells them and reveals what Mack found: the ancient orb, hidden in Lincoln’s locker. Which means that Lincoln wasn’t turned on this last rescue mission, but earlier than that. Lincoln insists it isn’t him, but his growing anger does nothing to assuage Coulson. He starts zapping people away from him. Joey grabs the door remote, and Lincoln makes a dive for him. Daisy knocks him out to save Joey.
Each Inhuman is placed in their own containment room. Daisy feels like she failed Coulson, and the team, but he assures her it wasn’t her fault. They don’t know if anyone else is infected, but for now, they have to remain in quarantine.
FitzSimmons are trying to figure out a test for the infection that is reliable and non-lethal. They are frustrated and scared and have no idea what kind of test that could be. Simmons snuggles up to Fitz and they clasp hands. They kiss, but eventually Fitz pulls away and apologizes for moving too fast. “Too fast? It’s been ten years!” Simmons exclaims, not wanting to waste any more time. They are being goofy, but Simmons finally returns to the kiss, knowing that if she doesn’t, Fitz certainly wouldn’t.
Daisy checks on Lincoln, who swears he didn’t do anything, didn’t take the orb. She believes him, and came to get him out of there. Lincoln is suddenly suspicious: why isn’t she locked up. She claims it was easy for her to hack, as she helped set it up. Lincoln is getting scared, and in a flashback, we see that it was actually Daisy who was infected by Hive. He pleads with Daisy, telling her Hive is using her. But Daisy claims to be happier than ever. She has found something to fill that hole that she and other Inhumans have, it’s a bond with Hive. Daisy killed Malick, but she insists she cares about Lincoln. “The Daisy I know wouldn’t betray SHIELD, or me,” he says. She insists she had to frame him, but it doesn’t matter because she is here for him now. Lincoln wants no part of this, and Daisy leaves. “You’ll understand some day.”
Daisy steals the orb, and as much terrigen as she can carry, and leaves. She seals the door to the hangar, and creates earthquakes as she walks. The team notices and Coulson rushes to get to Daisy, but finds the doors locked. They are stuck inside while Daisy brings the whole place down.
Back at Hydra, Ward is unconcerned about SHIELD, about the fact that Malick is dead. Next in his plan is to find Skye (note the use of name) and he knows where she is headed.
You can watch a preview for next week’s episode, titled “The Singularity,” using the player below.
