Quite a lot can change in one year’s time, and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. know this all too well. They might have steered their timeline away from a world-ending cataclysm, but altering fate comes at a price. The course correction cost the agency Fitz and Coulson. But beloved faces have a funny way of popping back into existence. Now, with Mack at the helm, S.H.I.E.L.D. has a new yet familiar foe, and Simmons treaded the line of obsession. A galaxy apart, Coulson and Fitz reemerged, though neither seem to be what they once were. The mystery just began but it already threatened allegiances and legacies.
Carrying On
Mack still seems to be settling into his leadership role with the agency as the one year anniversary of Coulson’s death approaches. He continually consults recordings left behind by Coulson, hoping to live up to his legacy. May knows he’s right for the job, but he needs to make the office his own. Those are heavy words coming from the woman who stayed so close to Coulson’s to the end. Maybe he should just her intuition though. It’s strong enough to sniff out a budding relationship between Yo-Yo and Keller.
Work always beckons, though. Mack desire to beef up S.H.I.E.L.D.’s brain power leads May to introduce him to a colleague of her ex-husband, Dr. Benson. The ultimate goal is to have him head a new S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, but they need his help with some mysterious visitors. Benson isn’t the easiest to convince, but he and Mack bond over loss. That and the mention of deep space. The doctor is in.
Love In A Vacuum
Across the Milky Way, Simmons, Daisy, Piper and Davis are the only remaining crew on the Zephyr continuing to search for Fitz’s cryo pod. The ship housing it was destroyed by a wave of energy one year prior, making the search that much harder. Simmons and Daisy pry the location of part of the ship’s wreckage out of a foolhardy D’Rillian. The pod is still on board, but it’s empty. They take the pod on board and debate their next move as Simmons’ desperation grows.
Fuel tanks are low and they don’t have many jumps left as a result. The rest of the crew decides that it’s time they returned to Earth to regroup while Simmons lays down and weeps in the pod. The act of grief reveals an engraving with coordinates leading to the planet where the pod was made. Simmons brings this to the rest of the crew, but no one else is on board with travelling deeper into space. They might not be able to jump back to Earth from such a distance. The argument is put on hold when a Confederacy ship approaches. Unable to hide, the Zephyr is forced to jump. They prepare to go home, but Simmons enters the coordinates for the alien planet rather than Earth. She left them no other choice. They’re going deeper into the vacuum.
Simmons might be onto something though. Fitz is alive, working in an alien lab and speaking an alien language. There are some slight changes though. Specifically the green eyes he now sports.
Sarge
The mysterious visitors the agency has been monitoring continue pouring in via warp portals. The first to emerge, Juco, shoots down May’s plane as his buddy ends up trapped in a cement wall. Juco soon meets up with two other travelers. Their leader, Sarge, is the next to come through, but his entry point is blocked by a museum. A path needs to be cleared.
Elsewhere, the agency tries to make sense of the appearance of the supposed time travelers. Keller notices that all of the entry points have been along ley lines that ancient civilizations regarded as spiritually significant. That, along with a countdown device found on the wall-bound man, peg the museum as the next entry point. Mack deploys a squad to the museum, but a female traveler poses as an escaped hostage to buy her friends more time. The plan works. The museum goes sky high in a futuristic explode. A armored truck charges through a portal, nearing running over May. Sarge emerges from the truck and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are bewildered to see that he looks exactly like Coulson. He clearly isn’t the man they know, though. Sarge shoots an agent, frees his ally and mentions that he has never heard of S.H.I.E.L.D. before leaving with his squad.
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