History Awesome / AgentsOfSHIELD

** And then a few months later, before season 6 even began airing, ''season 7''!

** And the fact it got renewed for Season 6!

** Boy, that Ghost Rider transformation sequence from season 4 premiere sure was some VisualEffectsOfAwesome! Pity their SFX budget wouldn't allow them to do that often, right? Wrong! ''Every'' episode featuring Ghost Rider contains a badass transformation sequence with the face/skull transition shown in great detail, [[spoiler:although in some cases it's not Robbie Reyes who transforms.]]

* A somewhat indirect [=CMoA=], but Creator/ClarkGregg is going to [[AndTheFandomRejoiced return to the films]] as Agent Coulson in 2019's ''[[https://news.marvel.com/movies/86686/production-underway-marvel-studios-captain-marvel/ Captain Marvel]]''.

* The most-upvoted thread on the [[{{Reddit}} r/arrow]] subreddit? A [[https://www.reddit.com/r/arrow/top/?sort=top&t=all picture]] of the Agents of SHIELD cast.

** As of "No Regrets," [[spoiler: let's add B.J. Britt. #TrippLives indeed.]]

* The entire presence of the then-little known Ruth Negga in the first two seasons, which makes for one hell of a RetroactiveRecognition as her highest profile role prior to her StarMakingRole and Oscar nomination for ''Film/{{Loving}}''.

** And they pulled it off in reverse in Season 2, where it was Coulson who discovered and told [[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron the Avengers]] where to find Strucker and List, and then revealed that he'd been responsible for [[spoiler:providing the helicarrier that showed up at the climax of the film]].
* After Marvel announced that they were going to air the teaser trailer for ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' during the sixth episode of Season 2 in order to get people to give the show a second chance now that it's improved so much, some jackass decided to leak it online, thus robbing Marvel of this opportunity. However, instead of getting worked up, Marvel responded by jokingly pinning the blame on HYDRA. Then they released the clip properly so fans could watch it with their consent, ''then'' promised -- and delivered -- a different piece of exclusive footage for people to catch at the end of the episode. All in all, while Marvel want to get people to give their show another chance, they still put their fans first and made the best of a bad situation.

* After Marvel announced that they were going to air the teaser trailer for ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' during the sixth episode of Season 2 in order to get people to give the show a second chance now that it's improved so much, some jackass decided to leak it online, thus robbing Marvel of this opportunity. However, instead of getting worked up, Marvel responded by jokingly pinning the blame on HYDRA. Then they released the clip properly so fans could watch it with their consent, ''then'' promised--and delivered--a different piece of exclusive footage for people to catch at the end of the episode instead. All in all, while Marvel want to get people to give their show another chance, they still put their fans first and made the best of a bad situation.

* While Skye and May fighting in S.O.S. is a TearJerker to be sure, it has to be appreciated on a meta-level: A couple of episodes prior, Chloe Bennett broke her arm during a fight scene. Here, she is not only once again doing her own stunts, but she is visibly not wearing a cast, having refused to use one. She must be hurting like hell during those takes, but she still makes the fight look perfectly convincing. If that doesn't prove that she's a one-hundred percent badass, then nothing will.

* While Skye and May fighting in S.O.S. is a TearJerker to be sure, it has to be appreciated on a meta-level: A couple of episodes prior, Chloe Bennett broke her arm during a fight scene. Here, she is not only once again doing her own stunts, but she is visibly not wearing a cast, having refused to use one. She must be hurting like hell during those takes, but she still makes the fight look perfectly convincing. If that doesn't prove that she's a one-hundred percent {{Badass}}, then nothing will.
* Recently at San Diego Comic Con, they have announced that Ghost Rider will appear in season 4!

** And they pulled it of in reverse in Season 2, where it was Coulson who discovered and told [[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron the Avengers]] where to find Strucker and List, and then revealed that he'd been responsible for [[spoiler:providing the helicarrier that showed up at the climax of the film]].

[[foldercontrol]]

! Season One

[[folder: Pilot]]

* Coulson not only calmly dodges a van door ''[[Film/TheMatrix Matrix]]''-style launched by an enraged Centipede/[[spoiler:Extremis]]-powered Mike, but he also calmly negotiates with the man while [[spoiler:he showcases that he's being affected by Extremis]].
* May taking out any and all mooks she comes across in short order. Pity she's only driving the bus and not in the field.
* Ward's fight with the goons trying to get the Chitauri device.
* The fact that, according to Fitz, among Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D collectibles include not only [[FlyingCar Lola]], but also the world's first G.P.S and ''flamethrowers''. ''' ''PLURAL.'' '''
* Skye has the ability to not only hack S.H.I.E.L.D from her ''van'', she can keep her files encrypted so they can't get to them.
** How awesome is Skye? S.H.I.E.L.D. knows nothing about her - something Coulson says never happens.
*** She insinuates she [[spoiler: removed the data on herself (when she's speaking with Mike in the van about deleting his info, he asks how she knows what to do and she says quietly that she's done it before)]].
** As pointed out by Skye, with her ordinary laptop (which she won in a bet, no less), she was able to hunt down a secret that S.H.I.E.L.D., with all its high-tech equipment, didn't know about.
* Fitz and Simmons [[spoiler: finding a third option to save Michael from dying and blowing up.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: [=0-8-4=]]]

* The team overcoming their differences and working together to foil [[spoiler:Camilla's attempted hijacking]].
** Said foiling involves using the 0-8-4 to [[spoiler:[[FrickinLaserBeams blast a hole through the hull of the jet.]]]]
** And before that, there's May effortlessly dislocating her wrist to slip through of her bindings, StealthHiBye attack the mook guarding them, ''and then'' snapping her wrist back into place. And it all takes about thirty seconds.
** When the rest of the team is arguing about what to do next.
--->'''May''': You talk too much ''[drives car through a '''bulletproof''' door]''
* According to Coulson, S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to keep ''an anti-matter meteor eating away half of Miami'' from reaching public eyes & ears.
* While [[spoiler: Nick Fury has yet to actually ''do'' something in the series, the fact that he ''showed up at all'' has gotta be a MomentOfAwesome.]]
** [[spoiler: It's certainly a Crowning Moment for Samuel L. Jackson. Remember, he didn't have to make that cameo. He surely has bigger and more important projects on his plate, and he has enough professional clout in Hollywood that he probably could have said no. I doubt there was anything in his Avengers contract that mandated a cameo on this show. The fact that he agreed to do it anyway is pretty cool.]]
** [[spoiler:Not to mention, the show probably couldn't afford to pay him a whole lot for the cameo, lacking the kind of budgets of the Marvel films. He probably did it out of love for his character.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Asset]]
* Quinn getting Hall, catching S.H.I.E.L.D. ''completely'' off-guard.
** And both of them getting caught off-guard by [[spoiler: Hall revealing he orchestrated the whole thing himself, while in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, without either party knowing.]]
* Skye hacks an invitation to Quinn's party using ''only her phone''!
* When Quinn points a gun at Skye, she flawlessly disarms him using [[ChekhovsSkill the move Ward taught her earlier in the episode.]]
* Skye getting Quinn to let her into his office so she can plant the device Fitz-Simmons gave her. The best part? She ''never actually lied to him.'' Every word she said was the truth: She's a hacker who works for Rising Tide and [[spoiler: she infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. to work as TheMole.]]
* Coulson [[spoiler:stopping the gravitonium reactor by shooting a window Hall was standing on, causing him to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard fall into it]].]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Eye Spy]]
* May vs. Akela, especially when May [[NonchalantDodge calmly dodges]] a thrown shard.
* Akela remaining completely calm when [[spoiler:Fitz and Simmons operate on her cybernetic eye while she's conscious]]. In fact, she [[spoiler:injects the anesthetic into her ''own'' eye, because Simmons's hand was shaking from nervousness about performing eye surgery.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Girl in the Flower Dress]]
* Coulson releasing the self-righteous hacker Miles...in Hong Kong. With a bracelet that keeps him from using electronics. He also donates the money Miles received from the Centipede organization to the family of the Chinese S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was killed during the attempt to rescue Chan from Centipede.
** Coulson's line at the beginning of the scene:
--> '''Coulson:''' ''[offers Miles a small box]'' You have a choice: You take what's in this box, or we put you in a slightly bigger one.
* Chan's RoaringRampageOfRevenge has [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome impressive pyrotechnics]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: FZZT]]
* Simmons [[spoiler: creates a cure for an ''alien'' virus by using alien DNA and she does it within ''hours''. This is while she's racing against the clock because she herself is infected.]]
* Fitz [[spoiler: rushes into quarantine to help Simmons after their EurekaMoment, thus overcoming all the fear from this episode. When she did her HeroicSacrifice, the only reason he didn't jump after her is because Ward grabbed the parachute from him.]]
* Ward [[spoiler: jumps out of the Bus and skydives after Simmons, who had jumped herself because she was infected with an alien virus which could destroy everyone aboard the plane. He's also able to catch her and cure her before they hit the water.]]
* In TheStinger, Coulson standing up to Blake after being lectured for disobeying an order to [[spoiler:dump the infected Simmons off the plane.]]
-->'''Blake''': If you keep bending the rules like this, someone might take this dream team away from you.\\
'''Coulson''': [[BadassBoast I'd like to see them try.]]\\
'''Blake''': That doesn't sound like the Coulson I remember.\\
'''Coulson''': No, I guess it doesn't. Get used to it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Hub]]
* May living up to her name of TheCavalry and showing that like Firefly, you don't need guns to be BigDamnHeroes.
* A relatively minor one compared to the above, but Fitz willingly going through with the mission [[spoiler:in spite of learning [[SuicideMission there's no planned extraction for them]]. Not because he feels he has something to prove but because he's [[CowardlyLion that loyal to his duties as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent]].]]
* Fitz repurposing the [[spoiler: core of the Overkill device, destroying the guns of the men attacking them]] to back up Ward, followed by him kicking one of the goons in the head hard enough to put the mook down.
* When Coulson realizes there's no extraction plan for Ward and Fitz, he marches right up to Agent Hand and chews her out for it.
** And Hand gets a CM when she reveals she didn't have an extraction plan because she knew Coulson's team didn't need one.
* Fitz shorts out the electricity of a building with a mini-EMP ''just'' so he can fix it and win the trust of the people present. Keep in mind these were Russian mobsters who were very close to killing them both just to prove a point.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Well]]
* Agent Coulson deducing the Berserker's identity with only the slightest of clues.
** Randolph acting completely calm and nonchalant throughout the entire thing. Starting by shrugging off a cultist attack with a simple "I messed up." and culminating with casually catching Agent Ward's knife and bending it, with a look on his face that says 'Oh, come on, how did they figure it out? Now I've got to explain myself, so tedious.'
* May assembling and wielding the [[spoiler: completed Berserker Staff]] and kicking ass, and also holding onto her sanity because she's dealt with her pain rather than repressed it.
* Ward also becomes a OneManArmy [[spoiler: using two staff pieces like batons]], dispatching a few dozen crazed cultists single-handedly.
* After Randolph gets impaled with the staff, Simmons is panicking that she doesn't know how to help someone with Asgardean physiology. Coulson takes the matters into his own hands (literally) by ''shoving his hand into the gaping chest wound'', feeling around for his heart and then clamping down on a laceration on it while helping it pump long enough that the Asgardian rapid healing takes care of the rest.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Repairs]]
* May pulling a StealthHiBye on Tobias, who can literally teleport.
* Tobias shutting down The Bus and capturing all but one member of a S.H.I.E.L.D. team with teleportation and a wrench.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Bridge]]
* The prison break at the beginning. Edison Po just calmly sits there eating his lunch the entire time, completely unfazed by the fight, and corrects a solider with "Time to go, ''sir''." Despite the fact that this soldier had super abilities.
* [[UpgradeVsPrototypeFight Mike vs. Three Soldiers]]. Mike wins.
[[/folder]]


[[folder: The Magical Place]]
* Skye gets kicked off the bus because [[ExactWords she's no use there]] then follows the money all the way back to Centipede to locate Coulson with none of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources... except for the WalkingTechbane bracelet that shuts down every computer she touches. Including GPS. She successfully uses the disarming techniques Ward had been teaching her, while channeling Melinda May.
** Even better, she ''weaponizes'' her WalkingTechbane status to sell her deception.
* May tricks Victoria Hand into booting Skye off of The Bus, thus allowing her to work outside the box, which is where she operates best. Even Hand seemed impressed.
* The Bus gets one when May needs to quickly change directions. How often do you see a passenger jet do a complete 180 in-flight?
* [[NonActionGuy Skye]] pulling a ShutUpHannibal by punching out [[TheHeavy Raina]].
* Villains can be awesome too. For example, Raina [[spoiler:talking Coulson into cooperating with the MindProbe. Despite his training to resist interrogation, despite him knowing how evil they are, despite being 5 minutes past the torture. Props to the writers too, for making every second convincing.]]
** There's another one for Coulson in here too - [[spoiler:even though he caves in to Raina's manipulation, he manages to hide what he's discovered about his resurrection from her, meaning the baddies are still in the dark how he survived, while he himself comes away with more information than he had before.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Seeds]]
* May flies The Bus in and out of the eye of giant, hail-spewing superstorm without batting an eye.
* The students of the Science and Research Divison of the Academy transformed the school's boiler room into a night club. They supposedly did this without the faculty knowing or at least discreetly enough for PlausibleDeniability.
* [[CoolCar Lola]] aids Coulson in capturing the missing S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T.R.A.C.K.S.]]
* May killing all of [[spoiler:her torturers]] with a knife [[LodgedBladeRecycling she was just stabbed with]].
-->'''May:''' [[PreAsskickingOneLiner Just what I needed.]]
* Simmons jumps on a grenade to save the rest of the team. Luckily it's non-lethal, but she didn't know that.
* Creator/StanLee chastising what he thinks is a deadbeat dad, before heading to his train compartment with two sexy women.
* Ward bursts into Ian Quinn's mansion GunsAkimbo and tranquilizes several of Quinn's bodyguards before they can as much as draw their own weapons. Quinn tries to slip away, but only walks into Coulson's gun. CheckAndMate.
** After Quinn implies [[MoralEventHorizon he did something horrible to Skye]], [[PapaWolf Coulson]] gives him a much-deserved PistolWhipping.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T.A.H.I.T.I]]
* May beating the crap out of Quinn for shooting Skye.
-->'''Quinn''': Wait! You can't!
-->'''May''': ''(punching him in the face repeatedly)'' Why? Because you're defenseless? ''Like she was?''
* Fitz and Simmons locating the facility where Coulson was resurrected, in only a few minutes, by following a paper trail in S.H.I.E.L.D's human resources documents.
* When everyone is blaming themselves for what happened to Skye, May snaps them out of it and says that the only one to blame is the man who shot her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Yes Men]]
* Coulson, when asked by Agent Sitwell, "How was Tahiti?" We fully expect Coulson to repeat the old CatchPhrase "It's a magical place"--probably with a bitter and/or snarky tone. What does Coulson do? Puts on his sunglasses, Series/CSIMiami style...and says, [[spoiler: "It ''sucked''."]]
* Sif gets plenty of these moments. Specifically:
** Dishing out a CurbStompBattle to a group of thugs under Lorelei's control.
** Climbing on the top of the plane in ''mid-flight''!
** Getting back into the holding cell without Lorelei noticing--providing a nice OhCrap for our villainess. The following fight also qualifies.
** Coulson himself [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this trait of hers]] near the beginning, after recounting what he's seen Sif do: "Pretty {{Badass}}."
** During the bar fight Sif takes a shotgun blast to the torso at point blank range. [[NoSell Barely a flinch.]]
* Lorelei has her moments, too--and not just of the EvilIsSexy variety. Her unflappably confident demeanor makes her quite charismatic in general.
** Her TheReasonYouSuckSpeech at Sif's expense clearly hitting ''very'' close to home. Making the tough-as-nails LadyOfWar ''Sif'' come ''extremely'' close to shedding tears is quite a feat.
* Coulson's IndyPloy when realizing that [[spoiler: Fitz has been compromised.]] What's awesome is that he somehow gets away with it!
** You've really got to give it up to [[spoiler: Brainwashed!Fitz]] too: Most people who are affected by Lorelei's power basically act like hopeless love slaves, making it fairly obvious that they are under her control. [[spoiler: Fitz]] lures Sif into the interrogation room without ever tipping her off.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: End of the Beginning]]
* Coulson telling off The Clairvoyant:
-->'''Clairvoyant:''' A force beyond your comprehension is coming for you. You and Skye. She has something we want and she will die giving it to us. I have seen it.\\
'''Coulson:''' Go to hell!
* Before becoming brutally incapacitated by Deathlok, Agent Blake managed to shoot him with the tracker devised by Fitz. When Coulson later realizes this he says to himself: "Nicely done, Blake."
* Seeing May unhesitatingly and unflinchingly hunt [[spoiler: Fitz]] down is equal parts Awesome and Nightmare Fuel.
** Coulson stops her by drawing his gun on her. She tells him that the bullets in her gun are just icers; he counters by telling her that his are the real thing and he has no problem using them on her if she doesn't drop her gun. The message here? ''No one'' messes with a member of Coulson's team, not even one of his own agents.
** Awesome moment for Skye too, as she backs up Coulson and pulls her own gun on May.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Turn, Turn, Turn]]
* It turns out that the Mousehole, that lightsaber-esque cutting tool used by Fury and Hill in ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier The Winter Soldier]]'', was invented by Fitz. ''Fitz saved Fury and Hill's lives!''
* Ward takes out ''twelve guards'' by himself. (OffscreenMomentOfAwesome, sadly....)
* May echoes Black Widow by doing a hurricanrana on a mook.
* Fitz, CowardlyLion though he is, stammering defiance to the Clairvoyant's face through tears of fear and wishing the Clairvoyant pain. Pain that Fitz would like to play a central role in administering.
** Not just that, he saved May's life by picking up a gun and shooting a mook that got the drop on her. Fitz's not even remotely cleared for combat, and, judging by the way he tossed away said gun after the deed was done and the floods of tears afterwards, that's probably the first time he's killed someone. Fitz is really stepping up to the plate, no matter how terrified and unwilling he might be. And points to him for diving under a desk instead of freezing or trying to fight, realizing that he'd just get in May and Coulson's way.
* The climactic fight between Coulson and [[spoiler: John Garrett, a.k.a. [[BigBad The Clairvoyant]], now outed as a top HYDRA operative.]]
* Garrett's flying causing the two missiles chasing him to crash into each other. Then later, Coulson shooting down both the [=UAVs=] with his and Garrett's coordinated [[ImprobablePilotingSkills "play]] [[ImprobableAimingSkills dead"]] maneuver.
* Hand, pretending to be HYDRA in a SecretTestOfCharacter, approaches Simmons and Trip and gives them the choice to either die or join HYDRA. Trip and Simmons share a small nod, and then Trip takes down the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent closest to him and holds him at knifepoint using the knife tossed to him by Simmons. They'd rather die than join HYDRA, and if they're going down, they're [[TakingYouWithMe taking at least one of them down with them]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Providence]]
* Coulson's trust in Fury is sound: [[spoiler:he and his team, although battered, demoralised and on the run, manage to find Fury's secret base, and Koenig confirms to Coulson that Fury is indeed alive.]]
* TheMole aka [[spoiler:Ward]] explaining his ongoing deception of Team Coulson is evilly awesome, involving a multifaceted BatmanGambit.
** The plan itself is genius:
*** [[spoiler:First, he acted like a loner-type to convince Coulson that he was someone he could fix, which the plane was full of, so that Coulson would ask him to join. Then, to gain the team's trust, he jumped out of a plane to save Simmons. Since he felt May could have sensed something off about him, he let things get intimate with her. He also became Skye's S.O. to get an idea what she was thinking.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Only Light in the Darkness]]
* Ward beat a super-polygraph designed by Nick Fury so that even Black Widow wouldn't be able to beat it, albeit with difficulty, by giving technically factual but out of context responses.
** Also counts as a [[SugerWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Moment of Heartwarming]] given [[MoralityPet how he did it]], ''and'' NightmareFuel given the implications of him beating it.
* Agent Koenig's steely-eyed interrogation of Ward, when the test nears the end--even holding the man at gunpoint when Ward starts evading. Note: He pulls a ''gun''. On ''[[OneManArmy Ward]]''. For all his nervous nerdiness in the previous episode, this one moment goes a long way towards making clear the man's a HiddenBadass. Too bad he caught the IdiotBall soon afterwards.
* After a few moments of totally breaking after finding out about Ward, Skye gets herself together, resets Ward's penny trap he'd set up to see if anyone had entered the room where he'd stashed the evidence, and completely and totally fools Ward into believing she's none the wiser. She managed to bluff a HYDRA spy with Black Widow levels of spy training, despite having found out that the person she trusts most was a spy.
** Also, she shows just how ProperlyParanoid she really is: Not only is the hard drive with every secret from the show's run encrypted so only she can access it, but it's also GPS-locked to one location. And that's what we know so far, there may be more security.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Nothing Personal]]
* Maria Hill easily identifying the surveillance agents on the street as she walks by.
** And May neutralizing all of the surveillance agents so that she could speak to Hill without interference.
* Simmons snapping at [[{{Jerkass}} Colonel Talbot]] for going after the whole team when he knows full well who the HYDRA infiltrator was, where he's headed, and the fact that he has a hostage. Made more awesome by the fact that it's the first time in the series Simmons has managed to chew anyone out at length without losing her nerve midway through, and she looks appropriately ''pissed''.
* Skye's ability to keep her cool after finding out Ward is a HYDRA agent, and setting up several concurrent plans to wait him out and get help.
** First, she managed to leave a note revealing Ward as a traitor using just the supplies in the bathroom.
** Second, she stalls Ward by giving him a false location for the hard drive to be encrypted, and tries to sneak a gun along just in case.
** Then she keeps stalling at the false location -- which is the diner from the first episode, [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay a place she would know Coulson should be able to recognize and find]] -- to wait for her team to catch up.
** And when all else fails, she calls Ward out in the most epic fashion possible -- while pretending to decrypt the hard drive, she starts pressing Ward on how he heroically killed Garrett, asking him what he might say to Garrett were he in the diner with them, and coldly offering a few suggestions. Ward is uncomfortable with this line of questioning, and with the police officers who are starting to clear the diner out. She finally turns her laptop towards him: she tipped off the police and presumably ''every U.S. government agency'' that Ward is a mole. And as the officers walk over to arrest Ward:
-->'''Skye:''' [[IronicEcho Hail Hydra.]]
** She runs out of the diner right after, as the police attempt (unsuccessfully) to apprehend Ward, and even manages to hijack a police car to escape him...but she doesn't get very far before Deathlok shows up and captures her.
** After she wakes up on the Bus, she immediately tries to attack Ward while yelling insults at him, and right after he restrains her and says she can't win, [[TalkToTheFist she gives him a nice headbutt to the nose]].
** Finally, she gives ''another'' epic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech in which she becomes the first person to call out HYDRA for being ANaziByAnyOtherName, and she vows that she will ''never'' give Ward what he wants.
* Coulson chewing out Maria Hill for her part in keeping him in the dark about his resurrection, for leading the US military to Fury's secret base, and for selling out Coulson's team and preventing them from going after a known HYDRA agent.
* Coulson and Hill's ''epic'' takedown of Talbot and his troops so they can go after Ward.
* Hill telling Ward ''exactly'' what she thinks of him:
-->'''Ward:''' Maria Hill. I'd kind of hoped you had gone down with the Triskelion.\\
'''Hill:''' And ''I'd'' kind of hoped that you weren't a duplicitous lowlife, but here we are.
* Coulson and Skye escaping Ward and Deathlok in Lola. ''Mid-air.''
** And that's after holding them off with the ''machine guns hidden in Lola's headlights''.
** He even lands Lola perfectly lined up in the only open parking spot in the immediate area.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Ragtag]]
* Fitz hits Garrett with a short-range EMP in an attempt to kill him, and brags about it to his face while still at his mercy. TheDogBitesBack, indeed.
-->"[[BondOneLiner Looks like the joke's on you.]]"
* The fact that Triplett has in his possession a collection of ''fully-functional seventy-year old S.H.I.E.L.D. tech.''
* Deathlok calls out Raina for giving his son over to HYDRA. She tries to argue that she was JustFollowingOrders, just like him. He counters by [[ArmorPiercingQuestion asking if someone is waiting to blow a hole in her head if she doesn't obey.]] Also a CMOH, since it shows that even as he's being forced to murder people, Mike Peterson, the guy who loves his son more than anything in the world, is still in there somewhere.
* Ward taking a moment to give Garrett hell for ordering Deathlok to shoot him.
* May blackflipping down a corridor and incapacitating a guard before he can use the phone. As soon as he's out, the phone flies into the air, and May calmly catches it and hangs it back up.
* Garrett had his guts blown open by an explosion, and when S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't able to extract him, he stuffed them back in, closed the wound with duct tape, and rescued himself.
* Fitz manages to free himself and Simmons from the HYDRA agents guarding them by throwing his ''office chair'' at them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Beginning of The End]]
* Nick Fury showing up and not only rescuing [=FitzSimmons=] from the ocean, but backing up Coulson by bringing him the [[{{BFG}} Destroyer Gun]] and joining him for some SnarkToSnarkCombat with Garrett during the latter's MotiveRant.
* The entirety of May and Ward's fight.
** May's reaction to Ward taunting her that the fight was like their relationship all over again:
--->"You were ''never'' on top."
** [[AgonyOfTheFeet The nail gun]]
** May crushing his larynx.
* Mike/Deathlok, after learning that his son was safe, immediately [[spoiler:[[TheDogBitesBack blasts Garrett, the man who ruined his life, with a missile]] before delivering a brutal FinishingStomp]].
* Coulson's ToThePain speech to Ward.
-->"Your attempt to cross off Fitz and Simmons failed. But Fitz may never be the same again. So I'm going to ''invent'' new ways to ruin the rest of your life. [[WeHaveWaysOfMakingYouTalk I will do whatever's necessary to get HYDRA intel from you]], but your torture? That's gonna be internal. ['''May:''' [[ColdBloodedTorture And a little bit external.]]] Sure, some of that. But you devoted your entire life to a deranged narcissist who never gave a damn about anyone, and now he's dead. You've the rest of your life to wrestle with the question, '[[ArmorPiercingQuestion Who are you without him]]?'"
* May easily defeating a Berserker Staff-wielding Kaminsky:
-->'''Kaminsky:''' Well, if it isn't The Cavalry.\\
'''May:''' ''(beats him down)'' [[BerserkButton Don't]] ''[[BerserkButton ever]]'' [[BerserkButton call me that.]]
** Then she promptly gets the Berserker Staff and (unsurprisingly) delivers an epic beatdown to the half-dozen other super-soldiers in the room.
* Skye giving Ward a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech while he holds her at gunpoint:
--> "You're not the evil I was referring to; ''Garrett'' is evil. You're just...''weak''. Doing whatever you're told. I hope Garrett orders you to walk into traffic."
* Coulson being [[spoiler: [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning named new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.]]]]
* Fitz is ready to sacrifice his own life to save Simmons. Simmons in turn [[spoiler:basically goes "screw that" and hauls ''both'' of them 90 feet up through ocean water, with Fitz unconscious the whole time, and then keeps both of them treading at the surface long enough for Fury to play BigDamnHeroes and haul them out]].
** In both cases, the fact that they come up with workable plans in a short space of time and under incredible pressure just adds to the awesomeness of the execution, and there's a hint of GuileHero at play for both of them. Fitz is able to fashion a breathing device and detonator out of whatever happens to be lying around a standard S.H.I.E.L.D. medical pod, [[spoiler: simultaneously keeping Simmons in the dark as to the fact that he doesn't plan on going with her to ensure she continues to help him.]] Meanwhile, Simmons must have had to do some pretty quick planning [[spoiler:on how to curtail Fitz's HeroicSacrifice, even as she's [[TearJerker breaking down completely]] listening to his DyingDeclarationOfLove.]]
* Creator/SamuelLJackson appearing again as Nick Fury is as awesome as it comes, especially since this time, it's for a hell of a lot more than a cameo to lecture Coulson about wrecking a plane.
** Once again, practically every word out of his mouth is both awesome and [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilarious]].
* Fury delivers the Destroyer Gun and this time, Coulson knows what it does.
* A mortally-wounded [[spoiler:Garrett]] begs Coulson to stop Mike from killing him. Coulson's response?
-->'''Coulson:''' [[DoWithHimAsYouWill Mr. Peterson is free to do whatever he wants.]]
* Coulson [[spoiler:[[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb3JW2vh1mQ killing Garrett]]]]; nonchalant and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with the HYDRA]] HandCannon.
** Especially great considering how [[spoiler: Garrett]] was right in the middle of an awesome "I Am ''Back''!!!" moment.... and Coulson acts like he barely noticed anything.
** The fact that Creator/JossWhedon and company effectively teases the viewers with effectively [[spoiler: giving Garrett the equivalent of "hand springing up out of the grave"]]...only to pull the rug out with a big MoodWhiplash, courtesy of Coulson.
* What did Fitz do after Ward ejected the pod from the plane? [[spoiler:Strap both Simmons and him to one of the backboards to avoid impact of hitting the bottom of the ocean, calculated how deep they had sank and why, rig the wireless signals on the EKG to send distress call, checked and organized most of their inventory and did the math for every posibile way out of the pod. All of this with arm broken in two places, which he put in a sling all by himself. No sign of panic, even when he understood that there's no way out.]] Quite impressive for someone who didn't pass their field assessment and was probably still very shaken by his friend trying to kill him.
* When Garrett is espousing his godhood delusions to Fury and Coulson, they simply ignore him and instead make fun of Garrett mishearing an inspiring quote from Fury. This shows that in spite of the fact that the BigBad has a [[AGodAmI god complex]], the heroes simply don't take him seriously at all. Doubles as a CrowningMomentOfFunny.
** Considering that they've both stared down ''actual'' Norse gods making even more grandiose and bombastic speeches and then sent them packing with some Avenger help, their boredom at Garret's antics is completely justified.
[[/folder]]

! Season Two

[[folder: Shadows]]
* [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger The Howling Commandos and Peggy Carter]] storming the last HYDRA cell.
* Skye [[TookALevelInBadass taking a level in badass]] and fighting alongside the likes of May and Triplett on the front lines. Looks like all that training from May paid off.
* May vs. Absorbing Man, who's wielding a [[EpicFlail ball-and-chain]] and has turned his body into the same kind of metal as it. Not only does she take him on without a hint of fear, but she was holding her own even before the team intervened.
* Skye's smart about Ward's attempt to HannibalLecture her, keeping her word that she'll shut the interrogation down the second he says something not directly related to the questions she's asking.
* The team manage to break into Talbot's military base that's swarming with personnel and steal an 0-8-4 and ''a freakin' Quinjet''. [[spoiler:Granted, they don't [[StealthPun hold onto the 0-8-4]] for long, but they apparently make off with the Quinjet free and clear.]]
* [[spoiler:The shot of Asphalt!Absorbing Man stopping a speeding SUV with merely his crouched body is pretty damn amazing. Bonus points for the visual similarity to a scene between the Winter Soldier and Fury in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Heavy Is the Head]]
* Coulson's crew beat Crusher Creel at last after the last episode's bummer.
** With a modified version of one of Fitz's designs. Not bad for a guy whose mind is barely functioning.
* Coulson meeting with Talbot, the man dedicated to hunting him down personally, in person and offering him a deal. Talbot even grudgingly admits that Coulson has [[WorthyOpponent "big brass ones"]]. When Talbot points out that he has no backup and rejects the deal, Coulson has [[spoiler:the newly cloak-capable Bus decloak overhead, aiming a cannon in warning]]. When Talbot and his man are too busy gawking at the thing, he calmly walks away [[spoiler:right into the quinjet, which was cloaked next to him all along, and flies off]].
** Even better is that [[spoiler:he makes a statement about the Bus just being "the tip of the iceberg" which is a complete bluff, and he even has to get out of there quickly before it drops out of the sky and wrecks the illusion. And Talbot buys it completely.]]
* Creel turning himself to metal from a park bench railing to deflect Hunter's bullet in the nick of time.
* Mack basically decides to try treating Fitz like an adult, and it works, allowing him to make his first active contribution to the team since the incident that left him brain-damaged. Skye comments that Mack's the first person to even get Fitz to converse coherently since [[spoiler:Simmons left]]. He even seems to make some headway into [[spoiler:making Fitz realise that "Simmons" is a hallucination]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Making Friends and Influencing People]]
* Fitz giving [[spoiler: Ward a nightmarish demonstration of hypoxia by slowly sucking the oxygen out of his cell]].
* Fitz doesn't seem to be having any trouble using the technology he encounters in the episode; he's shown using [[spoiler:the advanced controls to Ward's cell]] with no difficulty whatsoever. It's a definite improvement on earlier episodes, where Mack at one point apparently even has to take over his tablet computer for him; though his aphasia seems to get worse at the same time (though that might be put down to the stress of seeing [[spoiler:Ward]] unexpectedly).
* Donnie getting TiredOfRunning and fighting back against his HYDRA pursuers, not to mention the aftermath of his rampage on the cargo freighter.
* Skye snipes [[spoiler: Donnie]] on her first such mission. Not only is she successful, her pulse doesn't change.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Face My Enemy]]
* May's fight with Agent 33 disguised as her, perhaps the single most impressive brawl in the series. [[spoiler: May ends it by leaping off a table, over the swing of 33's weapon, then ''uses the momentum from her descent to slam 33's face into the aforementioned table''.]] [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome Also one for the editing and effects guys, who make a fight between two Ming-Na Wens completely believable.]]
* Fitz guiding Lance through fixing Agent 33's sabotage of the Bus, proving he still has what it takes even with his brain damage.
* The marvelously choreographed ballroom dance, doubtlessly helped by the episode's director being a dancer himself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: A Hen In the Wolf House]]
* Coulson staring down Raina's threat to expose Simmons, with Raina [[VillainousBreakdown gradually losing her composure]] as he just lets the timer count down, [[spoiler: knowing that Mockingbird will get her out]].
* Mockingbird introducing herself to the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse by [[spoiler: single-handedly saving Simmons when the latter's cover gets blown]]. In addition to that, [[spoiler: she swipes Simmons' hard-drive, and all the top-level HYDRA projects contained there, on the pretense of preventing them from being leaked to S.H.I.E.L.D! This would both deny HYDRA anything Simmons may have worked on and thus put them back, ''and'' let S.H.I.E.L.D. find out everything they gave Simmons access to.]]
** As a sub-CMOA, Simmons and Mockingbird jumping off a building onto a cloaked Quinjet.
* In TheStinger, the Doctor effortlessly taking down a pair of HYDRA agents, never raising his voice and barely even breaking stride.
* ''Simmons'' keeping her cool and framing her lab partner. She watches him being knocked out and dragged away to be tortured without giving the game away - damn, that's cold! A season ago, she had to shoot Sitwell because she lost her head and couldn't talk her way out of the situation. Simmons has come a long, long way.
* Mockingbird's infiltration is itself an OffScreenMomentOfAwesome. As a S.H.I.E.L.D ReverseMole, she worked herself into a position of [[MoleInCharge hunting other S.H.I.E.L.D infiltrators]]. Black Widow, eat your heart out!
** There's also some Fridge-Awesome in this as well; as she was in charge of finding the moles in the organisation, it means that she would be directly in charge of investigating these moles; as she'd know ahead of time who was really a mole and who wasn't, she'd be able to take suspicion off of the real double agents, ''and'' frame actual HYDRA agents, and thus cause instability as their loyal forces were turned against one another. Not only did she get herself a high position, she got herself the ''perfect'' position to mess with HYDRA, and they had no idea.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: A Fractured House]]
* At the start of the episode, Talbot shuts up Senator Ward by telling him he knows about his brother, and responds to his question about threatening him by saying he doesn't play politics. Talbot may be after S.H.I.E.L.D., but it's because he genuinely believes they are a threat, and not because he's a lapdog for a SleazyPolitician that is trying to avoid embarrassment.
* A rather underrated one for Ward: He's been locked in a cell for months now. He has no clock, no windows, pretty much no way at all to know what time or day it is. And yet according to Simmons, he gets up every single day at 5am on the dot to train.
* The entirety of May's fight with Scarlotti; on that note, Bobbi and Lance prove to be quite the BattleCouple.
* Ward claims he's still a member of Coulson's team. Coulson [[KirkSummation tells him in no uncertain terms to go to hell]], which also sounds like a TakeThat to [[DracoInLeatherPants Ward's defenders]]:
-->'''Coulson:''' You are not, nor will you ever be, part of my team. You dropped [=FitzSimmons=] in the ocean. You murdered Victoria Hand and Eric Koenig. You betrayed us all, you deluded son of a bitch!
* While being escorted to his new custody, Ward tries to talk to Skye -- only for Simmons to step in front of her.
-->'''Simmons:''' [[BewareTheNiceOnes If I ever see you again, I'll kill you.]]
* While it was [[NightmareFuel terrifying]], Ward taking out the guards was pretty awesome.
* [[WoundedGazelleGambit Skye expertly plays Ward]] ''again'', acting like she's desperate enough to find her father to let him out, when she's actually just making sure he's been bled dry of information on that front before he's transferred. [[CallBack The last time]] [[ShoutOut we saw something like this]], [[Film/TheAvengers2012 it was Black Widow tricking Loki]].
** Note: Ward has been trained for years as a spy, while Skye ''just'' became a full-fledged S.H.I.E.L.D agent last season. In other words, a rookie spy sold a seasoned veteran a pack of lies like it was nothing.
* Walters, the head of the S.H.I.E.L.D. safehouse in Bruges, Belgium gets one even though HYDRA agents have broken in and killed her men. When Scarlotti puts a knife to her, she headbutts him, and when he puts in the razor disc infected with the alien Obelisk and she starts to disintegrate, instead of screaming in terror or agony, she's DefiantToTheEnd; her last words as she's KilledMidSentence are "HYDRA will never defeat S.H.I.E.-"
* Here's an AwesomeMoment if there ever was one: Coulson made good on his threat to Ward from last season. He promised to invent new ways to ruin Ward's life for what he did to Fitz, and forking him over to his possibly sociopathic older brother would certainly qualify. [[spoiler: Granted, Ward escapes shortly after]], but that doesn't take away from Coulson's awesomeness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Writing On The Wall]]
* Simmons deduces exactly what's going on with Coulson in under a minute, a secret that he's been keeping from most of the team since last season. Skye and Coulson's shocked glance at each other says it all.
* Ward proves himself to be quite the MagnificentBastard by outsmarting the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. field team (consisting of certified badasses May, Trip, Hunter and Morse) sent to catch him ''and'' HYDRA, leaving a tied-up Bakshi as a gift for Coulson. The EvilBrit is literally "giftwrapped", with a gag over his mouth that says "For Coulson".
** How he notices Morse is one of Coulson's agents: he [[HyperAwareness saw what page in her book she was on while sitting outside the bus station, and then spots her reading the same page while passing her inside the bus]].
* Coulson's fight with Derek, the other GH-325 recipient who went AxCrazy, ends with his victory. "You want pain? Come and get some!"
* Hank Thompson catching that knife with his bare hands! Then he throws it just right to free Coulson. According to his file, this is the least of what he could do back when he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
* Fitz and Mack go into the field successfully, stealing Stevens' body from a morgue by just [[BavarianFireDrill walking out of there with it like they own it]]. Not half bad for two non-field-trained agents.
* Skye drawing a gun on Coulson (who's basically her ParentalSubstitute) to protect Simmons.
* Coulson pulls a fast one on Skye, trapping her in Ward's old cell, before escaping the Playground and tracking down Thompson for more information on the alien writing.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Things We Bury]]
* This episode as a whole is one big CMOA after another, not just for S.H.I.E.L.D., but also HYDRA, Ward and the Doctor.
* The Bus team subplot is one big CMOA for Coulson as a leader and strategist: he needed a satellite to find the mysterious city but the control center in Hawaii is too well guarded, so he takes it down by planting 2 trojan horses that seem like harmless objects but create a massive EMP when they come near each other, forcing the much less well-guarded back-up center in Australia to activate. On the field, he encourages and believes in Fitz's ability, eliminated his self-doubt; he acts cool under pressure when being ambushed by HYDRA and doesn't hesitate to save Trip's life even if it mean letting Skye's father go. In the end, they succeed and the satellite finds a match for the mysterious city.
* Fitz's IAmNotLeftHanded reveal: after complaining that he's only got one good hand following his brain damage, he repeats the same procedure one-handed for hours in order to get it done in under six minutes. He's able to trim it down from eleven and a half to just over seven, which Coulson points out still isn't good enough. Fitz then reveals that it was his bad hand he was practicing with - with both, he'll be fine. HesBack.
** In the actual event, he's not only able to perform the procedure in under six minutes, but do so with a gunfight going on around him, Triplett potentially dying a few feet away, and distracted by a tense stand-off between Coulson and the Doctor. Then when he's finished, he helps Coulson save Trip's life, just to really underscore the awesome he's once again capable of.
** It should be noted that for the first time all season, Fitz didn't stutter or hunt for words throughout the whole episode.
* The Doctor. Turns out everything he's done was to get to Whitehall and avenge his dead wife.
* The completely nonchalant way that the Doctor reacts to his FreudianSlip and how he turns the tables on Coulson without missing a beat.
-->'''Coulson:''' I prefer we stabilize and move.\\
'''Doctor:''' The bullet's holding the wound open. If we keep our heads about us, he has a chance, [[FreudianSlip Phil]].\\
'''Coulson:''' ''(OhCrap)''\\
'''Doctor:''' ''(Realizes what he said and just smiles)'' Shouldn't have said Phil. Not supposed to know that. You probably wouldn't recognize me from the picture I left for her, though I haven't changed as much as (Skye) has since then.\\
'''Coulson:''' ''(Draws his gun)''\\
'''Doctor:''' If I let go of this clamp, he dies. I just sliced this man's brachial artery. ''(Smiles)'' Mr. Coulson, hand me the gun.
* Bobbi Morse is quite the detective for deducing so much from a slip in ''tense''.
* Also a villainous example is Grant Ward, who has moved his plan along flawlessly: He killed his AbusiveParents, framed his abusive brother for it and is now back to HYDRA with the intention of bringing Skye to her father.
* Peggy Carter turning down the future Whitehall's attempt to become a BoxedCrook, saying he'll never see her again and will have no one to share his rants with for as long as she lives.
* The fact that the BigBad is so outclassed is satisfying. S.H.I.E.L.D. found out about the city on their own and have a head start on finding it, the Doctor is playing Whitehall like a violin virtuoso, and Ward has been personally welcomed back to HYDRA while likely planning to metaphorically carve up Whitehall and serve him to S.H.I.E.L.D. on a silver platter. After everything going wrong for S.H.I.E.L.D. and them struggling to just keep up, it is delicious to see their enemy at such a large disadvantage.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Ye Who Enter Here]]
* Skye's fight with Agent 33. She's come a long way from the hacker who knew exactly ''one'' martial arts move a year ago.
* Crosses over with Heartwarming: ''Every single member'' of Team Coulson was prepared to get blown out of the sky by HYDRA rather than let Skye be captured. If anything qualifies as UndyingLoyalty, that's it.
* Bobbi being able to hold her own against [[spoiler: possessed-Mack]], at least for a little while.
** The fact that there are ''tasers'' on the ends of Bobbi's batons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:What They Become]]
* Skye getting the chance to pull a CallingTheOldManOut on her father.
* Skye managing to get the drop on Ward and putting a few bullets into him. The fact he was savvy enough to be wearing body armor saved his life. Her casual quip as she leaves him behind without looking back was icing on the cake.
-->'''Skye:''' [[BewareTheNiceOnes Never turn your back on your enemy, you taught me that.]]
* Skye standing up to [[spoiler:Cal]] a second time to get him to halt his NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Coulson.
** Before that, though, Coulson managed to hold his own as long as possible, even pulling a Black Widow-esque move on him.
* Trip managing to disarm the final bomb at the buzzer despite lingering injury.
* Fitz is regaining more of his expertise, arming the bomb and getting back to the others with 10 minutes to spare and recalling situations and terminology that he most likely had forgotten.
** He isn't lost for words even once for the episode, clearly showing his progress.
* Skye's delightful rejoinder to Ward when he comments on the training she's received from May:
-->'''Ward:''' How's your marksmanship?\\
'''Skye:''' ''(in TranquilFury)'' I don't know. Hand me your sidearm and let's find out.
* The reveal that [[spoiler:Skye is not a CanonForeigner but Daisy Johnson, aka Quake. At the episode's end her powers are activated by the Diviner and she lets out an earthquake in the caverns housing the mysterious city.]]
* Trip smashes the crystal that was inside the Diviner, knowing what could happen to him from just touching it, to try and free Skye, and when [[spoiler: the shards start to turn him into stone, he just looks at her as if to say "Hold on, kid, I'll be there soon" with no regret whatsoever.]]
* As sad as [[spoiler: Trip's DyingMomentOfAwesome was]], the scenes where the Diviner splits open and reveals [[spoiler: the Terrigen crystals and misting all over Raina and Skye]] was ''incredible'', complete with Skye [[spoiler: bursting out of her cocoon and the earthquake effects immediately taking place afterwards]].
* May's maneuver with the bus at the beginning of the episode shows she's even more badass as a pilot than she is as a fighter.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Aftershocks]]
* Coulson concocting a plan to [[spoiler:take out the entire leadership of HYDRA in one fell swoop, getting them to turn on each other by faking a prison break and assassination attempt on Bakshi, then mopping up the few who are left. It works without a hitch.]]
** On a meta level, [[spoiler:after the show's first season suffered from having to wait for the release of ''Winter Soldier'' before it could do anything big, it now gets to close the book on that same plot thread completely on its own, no wait for another movie necessary.]]
* May distracting four HYDRA mooks with a nearby gas explosion, then coming out GunsAkimbo and taking them all down.
* Hunter killing a HYDRA leader with BoomHeadshot.
* Gordon warping in to save Raina from [[spoiler:her attempted [[SuicideByCop Suicide By S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents]]]].
** Beyond the rescue, there's his maturity and strength of character. In his first scene he's a scared child who can't control his powers. In his second scene, he is a confident man who is in complete control of himself. In him we see what an Inhuman can become with the right guidance and support.
* Fitz, despite his condition troubling him once again this episode, is not only the first (and only) one to realise that Skye [[spoiler:has a superpower now]], but he decides to conceal it from the rest of the team to protect her from their new-found FantasticRacism, despite his initial fear.
** He successfully covers up the reason for the broken lamp and the real blood tests ''from Simmons'', who out of everyone would expect to know if Fitz was lying to her, and from May, who as an operative is an expert in detecting this kind of concealment. ObfuscatingDisability plays a role: he plays expertly on the fact that they trust his implicit honesty, are familiar with his clumsiness, and believe that his brain damage has lessened his mental abilities to the point where he couldn't keep something so important from them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Who You Really Are]]
* Skye [[spoiler: [=ICERs=] herself to shut off her out-of-control superpowers]] and protect the team. Even [[ActionGirl Sif]] is impressed, to the point where she [[spoiler: backs off on her crusade to capture Skye.]]
* The confrontation between Fitz and the other agents. When they say that they should have been told about Skye's new powers he immediately bites back against their somewhat entitled attitude in that regard by pointing out the recent FantasticRacism that they've been showing is the reason they weren't told. Not to mention that when Simmons tries to invoke a DoubleStandard he ''beautifully'' shuts it down by bringing up her actions over the course of the season, not just defending Skye but getting a chance to vent to her about his feelings towards what she has done.
-->'''Simmons:''' You lied to me!\\
'''Fitz:''' Okay, so now we're even. Can you blame me with the way you've been going on about Raina, that she's a-a plague to be eradicated?\\
'''Simmons:''' Skye's my friend! She's different!\\
'''Fitz:''' Oh, yeah, like ''I'' was your friend, and then ''I'' changed. [[ArmorPiercingQuestion How did you handle that?]]
* Once again, Bobbi holds her own against a being with super-human strength, this time against the Kree warrior, Vin-Tak. While he's eventually he's able to subdue her, she keeps at it long enough, and gets enough good shots in, to buy Fitz time to get the Destroyer Gun (aka "The Bambino") to take him down, allowing her to use his memory-truncheon against him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: One Of Us]]
* May performing an epic [[TheSlowWalk Slow Walk]] before throwing down with [[TheBrute Francis]] and winning despite her foe's superhuman strength.
* Gordon calmly standing up to Cal and verbally shutting him down. Not only is he dismissive of his temper tantrums, he makes it clear that Cal doesn't belong with the Inhumans because his powers came from a chemical experiment and that his petty feud with S.H.I.E.L.D. is endangering the truly gifted.
* On the meta level, after Inhuman, the show was used once again to set up a future movie (Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar this time) with the reveal of "real" S.H.I.E.L.D. Not only does this help make sense of Civil War's premise "superheroes have to work for S.H.I.E.L.D." but also present a clear conflict for the show should it be renewed. The show has really come a long way from reacting to the movies to set up not one but two of the major cinematic installments of the MCU. This level of planning and integration between TV and movies is virtually unheard of before.
* Bobbi taking down a dangerous criminally insane Gifted who was got the jump on her at the beginning, in about ''twenty seconds at most'', while Coulson just looks on. Particularly since she did it ''without'' her batons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Love in the Time of HYDRA]]
* Lance being able to take down [[spoiler:"real" S.H.I.E.L.D.]]'s guards, and somehow managing to escape the entire compound without a trace.
* For all of Talbot's ridiculous monologue about lawn mowers, he's not stupid. Once he hears that his wife is in two places simultaneously, it takes him about five seconds to figure out what's going on.
* Agent 33 knocks Bakshi out when he tries to use his TriggerPhrase on her and reactivate her brainwashing.
* Ward refuses 33's advances while disguised as Skye, showing a little CharacterDevelopment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:One Door Closes]]
* May and Bobbi's fight. May proves a slightly better ass-kicker, but Bobbi is CrazyPrepared.
* Simmons taking out Bobbi by handing her two seemingly random objects which combine to knock Bobbi out. What's truly awesome is that Bobbi was taken completely off guard. Simmons, legendary BadLiar, sold a professional secret agent a stone cold deception.
* May avoiding capture then helping Coulson escape.
* Skye really unleashing her powers, sending out a vibration wave that knocks Bobbi and Calderon off their feet, blows up a tree and levels the clearing behind them, and puts a giant stake in Calderon's shoulder for good measure.
* Once again, Gordon teleports in and grabs someone like it's nothing. This time it's because Skye asked, and he lets her make the decision.
* Coulson getting the drop on Mack: First, he lets him take a look under Lola's hood, casually chatting about how Mack's model of her was perfect...except for one detail: Coulson knows Lola like the back of his hand, so he was able to find that extra component Mack added. When Coulson isn't satisfied with Mack's explanation, he reveals ''every mechanic in the room'' to be an armed S.H.I.E.L.D agent and they all simultaneously pull their guns on Mack.
* In a flashback, Bobbi arriving to save Mack and co from HYDRA, storming in and casually killing each one of them before her and Hartley arm the engineers. Then there's her leading the charge, and revealing she was there to sink the ''Iliad'' to keep it out of HYDRA's hands [[HeroicSacrifice despite that meaning she'd have no escape]].
* Isabelle Hartley fighting a whole ship's worth of HYDRA agents on the day they rose up. When given the assignment that will require getting past more of them, she just grins because she gets to beat more of them up.
* Gonzales' summation of how he dealt with the HYDRA agent that tried to kill him: "That man had an ax. Now I have it."
* Coulson [[KirkSummation calling BS]] on the "real" S.H.I.E.L.D.'s philosophies:
-->"Fury's secrets didn't destroy S.H.I.E.L.D.; HYDRA did."
* Just to hammer home how much Skye has really benefited from May's training, she single-handedly fights and defeats an armed "real" S.H.I.E.L.D. agent using nothing but martial arts (not even her own powers!), to the point that she pins him to the ground and has his own gun pointed at him. [[NotHelpingYourCase Unfortunately, this doesn't go well when Calderon finds her.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Afterlife]]
* When Coulson tries to buy a car, the salesman assumes he's looking for a MidLifeCrisisCar that he's a guy who's "played it safe his whole life and is looking to let the tiger out." Right before he and Hunter steal the salesman's personal car, Coulson quips, [[PreMortemOneLiner "Sorry, Eddie, but the tiger's been loose for some time."]] ''[[InstantSedation *PEW!*]]''
* May calling Gonzales' bluff.
** [[KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand Gonzales having not bluffed May at all.]]
* Fitz getting the Toolbox out of Gonzales' team's possession with the help of Simmons and taking a bite of his sandwich.
** He gets another one when he calls the "real" S.H.I.E.L.D. agents out on being driven by fear, going so far as to grab the toolbox in defiance. When the agents train their guns on him he just tosses it around into his other hand, practically mocking them by doing so before setting it down.
* Gordon effortlessly putting Cal in his place. Even when Cal bluffs into getting close enough to knock him off his feet, he's gone and back quickly.
* The back and forth scheming of Coulson and Gonzales.
** Coulson and Hunter playing cards and using a hologram of it to ambush Gonzales's retrieval team and then stealing their uniform for disguises.
** Gonzales' reinforcements not falling for their disguises and flanking them with a second quinjet.
** [[spoiler:Mike Peterson]] being a OneManArmy as usual to bail Coulson and Hunter out.
* Simmons, the girl who couldn't tell a lie in Season 1, fooled both Mack and Bobbi (who were also double-agents before) with her apparent break with Fitz and Coulson, and is working undercover again in the "real" S.H.I.E.L.D. like she did in HYDRA earlier this season.
* The reveal that Skye's mother is still alive, essentially pulling a reverse Fridging and showing that Dichen Lachman hadn't been wasted on a throwaway role after all.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Melinda]]
* Fitz realizes that Gonzales is having him followed so he will lead him to Coulson. So Fitz locks himself in a bathroom and opens the Toolbox [[MundaneUtility to call Coulson to ask how to shake a tail.]]
** OffScreenMomentOfAwesome: "How to escape federal agents using an electric hand dryer" - By Professor Hunter. The following episode never shows or describes what Hunter had Fitz do, but it apparently worked.
** The fact that Fitz hacks the Toolbox in order to do this, while in a public bathroom at [[BlandNameProduct Starbucks]]!. This is something that [[ProperlyParanoid Nick Fury]] designed and "Real" S.H.I.E.L.D. failed to crack, and he's not even in a lab!
* Everything May did in Bahrain. Infiltrating the stronghold, {{neck snap}}ping the guards, defeating three of them simultaneously, and then killing an Inhuman with SuperStrength, and all without losing a single agent. It's little wonder the others started calling her "[[RedBaron the Cavalry]]" after this.
** In a meta sense, the handling of May's injuries. She gets shot in the leg, keeps going on sheer adrenaline alone, but shortly thereafter cannot stand (unlike many Hollywood injuries). Does this stop her from doing her job? No. She's just that badass.
* Skye causing an avalanche.
* Jiayang says that Cal "pieced me back together". This means he sewed her together, stitch by stitch. For someone that's currently experiencing rage issues, that's something that requires a remarkably steady hand and iron nerves.
* Lincoln figuring out [[spoiler: Raina's power is precognition]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Frenemy of My Enemy]]
* Simmons, when May tells on her to Bobbi, sees in it an opportunity to clear Coulson's name and even says as much to them, proving once again that she may as well be the MCU counterpart of [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hermione]] [[BadassBookworm Granger]].
* ''Both'' Lincoln and Cal doing a ''YouShallNotPass'' moment to HYDRA to keep Skye/Daisy safe. Cal even gets out alive.
* Lincoln is powerful enough to nearly incapacitate Deathlok while Deathlok is resilient enough to exhaust Lincoln.
* Skye finally saying her full name, Daisy Johnson.
* After learning Jiaying's plan to exile Cal, Skye immediately comes up with a way to use it to get a message to Coulson, right under her father's nose.
* Coulson and Ward, despite not trusting each other, easily work together like they did before the HYDRA uprising, wordlessly operating in sync while taking down every HYDRA operative in their path.
* Bakshi managed to resist Ward and Agent 33's attempts at hypnotizing him and ends up orchestrating the capture of both Deathlok and Lincoln. Credit where it's due; after half a season of being humiliated, for him to turn the tables so thoroughly is just awesome. It's revealed in the next episode that Bakshi was under Ward's control the whole time, but it's still awesome that he was able to pull such a convincing ruse that fooled even the audience for a time.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Dirty Half Dozen]]
* Skye using her earthquake powers against HYDRA agents for the first time, just to demonstrate to [[spoiler:Ward]] that this time, Team Coulson has an advantage of sorts.
** Followed by her single-handedly fighting off a bunch of them hand to hand and with her gun, in a [[TheOner Oner]] right up there with the one from ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}''.
*** Meta-awesome. Several times during TheOner, you can clearly see Chloe Bennet's face. ''That was really Chloe doing all those stunts in the oner!''
*** Meta-awesome. According to Chloe Bennet at Comicpalooza, during the filming of that scene she messed up one of her moves and ended up breaking her arm in the process, but she stayed in character long enough to finish the scene. As if that weren't enough, the crew didn't even realize she was hurt until after the scene was completed. You can see for yourself [[https://youtu.be/TesOgBaSgQs?t=10m53s here]].
** She also figures out a positive application for her powers by tapping into the wavelength of Lincoln's stilled heart to restart it and save his life.
* The completely nonchalant way Coulson reveals [[spoiler:Fury]] will be coming for the Toolbox, and then shows Bobbi and Gonzales his phone to reveal that he's getting a call from Maria Hill. Bobbi thinks it's funny, while Gonzales is ''furious'' that he was outgambited.
* The team soundly rejecting Ward's attempt to make amends, especially since [[{{ItsAllAboutMe}} it's about what he lost rather than what he did]]. Skye breaks the silence to say that [[{{ShutUpHannibal}} she doesn't regret shooting him]].
* Ward giving a hard DisappointedInYou to Simmons when she tries to kill him without being provoked. The fact that it's Grant Ward who's the merciful one is how [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she realizes how low her hate has pulled her]].
** Except that in the very next episode, she expresses to Fitz that she's disappointed she ''failed'' to kill Ward, because every horrific act he now commits is on her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Scars]]
* The truth behind Theta Protocol. Last year, Coulson and his team merely reacted to the events in ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' and felt the fallout from the ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', but this year not only does he set the events of ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' in motion by locating Loki's Scepter, it's Coulson's own Hellicarrier that is used to save thousands of Sokovians, not to mention all of the Avengers.
* An understated one, but even though she gets captured shortly after, Bobbi's CurbStompBattle fight against Kara. Considering how much of a fight Kara previously gave May, this is no mean feat. The only reason she got captured afterwards was that Ward shot her from behind, and when she begins to wake up, they promptly hit her with a few more Icer rounds (when only one shot would have been needed) just to keep her from waking up.
* Ward and Kara are able to convince S.H.I.E.L.D. to give the latter a second chance, so that they can nab Bobbi without anyone suspecting anything.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:S.O.S.]]
* Bobbi, after [[spoiler: hours of being tortured with needles shoved under her nails]] holds her own against both Ward and Agent 33 for a good time. Special mention to her ''ripping out the needles then stabbing Ward with them''.
** Later, her [[spoiler: attempted HeroicSacrifice to spare Hunter]].
* While searching for Bobbi, May masterfully [[spoiler: manipulates Agent 33 into heading for Ward's location disguised as her, causing Ward to shoot 33 repeatedly before he realizes he's been played]].
* Mack, who had previously been ready to walk out the door, [[spoiler:instead goes all ''Die Hard'' when the Helicarrier gets taken over. He manages to evade ''every'' superpowered individual, breaks Skye out, gets her to the control room where she can warn the approaching SHIELD fleet of Jiaying's trap, and manages to hold his own against Gordon before Coulson and Fitz arrive]].
** He even gets his own BadassBoast: [[spoiler:"I'm the guy who kills Gordon."]]
*** Something must be said about the fact that he spent the whole time only armed with '''''a fire ax.'''''
* Coulson, Mack, and Fitz vs. Gordon. [[spoiler:Fitz traps him in the ventilation room while delivering a [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch classy one-liner]], though it doesn't outright stop his TeleportSpam. He does, however, give Gordon a dose of TeleFrag when Coulson and Mack can't land a clean hit. Afterwards, Coulson makes a dive for the Terrigen crystal that Gordon drops, preventing it from shattering and killing all three of them. Mack returns the favor by cutting off Coulson's hand before the petrification spreads and kills him.]]
** On that note, one line from Fitz: [[spoiler: "Science, biatch!"]] Even better when you learn it was [[ThrowItIn improvised]] by de Caestecker and it was so perfect they left it in.
* Skye holds her own against Alica, an [[MesACrowd Inhuman that can multiply herself]], while her own powers are restrained. She eventually gets overwhelmed, but Lincoln pulls a HeelFaceTurn and shows up to save her, along with May.
* Raina [[spoiler: outfoxes Jiaying to the very end just so Skye can realize what her mom has done.]]
* Cal realizing that [[spoiler:the Jiaying he fell in love with did not exist anymore, and rather than let her kill their daughter or viceversa, he kills her.]]
[[/folder]]

! Season 3

[[folder:Laws of Nature]]
* The official entrance of Daisy Johnson as Quake, blasting away a group of soldiers from offscreen before they can kill Joey.
** Mack and Lance effortlessly aiding her in helping Joey escape.
* The reveal of SHIELD's new aircraft, [[http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/File:Zephyr_One.png the Zephyr One]].
* Rosalind luring Coulson and Lance into a trap by making them think they were trapping ''her''. Also, Coulson and Lance consequently escaping after Coulson's found out what he needs to know. Of particular note, Coulson escapes his cuffs by taking off his prosthetic hand and clubbing the agent next to him with it. He's a resourceful man.
* When Daisy and Lincoln's combined powers only serve to slow Lash down, and only temporarily at that, Daisy adjusts tactics and aims her blasts at the floor beneath him. This opens a hole and sends Lash plummeting one story, saving them both.
* Leo Fitz, once the science boy who was ordered to take cover when the guns came out, lets himself be kidnapped by terrorists, gets them to agree to give him what he wants by making clear he'll die without opening the briefcase containing they want if they don't, and then, when it looks like he's handed them deadly technology and they're now going to kill him-actually, nope, the tech's not what they think it is. They're down and he gets away with the valuable artifact. Leo Fitz is now the most badass man in love on the planet.
* Simmons is no longer a mere LabRat either. She's spent six months, alone, on an alien planet on the other side of the galaxy, running from something that apparently tracks her blood. She appears to have nothing but the clothes on her back from when she was sucked into the Monolith, and she isn't known for her field agent skills. That's some serious [[Main/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]] shit right there.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Purpose In The Machine]]
* Fitz diving into the Monolith portal to find Simmons. [[spoiler:Thanks to the flare he had sent through earlier, she was actually close to the portal exit point when he went in, and he managed to get her back.]]
** Daisy as well during this sequence, as she [[spoiler:uses her powers to open the Monolith and keep it open until Fitz is able to retrieve Simmons. This is ''really'' something awesome, because it causes her great pain to keep the portal open. The fact that she caused the Monolith to shatter into black sand is friggin' awesome too, because it looks like she shattered it by matching its natural frequency with the driving frequency she created]].
* Say what you will about his character, but Ward's "cutting the fat" from HYDRA is a very effective strategy. It eliminates wasteful, bloated heads and finds useful, loyal followers. Plus, that sports cars sequence was just [[CoolCar friggin' cool]].
* Werner stands up very well to [[TheDragon Kebo]] torturing him, and this is amplified by the fact that he's not an agent of anything. He's just a pampered rich kid and yet, he turns the tables on his tormentor. Then he learns that Ward wanted this to happen so he would have someone to mold into a new HYDRA leader.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:A Wanted (Inhu)Man]]
* May taking down three guys twice her size, with ease.
* Hunter beating Spud in their ''Film/FightClub'' style fight.
* Lincoln evading the ATCU for days on end, despite the full court press they're pulling with manpower and media coverage. That trick he did with the transmission towers was a sight to see.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Devils You Know]]
* Lash ambushing the ATCU truck carrying Dwight Frye, and the ensuing fight afterwards.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:4,722 Hours]]
* Much like Fitz over the past six months, Simmons proves herself absolutely capable of surviving in the field, adapting and training more as she goes and using whatever skills she already has to her utmost advantage.
* "The only source of food...thinks ''I'm'' food." She makes a crude club, wades into the water and is pulled under. She emerges with the dead alien plant in her other hand. "You're dinner, biatch!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Among Us Hide...]]
* Bobbi proving that she's fully recovered by not only managing to pass May's SecretTestOfCharacter, but defeating [[TheDragon Kebo]] in a fight later on.
* Andrew [[spoiler:keeping the secret about him being Lash from even May]] is certainly an impressive feat.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Chaos Theory]]
* When Lash throws Rosalind off a high ledge, Daisy does a quick experiment by using her powers to cushion the fall, resulting in Rosalind being completely unhurt to everyone's surprise.
* Lincoln deducing all on his own that Lash is a SHIELD agent, and that Mack is off the suspect list as they fought Lash together. Then all he needs is a quick tour around SHIELD to determine the exact identity.
* Lincoln pulling a KirkSummation on Andrew by pointing out that most of the Inhumans Lash killed were his friends; post transition, fully blended, and thus not dangerous. When Lash tries to justify [[ShutUpHannibal Lincoln just blasts him.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Many Heads, One Tale]]
* Fitz and Simmons ''finally'' delving into their UST issues, culminating in TheBigDamnKiss as their passions for each other boil over in the middle of an argument. Overcoming TwiceShy is always impressive.
* Grant Ward got quite the showing in this episode. He starts by [[OneManArmy cutting through Malick's men like they were paper]], successfully extracts the location of Strucker's vault from them, and manages to get there - by himself - despite being presumably hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D. ''and'' Malick. Malick is so impressed, he genuinely offers to work with Ward right then and there.
** Plus, Malick's man who refuses to talk despite being visibly terrified of the blowtorch Ward is holding up to his face. Ward even congratulates him after one of the other guys breaks.
* Coulson's plan to scoop out the ATCU is brilliant. He uses Lash's containment unit, Skye's hacking, Bobbi's spying, and Hunter's ability to "waste time and run his mouth" to uncover the Science Division's darkest secrets. All the while, he tricks their leader into walking into a trap, completely isolated, and no choice but to come completely clean. Finally, he's been working towards this ever since Rosalind said "Tahiti", or in other words, since they first met. Stuff like this is why he's the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Closure]]
* How does Team Coulson plan to draw Ward towards them? [[IHaveYourWife By kidnapping Thomas, who had grown up to work for a bank.]]
** When Coulson calls Ward to show the kidnapped Thomas, Ward calls Coulson on his bluff and knows he won't actually hurt him. Then Hunter puts a gun to Thomas's head. Ward cracks. To twist the knife further, Coulson immediately hangs up on him. When Ward calls back, he sets himself up to have his location traced.
** Thomas gets a tiny [=CMoA=] as well. He asks to talk to Ward while Bobbi traces the call, and he uses the opportunity to tell Ward ''exactly'' what he thinks of him by calling him out, especially on the horrific way he murdered their parents and older brother.
* Despite knowing exactly how far Ward is willing to go - and ''not'' knowing how far Malick might be - Simmons faces them with open defiance, meeting Ward's attempts at intimidation with verbal barbs. Even when he moves onto outright torture, she doesn't crack.
--> '''Simmons:''' I'm not afraid of you.
--> '''Simmons:''' Please just ''shut up''.
--> '''Simmons:''' You really are the king idiot.
* Likewise, when Simmons rushes to Fitz's side as HYDRA sets up the portal, Fitz tells Giyera to back off or the deal's off. Giyera doesn't move an inch closer.
* Coulson [[spoiler: diving from the Quinjet into the portal. It hits a bit of [[Videogame/{{Portal}} speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out]] problem]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Maveth]]
* Lash makes his first human kills--and his first kills, ''period'', since HYDRA intercepted him from the ATCU. TheDogBitesBack, indeed.
* The Inhumans in action: Lincoln blacking out the base with ease, Daisy's PreMortemOneLiner before taking out a couple of HYDRA {{Mooks}}, and Joey discovering [[spoiler:he's a walking bulletproof vest]].
* Coulson [[spoiler:killing Ward by crushing his heart in after their brawl.]]
* Fitz [[spoiler:bringing down It!Will via blasting him with a flare gun.]]
* "It," aka the Inhuman HYDRA was founded to rescue, shows its bonafides as a true threat by [[spoiler:not only surviving everything Fitz shoots him with, but then possessing Ward's corpse, getting through the Monolith in what had to be seconds to spare, and escaping the compound while it was under missile attack with no one the wiser.]]
** Special mention has to go to the performance by [[spoiler:Brett Dalton, as even without saying a thing, everything about him is so different from Ward that it's clear what's going on the instant he appears onscreen.]]
* Outgunned, outnumbered and under time constraints Mack leads the team to rescue Phil and Fitz, destroy a Hydra base and get every member of his team back home. Special credit goes to Mack who didn't ask to be put in charge, but still managed to step up [[BaldBlackLeaderGuy in a major way.]]
* Bobbi casually saying "I got it" and proceeds to beat up a dozen HYDRA goons to secure the portal room.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Bouncing Back]]
* President Ellis setting things up so that the ATCU is a front for SHIELD, unofficially giving them government sanction without having to deal with the public backlash against SHIELD's current [[HeroWithBadPublicity bad reputation]].
* Elena is a self-taught Inhuman. When Joey mentions training as a perk of working for SHIELD, she says and has demonstrated, that she's already taken care of that. Every other Inhuman so far has required a community and facility for training; Not Elena.
* The team, including new ally Elena, effortlessly storming the corrupt police station in order to rescue Bobbi and Hunter and capture Lucio, the evil Inhuman working with them.
* Evil though they may be, you have to give HYDRA credit as they then swoop in and easily grab Lucio, then exit before SHIELD can do anything.
* Coulson tricking Malick into taking a tapped phone call, allowing SHIELD to track down numerous HYDRA front businesses, which Malick has to shut down before they can get to them, costing him billions.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Inside Man]]
* Hive {{No Sell}}ing Lucio's attempt to use his powers on him, and then bending him to his will.
* Talbot revealing that he anticipated Malick double-crossing him, when Creel (who really has had a HeelFaceTurn) busts in according to plan and saves him and Coulson.
* Creel gets a second one by saving Hunter's life, {{Neck Snap}}ping the Hydra mook about to shoot him.
* Bobbi tosses her batons at a Hydra mook, who ducks out of the way. As he gets back up, Bobbi slides across the table separating them, grabs the batons as they come back to her, and smacks the mook before he can do anything.
* May gets an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome -- she goes after the truck containing Talbot's kidnapped son, and when we next see her, she's driving the undamaged truck, with the unconscious Hydra agent who was driving sitting unconscious next to her.
* The team's fight with Creel before Talbot clears things up shows some impressive creativity with his powers. Faced with electricity-shooting Lincoln, he grabs a tire to turn himself into non-conductive rubber. May fixes that by hitting him in the head with a steel pipe, at which his head instinctively turns to steel, and Lincoln zaps him before he's able to change it back.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Parting Shot]]
* Bobbi and Hunter's HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:They're faced with a no-win situation: Either the American president acknowledges SHIELD exists and secures their freedom at the cost of potentially starting a war with Russia, the American President acknowledges SHIELD exists but disavows the organisation to secure US-Russian relations and leave them to their fate, or the president denies SHIELD exist and Hunter and Bobbi are framed for espionage and terrorism. No matter what, either they lose, SHIELD loses, or the United States loses, so what do they do? They allow themselves to be disavowed; the president is able to deny SHIELD's existence and maintain relations with Russia and their actions at least prompt the Russian Prime Minister to spare their lives, but they're now burnt, unable to work for any legitimate spy agency, and cursed to be followed and monitored for the rest of their lives. Its a huge sacrifice as it means they can't even say goodbye to their friends, but they did it with almost no hesitation to prevent potential war. Why? Because they ''are'' the Shield that protects people, and that's what they do.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Watchdogs]]
* Nitramine that's stable enough to be used as a gel projectile. It's scary stuff but the results are indeed amazing.
* After talking about it since the beginning of Season 3, Mack [[spoiler: finally creates the shotgun axe -- well, it was a meat cleaver, but beggars can't be choosers.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Spacetime]]
* Daisy gets another single shot battle, and this time Chloe Bennet gets to show what she can do with two working arms.
* Charles' HeroicSacrifice, saving Daisy by giving Malick a future vision, which then causes Malick to kill him. Then he leaves the fight, looking completely shaken by whatever he saw.
* Malick's CurbStompBattle against Daisy. After almost a whole season of seeing him do nothing but planning and commanding, he finally jumps into action himself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Paradise Lost]]
* Catch Daisy Johnson by surprise with a mine? Fine. She'll use a focused vibration column to keep it active, then get out of the way as it detonates. Still a whole unmapped minefield to contend with? She'll detonate them all with a wide-field blast of seismic activity.
* HYDRA's Inhuman Giyera has a couple of villainous awesome moments in this episode.
** His entire fight with Melinda May was this, with him not only capable of holding his own against her in conditions where his powers are useless, he ''nearly'' won the fight against one of SHIELD's best close combat fighters.
** How did Giyera escape from the containment cell aboard the Zephyr? [[spoiler: He sneaked a buckle from outside the containment cell and used the aforementioned object to pry the cell doors open.]]
** [[spoiler: Special mention goes to him stopping Coulson's punch by controlling the latter's prosthetic hand and then knocking Coulson out.]]
** [[spoiler: Surrounded by SHIELD agents on board the Zephyr? No problem. He used his telekinesis to seize control of the Zephyr's controls, putting the entire command plane into a steep dive, not before pulling up at the very last moment and knocking almost everyone out except May. Then when May calls for help from Daisy and Lincoln, he walked over casually and dispatched her too, taking out the majority of SHIELD's command structure in one fell swoop. Dangerous? Without a doubt. Awesome? Absolutely.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Team]]
* We finally get to see the Secret Warriors in action and they. Are. Badass. The entire rescue scene is one long Moment of Awesome for everyone involved.
** Daisy demonstrates [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority why she's in charge.]] First she comes up with a solid plan of attack on the Hydra base, getting them in by literally blasting her way through fifty feet of solid rock. She makes the sound tactical decision of sending Elena and Joey, the two less experienced members together to back each other, while she and Lincoln split up. Then she fights her way through the base solo, hacks her way through Hydra's security systems effortlessly and finishes it off by dealing [[OneManArmy Giyera]] a OneHitKO.
** Lincoln gets a chance to show the [[TookAlevelInBadass benefits that SHIELD training gives you]] by similarly soloing his way through the base, seamlessly blending his powers and martial arts to take out every HYDRA solider in the way, and finally being the one to capture Gideon Malick.
** Joey and Elena work together seamlessly, with Joey using his powers for defense and Elena neutralising whole squads in seconds. Despite both of them being relatively inexperienced compared to Daisy and Lincoln they stay professional throughout the mission, even casually quipping about the number of guys they'll be fighting and the weirdness of the situation. Extra points for them being the ones to rescue the rest of the team, and Joey being the one to [[spoiler: kill Lucio]]. (Even if it did send him into a HeroicBSOD for the rest of the episode.)
* Daisy shows that, most of the time, she's holding back. Using a sustained blast, she [[spoiler:shakes apart the entire hangar on her way out of the base]]. She also [[spoiler:kills Malick with her powers]].
[[/folder]]

** Daisy demonstrates [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority why she's in charge.]] First she comes up with a solid plan of attack on the Hydra base, getting them in by literally blasting her way through fifty feet of solid rock. She makes the sound tactical decision of sending Elena and Joey, the two less experienced members together to back each other, while she and Lincoln split up. Then she fights her way through the base solo, hacks her way through Hydra's security systems effortlessly and finishes it off by dealing [[OneManArmy Giyera]] a OneHitKo.

** His entire fight with Melinda May was this, with him not only capable of holding his own against her, and he ''nearly'' won the fight against one of SHIELD's best close combat fighters.