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Context Recap / AgentsOfSHIELDS3E15Spacetime

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1A new Inhuman is discovered with the ability to share visions of the future -- but only ones that involve someone dying. A refreshed Hive begins to make moves.
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4!!Tropes:
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6* AccidentalMisnaming: For the first time in a while, Coulson slips and calls Daisy by her old name, "Skye," when he genuinely worries something bad is going to happen to her on a mission.
7* AlmostDeadGuy: Absurdly. Charles gets his throat crushed by Malick, which kills him, but not before having a really long conversation, through his crushed throat, with Daisy.
8* AndThenWhat: Averted. Hive asks what Malick wants from him, considering he's incredibly wealthy and influential. Malick seems confused by the question, but Hive reveals that he was playing coy with not explicitly saying he wants "true" power: superhuman abilities.
9* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Hive orders Giyera to only kill human S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, not Inhuman ones. Later, Hive stops him from finishing off Lincoln.
10* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Coulson's orders to prevent Daisy's vision from coming true -- May goes on the mission alone to prevent Daisy and anyone else from being there, Coulson won't touch a gun until it blows over, and Fitz and Simmons will stay out of the damn snow.
11* BadassLongcoat: Hive dons an impressive-looking black duster.
12* BecauseDestinySaysSo: PlayedForLaughs. The only reason Fitz and Simmons hold hands is because Daisy saw it in her vision.
13* BlessedWithSuck: Charles' powers suck. [[PlayedForDrama They really,]] '''[[PlayedForDrama REALLY]]''' [[PlayedForDrama suck.]]
14* BoardToDeath: After getting the CEO of the Transia Corporation to sign over his holdings to Malick, Hive kills the entire board sans the CEO. Malick finishes the job on Hive's order.
15* BodyHorror:
16** We get to see Hive devouring people.
17** The CEO getting his head crushed by Malick is shown in vivid detail.
18* BondVillainStupidity: Despite having her completely at his mercy, Malick doesn't finish off Daisy immediately, but decides to torture her some more. He's too busy enjoying "true power" to think pragmatically and so instead he's acting villainous.
19* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: After trying to avoid the visions by sending in May, the one member of the team who didn't appear in them, Andrew happens to show up and Coulson insists she stay behind to say her goodbyes. Then everyone else has to join in when they see Hive on the security feed.
20* ChekhovsBoomerang: The wooden robin. It gets fired 3 more times, once at the end of the season, and 2 more times in Season 5.
21** Variant in [[ChekhovsGunman Chekhov's Family]]: Charles talks about the wife and daughter he left behind. We meet them at the end of this season, and again in Season 5.
22* ChekhovsGun: Charles Hinton's inhuman power, while triggered by terregenesis, is genetic. See Season 5.
23* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Malick is merely an ordinary old man until he puts on an exoskeleton that gives him SuperStrength and leads him to get DrunkOnTheDarkSide. When it gets destroyed, he is BroughtDownToNormal.
24* ContinuityNod: When discussing the possibility of seeing the future, Lincoln references Raina's ability of DreamingOfThingsToCome as evidence that the future can be predicted, and also how you can change the future.
25* CreatorThumbprint: Director Kevin Tancharoen's preference for badass and carefully choreographed fight scenes makes another appearance, as in [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E4FaceMyEnemy previous]] [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E13OneOfUs episodes]] [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E19TheDirtyHalfDozen he]] [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS3E2PurposeInTheMachine directed]]. May's vision-based rehearsal places a nice lampshade on it as well, as Coulson wryly notes he wishes they could plan out all their missions like that.
26* CurbStompBattle: Malick hands one out to Daisy in his exoskeleton.
27* DemotedToDragon: Malick is now the one taking orders from Hive, and Giyera outright disobeys him.
28* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The characters discuss YouCantFightFate, and Fitz uses math to prove it. Coulson complains that they are all part of a plan, but don't know [[InMysteriousWays what kind of plan]]. Lincoln contrasts that Inhumans ''are'' designed with a plan. So, they were basically discussing Intelligent Design, without naming the concept.
29* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Hive is actively encouraging this on Malick's part by giving him an exo-skeleton and telling him to kill with his own hands.
30* EvilerThanThou: It's subtle, but Hive is usurping control of HYDRA from Malick. The latter had no idea that the former used Giyera to provide the materials for his restoration to full form.
31* EvilWearsBlack: Now that he's at full strength, Hive dons a snazzy all-black suit with long coat.
32* ExactWords: When the board chairman refuses to sign over his company, Hive says he'll show him "what will happen", and has Charles show him a vision of Hive devouring the board. After the chairman does what Malick wants, Hive devours them, since that was what was going to happen anyway.
33* FlippingTheTable: Malick tests the exoskeleton's strength by flipping the rather large table in the center of the boardroom.
34* {{Foreshadowing}}: Andrew turns himself in to S.H.I.E.L.D. partially because he has a feeling that they're going to need Lash. Now why would S.H.I.E.L.D. need a nigh-unstoppable Inhuman who has the instinct to kill other Inhumans when they're just about to realize they're now facing a very powerful Inhuman who is trying to take over the world?
35* GoodIsNotSoft: Daisy once again demonstrates this by killing a room full of HYDRA mooks, including shooting two who have already been knocked out, just for safety. Possibly emphasized by the fact that she spends a good part of the episode overseeing a rehearsal of said encounter in anticipation of May having to do it before she realizes she has to do so herself. At no point does she express any qualms about having to kill a bunch of men.
36* HopeSpot: May hooks Andrew up to an IV of Simmons' vaccine, since it has a remote chance of preventing his final transformation. They have a good long conversation before he turns into Lash anyway.
37* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Hive has Malick don a suit of PoweredArmor and kill a man, just to show him what true power is. Malick is hesitant at first, but he really gets into it.
38* IllKillYou: Lincoln says that he would kill Coulson if he shot Daisy.
39* InternalReveal:
40** S.H.I.E.L.D. discovers that "Ward" is alive, though Fitz points out it is likely the ancient Inhuman.
41** Daisy touches Charles a second time, and sees the explosion shown in [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS3E11BouncingBack the midseason premiere]], implying she is inside the ship with someone else.
42** Malick begins to realize that Hive is subverting his organization when Giyera refuses to continue serving as Mallick's personal security in favor of serving Hive.
43* MassOhCrap: The cameras catch a brief glimpse of "Ward" just before they're cut off, in front of most of the team.
44* MythologyGag: Transia, here the name of a corporation, is the name of a small Eastern European nation in the main Marvel universe (which has largely been replaced by Sokovia in the MCU).
45* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Defied. Andrew surrenders himself to S.H.I.E.L.D. so he ''can'' say goodbye to May, before Lash takes over.
46* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Malick's "battle" against Daisy is ''brutal''.
47* NotSoStoic: Malick's confidence finally cracks after the unrevealed vision he has. Giyera has never heard him sound afraid before.
48* TheOner: Daisy again gets to kick ass in one in the Transia security office.
49* PetTheDog: Hive refuses to let HYDRA kill any Inhuman S.H.I.E.L.D. agents (see ApeShallNeverKillApe above).
50* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: Lincoln, it turns out, has never seen ''Film/TheTerminator''. Coulson jokingly removes him from TheTeam upon learning this.
51* PoweredArmor: The exoskeleton Malick dons increases his strength, allowing him to crush a man's head. It's destroyed by the end of the episode.
52* PowerIncontinence: Every time Charles touches someone, he and the other person both have a vision of an unpreventable death in the near future which the one he touched will be personally witness to. The inability to touch his wife and daughter without giving them terrible visions drove him away from his family and into homelessness.
53* PrescienceByAnalysis: Fitz proved with maths that it is possible to predict the future.
54* ProphecyTwist:
55** Amongst Daisy's visions, she has one where Coulson is shooting her. When the moment actually happens, it turns out she saw Coulson in a one-way mirror before he shoots the guard standing behind it.
56** Fitz-Simmons weren't standing in the snow, they were standing in falling ash.
57** Daisy thinks that the vision means that she's destined to save Charles, and Lincoln backs her up in that there's a reason things happen with Inhumans and that her having the vision means she could be destined to do it. They were wrong: ''Charles'' was the one destined to make a difference by saving Daisy.
58** Charles wasn't saying "I was hoping you could help" as an accusation of Daisy's failure, but when he's asking her to look after his daughter.
59* ARealManIsAKiller: Hive encourages Malick to embrace power by killing someone -- not just by having someone shot, but by squeezing the life out of them ''personally''.
60* SelfFulfillingProphecy: The more that a vision Charles and whoever touches him see directly involves one of them, the more likely they are to react to it in ways that will actually make it happen, whether that be embracing the details in a FreakOut or trying their hardest to avert it. It certainly supports Fitz and Lincoln's account of things.
61* ShaggyDogStory: Daisy spends hours training May to fight her way through the guard room fast enough that the guards do not have time to raise the alarm. When it's time to do it for real, May doesn't go due to Andrew showing up. Daisy does the fighting instead and does better than May did in training. Then the alarm sounds anyway because there was another guard hidden behind a one-way mirror.
62* ShoutOut:
63** Gideon Malick notes that the last time he saw Hive, he looked like an extra from ''Film/DawnOfTheDead''.
64** Coulson references the StableTimeLoop of ''Film/TheTerminator'' when trying to wrap his head around the possibility of seeing the future. And then he declares Lincoln is off the team when he admits [[FelonyMisdemeanor he never saw the film]].
65* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate: Discussed. Fitz believes in Fate, considering time the fourth dimension, and using a technobabble analogy to try to explain how everything is predetermined. Daisy, in contrast, says "ScrewDestiny"... and fails. Lincoln doesn't believe in Fate to the same extent Fitz does, but he does believe that the prophetic visions were sent with a purpose to guide people on a predetermined path.
66* SplitPersonalityTakeOver: Andrew is gone and Lash is officially in control.
67* StunnedSilence: When Hive appears on the hacked security camera for a second just before it goes blank, Coulson stops in the middle of a sentence and he, Simmons, Fitz and Lincoln simply stare at screen in silence for an extended period.
68-->'''Lincoln:''' Was that ''Ward''?\
69'''Fitz:''' Unfortunately, I think that's [[PuppeteerParasite something else.]]
70* TemptingFate: After Andrew shows up, Coulson says that the day can't get any weirder. Then, the team learns about the existence of Hive in Grant Ward's corpse. Coulson later lampshades to Daisy that the "day got weirder".
71* TragicKeepsake: Charles' wooden robin; Robin is the name of his daughter. Holding that toy was the closest he could get to touching her without inflicting traumatizing visions on her.
72* TheUnreveal: Malick's vision is never shown, but whatever it was rattled him big time.
73* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity:
74** Malick [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide really gets into it]] when equipped with a [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman high-tech exoskeleton]].
75** Garner returns to say goodbye to May, before [[SplitPersonalityTakeOver Lash takes over in body and mind]].
76* YouCantFightFate: Every attempt to counter the visions Daisy gets from Charles ends up ineffective and the vision plays out exactly as she saw it.

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