Daisy assembles the Secret Warriors to rescue the captured S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the Zephyr.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: On the tail end of a lovely conversation between Fitz and Simmons that begins with the grandeur of space and ends with the two of them deciding to move forward as a couple, Fitz gives us this gem:Fitz: Who needs space? ’Cause I’ve got something magnificent right here. [Simmons leans in for a kiss, and Fitz turns away at the last second to look at the wall] A picture of space.
[Simmons laughs]Fitz: One of my prized possessions, that is. And I don’t know why it makes any significance to—Simmons: [cutting him off] Okay. [kisses him] - Batman Gambit: Daisy arranges for suspicion to fall on Lincoln, knowing his temper would get the better of him and make him look even more suspect.
- Bilingual Dialogue: Yoyo and Mack do the version where each person speaks the language they're less familiar with: Mack has been working on his Spanish and Yoyo her English.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: When Daisy reveals herself as the one infected by Hive, she starts ranting about how he's going to create a better world, and also begins using "we" to refer to herself and Hive collectively.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Between Daisy's infection and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s paranoia over the potential of a mole, the Secret Warriors are effectively dissolved.
- Brick Joke: When she first appears in the episode, Elena is practicing a simple English greeting. She repeats it to Mack when she rescues him and the others from the storage closet.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Malick's views on Hive.Malick: I thought I was bringing back a god; instead, I freed the devil.
- Elena is quick to turn her back on Mack and S.H.I.E.L.D. after the paranoia about who Hive infected, seeing them as not so different from the corrupt government she fought to liberate her home from.
- Malick's views on Hive.
- Call-Back:
- Malick's vision comes true, though he was only killed by Hive From a Certain Point of View.
- Lincoln spotting Hive at Transia is brought up as a possible point of him being infected.
- Daisy recalls Lincoln's comments about an emptiness in his life from the previous episode while trying to get him to join her.
- Coulson says he has met gods. He also says that "Gods bleed", echoing a similar line from Ivan Vanko, the Big Bad of Iron Man 2:Vanko: If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him.
- Character Death: Both Lucio and Malick bite it this episode.
- Continuity Nod: Hive refers to Daisy as Skye, since Ward had no knowledge of her discovering her birth name.
- Darkest Hour: The Secret Warriors are fractured, Daisy is under Hive's control and destroys the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, and Hive is taking over all of Gideon's old belongings.
- Dark Reprise: The soundtrack when HQ starts shaking sounds like the theme playing when Daisy went through Terrigenesis, but darker.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Elena tells Mack that he's lost the right to call her "Yo-yo" after the attempt to sequester all the Secret Warriors.
- Enemy Mine: Malick gives up information about Hive and his ability to control Inhumans to Coulson, in order to get revenge for the death of his daughter.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Malick breaks down in tears when recounting Hive murdering his daughter.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Malick has learned the hard way what happens when you try to free an Eldritch Abomination to help you in conquering the world.
- Face Death with Dignity: Malick knows that Hive won't tolerate the possibility of him talking to S.H.I.E.L.D., and has already prepared himself to be with his daughter again.
- Frame-Up: Daisy throws Lincoln under the bus as the traitor, as she needed Coulson to lift the base lockdown.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Averted with Joey, finally. After his sexuality had previously solely been established through dialogue, we get to see him on a date with another guy at the beginning of the episode... which he gets called away from to go back to the Secret Warriors. Poor guy.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Malick's "last rodeo" with S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't last long, as Hive uses Daisy to dispose of him in order to preserve Hive's secrets.
- Heroic BSoD: Joey has a minor one after he is forced to kill Lucio. His thought process throughout the episode is how he just wants to go back home.
- Idiot Ball:
- Continuing the trend from last episode, nobody in S.H.I.E.L.D. has the presence of mind to guard Malick in his interrogation room during a conveniently-timed blackout. Especially jarring in this case, as Malick outright warns Coulson that his Inhuman team could be compromised just as his bodyguard Giyera was, but doesn't seem to realize that Hive will pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness and prepare accordingly. Then again, given his Face Death with Dignity moment, he may have just accepted his fate, or maybe even wanted it.
- Apparently, no-one is monitoring the four quarantined Inhumans, or guarding the Kree artifact or Terrigen crystals for that matter, which leads to Daisy easily hacking her way out of containment and stealing everything without so much as a struggle. Possible Hand Wave as she stated to Lincoln she wrote a lot of the security protocols and thus would be able get around them with ease and not tip off anybody who was monitoring them until way too late.
- Daisy grabs it herself when she kills Malick with her powers, and then drops a grenade to cover it up. Coulson immediately twigs to the fact that the grenade was to destroy evidence, not kill Malick.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Lincoln attempts this on Daisy by calling on her devotion to S.H.I.E.L.D., but it doesn't work.
- Internal Reveal: While "It" was revealed to be Hive in press releases, this is the first episode where Hive is properly named.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: A minor example with Joey being forced to cut a date short.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": When the base starts shaking, everyone realizes they pinned the blame on the wrong Inhuman.
- The Mole: Daisy got infected by Hive on the rescue mission.
- Moment Killer: Joey is interrupted by the summons in a middle of a date.
- Mythology Gag:
- Elena complains that Mack's nickname of "Yo-Yo" for her stuck with the team. It's her name in the comics.
- Coulson notes that "Alveus", the name that Lincoln and Daisy learned "It" is called, is Latin for "Hive".
- Out-of-Character Alert: Lincoln knows something is up when Daisy tries to tempt him into leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. with her. The real Daisy wouldn't throw that all away, even for him.
- Play-Along Prisoner: Daisy allows herself and the rest of the Secret Warriors to be taken prisoner, as she can escape whenever she wants.
- Prophecy Twist: When Malick had the vision of his death, he thought it was from Hive's parasites consuming him. Instead, it's from a Hive-controlled Daisy crushing him.
- Red Herring: All over the place to throw off viewers from determining who Hive infected.
- During the raid on HYDRA's base, Lincoln is the one who finds Malick. Hive was last seen with Malick. Lincoln is also paralyzed by Lucio's gaze (and it hasn't been made clear whether or not Hive can infect Inhumans through other Inhumans). Directly following this incident is when Hive drops his Wham Line.
- At S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base, Joey is shown arguing with Lincoln on the side, while Elena scopes out the base on her own. During the blackout, Lincoln is once again the prime suspect, given his Shock and Awe powers. On the other hand, Joey is nowhere to be seen during the blackout until the four Inhumans are cornered, while a grenade that Mack showed Elena is missing, and Elena's cuts on her leg are brought into question. While the characters have every reason to doubt them, the viewers are less suspicious for the most part, given that they were explicitly seen together during the raid on HYDRA's base and were unlikely to have both been infected. Furthermore, Joey killing Lucio instead of apprehending him would hardly be advantageous to Hive, so there was even less reason to suspect him.
- Coulson suspects Lincoln because he was the first one to see "Ward" face-to-face, leading everyone to believe that he's been infected before the episode even began.
- Relationship Upgrade: FitzSimmons, finally.
- Revealing Cover-Up: FitzSimmons notice that Malick's cell is open, just in time to see him dead and a grenade destroy the body. Coulson quickly notes that whoever left it did so as to disguise how he died.
- Ship Tease: Mack has been learning Spanish and Yo Yo has been learning English.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Simmons to Fitz, after he keeps up on the picture of space joke.Fitz: And I don’t know why it makes any significance to—Simmons: Okay. [kisses him]
- Storming the Castle: The Secret Warriors break into HYDRA's Elaborate Underground Base in order to rescue the rest of The Team.
- Together in Death: By the time Daisy comes to kill Malick, he's lost the will to live, and simply wants to be reunited with Stephanie.Daisy: I can't let you keep talking.
Malick: ...and I will not be kept from my daughter. - Trash the Set: Daisy takes the time to devastate the Playground on the way out.
- Wham Episode: Daisy is infected by Hive, kills Malick, and steals both S.H.I.E.L.D.'s supply of terrigen and the Kree artifact while bringing down the entire hangar on the way out. Also, FitzSimmons have finally gotten together.
- Wham Line: Giyera laments that S.H.I.E.L.D. has escaped and they are left empty-handed. Hive is quick to correct him.Hive: Not quite. Now we have one on the inside.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Lincoln calls out Daisy for framing him and exploiting his anger issues to sell it. As she's been infected by Hive, this falls on mostly deaf ears.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Hive's mind-control powers naturally lead to quite a vibe of The Thing (1982).
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Malick is killed as a liability once he's captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., his vast material wealth being of little concern to Hive. The near-billion dollars they have immediate access to is more than enough.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Lincoln protests with exactly these words once Coulson identifies him as being turned by Hive. Of course, no one believes him. Pity that he is telling the truth...
