History Recap / AgentsOfSHIELDS3E1LawsOfNature

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Fitz references the real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Mosul fall of Mosul]] and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_cultural_heritage_by_ISIL illegal trade of historical artifacts]].

* AbsenteeActor: Neither Creator/MingNaWen nor Creator/BrettDalton appear (though unlike the times this happened last season, Dalton still appears in the credits).

** Fitz shows on his solo mission that he's more than capable to handling himself in the field now. The Level in Badass includes a [[BadassBeard Badass]] PermaStubble of [[BeardOfSorrow Sorrow]].

* AbsenteeActor: Neither Ming-Na Wen nor Brett Dalton appear (though unlike the times this happened last season, Dalton still appears in the credits).

** Coulson reiterates Fitz's theory that Simmons could have shrunk out of existence, citing the [[Film/AntMan Pym Tech incident]].

* UnexpectedCharacter: President Ellis's appearance was mostly kept a secret.

S.H.I.E.L.D. struggles to deal with the rising number of new Inhumans, only to be confronted by a shadowy new group seeking to do the same by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Fit struggles to solve the mystery of the monolith and Simmons' disappearance.

* {{Fanservice}}: Daisy wears a cleavage baring tank top for the interrogation with Joey and then continue to be in it till she leaves the building to meet Lincoln

* CoolPlane: The replacement for The Bus, Zephyr One, is bigger, better, and looks a lot more stealthy than its predecessor.

** Bobbi is able to learn enough about Joey to make him think that she'd been spying on him for a long time just by reading his Facebook page, echoing Coulson's comment back in season one that social media made his job much easier, as people started voluntarily surveilling themselves.

S.H.I.E.L.D. struggles to deal with the rising number of new Inhumans, only to be confronted by a shadowy new group seeking to do the same by any means necessary.

* ArtificialLimbs: Coulson has a robotic hand to replace the one Mack cut off. He says he's on his third one.

** President Ellis references the events of ''[[Film/TheAvengers2012 The Avengers]]'', ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', and ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' when referring to attacks against humanity. He also references the [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier fall of]] [[Recap/AgentsofSHIELDS1E17TurnTurnTurn S.H.I.E.L.D.]].

** When Fitz is pretending to offer a group of terrorists a briefcase full of splinter bombs, they recognize them from the [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E6FracturedHouse attack on the UN]], and Fitz also notes that one was used to [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E19TheDirtyHalfDozen kill Bakshi]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The oceanic dispersal of terrigen will reach 100% global coverage by early 2017, meaning every potential Inhuman on the planet will have been empowered for a few years by the time their eponymous movie is released in 2019.

** Simmons was teleported to an alien world, on the run, and in dire need of a rescue. In other words, she's very much like Fred in ''Series/{{Angel}}''.

* ShaggyDogStory: Fitz's attempts to find Simmons shows him successfully talking his way into the safehouse of a Arab mobster, talking him into revealing the location of the ancient document on the Monolith he was looking for, and then tricked the mobster's leader into detonating a flashbang in his own face so Fitz could grab the document and run. Then it turns out that all that was written on the scroll was one word: "Death". Fitz takes the reveal badly. [[DespairEventHorizon Very]] [[DrivenToSuicide badly]].

* TookALevelInKindness: Mack has become Daisy's partner and is much friendlier to her than he was last season, to the point that when Joey and Lincoln start losing their tempers towards her he steps up to them before she does. He's even bemused by the fact that, of the pair, ''she's'' the muscle of the team. His FantasticRacism also seems to have downgraded into understandable caution and his issues with Lincoln seem less discriminatory and more bitter that he hasn't answered for hurting SHIELD agents when he was misled by Jiaying.

** Rosalind telling Coulson she knows about Tahiti and "it's a magical place."

** Coulson's simulation indicates that if Terrigen doesn't stop spreading, it will be ''everywhere'' in 17 months. It's [[AmbiguousSituation not clear]] if the simulation is just of the Earth's oceans or the entire water table, but in two years all a Descendant will have to do to undergo Terrigenesis is go to the beach or eat seafood--unless that's the point where Terrigen has saturated the global water table and all of them will have gone off.

* ShaggyDogStory: Fitz's subplot shows him successfully talking his way into the safehouse of a Arab mobster, talking him into revealing the location of the ancient document on the Monolith he was looking for, and then tricked the mobster's leader into detonating a flashbang in his own face so Fitz could grab the document and run. Then it turns out that all that was written on the scroll was one word: "Death".

* ActorSharedBackground: Coulson says Simmons' family are in Sheffield, which is Elizabeth Henstridge's home town.

* RecycledScript: Two major plot point seemed to have been taken straight from the Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}, which the executive producer, Creator/JossWhedon, also produced.
** The ATCU is essentially the Initiative from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': a blend of military personnel and scientists led by a charismatic woman that dedicate themselves to targeting supernatural threats.