S.H.I.E.L.D. begins their uneasy "alliance" with Sarge's team. FitzSimmons learn why Izel is heading to Earth.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: Deke and Snowflake are together less than an hour and Deke already calls her "Snowbunny". Daisy finds it adorable.
- Arc Welding: The episode reveals Izel to be the Shrike's creator.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: As Deke puts it:Deke: So we're in a truck that we can't stop with a bomb that we can't find with a girl who can't quake, and I gave up 10% of my company for the experience!
- Bad Boss: Sarge leaves Snowflake behind to die with the others on the truck.
- Bait-and-Switch: Not unlike the similar gag with The Doctor and Nightmare Simmons from a few episodes ago, Snowflake sneaks up on a sleeping Deke, clamps a hand over his mouth, and utters an unsettling line about wanting to see his soul "spilled out of him." When Daisy and May realize they can't find Deke anywhere, they rush to his aid and pull back the curtain to find that while he is screaming and moaning because of what Snowflake is doing to him, it does not involve knives. Or clothing.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Aside from Izel and an unhinged Sarge, there's also Altarah in deep space, plotting something.
- Big "NO!": Snowflake, when Sarge leaves her to die.
- Blackmail: Mack is able to wrangle Deke for 10% of his company in exchange for him helping Sarge's team and keeping his mouth shut to Daisy about the fact that Deke made her into the protagonist's sexy love interest in his VR game.
- Brain Bleach: Daisy's reaction to finding Deke with Snowflake.Daisy: I need bleach for my eyes.
- Butt-Monkey: Pax gets constantly humiliated throughout the episode. When Sarge sees him in chains, he even jokes that they should've thought of that earlier.
- Call-Back:
- Mack recalls how Deke bartered 2% of his company to buy Mack's silence about how Daisy is portrayed in his VR game.
- Jemma tells Fitz about her prior experience with the puffs, how the Monoliths were destroyed, and the anomalies they created afterwards.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends on a real nail-biter: Deke trying to deactivate the bomb as the truck barrels ever closer to the tower, Sarge invading the Zephyr, and Izel and the Shrike crew heading towards Earth — with an unknowing FitzSimmons onboard. Oh, and The Stinger reveals Altarah's Hunters are out for Enoch's blood.
- Continuity Nod: The fear/dark dimension that we saw in Agent Carter season 2 and Agents of SHIELD season 4 may be the original home of Izel.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Fitz is jealous of himself, or rather his dead alternate future self who already got married to Jemma and was brave and sacrificed himself to save others. He even acknowledges just how ridiculous he's being when Jemma calls him out on it.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: After Pax's and Jaco's first break-out, Elena immediately restrains them again with her powers.
- Doom Magnet: Deke notes that S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to attract all sorts of bad stuff. He suggests his shaman could help with that.
- Exact Words: Mack promises Sarge that he and the other agents will stay in the base while Sarge goes after the Shrike. Then they follow Sarge anyway, in the Zephyr, their base in the air.
- Fake Defector: Pax pretends to tell the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent guarding him Sarge's plan, only to strangle him with his chain (having tricked him into misjudging its reach).
- Fanservice: When Daisy and May interrupt Deke and Snowflake as they're preparing to bridge dimensions, both of them spend the rest of the scene shirtless, Snowflake with a very dominatrixy-looking black bra underneath.
- Foreshadowing: Mack correctly reads that Sarge would be willing to leave one of his team behind, but not two. Which is why Sarge's plan involves leaving behind the team member he takes on the truck with him, and rescuing the two Mack makes him leave at the base...
- Freudian Excuse: The Shrike devastated Sarge's world and killed his family, which why he's so hardened and determined to kill Izel.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Pax and Jaco are left with only a single guard watching them, who gets close enough to Pax that Pax kills him. After being re-contained, they're still left with only a single guard watching them, who does absolutely nothing when Pax conspicuously messes with Jaco's jacket. Sarge then emerges through a portal in the jacket and promptly kills the guard.
- Humanoid Abomination: Izel is revealed to be one. According to Incan mythology, she's a demon who hates all living things, who escaped from a realm of fear and darkness thousands of years ago, who's been searching this universe for the Monoliths — or, as she calls them, "Di'Allas".
- It's Personal: Between Sarge and Izel. Sarge says that Izel killed his family, while Izel claims that Sarge killed her crew.
- It's Probably Nothing: Fitz is dismissive of the strange behavior of the crew, being more concerned with getting a message to S.H.I.E.L.D.
- It's the Only Way to Be Sure: Sarge plans to nuke Izel to make sure he kills her this time.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Deke and Snowflake go at it — or at least are preparing to — in the back of Sarge's truck, with only a curtain for privacy.
- Mood Whiplash: Sarge goes from angrily choking Deke after his device breaks to pleasantly wishing the others a good morning upon releasing him.
- Not What It Looks Like: Deke says this when he and Snowflake are found out.
- Oh, Crap!: FitzSimmons when they realize that Izel is looking for the Monoliths. Doubly so for Jemma, as she knows that they've been destroyed.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Boyle knows something is wrong with Toad when he finds abandoned puffs, telling FitzSimmons that he would never leave them behind.
- Out-Gambitted: Mack is able to turn the tables around on his "deal" with Sarge, by successfully keeping most of his people in containment, and putting Daisy and May on his team. Mack rightly suspects that, contrary to what Sarge says, he's really tired of losing to the Shrike so he has no choice but to take Mack's terms. It's then subverted when Sarge is still one step ahead of them, having left Jaco behind on purpose as an escape route through his portal tech.
- Properly Paranoid:
- S.H.I.E.L.D. knows that Sarge isn't being 100% honest with them, so they decide to tail him via the Zephyr. Turns out he's converted his truck into a suicide bomb that will leave a 200 mile radius with millions of civilian casualties.
- FitzSimmons blow off Boyle for being concerned with Toad leaving his candy lying around, which he's very stingy with. At the end of the episode, the entire crew minus FitzSimmons is under Izel's thrall.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Anthropologist Chronicoms are blue, while the Hunter Chronicoms are red. The Anthropologists led by Enoch, while saddened by the loss of their planet, have come to accept it and want to simply find a new home for the survivors. Altarah's Hunters are in denial, driven by the insane goal of trying to go back in time to save their planet from the Shrike (as Bruce Banner would tell them, that's not how time travel works), and engage in Stupid Evil tactics by killing anybody who can't help them or disagrees with their violent methods.
- The Reveal: The Monoliths came from Izel's world, and their proper names are the "Di'Allas". Izel's been unleashing the Shrike on worlds hoping to find them.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Simmons doesn't want to tell Izel that the Monoliths she's looking for have been destroyed, as it would jeopardize their ride home. Considering Izel's actually evil, it ends up being a wise move.
- Shout-Out: The music that plays near the end of the episode as the truck is barreling along is highly evocative of Junkie XL's score for Mad Max: Fury Road; given the somewhat similar scenario to the film, this was likely an intentional choice.
- The Stinger: Enoch contacting his fellow anthropologist Chronicoms to organize them into finding a new home for their people. Meanwhile, Altarah's faction is pissed off at Enoch and wants him and FitzSimmons dead, but their time in the mind prison left enough of their consciousnesses behind to be of use to them.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Earlier in the episode, Deke talks about negative energy like Snowflake does, and later on when Snowflake says she wants to spill Deke's soul, his response is to thank her sincerely.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Naturally, nobody is keen on working with Sarge.
- There Are No Coincidences: Daisy believes there has to be a reason why Coulson and Sarge are genetically identical. Sarge disagrees, saying that in his century of life and dimension-hopping, the only constant has been randomness.
- Travelling at the Speed of Plot: Izel's ship and Sarge's convoluted plan come together at the shrike tower at the same time.
- Unreliable Expositor: Izel and Sarge each claim that the other is the bad guy; given that Izel infects the crew minus FitzSimmons with Shrike parasites, Sarge is probably on the level.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sarge is willing to nuke Izel just to make sure he kills her, regardless of the civilian casualties, and leaves Snowflake to die in the truck because he can't feasibly rescue her.
- Wham Shot: Izel is shown singing a baby Shrike into existence, confirming that she really is the Shrike's Creator.
