FitzSimmons are finally back on Earth and reunited with Team Coulson, but there's no time to catch up, as they have to work to stop Sarge and Izel from killing each other and millions of innocents.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Elena asks Jaco if working for Sarge is what his family would have wanted him to do. It's what causes his Heel–Face Turn.
- Bad Boss: Sarge kills the wounded Pax so that he won't hold him and Jaco back; this is what prompts Jaco to start having doubts about Sarge.Sarge: No one slows us down.
- Bear Hug: Mack gives a big one to Fitz when the team reunites with him and Jemma.
- Big Damn Heroes: Daisy is able to stop Sarge's bomb from exploding, and later obliterate the Shrike attacking the truck.
- Big Damn Kiss: Mack and Elena share one, after their first step of reconciliation.
- Bittersweet Ending: Izel has slipped away and Jaco sacrificed himself to stop her, but all of the Shrike forces on Earth are dead, FitzSimmons are reunited with the team, Mack and Yo-Yo begin to fix their relationship, and Sarge is locked up with no leverage left. Until May kills him.
- Black Comedy: After saving Deke from a Shrike in the nick of time, May laments that she was "this close to shutting you up".
- Blatant Lies: Sarge tells Jaco that Snowflake couldn't make it out in time, when in fact he abandoned her because he didn't feel like fighting Quake and May to extract her.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Izel honestly seems to think that the Shrike are doing the right thing. She justifies infecting the crew with Shrike by pointing out that they were useless before, and that she gave them "a higher purpose".
- Break the Haughty: The whole episode is one for Sarge once his plan to stop Izel is thwarted. His crew turns on him, Mack finally gets payback for two episodes of humiliation, and he has no leverage left as he's thrown into a cell.
- Bring It: Izel, when Sarge tells her he's coming for her.Izel: Ah, you finally remember my name. Come for me, and I'll help you remember yours.
- Broken Pedestal: Jaco and Snowflake completely lose their faith in Sarge. Case in point, when he tells the latter that his abandonment of her wasn't personal as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents escort him to his cell, her only response is an utterly furious snarl as Deke holds her back.
- Continuity Nod: Blurring the lines between Coulson and Sarge even more is when Sarge quips "This isn't my first warhead".
- Covert Distress Code: When FitzSimmons finally make radio contact, Simmons transmits using a duress code. Unfortunately, Sarge has taken the Zephyr One at this point, so Davis responds with the same duress code.
- Crazy-Prepared: Sarge has shelter charges as countermeasures against Yo-Yo's powers.
- Damsel in Distress: Sarge wounds Agent Diaz and threatens to kill her if Mack doesn't comply with him.
- Deal with the Devil: FitzSimmons realize they've inadvertently made one with Izel.
- Death Glare: Daisy gives a figurative and literal one to the Shrike after allowing them into the truck, disintegrating them with her powers.
- Defiant Captive: Mack pulls this on Sarge to enrage him and lure him into a fight so that he can retake control of Zephyr One.
- Deflector Shield: The shelter charges generate a particularly nasty one that burns anyone trying to get through.
- Dirty Coward: Sarge is prepared to sacrifice everybody else to stop Izel, including his crew, but not himself, which she calls him out on. It's underlined by Jaco's willingness to sacrifice himself to stop Izel without anybody else dying.
- Due to the Dead: Mack makes a toast to everyone who died, including Jaco.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Jaco roasts Izel's Shrike zombies with his fire breath before blowing up the entire ship.
- Entertainingly Wrong: When Fitz and Simmons recognize Sarge's voice, Izel assumes that they've been working with him all along. Since they have even less idea of what's going on than most of the cast, they can't convince her otherwise.
- Face Death with Dignity:
- Subverted; seemingly unable to stop Sarge's A-bomb, Daisy takes May's hand and waits for the end... then tries a successful Hail Mary maneuver at the last second, stabilizing the bomb with her powers.
- Played straight with Jaco, who calmly gives his own life to destroy Izel's starship and the Shrike onboard.
- Facial Horror: Pax's face is horrifically burned by Yo-Yo moments before Sarge kills him.
- Foreshadowing:
- Izel's and Sarge's conversation is full of this, with Izel hinting that she knows far more about Sarge than he does.
- While on Izel's ship, Jaco runs to the top of the stairs to confront Izel, only to discover she has mysteriously disappeared. Then Davis shows up at the same time without Izel.
- During the celebration party, Davis suddenly blacks out, but Piper believes he has had too many drinks. The following episode reveals the real reason why he passed out.
- Friendship Moment: Jemma takes an immediate liking to Jaco.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Jaco claims that Sarge wasn't always the ruthless killer he is now, attributing his brutality to a long campaign against Izel.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- With Yo-Yo's convincing, Jaco realizes that Sarge isn't the hero he claims to be and that his strategy to stop the Shrike isn't working, so he switches to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s side.
- Snowflake, after Sarge left her behind.
- Heel Realization: Snowflake was always happy to kill and send her victims to their glorious next life. Nearly getting blown to oblivion makes her understand how being on the other end of the knife feels, and she finds that she doesn't like it.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jaco takes Sarge's A-bomb to Izel's ship and detonates it, thereby killing her Shrike-infected crew without sacrificing innocents.
- Internal Reveal:
- FitzSimmons learn about Sarge and how he's the one that destroyed the Chronicoms' planet.
- Fitz meets his adult grandson, Deke. Lucky for him, there's copious amounts of alcohol to help him swallow that pill.
- Ironic Echo: After Mack takes back the Zephyr from Sarge, having boasted earlier he would do so, he throws back Sarge's line from the episode by the same name: "Toldja."
- Jerk Justifications: Mack apologizes to Elena about screwing up. He tried to distance himself from her in order to be a better director.
- Let Me at Him!: Snowflake has to be restrained from attacking Sarge.
- Locked Out of the Loop:Fitz: [referring to Deke] Who is this guy?
- Luxury Prison Suite: Deke can't convince S.H.I.E.L.D. to let Snowflake go, so he makes her cell comfortable instead.
- Meaningful Echo: When Snowflake pleads with Jaco to not go through with his Heroic Sacrifice, he simply assures her that he'll become a butterfly.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Snowflake throws her lot in with S.H.I.E.L.D. after Sarge leaves her for dead, and Jaco does the same after realizing that Sarge doesn't care about his crew.
- Mundane Utility: Yo-Yo uses her powers to shut the door to her room so she can keep Mack there for some intimacy.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Sarge is able to fight the much larger and muscular Mack quite evenly for a short time.
- Mysterious Past: Sarge's past appears to be mysterious even to himself; he accuses Izel of not only killing everyone he loved, but of stealing his memories of them as well. Izel's replies imply that there's more to the story than Sarge himself is aware of.
- Not So Stoic: May has her biggest smile to date when she lays eyes on Fitz.
- Nothing Personal: Sarge claims this about his abandonment of Snowflake. Deke needs to physically restrain Snowflake to prevent her from attacking Sarge when she hears it.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Davis and Jaco try to flank Izel on the bridge, only for her to somehow disappear in the time it takes Jaco to climb the spiral staircase leading to it, even though Davis is blocking the only other exit.
- Oh, Crap!:
- FitzSimmons when they see that Izel has possessed the crew.
- Daisy and May when they hear Snowflake describe the explosive and realize that it's an atom bomb.
- May opens the semi's door and look out to see a swarm of shrikes.
- FitzSimmons make radio contact and use a distress code. Agent Davis responds with the same distress code.
- Izel and Sarge when her tower is destroyed and his bomb fails to explode, respectively.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sarge's cool demeanor evaporates only after a five minute talk with Izel. She's got him rattled, which Mack notices.
- The Reveal: Izel took Sarge's memories of his family, which is yet another reason why he hates her.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Snowflake remarks that she's sensing "a lot of negative energy" while the truck is in the middle of a swarm of Shrike. May replies with "great insight, thanks." Snow smiles like it's a genuine compliment.
- Skewed Priorities: Much to Daisy and May's disgust, Deke and Snowflake keep making out with each other despite the mortal danger around them.
- Sleepyhead: Davis is too tired to really enjoy the party. An amused Piper takes selfies with him.
- The Stinger: May killing Sarge.Next episode promo
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even after she helps stop Sarge's plan, Daisy still has Snowflake placed in lockup. Helping S.H.I.E.L.D. and having the hots for Deke doesn't change the fact that she's an Ax-Crazy lunatic who's killed several people.
- Swiss-Army Superpower: Daisy is able to create a force field with her quakes to shelter the bomb.
- Tempting Fate: Just when Snowflake claims that the windows in the truck are made to withstand anything, the Shrike break through.
- Third Line, Some Waiting: There are no less than three separate subplots: Snowflake, Daisy, May, and Deke stuck on Sarge's semi-truck, Sarge and Jaco on the plane, and FitzSimmons stuck on Izel's ship.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Izel quietly slips away before Jaco can blow up the ship.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- Sarge starts losing it when his bomb fails to go off, and it only gets worse after his chat with Izel.
- Izel herself loses her cool when her tower gets destroyed.
- Wham Shot: Rather literally, as May suddenly shoots Sarge.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Daisy gives a brief and rather half-hearted one to Deke in order to motivate him into defusing the bomb. Appropriately, he fails.
