This episode picks up right where the last one picked up. The team pulls Fitz away when he attacks the monolith right before it swallows him. Fitz cannot give up on Jemma. He is the one that drives this episode. Most of the characters dwell in passivity but he refuses to give up on his lady love.
After being pulled out of the monolith room, Fitz finds sand on him from the rock that can’t be possible. The sand is not from earth but predates the planet. He discovers this all very abruptly but his desire to find her just makes it believable. Judging from past seasons it looked like they would drag out Jemma’s maybe dead situation until the mid season finale. No complaints here. This show needs to get back to basics. Fitz’s love of food! Saving one of the team! This is the Agents of SHIELD that works.
Coulson and the team visit Randolph, one of the Asgardians from season one. He is in jail for public drunkenness. They need him to track down the monolith and he breaks himself out because, obviously, Asgardian. They track down the origins of the monolith to an English castle. There is a bunker beneath the castle that was used to control the monolith in the 1800’s. It’s controlled using vibrations but the frequency is too much for Skye/Daisy. She collapses and Coulson calls her Skye! Instead of ignoring her identity this raises hopes that maybe this random name change isn’t as straight forward as it seemed at first. It seemed like the show was just going to ignore her entire character before this point but perhaps not. Skye/Daisy realizes that she can open the portal to find Jemma.
While she opens the portal Fitz dives into it connected to a rope. Jemma was able to follow Fitz’s voice and find him since he fired a flare into the atmosphere. They reunite in such an excruciatingly slow pace it seems obvious that Jemma isn’t going to make it. But they join hands and even as the monolith implodes they make it out. The power of love.
Though it seems like this all happened very quickly, it has genuine heart. This relationship just works and is so heartfelt. She survives and they take her back with them. Jemma wakes up later, clearly traumatized by her ordeal but takes comfort in Fitz’s presence. Finally something is going right for these kids. Relatively speaking.
Hunter visits May at her father’s house to help his rehabilitation after a car accident. Hunter wants to enlist her to go after Ward. Hunter may have reason to go after Ward after he tortured Bobbi, but his lust for vengeance is blinding him. Ward is technically not on the right side according to the show’s canon but Hunter accuses him of trying to run May’s father over. Ward may do what is necessary but he’s not unnecessarily cruel. He wouldn’t just mow down May’s father for kicks.
However, he is recruiting young people into his new strong Hydra. That’s not the disturbing part. Ward has become an inverse of Garrett. He makes the kids with him learn everything like he was taught. But it’s clear how that turned out. He even brings tacos, the exact way that Garrett manipulated him when he was young. This is more a greek tragedy than good vs. evil.
This season first started out disappointing and frankly a little cliche. The second episode has delivered on a level that was not expected. Television tactics seem to insinuate that things aren’t as shallow as they initially seemed. Ward is a mirror to Garrett. Skye and Daisy might be pitted against each other. And finally, fan favorites Fitz and Simmons are together after only one episode. While this probably means the worst is yet to come for now, this is as much as the audience can hope for.